I absolutely love that the author isn't shying away from 1. calling out Japan's incredibly patriarchal society, 2. using their voice to empower women, and specifically queer women and 3. even using their platform to fight for marriage equality in Japan?!?!?!? WE SO LOVE TO SEE IT. I genuinely didn't think I'd fall head over heels in love with this series but LO AND BEHOLD.

Content Warnings

She Loves to Cook, and She Loves to Eat, Vol. 2 by Sakaomi Yuzaki

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emotional hopeful inspiring reflective fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus? No

4.75

YUKI 🥹 🥹 🥹 🥹 🥹

She Loves to Cook, and She Loves to Eat, Vol. 1 by Sakaomi Yuzaki

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emotional inspiring lighthearted reflective fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Plot
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus? No

4.0

The perfect cozy manga to start off the fall season 🥹

Masters of Death by Olivie Blake

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emotional funny inspiring mysterious reflective medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

Oh this was absolutely fantastic... Olivie Blake's beautiful writing coupled with a story that forces you to look humanity in the eyes and reckon with existence itself? Sign me the fuck up!!!!

Fox D'Mora I would also lay down my life for you, just like your godpapa/dad. You are, in fact, the biggest little shit I've ever had the pleasure to read about. But you are my little shit!

Heartstopper Volume 5 by Alice Oseman

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emotional informative lighthearted reflective fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? No

5.0

On the Way to the Wedding by Julia Quinn

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mysterious reflective sad tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Plot
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.25

WE HAVE DONE IT 🎉 I finally finished this series!!! I'll be doing this review a little differently and giving my thoughts on the last installment as well as the series as a whole below.

"On The Way to the Wedding" -

Let me be the first to say that miss Lucy is MY GIRL!!!! I felt for her so, SO much and I understood her tendency to put everyone else first so well... I will always deeply love a protagonist who is selfless to a fault and who needs a good waking up in order to realize that they're allowed to actually make choices based on what they want instead of what everyone else wants for them!! Her and Gregory's dynamic was also really cute, and I enjoyed reading them together!! That being said - the last few chapters soured it a little bit for me because what do you MEAN you're going to tie her up AFTER she's already married to someone else... Granted, I can't think of how else the resolution could've gone myself, but I would've loved for JQ to keep respecting Lucy's agency (when Hermione went "how would YOU like it if your fate was being decided without you" I almost CHEERED!!! I love their friendship as well!!!!) Also - goddamn - NINE kids?!?! Poor Luce!

I feel like this is also one of the other books in the series that lends itself so well to a queer storyline!! So now that we have a Michaela Sterling in the mix, I definitely wouldn't mind to see Luke Abernathy and to get the plot twist of the century when Gregory stops the wedding for the groom, not the bride!! Shonda PLEASE!!!!

The Bridgerton books -

I never. Ever. Ever say this. But in every single aspect, the TV adaptation is SO much better. The books are incredibly patriarchal and hetero-normative, don't treat women well at all, and the male love interests are HORRIBLE. Every single one of them - with the exception of maybe Colin and Gregory, whose actions are not quite so egregious, even though they're definitely not without fault either. This obsession of men needing to be so possessive and aggressive in order to perform masculinity has to be stopped??? Immediately?!?!?!? The atmosphere of balls and courtship and high society was fun to be in, but MY GOD does the show build and elevate it so much??? I also found that the more we went into the series, the more I missed Lady Whistledown (IYKYK) so I'm very curious how the show deals with that aspect?

All in all - I'm not regretting giving these books a chance, and I am glad that I now finally know what will happen with everyone so that I can follow the adaptation better - BUT I CAN'T WAIT FOR THE SHOW TO PUT IT TO SHAME HAHAHAH!!

It's In His Kiss by Julia Quinn

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emotional lighthearted reflective fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Plot
Strong character development? No
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

2.75

RTC

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claudcloud's reviews 280 reviews

claudcloud's reviews
280 reviews