Manga: Kiss Me at The Stroke of Midnight 9

Kiss Me at the Stroke of Midnight Vol 9 
Rating: 4/5 
Buy or Borrow: Buy 
Source: Copy courtesy of the publisher in exchange for an honest review! 

As Hinana sinks deeper into despair, Akira has no one else to turn to but his rival Kaede. Akira shares Hinana's past family troubles with Kaede because it's affecting her now more than ever. What will Kaede do when he finally hears the truth? And in a moment of respite, Hinana and Kaede take a vacation to a hot spring resort, and, much to their chaperone's dismay, things get a little steamy! 

I have to say this volume takes a more serious tone than the recent ones and I really enjoyed that. We get some solid background information on Hinana and her past, I really did feel for her and I empathised with her. It was easy to see how she became the person that she is and why she does certain things, a lot of pieces fell in to place when it comes to she and her decisions and personality. 

Things do get quite serious and emotional this volume, more so than we've seen before I feel, with regards to that and I personally felt like it was nice to see a more serious layer to the story and characters, especially from Kaede. 

It was a nice way to spend a chunk of the volume before things get a little bit lighter, although Kaede is about to have a problem of his own as he has to face Funny Bone again and I'm interested to see how that's going to play out, especially as Hinana ends up becoming involved. 

I enjoyed addressing Hinana's past and the issue's it's caused her in the present, I liked getting to her understand her a lot more and see Kaede be a little bit more serious. I feel like it was good for their relationship too, showing a more mature and serious side to it. I think the end is in sight as we address Hinana's problems as well as Kaede's.