Raven of the Inner Palace, Vol. 3

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By Kouko Shirakawa and Ayuko. Released in Japan as “Kōkyū no Karasu” by Shueisha Orange Bunko. Released in North America by Airship. Translated by Amelia Mason.

This volume delves deeper into why everyone insists that the Raven Consort always be alone. Throughout the book we see Jusetsu just generally being nice to people and helping them with their personal trauma. She’s a good egg. And she’s also gaining another bodyguard here, even though he may be a spy (or a double agent… it’s that kind of book). She might even get in more ladies-in-waiting, though I think Jiujiu might have something to say about that. She’s growing closer to the emperor, though I don’t think she really realizes what those feelings are yet. (It doesn’t help that she has to have jealousy explained to her, and doesn’t get it.) That said, the end of the book is worrying. Having good friends is fine, especially as the emperor is going to work on saving Jusetsu. But the way some people are reacting to her actions is beginning to look a bit like worship. And, as we see in this book, new gods are not always a good thing.

As with the previous books in this series, there are four chapters, each of which has a self-contained “mystery” but each also adds to the larger narrative. A lady-in-waiting is being haunted by a ghost, but the ghost is just standing there and not doing anything. An ancient ghost wanders the inner palace lamenting… but if the ghost is so ancient, why has it only started appearing this last week? A scholar new to the palace has a ghostly arm pulling on his sleeve, trying to stop him from… something. And, as is traditional with this series, the book ends with one of the consorts near death, this time because of a cursed item that was actually meant to kill Jusetsu. Throughout all this, Jusetsu takes care of the problem while struggling to come to terms with her need for people around her.

The best part of the book is its emphasis on the fact that people have more than one side to them, and that just because you had a bad time because of something that someone else did does not mean they meant you to have a bad time. The lady-in-waiting;s ghost was upset with her for fleeing while they were left to die… but they also told her to flee out of love. This also allows Jusetsu to come to terms with her mother’s own sacrificial actions, which were meant to save her even as they also made her suffer. As for the horror part of the book, there’s less of it this time around. It was a bit eerie how one of the supporting characters was revealed to not really exist and just smiled and said “Yup, bye”. And the resolution of the third chapter was basically “well, now I know why I have a ghost, but I can’t stop what I’m here for, so welp”, which is realistic but unsatisfying.

The book overall remains an excellent read for fans of “emperor’s palace” books and dark mysteries.

The Troubles of Miss Nicola the Exorcist, Vol. 1

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By Ito Iino and Kinokohime. Released in Japan as “Haraiya Reijō Nicola no Komarigoto” by DRE Novels. Released in North America by J-Novel Heart. Translated by Joshua Douglass-Molloy.

I am always going to be on board with grumpy young women who are on the verge of going “tch” all the time but end up helping everyone around them anyway. It’s a type I really love, and it meant that I really loves the protagonist all through this book. It helps that she’s surrounded by other stock types. There’s the childhood friend who is so handsome that all the girls fall madly in love with him, who unfortunately only has eyes for Nicola. (She’s asked him not to go near her when anyone can see him, and to his credit he gets why and agrees.) There’s also the prince who’s seemingly casual but in reality quite a hard worker, and who loves the fact that Nicola literally gets a royal decree that she can be rude to him if she wants. In fact, I had such fun with the characters that the actual plot twist took me entirely by surprise, even though it shouldn’t have.

Nicola is, yes, reincarnated from Japan. In her previous life she could see spirits, and was taken in by a mentor to become a top-class exorcist… at least until she was sacrificed by some unknown assailant. Now she’s Nicola von Weber, a low-level noble who’s just starting at the academy. Already there, two years ahead of her, is Sieghart, who she met when they were both kids and who has attached himself to her like a lamprey. Sieghart, you see, is SO pretty that spirits haunt him constantly – and Nicola still has the exorcist powers that she had back in Japan, so she can help to, if not get rid of them, at least minimize them. Unfortunately, it turns out he’s not the only one beset by spirits, and now she has to deal with Prince Alois and his grumpy bodyguard Ernst.

First of all, a minor grump. I realize that authors and artists can’t always communicate well, but if your text constantly has Nicola be the usual “woe is me, I am so flat-chested and envy the large breasts of others”, perhaps convey that better in the art. Other than that, I love Nicola, a young woman who clearly *is* in love with the gorgeous Sieghart, but refuses to admit it to herself due to their status difference and her own stubborn embarrassment. She starts off basically thinking of herself as the only sane person surrounded by unthinking men, but as the book continues it becomes apparent that she’s the one who’s in the most danger of haring into danger at the slightest provocation. Sieghart is also well-handled, being a standard shoujo pretty boy but showing a lot more intelligence than most in that genre, as well as actual trauma from his constantly being haunted that affects a lot of the things he does.

This felt like it was written as a one-shot and then the editor demanded the ending be rewritten to allow for a continuation. Disappointing for romance fans, but I do admit I want to read more of this.

The Reincarnated Villainess Won’t Seek Revenge, Vol. 2

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By Akako and Hazuki Futaba. Released in Japan as “Tensei Shita Akuyaku Reijō wa Fukushū o Nozomanai” by Mag Garden Novels. Released in North America by Cross Infinite World. Translated by JCT.

Sometimes authors have to admit that they have certain strengths and weaknesses. Unfortunately, it’s very difficult for the author themselves to be able to spot what their weakness actually is. Trust me, I’ve yelled at far too many light novel authors who think that falling over into someone’s tits is “funny”. So, I will state up front: the author of this series is not all that good at writing romance. Now, don’t get me wrong, I still enjoyed the book. But I basically enjoyed all the parts of the book that were Mary and Albert waffling around trying to figure out their love a lot less than I did things like all the action sequences, close encounters with certain death, and seeing deep into the mind of our very disturbed antagonist, who is taking game theory far more than it really needs to go. Now, in the end this book remains a romance novel, so you can argue it failed. But the middle bits ARE really good.

The day has been saved, the new king is on the throne, and the need for vengeance (mostly) no longer lies in everyone’s hearts. Sure, Queen Tia is still missing and presumably at large, but that’s a problem for a future date. That said, Mary is trying to decide what to do now, return to the place she grew up or stay as a handmaid to the knights. Then she gets waylaid by Albert, who proposes on the spur of the moment. She clearly has feelings for Albert, but she has fear as well – she worries that he loves Rosemary, and just sees her as a vessel for her soul. So she can’t say yes straight away, but she doesn’t want to say no either. And then, unfortunately, everything collapses as Rosemary’s funeral detail, with Reynaldo guarding her coffin, is attacked by bandits, and Mary herself is facing an assassination attempt. Guess we really do need to concentrate on Queen Tia.

Leaving aside its flaws, the author does some things very well indeed. The dramatic sequences in this book sing, moving at a very fast clip and showing a genuine sense of tension and menace, particularly whenever Queen Tia shows up. We get to know Tia a lot more in this second volume, and she’s just as unpleasant as you can imagine, but unlike a lot of “villainess” books content to make the antagonist rather shallow and one-note, we go deep into Tia disturbing psyche and see how much she truly enjoys seeing others suffer. It’s thus both cathartic and rather disquieting when we also focuses on the moments before her own execution, when she realizes that she won’t be able to manipulate her way out of this one. The one bit of the romance that did interest me was Reynaldo and Mary’s stupid plan to have Mary pretend to lose all of Rosemary’s memories, a scheme thankfully interrupted by the person who should most be dealing with this.

This is the final volume, so happy ever afters all around. Usually I say that a book starts great but tails off, or starts slow and then picks up. This is a rare book where you read it for the middle.