No. 6: The Manga, Volume 05 (No. 6: The Manga, #5)

Esmour hated him, but he hated himself more for still loving the bastard.

I really wish this story was a bit longer, because it’s just so packed with great tropes, but they barely have space to breathe. Second chance romance! Dramatic misunderstandings! Fake dating! Come on, I just want it all to be spread a bit so that I can enjoy every aspect properly and to dig into the characters deeper, because Esmour is the only one who feels really realized. And the mystery plot—it wasn’t bad, but it would be cooler if it wasn’t so condensed.

Still, despite all of the above, I enjoyed this quick read and had a nice time with it. The one truly big problem is the lack of editing, though. The most egregious example was when the two leads suddenly swapped names, and it happened during a flashback, too, just to make things more confusing. It really took me out of the story just when I was settling in.

Her life might be smaller, but it was better. Wasn’t it?

I'll be honest, it took me a bit to get into the story because the way it's written is clunkier than what I've read from Skye Kilaen before. I was close to DNFing because of the writing over the first few chapters, but the characters kept growing on me and I kept giving the book chances. And, well, by 20-25% I got hooked! Not sure if the writing got better or if I just stopped caring about the clunkiness, lol.

I empathized a lot with Gina's fears about giving relationships a chance again. It wasn't entirely reasonable, but also perfectly understandable. Her relationship with Aunt Ophelia was lovely, and I enjoyed seeing all those parts of her life: her jobs, her family situations, her home, her board game addiction. Marek, however, just absolutely captured my heart. He is such a lovely, kind, empathetic, thoughtful, introspective character. An inspiration, really, and one of those characters I'd love to meet in real life and become friends with. His gentle optimism was practically addictive, and seeing him simply explore Clover Hill and find things to love about it was as beautiful as seeing his relationship with Gina blossom. 

Speaking of that relationship development, I enjoyed that this couple's interactions included a lot of details that often get glossed over in favor swooping romantic gestures and big feelings. Questions like "is this how you deal with fights?" or "how do you handle medical care?", certain details about sex, generally establishing and agreeing on borders—so much realistic stuff handled in lovely ways that didn't distract from the feelings at all. It was all great to see characters in their later thirties, and of course I loved the bi and fat rep.

Clover Hill itself is the perfect queer utopia, and once the setting started getting prominently explored, it quickly turned into my favorite part of the book (after Marek, of course). I love reading about cozy, inclusive, tight-knit communities like that, and I look forward to exploring it more with other books in the series. 

I got about 50% in and realized it's just not holding my attention. It's a fun-written book, and in the beginning I connected with the MC, but the further I got, the more I realized nothing surprised me or interested me. Just too generic to my tastes, but will no doubt appeal to many other readers!