Fiancée No More: The Forsaken Lady, the Prince, and Their Make-Believe Love, Vol. 1

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By Mari Morikawa and Bodax. Released in Japan as “Konyaku Haki no Sono Saki ni: Suterare Reijō, Ōji-sama ni Dekiai (Engi) Sareru” by DRE Novels. Released in North America by J-Novel Heart. Translated by Adam.

Just as we’ve had so many isekai and “game stat world” light novels that it’s super refreshing to get a normal fantasy book, we’ve had some many novels where the protagonist is a “villainess” trying to change her fate, redeem herself, or otherwise fight against her narrative that it’s nice to see a book that straight up *is* that narrative. Yes, technically the book begins with a broken engagement. But Estelle, our heroine, really is a heroine for once. She’s well known for being a nice, if somewhat plain, young noble lady. She helps to care for her people after they’re wounded fighting dragons, and she also helps fight the dragons herself if need be. Oh yes, and she has a secret: she’s got magic powers, a rarity in this country, and can see the mana within people, and tell what their emotional state is. Sadly, this has left her mostly a bundle of introversion, so the broken engagement is not a good thing.

So yes, we open with Estelle having her engagement broken. Not because Lyle, her fiance, hates her now. It’s just that his family is on hard times, and they can get financial assistance if he marries Diana Pautrier – who does hate Estelle, but that’s neither here nor there. Now Estelle needs to find another engagement – which is hard, given her parents are dead, she’s only an Earl’s daughter, and the valuable magic powers she has she’s kept a secret from most everyone. Worse still, it means they have to give up their neutrality and pick a side in the upcoming throne war between the first and second prince. She and her brother attend a ball held by the first prince, and since she’s actually choosing to ally with him, he gives her the second dance of the night after his fiancee. Then she’s shot trying o prevent him being killed by an assassin, and everything goes off the rails.

So yeah, the title is the spoiler now she’s engaged to the first prince. He knows about her powers, and regards her as a “walking alarm”, so is content to dump his current fiancee (who does not take it well) and get engaged to Estelle, saying that it’s true love. Which it isn’t, but the main reason to read this book is to see these two people, both dealing with their engagement out of need and not true love, slowly falling for each other. Estelle is cognizant of it almost immediately, but feels guilty as she can see Arcrayne is being manipulative and teasing and also she feels bad for giving up on Lyle so soon. As for Arcrayne, he’s not intending this to be anything but “she is useful”, but rapidly realizes she really is a terrific fiancee for him. There’s even a realistic depiction of both “we are pretending I just had my first time” and, later on, “we have to pretend I didn’t just have my first time”, which is sweet.

The antagonist of the book is dealt with here, but there’s clearly more antagonists waiting for future volumes, including Arcrayne’s ex-fiancee, as well as the Queen, who I have a sneaking suspicion has a past with Estelle’s family. In any case, if you want a straightforward romance plot with heroines and villainesses who stay in their lane, this is very good.

Taking My Reincarnation One Step at a Time: No One Told Me There Would Be Monsters!, Vol. 2

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By KAYA and Naru. Released in Japan as “Tensei Shōjo wa Mazu Ippo kara Hajimetai: Mamono ga Iru toka Kiitenai!” by MF Books. Released in North America by J-Novel Club. Translated by Amy Osteraas.

This series continues to interest me far more than I expected, possibly as, while it is doing a lot of the usual fantasy tropeland stuff (mana, guilds, etc.) it at least manages to avoid game stats and power levels. Our heroine and her too-young-to-be-a-boyfriend are both quite powerful, but in his case, this has mostly completely ruined his life, and in her case, she’s hiding most of her true strength to avoid attracting the wrong kind of attention. Honestly, in the first half of this book, everyone is sort of prickly, including the heroine. You’d expect this to be a warm, fuzzy series where the townspeople take in this plucky orphan and make sure she has everything she needs, but no, she’s still living in tents or watchtowers – albeit because she wants to, she can afford better – and they’re still content to use her skills on a regular basis. It’s slow life, but until the end of this volume it lacks the sweetness.

Sara is still selling meals at the adventurer’s guild and collecting healing herbs, all while trying to avoid the attention of Ted from the Apothecary Guild, who continues to dislike Allen and Sara intensely (though, as the book goes on, the reader sees he’s more a tsundere than anything else). Unfortunately, Nelly is *still* not back yet. What’s worse, she’ attracted the attention of a knight from the capital, who sees these two extremely powerful orphans sleeping outside the city and gets several ideas in his head. First he says they should come with him to the capital and be his maid and butler – rejected. Then he leans on the town to make things much harder for adventurers sleeping outside the city, in order to clear them off – and, it’s hinted, drive Sara and Allen to him. Fortunately, Nelly is finally able to return, and a whole lot of misunderstandings are cleared up.

I will admit the big flaw with this volume is that a lot of it depends on everyone being somewhat thick. Nelly and Sara’s descriptions of each other do not match the reality of who they really are, so no one recognizes they’re connected. Hell, they don’t even realize Sara is a girl till the other women of the town (who do know right away, of course) tell them outright. No one connects a missing 12-year-old kid desperately being searched for to the powerful 12-year-old kid who showed up in town at exactly the same time. You start to understand why Sara’s general reaction to most of the adults around her is disappointment and irritation. That said, the friendship between her and Allen is a definite highlight of the book, and I do wonder how things will go for them in the third book, especially now that Sara has revealed to all she’s from another world. I suspect she won’t be allowed to live a quiet life in the woods with her wolves for long.

This isn’t terrific, but definitely falls under “better than I expected”, and I’d like to read more. I miss the first book’s running gag, though, and hope it returns.

My Stepmom’s Daughter Is My Ex: “Time to Get Serious”

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By Kyosuke Kamishiro and TakayaKi. Released in Japan as “Mamahaha no Tsurego ga Motokano datta” by Kadokawa Sneaker Bunko. Released in North America by J-Novel Club. Translated by Gierrlon Dunn.

The subtitle of this volume serves as an accurate description of what’s inside. Of course, that’s not to say there still isn’t a great deal of broad humor in the book. I mean, Isana exists, for one. There’s also Yume deciding that the best way to seduce Mizuto is by wearing a miniskirt and cat ears, and (ça va sans dire) endless discussions of breasts, with much groping of the larger girls happening from the other girls. (Isana even notes this is the sort of thing she though only happened in light novels, implying that she’s read her own series.) That said, this is about a trip that all the main and supporting cast take, and the girls decide to use it to confess, seduce, or otherwise make things clearer to the object of their affection. Does it work out? Well, sort of. Some of the pairings are actually becoming pairings. It won’t surprise you,l though, that the main pairing remains up in the air.

The student council are planning a getaway trip to a hot springs town (given that their president’s family is loaded, this isn’t as hard as it sounds), and Yume is asked to fill out the numbers a bit, so Mizuto, Isana, Minami and Kawanami end up coming along as well. Aiba has decided that this is the trip where she stops being the teasing flirt and seriously confesses to her senpai, and so the other girls also decide to make an effort. Well, apart from Isana, who is supposedly here for art study. Kurenai ramps up her attempted seductions of Joji, wanting to lose her virginity without really thinking trough what that actually means. Minami has finally accepted the fact that she’s still in love with Kawanami, and her own attempt to be serious baffles and annoys him. As for Mizuto and Yume… LEWD HAND HOLDING.

The main couple are still hamstrung by Mizuto’s own reluctance and Isana’s presence in their life (going poly would solve most of these problems, but I can’t see the author or publisher OKing that), so it’s the other couples that carry the book. This is easily the best volume for Minami, who, once she decides to stop being an annoying bitch around her ex all the time and genuinely try to help him, turns out to be pretty awesome. Both Kawanami and Hoshibe (the senpai) are dealing with past traumas that have left them either unable to move forward or literally ill, and this book is about getting past that with the help of others. It’s also about being yourself, to a degree – Kurenai fails here because she was just trying far too hard. She’d be much better off trying to raise Joji’s bottomless well of self-hatred first. Basically, at the end of this book we have one definite couple, two “give it a book or two” couples, and Mizuto, Yume and Isana. Who remain in stasis.

The 9th book may change that, as we are reminded that where there are stepparents there are also parents, and one of them is still alive. Till then, this is a good volume in a romcom that’s enjoyable provided you can wade past the wall of breast jokes.