This story does some interesting things, but they feel at times like they're a bit ham-handed, and it relies heavily on a very shojo-oriented presentation of adventure and relationships. Decision-making feels flighty, sometimes arbitrary, and juvenile a lot of the time, though at least some of that is probably intentional for the sake of character development (if a little overdone when that seems to be the case). In many ways, this volume felt like the rough start to what could turn out to be a better ongoing series; beginnings are often hard to nail in works like this. Unfortunately, when I read the second volume in the series, I found it worse, and dropped it after the second volume. I'll probably sell them both (at a loss) back to the new-and-used bookstore where I got them. ( )