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Kare to kare no ijiwaru na kyori – Narusaka Rin
Spin off of Kare no Tokubetsu na Kare which involves Sahara and Moriya.
Shigeru & Sahara: Crossdressing is fun. Pining after a guy pining after his childhood friend is not.
Louis & Yuuchi: “There’s no one cuter than an idiot”. Best couple.
Ryouta & Seo: too similar to Back Stage
Tatsuya & Suruga: hmm…I need to read their manga first
(source: http://www.mangago.me)
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Primrose Files: Aliens, Smith and Jones – Blaine D. Arden
“It’s not all about serving coffee and typing reports.”
Working for a secret organisation specialising in alien cover-ups, Connor Smith is no stranger to the abnormal or dangerous. His love life on the other hand… not so exciting. Until he reluctantly agrees to a blind date and meets the perfect bloke, Jason.
Things are finally falling into place for Connor, so of course that’s when he attracts an alien stalker.
Noah Jones, ex-alien, has been stranded on Earth and forced to live as a human since 1648. Alone and detached from the world around him, Noah has spent centuries observing and recording humankind. In all that time, he’s only experienced a connection with a human once… until he finds Connor.
Even knowing Connor is in a relationship, Noah can’t ignore their potential bond, or stay away.
While dealing with missing alien artefacts, a dangerous and shadowy group of collectors, and the ever-present Noah, Connor finds his orderly life crumbling around him. At least he still has the perfect boyfriend…
When Noah goes missing, Connor is forced to face the feelings growing between them and the mounting evidence that Jason isn’t who he says he is…
Aliens, Smith and Jones is a riff on the fated one/mate theme popular in animal shifter stories. Noah is a Rei, a purple alien blob of energy whose species visit other planets to observe and record. He was stuck on earth for almost 400 years. Somewhere along the way, he transforms into a human. The Rei absorbs energy and they have one particular individual, their mate, with whom they have a special connection. Noah had found this long time ago with Daffyd and he didn’t expect to find it again in this modern age.
Connor, whom I found bland and forgettable, works for Primrose, a Men in Black type of organization that handles anything and everything alien. He usually ends up a victiim of his bestfriend, Isa’s matchmaking schemes. Isa introduced him to Jason and they hit it off. On the surface Jason seems to be the perfect boyfriend.
The trouble with this set-up is that it’s hard to care about Noah and Connor’s romance when they are so hung up on other people. Going in, I knew Jason was in the picture. I just didn’t expect Noah would have his Daffyd too. Also Connor spent more time with Jason, time that could have been spent establishing his relationship with Noah. Aliens, Smith and Jones would have worked better had the romance given more time to blossom.
I also don’t understand the point of killing off an important secondary character. It really didn’t do anything to the story except give a little bit of unnecessary drama to the proceedings.
There were a bunch of more interesting characters who would be great leads in their own books like Lieutenant Matthews, Isa’s boss, and Francis the shy, geeky tech. It would also be great if there were aliens working in the organization as oppose to just herding them off to some island. I hope Noah does well as a consulting adviser in Primrose.
This is a good example of a 2.5-star book. I didn’t hate it but I didn’t quite like it either.
P.S.
I received a copy of Aliens, Smith and Jones from
Cayendi Press
via Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.
Rating:
2.5 Stars – far from hate but not quite a likeSoundtrack: Stars are Spaceships
Artist: Funeral Suits
Album: Lily of the Valley -
[spotify id=”spotify%3Atrack%3A03ZGtXRZxSVdBN3dmUtFAR&view=coverart” width=”540″ height=”620″ /]Soundtrack to Primrose Files: Aliens, Smith and Jones by Blaine D. Arden
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I had long ago learned that when you are the giant, alien visitor to a remote and foreign culture it is sort of your job to become an object of ridicule. It’s the least you can do, really, as a polite guest.
Elizabeth Gilbert -
[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GF6sDi_7CoU?feature=oembed&enablejsapi=1&origin=http://safe.txmblr.com&wmode=opaque&w=500&h=375]
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Mimi ni Nokoru Kimi no Koe wa – Inoue Nawo
As graduation gradually approaches, Miyoshi, a high school student, finally gets a chance to talk to a fellow classmate alone for the first time since they met. Due to the other student, Arai, always sleeping after arriving to school early, he’s never really had a chance to meet him until now when their time together is limited to the short period before graduation. Meanwhile he realizes his latent feelings for Arai. Arai, however, has never had an interest in school or friends, and he only really had one joy in life…
I’m so glad he went ahead and said it:
“I like you… so let’s stop this from ending”
Atta boy, Miyoshi!
(source: http://www.mangago.me)
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Sidekick Squad: Not Your Sidekick – C.B. Lee
Welcome to Andover… where superpowers are common, but internships are complicated. Just ask high school nobody, Jessica Tran. Despite her heroic lineage, Jess is resigned to a life without superpowers and is merely looking to beef-up her college applications when she stumbles upon the perfect (paid!) internship—only it turns out to be for the town’s most heinous supervillain. On the upside, she gets to work with her longtime secret crush, Abby, who Jess thinks may have a secret of her own. Then there’s the budding attraction to her fellow intern, the mysterious “M,” who never seems to be in the same place as Abby. But what starts as a fun way to spite her superhero parents takes a sudden and dangerous turn when she uncovers a plot larger than heroes and villains altogether.
Jessica Tran was born into a family of supers, Mom, Dad and big sis are superheroes, lil bro is a super genius. She, however, is average. It hasn’t stopped her from trying her best and doing her research to find out that maybe, just maybe, she does have some kind of power. Jess reminds me of Rock Lee from Naruto who couldn’t do any fancy chakra manipulation like the other shinobi but was instead dubbed as a genius of hard work.
Blame it on my elementary days spent hoarding Marvel collectible cards but I have always fantasized about having superpowers. Telekinesis because I’m a lazy-ass shit. Teleportation or flight because I want to travel but I’m broke. Supercomputer brain because I suck big time at physics and I was, unfortunately, a physics major. Etc, etc. So, at first glance, C.B. Lee’s Sidekick Squad world is the kind of world I want to get stuck in. It seemed an exciting, ordered world where superheroes fight super villains and everybody cheers them on. All things in their right place until Jess becomes friends with M and Abby and she starts noticing and asking questions about the villains.
For me, villains are almost always more interesting than a goody-goody hero. For one, they are usually more intelligent, complex and nuanced. And as a lifetime of anime has taught me, villains are not always bad. They usually have a compelling reason to do what they do. Jess started to realize that there’s more to this heroes vs villain thing than their government has let on. And I started thinking I might be better off as an average citizen in Andover.
Jess has a crush on Abby, an elite student and varsity player in her school. I admit, I am neutral on the FF front, it doesn’t affect me the way MM couples do but C.B Lee did a great job creating the tension and describing the awe Jess felt towards Abby. There was mutual attraction between the two and it was cute how Abby, in the shadows, tries to encourage Jess to ask her out and how Jess is just a bundle of nerves when it comes to asking Abby out
Bells and Emma are Jess’ bestfriends. Bells is crushing on Emma but Emma is oblivious. Bells has some secrets of his own and I can’t wait to read his book. Would Emma finally notice?
Not Your Sidekick is a good stab at the heroes vs villains trope. C.B. Lee has created a world where, at first glance,
things seem to be clearly divided between good and evil. How Jess and her friends uncover some of the secrets and how the lines become blurred were pretty interesting but overall this book falls between like and love. This means I couldn’t really pinpoint what was wrong, maybe nothing really. It’s more like, it didn’t really wow me. I’d still recommend this books for the interesting premise, great characters and cute FF couple.
Rating:
3.5 Stars – that place between like and love
Soundtrack: Heroes & Martyrs
Artist: Bad Religion
Album: New Maps of Hell(source: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/29904219-not-your-sidekick)
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[spotify id=”spotify%3Atrack%3A65PPo9vQtMJzULOZibRiwT&view=coverart” width=”540″ height=”620″ /]Soundtrack to Sidekick Squad: Not Your Sidekick by C.B. Lee
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Superpowers don’t always make you a superhero.
Michael Grant -
[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XULIO67YIRA?feature=oembed&enablejsapi=1&origin=http://safe.txmblr.com&wmode=opaque&w=500&h=281]
