I was about two thirds of the way into this volume when I suddenly thought to myself "I might actually end up giving this three stars!" I was feeling for Kyo for the first time ever. In my defence, his main character trait is sulky, violent brat so I do not feel I should be blamed for not caring about him or his drama. Finally, however, we get some backstory, which goes some way to explaining why he's as unpleasant as he is. Don't get me wrong, he's still unpleasant, but at least now it seems as if he realises it and is trying to change, which does get points for personal growth if nothing else. Unfortunately, the focus in the last quarter of the book shifts away from the strong relationship between Kyo and his surrogate father, towards Yuki and his older brother. Naturally these two are estranged, because every member of this stupid melodramatic family has issues up to their eyeballs, but they too are making an effort to improve. I don't care about their improvement, however, as I don't care about either of them. So something of a downbeat end there.

Oh well, it's still the best one so far.