Miri Mikawa

Anne is in a bind. She won't survive the winter if she can't save up a decent amount of money right now, but since she didn't attain the status of Silver Sugar Master, it's difficult for her to get many clients or ensure that she's paid what her work is worth. She's barely managing to scrape by, so she's immediately intrigued by news that a duke is offering 1000 cress to any candy crafter, not just Silver Sugar Masters, who can make what he wants. But what if what he wants is impossible?

I figured out what Duke Alburn wanted before Anne did, although that didn't tell me how she'd manage to make it out of this situation. She didn't know it at the time, but the duke wasn't entirely stable. Plus, pressure from outside elements was slowly building up.

The way everything resolved reminded me of Violet Evergarden. Anne had to come to the realization that what clients want and need isn't always a beautiful work of silver sugar art.

Romance-wise, Anne has an epiphany about her feelings for Challe. Meanwhile, Challe is surprisingly dense when it comes to human emotions for someone who spent the beginning of his life at the side of a girl who, from the sounds of things, fell in love with him much the same way Anne has.

Anyway, this was somehow enjoyable despite being fairly predictable.

Extras:

Black and white illustrations throughout, as well as a short afterword by the author.

One thing I just realized: Aki, the illustrator for this series, is the same Aki who authored Olympos and Utahime: The Songstress.

(Original review posted on A Library Girl's Familiar Diversions.)… (meer)

Anne Halford is the fifteen-year-old daughter of a Silver Sugar Master - her mother, who died less than a month ago. Silver Sugar Masters are people who can craft beautiful, intricate candies out of silver sugar refined from sugar apples. It's believed that, once upon a time, fairies ate silver sugar candy to extend their lifespans. It doesn't work that way for humans, but a human who consumes expertly crafted silver sugar candy often finds that they become luckier.

The only way to become a Silver Sugar Master is to compete at the annual Royal Candy Fair. Anne is determined to participate and win, but in order to get there on time she'll have to take a dangerous route. She'll need help, so despite a lifetime of her mother's teachings that fairies should be treated as equals, Anne is going to buy herself the services of a warrior fairy as a bodyguard.

The fairy she finds is Challe Fenn Challe. As is the case with all enslaved fairies, when he was captured, one of his wings was removed. Anne can technically control him with this wing, although she'd much prefer that he help her willingly. Joining Anne and Challe are Jonas, his fairy Cathy, and Mithril Lid Pod, a fairy who feels indebted to Anne.

This series didn't make it onto my radar until after I'd seen some folks talking about how much they enjoyed the anime. World-building based on candy making didn't really interest me, but the screenshots and snippets of story info intrigued me. I decided to at least give the light novels a try.

I was a bit iffy about Anne, at first. I understood her desire to become a Silver Sugar Master like her mother, but I couldn't help but think that her mother would have something to say about her being so determined to become one at this annual Royal Candy Fair that she'd buy an enslaved warrior fairy to help guard her. Later on in the book, she explained herself a bit more, and I grudgingly accepted it - although it helped that I also believed her when she told Challe that she planned to give him his freedom once he'd gotten her safely to the Royal Candy Fair.

(Just a quick note on another thing that bugged me, though. Enslaved fairies are generally called by whatever name their master chooses. While Anne does call the fairies by the real names they give her, considering how insistent Mithril Lide Pod is about using his full name, wouldn't it be more polite to do that rather than shorten it to "Mithril" and Challe Fenn Challe's name to "Challe"? Give them that much, at least!)

This was more tightly written than light novels usually are (in the afterword, the author writes that this was originally a contest submission and actually had to be expanded a bit for publication). Overall, once I got past my initial issues with Anne and general annoyance with Jonas, I enjoyed it. It's one of the few light novels I think might actually work for audiences not used to light novels and their usual issues - it reads like a regular Middle Grade fantasy novel. I'm looking forward to seeing where things go in the next volume. I have to admit, I'm concerned about Challe being an obsidian fairy - sure, he'd have a longer lifespan than fairy born from berries, but obsidian is pretty darn brittle

Extras:

Various black-and-white illustrations throughout, as well as a short afterword by the author.

(Original review posted on A Library Girl's Familiar Diversions.)… (meer)