As volume 3 opens, tall girl Risa is figuring out her relationship with Haruka. They were friends when they were kids, but now he’s told her “I’m going to ask you to be my girlfriend,” and she’s not sure how she feels about that. (Bear in mind that if Haruka wasn’t a wuss, he would have asked her to go out with him instead of telling her he was going to ask her at some future time. He’s hedging his […]

I was pleasantly surprised at how much I enjoyed this romantic comedy by Aya Nakahara, especially coming in a book late. Love*Com is a classic pairing of opposites executed with believable teenage romantic confusion. Risa’s the tallest girl in the class, and Otani’s the shortest boy. Both have crushes on more typically attractive students, so they try to help each other. Unfortunately, their crushes wind up going out with each other, leaving the two misfits to bond out of desperation. […]

As promised in the previous book, Kim, the former dog-hater, gets a Shiba puppy. As he learns how to care for his new pet, so does the reader, with insert text from a pretend guide called “The Day the Puppy Comes”. This volume would make an excellent read for a young new pet owner, because it covers subtleties the owner should be aware of, like the need to not spend too much time fussing over the new puppy. The book-within-the-book […]