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This review is for both volumes.

The orginal five volumes have been published in the west in two omnibusses by Seven Seas Entertainment (who are doing a great job bringing manga to the west!), and I had as much fun reading them in print as when I read them online. Mangaka Morinaga Milk manages to combine adorable art with an in-depth story of two girls falling in love with each other.

Kumakura Mariko (Mari) is a shy, silent student who is at the top of her class, but has to do a make-up test because she was sick at the day of the first test. To her surprise, Ohashi Akiko (call me Akko) asks her if they can go home together. It turns out that Akko wanted to talk to Mari for a while, but never had the courage to approach her.

Mari agrees, and soon after, the two girls are inseparable best friends, and together with Akko’s friends Sugi-san and Tamamin (and later Tagushi and Kuno-san) they transform Mari to a fashionable, cute girl. Thus starts a journey through high-school, that will transform their lives.

The first two volumes focus on Mari, who delights in having friends, and a very close friend in Akko. She’s happy, but why does she get anxious about the upcoming class changes and the very real possibility of her and Akko ending up in different classes? And why does it bring her to tears when she imagines Akko getting a boyfriend? Mari is very confused about these strange feelings, but no matter how hard she tries to dismiss them, those feelings grow stronger and it culminates into doing something that changes her entire life.

Mari’s and Akko’s story is a long one, and in places it can slow down a bit, but the range of topics that the girls go through is quite extensive. Friendship, first love, career choices and what it means to be ‘Girl Friends’ (especially in Japanese society) are all seamlessly interwoven into the story. I think Girl Friends is a tribute to friendship, highschool and first love, and a must-read if you are considering trying out Yuri manga.

If I were to have one complaint, it would be that their third year as highschool students is squashed into a single (final chapter). There’s a hint of ‘where are they now’ but not nearly enough, in my opinion. The mangaka kind of acknowledges this, saying she had many more topics and characters she wanted to explore. But, a 5-volume yuri manga is something of an achievement in of itself, so I can be OK with it.

Although the series began in 2006, the art and the story are holding up pretty good. The only thing that gives away its age, are the flip phones.

Definitely recommended.

The return to the realm of Alpennia did not disappoint. I'm not entirely sure how to review it properly, because a lot (and I mean a lot!) is happening in the lives of our beloved characters.

While The Daughter of Mystery was primarily focussed around the Barbara and Margerit, the sequels have an ensemble cast now. The circle around Barbara and Margerit is expanding rapidly: a group of women who, in a society strict with rules of propriety and protocol, slowly but with determination carve their own path.

There are a few surprises to be had, almost all of the characters of the previous books make an appearance, and the scope of the troubles is a more international. Some things I predicted after The Mystic Marriage come to pass, and other revelations I had not even considered Am I correct about Tavit being transgender?

The book has a bigger cliffhanger than its predecessor, and it almost pains me having to wait another year for the sequel.

Recommended if you like stories with a lot of depth, both in characters and in worldbuilding.

There's a lot to like about the story and the protagonist, Echo Hunter 367. She reminded me a lot of Natasha Ionadis, a very devout, dedicated servant of the Church, an entity that stands as the last bulwark against total destruction of the remaining survivors of mankind.

Echo is a troubled soul, constantly at war with herself and torn between what she wants to believe and what her rational mind thinks. We spend a lot of time inside her head, as she continues to do the Church's work, which includes killing some very young children.

But she sees the signs of a failing system, and in a desperate attempt tries to convince the leaders of this, which results in her excommunication.

Much like Natasha ([b:The Walls of Westernfort|298461|The Walls of Westernfort (Celaeno, #2)|Jane Fletcher|https://d.gr-assets.com/books/1388598961s/298461.jpg|289557]), Echo finds herself on the other side and discovers that much of what Church wanted her to believe, isn't exactly true.

There's much to like about this book, but I'm personally not convinced with the worldbuilding. An example is how the author tries to show us how civilization changed in 400 years, by using some made up words for common things. A week is called a seven. A year is an annual. Grain is grown in Stads and the city is divided in Claves. There are some weapons, such as a static stick and something that's called a Projtruder. It's anyone's guess what a Projtruder is, because it is never explained what the darn thing is (except it has a lethal setting).

What bothered me the most, was the concept of the Saint. A Saint is what powers the city, but how that exactly works, no idea. a Saint is actually a girl with some specific DNA, who sacrifices herself and somehow provides the electricty for the city, including a massive forcefield It has to do with something called denas, or DNA for us pre-apocalyptic folks.

Somewhere in the last 25% of the book, Echo and Lia fall in love, but the romance elements are so minimal, even the Alpennia books could be considered steamy. And there's no happy ending. (I can applaud authors who do that, but I find it rage inducing sometimes)

3.5 stars

I'm torn between showering this novel in praise or throwing my laptop out the window from sheer frustration.

I just couldn't get into the writing. It felt stilted, flat and at times read like a report. The ending (well, a big part of it) is telegraphed just as soon as the main character arrives to take up her new position in the province of Aurdwynn. The final battle was a bit boring.

The final chapter was thoroughly heartbreaking, though. I didn't see that coming. I'm wondering how I can be so conflicted and at the same time can't wait to read the sequel.

I would have given it 4 or maybe 5 stars, if it wasn't for the godawful formatting of the Kindle Edition. There's typo's, missing spaces, missing quotation marks, missing apostrophs. There were many parts I had to read again because I couldn't tell who was talking or doing something. If I have to pay 14 dollars for a digital file, I expect quality. And the Kindle Edition does not have it. It's a disgrace and I will not put up with it. Although I did like the story, and I will read the sequel, I'm going to hit the refund button on Amazon. If the author, the publsiher or Amazon or whoever is in charge can guarantee me an error free edition, I'll purchase it again.

Btw, I checked around and Kobo expects me to pay 25 euro's for this. An ebook. A 600kb file. Yeah, no.

There are a couple of books that i reread on a regular basis, and four of those tell the story of two women falling in love in the glamorous world that is Hollywood.

Damage Control joins that list.

While the story is nothing groundbreaking or even original, the author found some new twists to make it highly entertaining. What I liked was that we got to see things from the publicity side, where the out and proud publicist Lauren works herself into a frenzy to put out fires left and right when the young, rich, and famous and very straight actress Grace gets caught up in a publicity nightmare when a 'compromizing' photo is published.

Grace herself couldn't care less, but she listens to her overbearing mother who is also her manager, who is none to happy her daughter's squeeky clean image is tarnished.

Enter Lauren, an out an proud lesbian, and very good at squashing rumors. The situation isn't helped when the other woman in the picture finds herself ambushed by papperazi and comes out as a lesbian, which only fuels the frenzy even more.

Forced to spend time together, Grace and Lauren slowly get to know each other, and find themsleves desperatly trying to fight the growing attraction between them. Grace can't be gay, it would ruin her reputation, while in Lauren's line of work it's an absolute no-no to become involved with clients. But we know how it goes, they can fight all they want but the result is predictable.

I would have given it five stars, if not for the ending. It's a relatively long book, with a slowly growing romance that abruptly ends with a three-page epilogue. Unlike When Stars Collide, which could do with some pruning in the end, Damage Control could have used a chapter or two more. The epilogue just doesn't work for me and I got the impression that after all the work the author put into the story, she just got bored with it or something and couldn't be bothered anymore. It was very disappointing.

And what's the deal with fanfic being the catalyst to jump-start events?

I never read Ms. Delaney's previous works because they are based on StarTrek, and I'm really not into StarTrek and its derivatives. But I am into sci-fi, and since there is a disturbing lack of sci-fi within lesbian fiction, I gave it a go, fully expecting a strong ST influence and with a determination to try and enjoy the story without over-analyzing things, something that is ruining my reading pleasure as of late. (I know where to put the blame for that, and its on me).

The ST influence is strong in this story, with a Prime Directive, a Federation of FTL- capable worlds and at some point even a Vulcan mind-meld (or whatever it was called in the series).

Basically, it's a First Contact story, and a violent one at that. We have a peaceful world, pretty advanced in cultural, scientific and mental capabilities, which as the story starts is pondering the existence of other worlds among the stars, but firmly believe they are alone. And they are throroughly disabused of that idea within a single night and they find themselves a pawn in a galactic struggle. Thankfully, the aliens that crash on their planet are benevolent and come with a warning.

I'll admit, the story is solid and well-written. It's action-packed, friendships develop and morals fought over. And that fight takes place on both sides, as the Alseans show their teeth when they hear they're about to be sacrificed. It ends in a planet-wide battle, and while there is plenty firepower around, the crucial weapon is an ability that makes the Alseans both feared and desired galaxy wide. Yet having to use that abilty leaves deep scars behind. It was an interesting twist to the story.

At first, I thought First Contact was a bit too sweet and there were no issues one would come to expect when you find out that you are not alone in the universe (anyone else hoping our turn can't come soon enough?).

The main characters were likeable, the author did a good job of painting some of the social and cultural aspects of Alsea and its civilization. The romance, while playing a big role in the events, was decidedly muted (which can be a good thing after one has overdosed on a certain author before starting this) but a deep friendship develops between the three main characters.

Overall, I liked the story, and I will read the sequel at some point in time.

Now, because I promised Jem I reserved the right to bitch about technology, I will point out some things that didn't make sense to me. I did my best (and I think I succeeded) to not let it get to me, but I have some observations.

From what I gathered throughout the book, the world of Alsea is a peaceful one. They had their fair share of troubles in the past, but at the start of the book they had no domestic issues and they had no reason to think of being invaded in the long term. Then why do they have an extensive militairy apparatus? They have an army and an airforce that includes fighters and bombers. What would you need to bomb? What targets are there to fire shoulder launched missiles at? I could understand a police force, but as far as I can tell, an army is superfluous. Of course, they'd need an army to fight of invaders, but they had no idea one was coming. To me, the warrior caste was just a plot device to put to use later on.

Another issue I had was with the matter printers. Besides the economical ramifications of such a device (which, I understand, plays a role in the sequel), there's also the issue of how it would work. There's an explanation that it converts waste into whatever you need, but that's just mindboggling. If you think about it, you need an equal amount of matter to create some other matter, not to mention the energy needed to power that process. A large city needs all of it's windows replaced, which amounts to a metric tons of matter conversion. Am I to understand that metric tons of poo are converted to metric tons of glass? If so, I need to re-evaluate my diet. I'm pretty sure I don't eat silica.

While it makes a great visual, I cannot see how anyone can think of a large metal box on legs makes a viable militairy weapons platform (I blame Star Wars). And it has the Ultimate Laser of Instant Doom on it. Then why bother with adding missiles, mortars and a railgun? And it takes an anthropologist to point out the one exploitable weakness the otherwise invincile contraption has. I'll admit that had some comedic value.

I'm not trying to trash the story or the writer here. I just want to illustrate that visuals and ideas may look great at first glance and make marvelous plotdevices. It's necessary. But sometimes I wish authors would think something through at bit more.

3.5 stars.

I had two issues with this novel, one that isn't really the book's fault, and the other is because a publisher like Bellabooks really should have done better.

The book is all about fraud and banking, and I don't have a clue about either. Sure, I know how banks work and do business, but the technicalities completely go over my head, mainly because US banking seems so different from what I know. So, Kip is looking for evidence, and I'm sitting here thinking: OK, whatever, if you say so. As I said, not really the book's or the author's fault. I have the same issue with courtroom novels that go deep into the procedures. I spend more time googling stuff than I am reading the story.

The other reason it gets one star is because the epub and mobi versions I purchased from Bellabooks were so badly formatted, I actually complained to the publisher. (and of course, I received an awfully polite reply about how sorry they are and it will never happen again.) Basically, it was formatted in such a way that it was one giant wall of text, compounded by the fact that countless paragraphs had no space between sentences. I can tell you, that makes for some tedious reading, especially if you are not familiar with the topic at hand. I don't know if this applies to the Kindle edition as well. What bugged me most is that the book is five years old. Surely someone would have spotted these issues by now.

Bellabooks promised me an updated version in the future, so I might read it again and adjust the score. Until then, it's just the one star.

edit
I just received the edited version. Will reread it again later and do a proper rating.