arc provided by the publisher via netgalley in exchange for an honest review 

Where do I even start with this one.... 

I supposed I'll start with the pros. Lightning and Romance is a sweet high school romance budding between Sumire, a lovestruck, sheltered girl into fashion and cute things and Reo, her bad-boy-with-a-heart-of-gold seatmate who goes by Lightning due to the scar on his face. Reo has nasty rumors swirling around him, but as he shows Sumire that he's not all he seems, she begins to fall for him and start her first real romance. Which is a concept I love (especially since Reo reminds me strongly of one of my favorite characters ever) but why on earth does he have to be 20 years old?! 

I feel like almost nothing would have changed if Reo was 18. I guess it was to lend some credibility to his actually bad history, but when the first couple pages were his grandpa asking him why the hell he's still there, I had to laugh because he's right! What are you doing here! This romance ended up making me laugh so often because I just... I had no idea why that choice was made. The fact that I tweeted about it and too many people had OTHER manga to share anecdotes about... this is a problem. 

I think it has an interesting premise and despite the unnecessary age difference, I'll be problematic and admit some of the scenes made my heart melt. I am no stranger to manga that start out problematic and end up redeeming themselves later, but I'm also no stranger to manga that start out problematic and keep the train wreck burning. However... their age gap was really the single glaring issue and I'm nosy enough to want to know what else happens, so I'll probably continue the series eventually, if it comes to my library.