Four short stories about kissing. Look, it‘s right in the title, I can’t do anything about it. There’s a weird animal theme too.
I’m going to be upfront and level one of the most damning proclamations in my reviewing repertoire towards this book. It is... perfectly fine. There’s very little to write home about, but nothing to write an angry letter to the editor about either.
We get to see four stories of various people in various stages of falling in love and the problem with the book’s title is that it kind of gives away the ending, so no hope of any surprise twists here. It’s strictly on each scenario’s characters to carry the day (or not).
Far and away the strongest of these vignettes is the second one, about two coworkers in a restaurant. It takes the ‘awful at cooking’ trope and actually does something playful with it, which was a lot of fun. I like the way the two leads state the obvious at the start and then they slowly come to figure out how it applies to them.
The other pretty good story was the one about naps, which is about two people who have specific roles with one another who would like to be more than what is dictated of them. It’s pretty cute and also involves naps, which I recommend in general.
The last story was the first one written for the collection and it is unfortunately the weakest one. It involves an annoying junior and people staring at one another and doesn’t really have the spark the author clearly thinks it does.
The first story is just... okay. A little bland and hinges on a deception that I don’t think is necessarily healthy, even if it’s fooling nobody. Amusingly the nap story has a similar sort of thing at its centre but in that case it works because the leads are down with what the lie allows them.
3 stars. The very definition of an okay read to kill some time with. The second story is what makes this one and really feels like a complete package. The nap one is fine. The other two could have used a few more revisions. It’s a perfect book for when you want something light where you know exactly what you’re getting into.
3.5 rounded up for the silly animal pun names, although I am moderately uneasy that the guys' names are all predators and the girls' are all prey. But it's still cute and sweet, so I'll forgive it.
so i was in mood for reading some shoujo manga and then i accidentally found this. it was cute, i have to say, but nothing special. there wasn't any plot, just boys and girls falling in love with each other over some time. just four cute love stories which end up with a kiss. the second one was maybe the worst one. however, this was a good manga to read between online classes. ?
4 stars. Each story was short and cute with a different trope as the set-up and ending with a kiss. There was the older neighborhood friend, the boss chef, the brother's friend, and the younger classman. Told with some interesting detail and had a couple of things that made me feel uncomfortable but played them off before crossing a line. Mostly just cute, sweet fluff. I enjoyed the art, too.
This was fine, just not really memorable aside from the kissing scenes. I didn’t really latch onto any of the characters or their stories. I would love to see what this manga-ka could do for a series, though, since her art has some gorgeous moments.