Manga: Love And Lies 2

Love and Lies Volume 2

Rating: 4/5

Buy or Borrow: Buy

Source: Copy courtesy of the publisher! 

Yukari is dull. He doesn't even stand out enough to be bullied - he's just a generally lower-middle-class kid. He's in love with Misaki, the most popular girl in school. There's just one problem: He's 15, one year away from receiving his government-assigned marriage partner. He normally wouldn't have the courage to defy the law, but his sickly classmate Ririna still believes in love, and won't stop goading him into confessing his feelings!

Okay so the synopsis for this volume on GoodReads and everywhere matches the one for the first volume so I'll tell you a liiiitttleee bit about the plot so you have an idea of how it's all progressing! 

This volume is once again, quite slow, and our group is heading off camping! It's all the parents idea, and Lilina invites Misaki, prompting Nejima to invite his friend Nisaka with them. Lilina is still trying to push Nejima towards Misaki but Nisaka gives her some food for thought as well as giving us some more insight in to how the world of this manga is run and what the potential consequences and treatment are for those who disobey. 

I don't know if it's just me, but I feel like we're being queer baited when it comes to Nisaka, I mean, things are alluded to about him and his feelings and I don't know whether I'm reading it wrong or right. There's also clearly something going on with he and Misaka, and I was hoping we'd get some answers about it in this volume, but it might have to be next volume. We only get some half heard, shady conversations which kind of disappointed me a bit. 

The good thing about this volume is that it provides us some more insight in to the characters. Nejima may be an idiot at times, but he's kind of harmless and it was nice to learn some more about him seeing as he's the main character and I was kind of iffy about him in the first volume. Lilina I actually really like. I find her quite relatable at points, and she speaks a lot of sense regarding how the world works. I actually really like her and I get where she's coming from. It was nice to see some more of her and the different sides of her in this volume. Misaki...I find her really shady I'm not going to lie. I feel like the mystery with her is getting a wee bit too dragged out by now, because we still don't know what her deal is. I'm not really getting a good vibe from her though. Sometimes I wonder if this is going to do a 180 and change my entire perspective. 

Finally we have Nisaka. I like Nisaka. He's kind of a bit shady but he doesn't give me a weird vibe like Misaki. I do wonder about him, and I do feel like if I'm not reading it wrong then we're being baited, but I could be wrong. I'm so curious about him and his past and what the deal is with him and Misaki. 

Love and Lies Volume 2 continues the slow but steady pace and this volume focuses more on the characters and getting to know them better and see the relationships between them all. After Nisaka talking to Lilina and laying out the potential consequences, I feel like the tide may be turning when it comes to Nejima and Lilina and this love triangle thingy might be developing properly...or maybe it's a love square. This volume is a little bit extra at points, but I'm mostly intrigued by Nisaka and I'm curious to find out what the deal is, although I am hoping the pace picks up a bit more!