After her older sister refuses to go to an arranged marriage meeting with Takane Saibara, the heir to a vast business fortune, high schooler Hana Nonomura agrees to be her stand-in to save face for the family. But when these two utter opposites pair up, get ready for some sparks to fly!
Hana’s usual family Christmas celebration gets canceled, so she feels a bit sad about the prospect of spending Christmas Eve alone. Takane decides to ask Hana out to dinner for that night, but then a beautiful medical school student named Rino shows up declaring her love for Takane! Does this mean Hana has a love rival?! (Pub Date: Oct 2nd, 2018)
While I can say this volume was an improvement from the fourth volume, it's mostly stabilized in general. Still, it makes me fidgety for these two actually getting together way more than any other of this trope.
3.5.
If you don't know this series, it's about how Hana had to sub for her older sister to go to an arranged marriage meeting with Takane. He did notice the change and ever since, they've been going on with the charade despite the age difference and personality clashes. But don't expect their arguments to go the same way it always does in similar stories, Hana is smarter than that, and she has Takane feeding in her hand thanks to his weak point—his pride. Of course I can't recommend you start from this one but the story is easy enough to follow if you do, it's almost episodic.
Now if you're following the story and also felt the fourth book was too much of the same, I think the fifth had a slight discovery. Yuki Shiawasu still seems to be exploring all the cliché situations in shoujo manga but she's back to surprising us with how she develops them. I'm glad, since it's what I like the most—second only to how I've come to ship the main couple.
Now we meet a young member of Takane's family, who's basically a mini Takane, and a high school friend who seems to be in love with him and with whom Takane may have made some promise a long time ago. Plus, Christmas is nearby, so Hana is busy making plans and buying gifts.
I think I already made clear my overall feelings about the volume, but I have to add that I loved the new characters. There's another comment I have to add very carefully not to spoil anything but I admired how Shiawasu treated Takane's friend, that was more than a step up from what I expect from Japanese manga. Many points to Takane for how he acts about it too.
But really... in this manga the two felt much closer to a couple, I think it was the first time they acted to explicitly about their relationship. Although I admire how Shiawasu is actually taking her time to make them grow closer, I'm itchy! How will they get together?
This manga is already 11 volumes in Japan and ongoing, but it's also a very entertaining read with charismatic characters and smart comebacks from the heroine. If you're a shoujo manga fan, this a need for your collection!
Honest review based on an ARC provided by Edelweiss. Many thanks to the publisher for this opportunity.
Rating: 3 out of 5.
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