Haven’t been reading much the last couple weeks since I’ve been playing a game on my PS5. Now that I finished that (and got some new manga from Surugaya) I started 欠けた月とドーナッツ 1 | L24. I’m only about halfway through the first volume, but it’s good so far. If nothing else, it’s nice to read a workplace romance instead of yet another high school one.
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I was thinking yet again recently that “I think I’m starting to get a bit burnt out of high school yuri”. Probly gonna go for more fantasy/sci-fi yuri in the near future… 裏世界ピクニック | L23 (manga), 転生王女と天才令嬢の魔法革命 2 | L33 (LN), or 明日の世界で星は煌めく 2 | L27 (LN) being some likely choices. I’ll probly start w/ 裏世界ピクニック, since I’m already reading a few LNs
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Yeah, when it’s done well (like 雨夜の月 | L24) I don’t mind the age/setting at all. But for the more generic characters/couples, the setting can just make it even more tedious.
As I mentioned before, I bought basically all of 転生王女と天才令嬢の魔法革命 2 | L33 when it was on sale, so I do plan to give that a shot next year. I’ve been in a huge novel/LN slump this year due to personal reasons (will probably only finish 7-8 compared to 13 last year), but hopefully next year I’ll get back into it. I need to finish 本好き since it’s doubtful I’ll finish this year at this point, read 魔法少女育成計画 QUEENS | L36 since I haven’t read the series since last summer and paused in the middle of a three book arc, and try 転生王女と天才令嬢の魔法革命 | L33 as I said.
Plus it would be nice to read some actual novels and not just LNs… 香君 | L36 is the most obvious choice since I already own them and 獣の奏者 (1) | L34 is one of my favorite Japanese books, but on the other hand the author tends to hurt my brain with too many characters and political stuff. Speaking of… @Naphthalene as best you can remember, was the character/political stuff in 香君 more or less complicated than the first two books of 獣の奏者?
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Oof, it’s a bit hard to compare. It’s about the same in terms of overall complexity, but I feel like the reveals/progression of the plot is more straightforward?
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For me it’s all about the setting. Like 羽山先生と寺野先生は付き合っている | L22 is teachers, but book 2 starts with a 体育祭, and I just haven’t been able to convince myself to get through it yet. Otoh 天才王女 and 明日の世界 both have high school age MCs, but neither take place in high school… (and in the former, they feel older anyway). 明日の世界 does reference school sometimes, but it’s more for character development than (cookie cutter) setting.
I’m tempted to add those, just for the fact that they have nice covers (which at least for me, is a rare occurrence w/ JP novel covers), but L34-36 is harder than I wanna read rn (L33 kinda is too, but I’m already familiar w/ 天才王女, and it has audiobooks). Anyway some of their other series have nicer covers (and maybe look easier?)… so I added those instead. Actually the art style for 精霊の守り人 1 | L31 (manga) looks pretty cool!
Good luck w/ getting back into the swing w/ LNs!
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Both 香君 | L36 and 獣の奏者 | L34 have audiobooks as well. The links are on the pages, too!
I guess it doesn’t solve the issue that the books themselves are still quite hard though 
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Otherwise, not exactly a reading update, but holly cow, the 本好き fan book (i.e., the book that contains extra info about the world, bonus stories, interviews, etc) is first in the daily ranking of Booklive for 男性向け LNs (despite not even being technically a LN per se). It’s insane to see how popular that series has remained over the years.
I’ve never heard of the other four series.
Meanwhile, on the 女性向け side, I have not only heard of 4 of those series, I own volumes from 2 of them
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Thx for pointing out. Actually that does help somewhat… Still I think they’re tougher than I wanna shoot for, considering I have no prior knowledge/investment. I added the manga tho, so maybe I’ll like it and later be interested in the novels, instead of just seeing them in my list in 6 months from now, and wondering how it even got there
I’ve heard of exactly one, on each side (マリエル・クララック being the other). That’s cool about the fanbook. Is always fascinating to see what retains popularity. Maybe someday I’ll finish book 1… I never picked it back up after a triggering scene, in the audiobook - which always felt a bit unfair of me.
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On the women side, I read the free preview of 悪役令嬢、ブラコンにジョブチェンジします | L32?? (number 2) a billion years ago. If I remember correctly, writing was good, but it felt uncomfortable that the love (?) interest is the main character’s brother
I have commented about number 3 継母の心得 | L29 in this very thread. It was okay. There’s a plot point that I found really interesting (and honestly had never seen before), but it was otherwise nothing to write home about.
I posted about number 4 in the “hunting for discounts” thread. I only read a little bit of the first volume, so I can’t really tell anything about it.
People that I follow on Bookmeter have added マリエル・クララック, which is how I heard of it, but that’s about the extent of my knowledge.
I know absolutely nothing about #1 (nor am I planning to find out, since I already have WAY TOO MANY BOOKS WHY CAN’T I READ FASTER)
I vaguely remember someone commenting about screaming; I guess it was you?
Maybe it’s time to just go ahead without the audiobook 
Although… to be fair, I can’t remember the exact scene, but if something triggered you in the first volume, I’m afraid that a bunch of things in the overall series may trigger you too.
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Cool. I’m very hit or miss about reading that sorta thing personally. It sounds kinda interesting from the rather mangled DeepL blurb. But I think I’ll leave it for now.
Noted on the others
わかりみ！
Yes. At this point, it’s not like I’m avoiding the book just because of that. It just really unexpectedly took the wind out of my sails, and later on I never really felt the spark to pick it up again.
That’s good to know… Otoh there were scenes I was expecting to be triggering that weren’t (bc they didn’t play out the way I anticipated)… But anyway, I’m probably better off sticking to other things then.
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You made me check and OMG it’s so bad!
Rina, a company-owner in her twenties, is reborn as the villainess Ekaterina
By which they mean that she is a company grunt and in her thirties.
She is happy to meet her brother Alexei, who is a sissy-conservative and her favorite sister in her previous life
Siscon became sissy-conservative 
And he was her utmost 推し in her previous life. DeepL is losing it.
With electronic benefits!
That was just the title of the part that explains the bonus in the ebook version.
Actually, I went back and checked the problem and it’s really not what I thought. I guess there’s something in volume 5, volume 12 and volume 30 that might be triggering, but I’m not sure (those are mostly the parts that affected me instead, so I don’t even know if it matches )
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Back to the topic of “I can’t possibly get more books to read”, that comment has been living rent-free in my head for a while. I tried to check your library, but I can’t figure which book it’s supposed to be Do you mind sharing the title?
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Okay, thanks. I honestly just get intimidated by the list of a ton of characters at the start of the book.
There’s a reason nearly all of my favorite 4-koma manga primarily take place outside of school, even when the characters are school age.
狐笛のかなた | L30 is definitely easier and is a standalone which is nice. It’s not as deep of a story, but it’s a decent enough introduction to her style of storytelling.
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Oh it was the really cheesy horror I picked up. 禁じられた遊び | L28
The MC used to be more feminine but after Life 
happened she became more rough and men in the book are like 
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read 魔法少女ダンデライオン as far as free points will take me (a.k.a 3 chapters for now lol) and it’s pretty interesting
very typical mahou shoujo shounen-ish adventure plot but the characters are fun and the story telling is good so I really like it!
I recommend for any other manga reader fellows out here to give it a try 
cmoa has the “first chapter” for free (which doesn’t actually include all of the first chapter as it is shown in the フラコミ site so you’re better off there lol)
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Finally done with 聖なる黒夜 上 | L35??
I really liked it in the end, despite the fact that I still hate the constant back and forth between view points/time periods. Honestly, that’s the only reason why I can’t give it 5*
As @bungakushoujo said, pretty much all characters are unlikable in their own way, and I wouldn’t have it any other way.
I do want to just move straight to the rest of the story… but I also still have hopes to finish my bingo card, so it will have to wait until January
Edit: I should mention that I did not read the short bonus story at the end of the volume, since there was a warning from the author that it was here due to publication constraints, but otherwise it should be read after the main story or you’ll get spoiled.
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It is unrealistic and all the characters are a flaming pile of messy trash 
but the hard boiled vibes are nice! I also hate flashbacks and changing view points in general so I know what you mean. I think the second volume was a tiny bit better with that iirc?? I enjoyed that volume way more at least. Glad you ended up getting into it!
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By the way, I was completely on board with it, suspension of disbelief wise, until (major spoiler) 山内 drugged up 麻生, at least pretended to rape him while filming the thing, and the next day 麻生 just wakes up, stretches a bit, and is like “yeah, that’s fine, I’m just going to go on with my day”.
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Oh right, that happened didn’t it? I think I was somewhat onboard with suspending my disbelief until the prison scenes where 山内 was being passed around between all the guys and a cube of margarine showed up 
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Honestly? That sounds like an okay alternative to lube. It’s mostly vegetal oil after all. In fact, Google (well, people on the internet) tells me that it is a safe alternative. Now, I’m not sure how I-forgot-his-name kept it on his person for an extended period of time without melting it, though. Apparently melting point is ~35 degree Celsius, so it’s kinda plausible, though.
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