This is honestly why I'm trying to buy more digitally if I think they're not going to be something I want to reread or not a 'must-have' in the physical collection. Also, it helps keep the cost down somewhat, especially for Seven Seas titles that have crept up to £13-14 recently... The only thing I don't really buy digitally at all is the light novels since I prefer reading them in book form as opposed to digital there if given the chance.
That totally makes sense! My problem is that I'm a really physical person, I get a lot of joy from holding things I enjoy in my hands, hence why I have multiple collections and no space ^^;This is honestly why I'm trying to buy more digitally if I think they're not going to be something I want to reread or not a 'must-have' in the physical collection. Also, it helps keep the cost down somewhat, especially for Seven Seas titles that have crept up to £13-14 recently... The only thing I don't really buy digitally at all is the light novels since I prefer reading them in book form as opposed to digital there if given the chance.
Beyond the LNs not really anything new in here, especially since I watched and enjoyed the anime for The Misfit of Demon King Academy so I knew that wasn't going to prove disappointing. 
Seeing your light novel pickups has made me interested in picking up more myself! So far all I have is the two JK Haru ones and I have one called I Will Forget This Feeling Someday on pre-order because I loved the concept.February haul time! Feels like this month went by in a flash, but I think work eating my life the last week or so contributed to that.
First, up my physical goodies modelled by the Inosuke I picked up as well (He might live on the purchase pile from now on lol):
View attachment 23373
Top to bottom:
Classmates volume 4: Sora & Hara
The Misfit of Demon King Academy volume 1
I Belong to the Baddest Girl at School volume 2
Seaside Stranger volume 2
The Dark History of the Reincarnated Villainess volume 4
I Cannot Reach You volume 3
Turning the Tables on the Seatmate Killer volume 1 (LN)
From Toxic Classmate to Girlfriend Goals volume 1 (LN)
Banished from the Hero's Part, I Decided to Live a Quiet Life in the Countryside volume 5 (LN)
86 volume 9 (LN)
The World's Finest Assassin Gets Reincarnated in Another World as an Aristocrat volume 4 (LN)
I was most happy about Turning the Tables on the Seatmate Killer and From Toxic Classmate to Girlfriend Goals arriving from Tentai Books at last! I buy their releases directly from their store and the shipping can take a while for a variety of reasons. I bought one of these back in November!
View attachment 23374
Left to right, top to bottom:
Tesla Note volume 3
Komorebi Shoutengai no Changing Wonder volume 1 (JP)
Welcome Back, Alice volume 1
The Transcendent One-Sided Love of Yoshida the Catch volume 1
Horimiya volume 2
Sasaki and Miyano volume 1
Days of Fes volume 4
Super HxEros volume 5
Skip and Loafer volume 3
The Springtime of My Life Began with You volume 5 (final)
Falling Drowning volume 1
In the Clear Moonlit Dusk volume 3
I more or less ended up with my usual amount of digital titles. I enjoyed everything new I picked up, so I'll likely be continuing those as they go. Admittedly I only bought Sasaki and Miyano for the bookshelf skin as part of the recent promotion, otherwise, I'd have waited until the anime was finished (especially since I'd read that volume in JP before). I really need to get on to buying more Horimiya too. >_<
Very nice pickups! I love that new cover for Nagatoro, probably the best one yet in my opinion.
I'm so glad, I hope you enjoy whatever you choose to pick up!!
I haven't read any of their other works yet but they definitely appeal to me! I decided to start with this one since I love the plot concept a lot but I may pick up the manga version of I Had That Same Dream Again soon.I'm so glad, I hope you enjoy whatever you choose to pick up!!
I'll definitely be picking up This Feeling Someday as well given it's by Yoru Sumino and I've really enjoyed all the books by that author (with the exception of I Have a Secret, which just didn't do anything for me). My favourites are I Want to Eat Your Pancreas and I had That Same Dream Again. Another of their books is out this month called I am Blue, in Pain, and Fragile. That one also has a live-action film on Netflix which was quite good, so I'm looking forward to reading the book for myself.
Ahh thank you, these are incredibly in depth recommendations!! I really appreciate it greatly, I didn't expect so much.Completely fair honestly, a lot of light novels end up feeling like long commitments due to how long they run for. It's, unfortunately, more difficult to find romance series in print since the light novel industry here has ended up built on isekai titles like SAO/Overlord and series that have had TV anime. It's only the last 2-3 years where that's beginning to change and even then a lot of the romance titles are with J-Novel Club, who are largely digital-only.
But having said that I would recommend maybe checking out My Happy Marriage which I reviewed for the site last month. It's quite heavy in terms of the content, but it's more of a straight romance than anything else on the market right now. Even despite having a fantastical element in there (since it has some kind of monsters), it really didn't focus on that at all. Plus I think it worked nicely as one single volume, so if you decided not to read more of it afterwards I don't think you'd feel like you were missing out. It's not a very long first volume either, which certainly helps!
I know we've talked about this one before when I reviewed one particular volume surrounding the MC's little sister, but I also recommend Rascal Does Not Dream of Bunny Girl Senpai. The first volume is largely focused on the romance and again feels fairly complete in the first entry, you really just lose out on the sister not being fully developed in that one. Again there is a slight fantasy/Sci-fi element here, but its not really as focused on that as it is getting the cast to overcome what's causing it in the first place.
I noticed before that you've read the Toradora manga and Seven Seas do release the light novels of that series if you're particularly interested in that one. There's also Bottom-Tier Tomozaki-kun which I actually panned when I reviewed Volume 1, but I kept going with it afterwards (thanks to a friends recommendation) and have enjoyed the later books but I appreciate when you're just starting out you don't want to jump into something that 'gets better later!.'
I've got my fingers crossed that the next time J-Novel Club do announcements they'll be putting The Tales of Marielle Clarac into print. That's really entertaining series with a cast I think you would love, but sadly both the light novels and its manga have stayed digital for now. :<
This is my final suggestion which isn't a romance but is quite different to everything else on the market - The Ascendance of a Bookworm. It is an isekai fantasy, but the world-building is very intricate with a lot of depth to it, so provided you care about the premise it's very easy to get sucked into. It is an extremely long series at 28 volumes and still going, so I understand if it's daunting but I like to recommend it to people anyway since it seems to appeal to a wide range of readers no matter what their interests.
Yep, that's correct, especially since the majority of the characters are reoccurring so even if they're not a focus of a particular volume you're still getting to see bits and pieces that contribute to their overall story arc which I really appreciate.
I completely agree that this side of the market is being neglected, I can only hope that as the publishers are starting to branch out more that it will resolve itself in time. As a whole light novels only became viable again in our market in 2014, so it's still a very young market in comparison to its anime and manga counterparts so I'm willing to give it some slack there while the publishers pool money to move into perhaps less popular genres (not just romance, but the slice of life stuff too and titles that don't have an anime attached!). I often find myself looking at all the interesting stuff Japan gets and wishing even a small percentage of it came over to the West, it really is a curse of the internet lol. I'm somewhat surprised by the fact Seven Seas didn't license the Saviors Book Café novels at the same time as the manga, but as you say hopefully the popularity of the manga means we'll see some movement there eventually.
Modern Villainess looks like it would be fun! I think because it's a villainess series it's unlucky to be too nitty-gritty since the majority of those series tend to lean into the comedy/drama of being reincarnated and having to make the best of the situation they've found themselves in! The only thing I'd be a little wary of is the fact it hasn't had a new vol since August 2021 in Japan where it's at 3 volumes. An annoying trend in the light novel industry is that a lot of series get cancelled early on if they're underperforming and nothing is really 'safe' until it's past volume 5 or so if it's clearly intended to be a series.
This statement got me wondering even more about the appearance of Super HxEROs in your pick ups. Only read vol 1, but saw the anime and whilst, IIRC, the MC stays monogamous with the girl he likes despite the attempts of the other girls and thus could be labelled rom-com rather than harem it is very much an ecchi aimed at males. Nothing wrong with women liking ecchi of course!
If I hadn’t watched the anime I’d never have picked this one up, but the premise is so silly that I found myself really enjoying it. One of my favourite voice actors ended up playing the main character too, so that helped get me attached.
Thank you so much for your input, I really appreciate it! There's definitely more than a few titles I am wanting to pick up now which makes the issue just deciding which one to pick firstYou're welcome, I'm glad I could advise and I completely understand what you mean about the BL/Yuri novels. I enjoy them at times but find myself a lot more picky with those compared to the romance genre as a whole, especially yuri since it feels like it's aimed at a male audience as opposed to me as a female reader and with novels especially it can be difficult to get past that since its not like you can be sold on the artwork instead like you can with manga.
Yep, that's correct, especially since the majority of the characters are reoccurring so even if they're not a focus of a particular volume you're still getting to see bits and pieces that contribute to their overall story arc which I really appreciate.
I completely agree that this side of the market is being neglected, I can only hope that as the publishers are starting to branch out more that it will resolve itself in time. As a whole light novels only became viable again in our market in 2014, so it's still a very young market in comparison to its anime and manga counterparts so I'm willing to give it some slack there while the publishers pool money to move into perhaps less popular genres (not just romance, but the slice of life stuff too and titles that don't have an anime attached!). I often find myself looking at all the interesting stuff Japan gets and wishing even a small percentage of it came over to the West, it really is a curse of the internet lol. I'm somewhat surprised by the fact Seven Seas didn't license the Saviors Book Café novels at the same time as the manga, but as you say hopefully the popularity of the manga means we'll see some movement there eventually.
Modern Villainess looks like it would be fun! I think because it's a villainess series it's unlucky to be too nitty-gritty since the majority of those series tend to lean into the comedy/drama of being reincarnated and having to make the best of the situation they've found themselves in! The only thing I'd be a little wary of is the fact it hasn't had a new vol since August 2021 in Japan where it's at 3 volumes. An annoying trend in the light novel industry is that a lot of series get cancelled early on if they're underperforming and nothing is really 'safe' until it's past volume 5 or so if it's clearly intended to be a series.
A good way to tell is seeing what the dates were between volumes, in this case, vol 1 was October 2020 and then March 2021 and then August, which is a fast clip for there to suddenly be no listings for a vol 4 and the synopsis doesn't sound like it was a final volume. Obviously, if you like the sound of it that shouldn't be a reason not to read it, but it's worth keeping in mind all the same.
This one is one I should be covering for the site later this month or early next depending on when it arrives. I've certainly seen a lot of excitement for it, both when it started in Japan and upon Yen licensing it so I hope it can live up to that! I confess none of the synopsis I have seen has been very good, so I'm just taking a chance on it in the hopes it's as good as the buzz surrounding it implies. I'd assume the girl on the cover is the shut-in but it's so hard to tell... Especially since the Yen Press synopsis mentions a harem, so she could be a popular kid instead.
This one I actually hadn't heard of before! The cover is very eyecatching and the synopsis makes it sound like another villainess series, but I confess I'm not as knowledgeable when it comes to the Korean and Chinese light novel/novel industry so it's hard for me to say if it would be any good or not. Might be worth taking a punt on if you particularly like the sound of it though.
Thank you I'm really happy to have them, the series is everything I hoped and more@setokaiba Happy to see you finally got your hands on those copies of Fire in Your Fingertips!
I hope you enjoy Wotakoi too, that one has been a real delight for me over the years since it started.
Wotakoi is definitely my kind of thing, I can't believe it took me this long to actually get the first volume! I would have picked it up irl but I just never see anywhere stocking it, weird considering it's popular and there's no short supply of volumes.
One of my favourite ever series!
Thanks again for all your recommendations! It gave me much to think about, I ended up purchasing My Happy Marriage todayCompletely fair honestly, a lot of light novels end up feeling like long commitments due to how long they run for. It's, unfortunately, more difficult to find romance series in print since the light novel industry here has ended up built on isekai titles like SAO/Overlord and series that have had TV anime. It's only the last 2-3 years where that's beginning to change and even then a lot of the romance titles are with J-Novel Club, who are largely digital-only.
But having said that I would recommend maybe checking out My Happy Marriage which I reviewed for the site last month. It's quite heavy in terms of the content, but it's more of a straight romance than anything else on the market right now. Even despite having a fantastical element in there (since it has some kind of monsters), it really didn't focus on that at all. Plus I think it worked nicely as one single volume, so if you decided not to read more of it afterwards I don't think you'd feel like you were missing out. It's not a very long first volume either, which certainly helps!
It wouldn't stop appearing on my Book Depository home page and tempting me haha, at 27% off I decided to buy it and I'm definitely warming up to the concept a lot the more I come back to it. I'm really looking forward to it!
Excellent choice! I really hope you enjoy it when it arrives and I'm glad I could help.Thanks again for all your recommendations! It gave me much to think about, I ended up purchasing My Happy Marriage today
