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Character names
Kanji
Reading
Info
家頭 清貴
やがしら きよたか
ホームズ
家頭 武史
やがしら たけし
店長
家頭 誠司
やがしら せいじ
オーナー
真城 葵
ましろ あおい
Main character
上田
うえだ
Childhood friend of 店長, regular
美恵子
みえこ
Owner of the shop diagonally across, often comes to enjoy some coffee
Eh, ex boyfriend is kind of an ass, so good riddance, I guess.
On the 和泉 front, the thing 葵 missed was the lack of serious in the pottery lines! (Or whatever you would call that).
Otherwise, an okay ending. Kinda surprising to see 秋人 already part of “the gang”, but why not.
That about sums up my impression as well, haha. It was a fine read, nothing too spectacular. It did make me want to go to Kyoto again though! Maybe even for the 祇園祭. I suppose that means author achieved one of her goals.
Yay, I caught up! Glad I was able to finish with the others, considering I was behind the last few weeks. Maybe I should have been reading, instead of watching vlogs of people going to 鞍馬山 I only have myself to blame…
Chapter thoughts
I agree. I honestly expected less romance, but I won’t complain
Thoughts on the book overall
I liked it more than I thought I would
I was worried I wouldn’t care much for 葵, but that changed later. I can’t relate at all to characters gushing over how attractive other people look, so I did feel a bit disconnected whenever Holmes (and others too, now that I think about it) got described. Oh well, I have seen far worse than this story.
The individual mysteries weren’t intriguing exactly, but good enough to not get me bored.
I think the worst part was my reading speed. Every time Holmes explained the background of whatever item/location/person was relevant in that moment, my reading speed got like 5 times slower and I had to look up waay more. I often didn’t bother, but looking things up as I read was also the most fun part about the book for me I certainly learned a lot about 京都 from reading this, it’s like a more fun way to read a tour guide
I’ll admit, if I were Aoi’s age, I would be crazy for Holmes why on earth won’t she admit it to herself properly? Drives me mad when characters in a book blatantly have a crush in someone and can’t work it out for themselves! Overall I felt it was a nice light read - not really one where the mysteries were standouts, but the overall vibes and the amount of detail about Kyoto were fun.
Same (for different reasons). At first, I didn’t like her “I’m just a stupid high school girl look at how useless I am” attitude, but later one she became more three-dimensional.
I always like reading about traditional cultural aspects, so that part was really fun for me. I think if I had disliked it instead, the story as a whole wouldn’t have worked out for me, but this way it did.
In the last chapter, where Holmes shows up at the hotel lobby, I completely and immediately forgave him all his previous sins and dislikable opinions. Call me naive, but I really didn’t see it coming and was soooo happy when he appeared. And the name dropping and taking her hand and the super distant keigo towards her friends was , I think the scenes I loved most about the book were when Holmes was being exceedingly mean by being exceedingly polite.
I also really enjoyed the audio book narration, the narrator’s voice was really pleasant to listen to and she’s very skilled at doing different characters in different distinct and recognisable voices.
If I have the time, I think I’ll read the second book.
It was my first time reading a physical book in Japanese, and even though my many lookups took forever, filling the margins with angry/approving/swooning comments was a lot of fun.
Agree. If this continues in the next volume, I’ll have to considerably up my angry margin notes
I did like it. Although all the dead fathers that don’t know how to use words made me roll my eyes a bit. It’s more of a drama than a mystery, but it was nice to read something more light-hearted for a change. I also liked all the cultural tidbits. I still have other book clubs to catch up on, but after that I could see myself picking up the next volume.
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I only have myself to blame…
I certainly learned a lot about 京都 from reading this, it’s like a more fun way to read a tour guide 
, I think the scenes I loved most about the book were when Holmes was being exceedingly mean by being exceedingly polite.
