Momoko Koda

This book started a little rough. Quick reminder of book one: There is a beautiful “idol” who is a male popstar type of person and a young lady who absolutely is not going to fall in love with anybody. She does not like the idol culture but by the end of book one, she has done just exactly what she swore not to. The idol swore never to fall in love and always be alone but now our gal is completely infatuated. Book two picks up right at the end of book one. in the beginning, she’s doing all the craziness that obsessed fans do, but she has more access. She calms down throughout the book, and it really does become much more of a love story that puts a smile on a readers face. This isn’t my normal type of Manga but I have become an addict.… (meer)

Volume three is all about the first kiss. There is a little confusion in the beginning between the characters. Are they dating? Aren’t they dating? It’s about believing in oneself, and our main characters are not very good at that. Which means it took three books to get to the first kiss. I am quite enjoying this series even though all the miscommunication is a lot of tropes. It can at times get to be too much but overall, you go into this book wanting something happy and sappy and that’s exactly what you get.… (meer)

I am a sucker for cute romance, and that is exactly what you get with this first volume. Is this a little teen movie-ish? Absolutely. In part, it reminds me of She’s All That where the main character doesn’t want the cute boy or anything to do with him. Here our girl feverently believes that she absolutely will not fall in love. But then we spend the whole book with the cute boy, who happens to be an Idol, convincing her that she is worth getting to know. Then you get hit with the end to ensure that you pick up the next volume. I don’t completely understand idol life and some of the way it’s talked about, it’s biases etc, but I did thoroughly enjoy this book. While it’s very much “teen girl drama”, it puts a very happy smile on your face and makes you want to book 2.… (meer)

I’m just not interested in the idol/superstar fangirl aspect, so I won’t be continuing this story.

But I like that Kouta has some depth. It’s very apparent he’s dealing with low self-esteem, grief, and people-pleasing tendencies. He plasters a smile on his face to his own detriment at times. It’s fairly realistic that even with Sahoko trying to affirm him that he doesn’t believe it (just yet).

Sahoko is fine to just stay in the background as his forever fan and emotional pick-me-up, knowing deep down she can’t be content subduing her feelings for him forever. But mainly she's just boring.

Still, pretty cute overall for someone looking for a lighthearted read.

Vol 1 review
… (meer)