MPT

I have to say one thing that would have been nice, and a little unusual, is something being proper one sided and then growing from there on the reunion, but it was pretty obvious from the beginning there was more of a connection between the two of them than that.

I'd been hoping for the resolution to either be earlier in the book or at least show more after it and progress further. It reads like it could very well be a one shot as well, so I don't know how much hope I've got to see it get any further.

That's 高校時代に好きだった元同級生のS級美女が隣に引っ越してきた。義娘とともに finished reading. I'm a little conflicted on this one. It was a good enough read, had decent enough characters and some nice ways of showing things, but bits of it felt like they fell a bit flat.

Honestly, the number of authors that write in first person and then have the pov character miss speech that's clear for the reader is far too high. Still, the characters were fairly charming, and I appreciated Ririmu deciding enough was enough.

So I just finished reading 女子校の『王子様』がバイト先で俺にだけ『乙女』な顔を見せてくる (finally getting back on the reading bandwagon) and I quite enjoyed it. Even if there were a few niggles I had while going through.

アレニエ（勇者の旅の裏側で）

sketch request from @mptsakurada.bsky.social, アレニエ with floppy dog ears
#旅裏

I finished the first volume of #天殴 While there were some hints of possible much deeper stuff, most of what I was reading it for was the light funtimes and it was great for that. I'll be reading the later volumes as and when I feel like it I think.

Again, I really feel like digging in to both volumes, and maybe even the web novel and getting a whole timeline and relation chart set up. Maybe I'll do that in the next holiday I get?

It's also very blatantly waiting for a continuation, so I really hope Dre keep up their current track record (at least as far as I've checked) with publishing all content from their WN licenses.

The author mentioned in the afterword that the volume needed more than was in the WN, and honestly it felt like there were more plot events than normal for a single volume of light novel.

The cover for volume 2 of "Behind the Scenes of a Heroic Journey" showing two women smiling next to a lake

That's v2 of 勇者の旅の裏側で finished. It was just as enjoyable as the first volume. The back and forthsections are probably still my favourite bit, closely followed this volume by both Araignée and Louise (still not 100% on that Romanisation) articulating how they felt about each other to themselves.

Hopefully we get more, because I'd like to see where it actually goes from that last scene

And that's 倒れた婦人を救ったご褒美は、娘の美人双子とのお付き合いでした finished. It was a fun read. Nothing earth shattering, but enjoyable on the whole. I particularly liked the banter between all the recurring characters and how none of that ended up too one sided

Cover for the first volume of Super Cub - girl with short hair standing in front of a Honda super cub

And (finally) I've gotten around to finishing Super Cub 1. It's pretty fun to see Koguma change through the volume, and her kinda harsh outlook playing off the others is great to see. Nees to figure out what I'm reading next, since that's only 2/18 that I should have read by now

The cover of 少女星間漂流記 (rough TL: Girls' Interstellar Tales)

Last 'award' goes to 少女星間漂流記 (rough TL: Girls' Interstellar Tales) for being pretty much the only completely episodic story I remember enjoying the read of. Also for having very pretty coloured art.

The cover of 週に一度クラスメイトを買う話 v5 (rough TL: Buying My Classmate Once a Week)

I'm also going to give another shout out to 週に一度クラスメイトを買う話 v5 (rough TL: Buying My Classmate Once a Week) for being perfectly ended to make me 'need' to pick up the WN and read to (at the time) the latest chapter. It's been a lot of fun.

The cover of 手に入れた催眠アプリで夢のハーレム生活を送りたい (rough TL: I Got a Hypnosis App and Want My Perfect Harem Life)

The prize for surprisingly wholesome despite the premise making it sound decidedly far from that is 手に入れた催眠アプリで夢のハーレム生活を送りたい (rough TL: I Got a Hypnosis App and Want My Perfect Harem Life)

The cover of 勇者の旅の裏側で (rough TL: Behind the Scenes of a Heroic Journey)

Absolute favourite book of the year ended up being 勇者の旅の裏側で (rough TL: Behind the Scenes of a Heroic Journey) due to a combination of humour, general writing skill, and world building. I'm still tempted to get a corkboard out to keep track of all the relations between people and things

A collage of Japanese Light Novels read by me over the year

I was _going_ to try and read another volume today so I could beat the goal of 52 (1 per week of the year) but ended up completely wasting the day and then playing Elden Ring's DLC all afternoon. So, this is the total of my reading for this year (not including work required)

スケッチ1128

It was more that the rest of the book was just peaceful countryside shenanigans and it needed something to pull towards anything else so it could have a v2 without effectively being more of the same, I'd say

I just read the first volume of 最強カワイイ. It was (as you'd expect from the name) rather cute. I appreciated the relationship between the two leads. I did feel like the end bit was a bit out of nowhere, but it had to justify a v2 somehow.

Finished v2 of #あま俺 as well now. It was more of the same as v1, I think. Considering whereabouts it ended...well, it would have WORKED as a final volume, but I'm very glad it's getting at least v3.

Plus I don't remember it contradicting the text once, which when the outfits are described as precisely as they are, is impressive.

I saw v3 of #あま俺 got announced, so I decided I'd catch up before it released. I enjoyed it a lot. It's cute, but it doesn't focus TOO much on cutesy interactions, which give it a bit more depth, I feel. I'll try and read v2 tonight. Great art as well.

It got the balance of the humour and seriousness perfect imo, and the characters were all pretty rounded. Even the bad guys weren't just caricatures.
On top of that, the art was gorgeous, and there's a large part of me that wants to buy a poster or tapestry of the full art cover

After ~4 days, I've finally finished 勇者の旅の裏側で 1. A large part of why it took so long was wanting to stop and savour, along with thinking about where things could be going etc.
I absolutely loved reading it. I'm very much looking forward to the future volumes.