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This is an adorable Alice in Wonderland retelling, following a girl named Alice who plans on escaping her toxic household by returning to her home city of Kyoto and becoming an apprentice geisha, or maiko. But instead of ending up in the Kyoto she remembers, she crosses over to a fantasy Kyoto and gets caught up in a whirlwind of discovering her place and passions, and maybe even connect with a childhood friend she thought she'd lost!

This manga had a slow start, almost too slow for me. I was really close to putting it down, but then things picked up and of course ended right before they got good!! I loved Alice's journey in Kyoto Forest and her path to discovering who she is and what she wants to do. I definitely wanted to see more of Ren, because now I'm starving until the next volume (which I am DEFINITELY reading). Lovers of cute, soft fantasies will eat this right up. 

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This was a cute enough little boy's love manga set in a world where demi-humans are divided by carnivore and herbivore. One prominent feature is that goats, who eat books and paper, are often banned from bookshops, but our main character Yagi is a goat who loves to read. He even has the ability to taste the emotions and feelings behind the words on the paper he writes, but the only place he can find a job is in a carnivore-territory bookstore owned by a wolf named Ookami. 

For some reason, I could not connect to this book at all. It had some of my favorite tropes so I'm frustrated that I couldn't put my finger on why! I think maybe the characters are a little flat, and the pacing seems a little off. The art style is cute though, and this will be good for people who like opposites attract stories, childhood friends to strangers to lovers, or soft boys. 

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This adorable shoujo was one of the cutest romances I've read all year. After breaking up with her ex for cheating on her, Sawa is suddenly confessed to by her classmate Sakura. He's really not her type at all, but she finds herself falling for him hard and fast. 

Sawa and Sakura are both adorably shy, and I loved seeing their relationship grow! If you're interested in a romance in a high school setting, I cannot recommend this enough. It was just super cute, I loved how forward Sakura was while still having his cute moments, and seeing Sawa struggle with learning to accept affection based on her bad experiences was really nice to see. 

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This fun shoujo follows queen bee Mona, who has been popular, pretty, and admired her entire life. Any guy she wants, she can get... except for new transfer Medaka Kuroiwa, who just makes faces, turns away, and refuses to talk to her whenever she tries to flirt. Assuming Medaka hates her, she decides to step up her game-- not realizing that Medaka is actually a monk in training trying to resist how cute he finds her.

This was a decent read! I loved the dynamic between the two main characters and I loved that instead of having a rival storyline, Mona and Tsubomi become friends and Tsubomi roots for her. However I wasn't super ensnared by the characters and the humorous moments were really the only things that stuck out. I think this is probably best for a younger audience. 

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This was an adorable romance! Onda and Akari are two coworkers and friends who are both idol otakus. They keep up on their idols and go to events together but when Onda confesses his feelings for Akari, they decide to try out being together and navigate their life as they grow closer together. 

I absolutely loved this from start to finish. It was really cool to see Onda be interested in a male idol and also very supportive of Akari still liking her idol when they began to date! Their relationship was also adorable and it's so hard to write a review when all I want to do is just flap my hands and shove this at people. I also really liked that this didn't end on a cliffhanger, because their relationship was going so sweetly and I would have been disappointed if something sudden and drastic happened. This is overall a soft, fun shoujo I would really recommend! 

I’ll try again when it’s snowing but this moves slow, I hate reading about ballet, and I do not care for Mariette that much 💀

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Apple Children of Aeon is a slow-moving, atmospheric story that centers around Yukinojo, a man abandoned at a temple as a baby. Never feeling like he quite belonged, Yukinojo wishes to leave home and is connected with Asahi, a woman from a family of apple farmers. Life moves in slow cycles through their partnership until Yuki, unbeknownst to him, awakens ancient folklore and has to fight for his own wife's hand. 

I think this is one of those manga where I really liked it but can still see why others wouldn't. As I said, this story moves slowly, so it really helped that I loved the art style and the atmosphere. The story being centrally focused on Yuki did leave the side characters underdeveloped until he had to look outside himself a little more. I really liked the tender moments between Yuki and Asahi and the countryside scenery. I think this would make a really good animation or series! 

I read a few other reviews and saw some people off-put by the decision to translate the Aomori accent as Scottish. I've taken Japanese-focused translation courses and accents are a hard thing to convey. I think in this setting it was the right decision, illustrating Yuki's continued isolation from the people around him and also the values and themes of the setting, though I can see why others wouldn't care for it. 

Overall, I really enjoyed this story and I'm looking forward to the continuation! 

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After an accident causes a ghost to possess his left hand, the delinquent Shu who has never touched a piano decides to learn music to save two strangers. If you can't tell from just that sentence, this manga was a little wild! It starts out slow but after a very sudden moment in chapter 1, things change drastically for Shu. 

I thought this was a decent start to what seems like an emotional series. I didn't connect with the characters very much, but I liked the art style and I really felt for Shu, who's had such a hard life so far. I'm looking forward to seeing his journey. 

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I absolutely flew through this adorable start to what I hope will be a fun series! In a world where the more you're loved, the sweeter you taste, an unloved girl who dresses as a boy to avoid catching attention on the streets ends up becoming the thrall of a nerdy vampire who doesn't drink from women. 

This went by so fast and I immediately wanted more! The art style was cute, it was funny, and I loved the bond growing between Mito and Ruka. A small touch that I really enjoyed was that Ruka never had any thoughts about being grossed out for reacting to someone he thinks is a guy-- I feel like it's common inside the trope, so I enjoyed him not acting disgusted. I'm really looking forward to reading more! 

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The start of this drama-shoujo sets up a love vector between a girl, her childhood friend, and the new transfer student. The twist? After an accident, she forgot the first 11 years of her memory, and the new transfer student might have some secrets regarding her past. The main character is unsure of where she's going-- whether she's falling in love, or drowning under the weight of her mysterious past. 

This ended up being a 2.5 I had to round down. This shoujo had an interesting premise but was lacking something extra. None of the characters were particularly compelling and the plot felt dramatically cyclical. The cliffhanger didn't even get me, and I was overall disappointed by this one. It might have been better on its own, but I read it in between shoujo I liked much better which made what I didn't like about this one shine. I didn't feel any chemistry and I left this book not caring about any of it, which is not what I want from a shoujo! Shoujo should make your whole chest feel alive, and this made my heart fall asleep.