Hey all, Dani here.
You know how in my earlier post today I said that when the post when live I would most likely be sleeping? Well, yeah, I guess that ended up being a lie, because I could not get back to sleep after Damian left for work. So here I am 12 hours later, still near the beginning of my work shift, and running on less than 4 hours of sleep. So I’m just really hoping that I’m able to stay awake for the rest of the evening. Just long enough to finish my shift and drive safely home. I did manage to do a lot of TV show watching while I was lying in bed hoping to return to sleep, so at least my morning/day wasn’t completely wasted.
Okay, anyway, welcome back to my second Manga Review post on this lovely Manga Monday. I hope you are all having a lovely day, and without any further ado, let’s go ahead and jump into the review.
Book Details
Format: Paperback
Pages: 176
Publisher: Yen Press
Publication Date: August 18, 2015
ISBN: 0316345911 (ISBN13: 9780316345910)
Summary
During the frenzied festival, Bell and Hestia find themselves in a tight spot thanks to the scheming of a shadowy someone working behind the scenes. When the hijinks turn dangerous, will Bell manage to summon the strength to protect those he cares about? And who’s doing all this scheming, anyway?!
My Thoughts
Rating: 4.5 stars
Every time I pick up one of the volumes for this series, I feel like it’s such a short reading experience. Which in some ways it is. Many of the manga I pick up tend to average around 200-220 pages per volume, whereas so far in this series each volume has only been 176 pages. So yay for consistency, but it does always leave me wanting more. Granted, even many of the other manga series also leave me desiring more, so I guess what I’m saying is that this particular series reads even faster than my other reads.
In this volume Bell is certainly getting stronger, and his goddess Hestia is looking for ways to keep him safe, and also to keep certain details of his stat block and improvements from his knowledge.
I feel like while the first volume somewhat let on that this was a harem manga series, this one furthers that along, because these hijinks and hazards during the festival are more like a way for a certain character to see Bell’s skills and realize that she is interested in him as well, which might interfere with the feelings of an adventurer within her familia.
So yeah, I can see the positive skills and the personality draw of Bell as a romantic interest, but for me this series sort of stretches the boundaries of realism in that aspect. It’s like these female characters see Bell once or they have a 20 word conversation with him as he orders food at a tavern and then after that few second observation or talk they pretty much claim to be in love with him, and then it’s like they try to bend over backwards and go so very far out of their way to make him food and give him gifts, and it’s a bit much.
I do still really enjoy this series, but I feel like it can really stand on its own as an adventure series without it being so heavily focused on the infatuation plots…because I really can’t call it romance. Most of these characters barely know each other, and Bell doesn’t really seem to realize that these girls are flirting with him.
Wow, my review sounds like a downer considering I rated this volume 4.5 stars while the first volume was only a 4 star. Look, there was decent character development when it came to Bell, and I’m definitely interested in learning more about Hestia. Also, I can say that the worldbuilding in this series definitely intrigues me. Also, I feel like this volume did have better action. So there was a lot of good aspects to experience while reading, and I definitely plan to continue with the series. I’ll probably also check out the anime–technically I’ll be checking it out again, because I know Damian and I watched at least a small handful of episodes.
Where to Get a Copy
You can grab your own copy of this book from Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Books-a-million, Book Depository, or your local independent bookstore through IndieBound.
You can also check with your local library.
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