Compulsive Gambler Vol 4
Rating: 4/5
Buy or Borrow: Buy
Source: Copy courtesy of the publisher!
The Student Council President is away, and the rest of the council will play...
Yumemi Yumemite is a super popular idol who's a big hit in the indie scene. Not only is she a student at the Hyakkaou academy, but she's also a member of the student council?! How will Yumeko do in a gamble with an idol?
This volume provides an interesting turn, as everyone seems pretty convinced that Yumeko is starting off a revolution against the President. I mean...she only really cares about gambling and playing games, but let's go with that! There's an interesting question at the end of the volume as well thanks to the preview!
Yumemi is the latest Student Council member gunning for Yumeko, she's an idol as well, and she and Manyuda organise a rather public showdown with Yumeko. None of the council are happy about Yumeko beating two of their members and their trying to work out what to do next without the Presidents input because she's off on an "errand" to do with Yumeko. She's pretty much left them in charge. Yumemi is kind of deceptively normal but every bit as psych as the others, although probably down a peg or two from some of the others. She goes from cute to ugly/scary in seconds both personality wise and in how she's drawn. To be honest, she probably isn't the worst Council member, I could get where she was coming from with her dream, but she was kind of an a-hole.
Itsuki makes an appearance again, remember her? She wants to join Yumeko and her squad to take down the President, and so begins an interesting storyline. She could be a funny addition, one of the slightly less psycho Council members, and Mary is hilariously not impressed with her. Throughout this volume Yumeko's squad do have some humorous banter amongst themselves.
The gambling and gaming took an interesting turn this volume, Yumeko's opponent is an Idol and she's made the battle between the two quite public, so the games in this volume are twisted towards that. There's none of the usual card games, except for Old Maid. There's basically a giant game of tic tac toe and singing other idol related activities, which made for an interesting change and stopped the plot line from getting repetitive.
The tension leads in to a deceptively happyish and kind of funny ending, with plenty of humour throughout the volume, but I don't think it's really over yet as someone appears to have had a hand in how things turned out, someone worked against Yumemi...and it could be someone shocking.
I'm 99% sure the Student Council President is up to something, and it has me on edge, plus I'm still trying to work out what Yumeko's deal is. What exactly is she planning? Is she really only in it for the gambling or is this all part of her plan? This is another brilliant volume as we take down another member of the Council, people are definitely choosing sides, and it would appear a revolution is going to happen. But first Yumeko is going to have to deal with the President!
Waiting For Spring Vol 4
Rating: 4/5
Buy or Borrow: Buy
Source: Copy courtesy of the publisher!
The preliminary games begin, and Towa and the squad are all fired up! Mitsuki's childhood best friend, Aya-chan, is also at the arena playing his best, and the stakes are high. As Mitsuki and Reina cheer on the Seiryo team, Mitsuki sees the boys sweep the floor and is inspired to work hard, too! But when a ref's whistle cuts through the air, a close friend lies injured on the court...
The games about to start and we meet the Captain of the team who's kind of...elusive I guess you could say. There's a cute moment between Towa and Mitsuki right from the start. Mitsuki bless her, is so awkward sometimes! Reina cracks me up to another level, she's even a little bit relatable at times. She's formed an odd sort of alliance with Aya which is quite funny for us, but not great for Mitsuki!
Speaking of Aya, I still can't bring myself to like Aya. He's so cocky and arrogant, plus I'm fully Team Towa! We're kind of getting spoiled with cute Towa/Mitsuki moments so I'm guessing we're going to have to have some Aya/Mitsuki moments soon.
I'm not going to lie, I thought everything would be fine and rosy so I was surprised at the two little plot twists with one characters injury and the outcome of the game and so on. It was a nice little twist that not everything went the characters way as usually happens in these kinds of manga.
We get to see Reina, Mitsuki and Nana hanging out with the boys and Rui and Ryuji get some more page time for once! Rui gets some solo interaction with Mitsuki too which was interesting because we don't really see them interact all that much away from the group and to be honest we don't really see Rui much anyway. Kyosuke has his own moment with her too, and I'm totally sure he's messing with her because he clearly knows exactly what's going on and who has feelings for who. I kinda want to smack him one.
The volume leaves us with excitement for the next as something could fiiiiiinally be about to happen, and there's plenty of cute moments throughout the volume as well as some well drawn action shots of the basketball tournament!
The Seven Deadly Sins Vol 24
Rating: 4/5
Buy or Borrow: Buy
Source: Copy courtesy of the publisher!
Meliodas is back--and he's not the only one! As Meliodas faces off against Derieri and Monspeet, Merlin has reappeared for a showdown with Fraudrin and Gray Road, and this time, she's not playing fair. The tide has started to turn against The Commandments, but while victory seems to be within The Sins' reach, the captain isn't all he appears to be...
This volume is action packed from the start as Meliodas has a showdown with two of the Commandments but something is...off about him. Meanwhile everyone inside the palace has been captured by Grey Road and things don't look too good for them. Luckily Merlin makes a shock return...FINALLY. There's a surprise from her before we get to sit back and watch her let her magic loose. She's such a badass this volume and I ended up looking at her a little bit differently to how I have been before.
Good old Hendrickson gets his moment as he goes after Dreyfus/Fraudrin. I feel like Zaratras was back all of a sudden out of nowhere just for this particular moment. It was a bit convenient, as was the moment between Fraudrin and Griamore so I was kind of disappointed in that respect. Likewise Meliodas reappearing.
We do find out what the deal is with Meliodas, who's remained kind of a mystery throughout the series. Like we have gotten some information about him and his past but there's still so many questions. I'm kind of intrigued by the reveal about him because it'll be interesting in the future volumes to see how it plays out and what ends up happening to Meliodas. Quite the internal struggle on his hands plus we get to see two different sides to him this volume, one of which was more vulnerable than we've ever seen before.
So we get to see some different sides to the characters, and I ended up looking at both Merlin and Meliodas differently. Seeing the different sides, learning this new information about them, it paints them in a different light. Gowther however, remains shady AF. I'm kind of over him. Make him go away now! Things got super interesting for Howzer too and I'm looking forward to seeing him step up and get some more page time, hopefully! I've always been intrigued by his character. Although Gil is missing apparently?! Maybe he's just having a vacation.
One battle has ended but the war isn't over yet and the action could be shifting back to Camelot which means we'll hopefully get to see more of Arthur again!
Frau Faust Vol 3
Rating: 4/5
Buy or Borrow: Buy
Source: Copy courtesy of the publisher!
A century after a scholar made a deal with a devil in exchange for eternal life, the story of Faust has passed into legend. But the real Faust is not a stuffy professorial man, but a woman, still on the run with her homunculus servant. When the magnetic, bespectacled woman passes through a provincial town, she adds a young orphan named Marion, looking for an escape, to her group. The next stop: A church basement, where a disembodied demon's arm lies sealed away, and an officer of the Inquisition name Lorenzo waits to spring a trap for the blasphemer...
There's action from the first chapter as we have a demon to deal with, that has a heartbreaking background to it, I'm not going to lie. Luckily taking care of it provides the distraction needed for them to escape with Mephisto's limb, so I mean....kind of a win? It all worked out okay in the end and Mephy gets to have one of his missing limbs back.
I'm not going to lie, the people from the Church seem scary and creepier than the actual demons, I'm not really rooting for them but then I don't think I'm supposed to. Although Lorenzo really intrigues me, like why does he hide his face? What's his deal? We get some interesting background on him and his friendship with Vito that just made me all the more curious about him. He's going to be very interesting for sure.
Another little tidbit about Faust and her past is brought to light as we meet her old friend Sarah who's responsible for Nico's body. We get to hear some more of her story as well as finding out more about Nico which I've been hoping for! Her story really doesn't paint the Church in a great light, like it gets worse for them with each volume, I swear!
The intrigue keeps building up and I love how little puzzle pieces get dropped here and there to help you build up Fausts past. The ending of the volume could prove interesting for the next one and I'm anticipating it! We get to meet some new demons in this volume too and they're all interestingly drawn, each of them looks different and they have a nice amount of detail to them. We're slowly collecting up Mephisto's missing limbs and I'm curious about what's going to happen when he gets them all back, and once again I have a million questions!
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Wake Up Sleeping Beauty Vol 2
Rating: 3/5
Buy or Borrow: Buy
Source: Copy courtesy of the publisher!
Despite being a scaredy-cat and crybaby, high schooler Tetsu finds himself working at the eerie estate on the hill, where Shizu–the only child of the Karasawa family–is secreted away. However, his friendship with Shizu quickly turns to fear when several spirits of the dead appear before him, borrowing her appearance. As he struggles to find the humanity in her supernatural condition, Tetsu must also face a question at once terrifying and heartbreaking: What if the true Shizu never returns?
So, Tetsu is low-key freaking out about the spirits, he's kind of scared but he doesn't want to be and he's determined to overcome his fear and work with Shizu to get to know her better so he's less afraid. I had to admire his determination considering how much of a scaredy cat he can be! The third spirit, Mirei, makes an appearance in this volume. She's kind of a cow, I'm not going to lie but I'm wondering if there's more to her beneath her bitchy exterior. Haru remains in first place as my favourite!
We also get a new spirit this volume, who appears to be sticking around, and pretty much takes Tetsu for all he's worth. I kinda felt bad for the kid, believe me I did, but there's no need to be such a brat! Tetsu actually gets mildly scary because he nearly grows some balls when it comes to his sister, which was kind of funny.
The ominous ending provides some more intrigue, as does the notebook, as Tetsu tries to work out how to help Shizu. The pace is still quite slow, and I still want to learn more about Shizu and why she is the way she is. Tetsu is a really interesting character to me too and there's clearly going to be some drama revolving around his friend and soccer and I'm intrigued to see what bearing that has on the story.
Everless
Rating: 3/5
Buy or Borrow: Buy
Source: Copy courtesy of the publisher!
In the land of Sempera, the rich control everything - even time. Ever since the age of alchemy and sorcery, hours, days and years have been extracted from blood and bound to iron coins. The rich live for centuries; the poor bleed themselves dry.
Jules and her father are behind on their rent and low on hours. To stop him from draining himself to clear their debts, Jules takes a job at Everless, the grand estate of the cruel Gerling family.
There, Jules encounters danger and temptation in the guise of the Gerling heir, Roan, who is soon to be married. But the web of secrets at Everless stretches beyond her desire, and the truths Jules must uncover will change her life for ever ... and possibly the future of time itself.
Okay so I know a lot of people loved this book and I was expecting to one hundred percent love it too, but I had to give it three stars in the end and I did debate for a long while about whether to give it four or three. The first chapter slowly drew me in, it gradually piqued my interest until I had questions to be answered and wanted to know how everything worked, and I was intrigued by the history and legends but I did end up being a little bit confused at the beginning. Plus there was a section of the book that had me reading....but my mind was wandering while I was reading. It was slow and not much happened either. I actually had to sit down and read it in one go because I started to read it and it was days before I carried on reading it.
I didn't immediately take to Jules, our MC either. Once she got her resolve and spirit and determination I found myself enjoying her as an MC more and by the end of the book I was excited to see what would become of her and who she'd become as a character. However she did kind of bug me at the start, and she was kind of meh in the beginning. There's no shortage of creepy characters, Lady Sida, Liam, Ivan and the Queen.
I was ready to fully hate Liam and be all Team Roan. Liam seems like an asshole at first but I ended up being all wtf because Liam's behaviour didn't quite match with the image Jules had for him. It was quite obvious he wasn't the nasty character Jules thought he was, and I ended up being oddly curious about him. Sorry not sorry, but I shipped Jules and Liam hard. I really wasn't bothered about Roan at all, he and Tam both seemed like throwaway characters to be honest. We didn't get all that much information on them, or spend much time with them to be honest.
The world was so creepy, but interesting all the same. I enjoyed working out how it all worked, even if I was a tad bit confused at the beginning. There's an interesting mystery surrounding Jules and the mythology to the world is fascinating, I wanted to know more about the stories. There was plenty of potential there as you read, but there's just such a long stretch where you're curious....but nothing's really happening. Towards the end it draws you in, and the pace picks up and more things start to happen. There where some huge reveals and twists, and all these little mysterious plot threads thrown in and then there's the ending...lets just say it leaves you wanting more and I'm anticipating good things from the sequel already!
