Fuyuki Kanda is a widowed music teacher who decides to buy a homely one-year-old cat at a pet store. The cat, who he names Fukumaru, is worried that his new owner will take him back or abandon him, but luckily for him, Mr. Kanda adores him.

This series is sweet, gentle, and warm, and I absolutely love it. I found out about it via a review on The Manga Critic, and then I kept coming across it via other sources until I finally broke down and bought it. I'm so glad I did.

This had some of the usual things you'll find in cat manga: a newbie cat owner who has to learn some of the basics, shopping for supplies at the pet store, and kitty antics, like scratching on things they're not supposed to, being goofy, and inadvertently making a mess. However, this first volume was as much about Kanda as it was about Fukumaru, and watching these two lonely characters love each other, become accustomed to each other, and form a little family together was a treat.

There were flashbacks for both Fukumaru and Kanda. Fukumaru's showed him as a kitten - remembering his mother and gradually realizing that no one wanted him. Kanda's showed him and his wife, and what their lives had been like over the years. They'd intended to get a cat together but never got around to it. They had children, and readers haven't yet been given enough information to know whether they just live too far away to regularly visit or whether Kanda's estranged from them. At any rate, he lived alone, and it was apparent that both the cat and the man had become a little depressed before they came into each other's lives.

A few other character POVs popped up here and there: Kobayashi, Kanda's dog-loving childhood friend, Yoshiharu Moriyama, one of Kanda's energetic young coworkers, and Miss Sato, the pet store employee who assisted Kanda. They all provided different views of Kanda and/or Fukumaru, which I appreciated. For example, Moriyama saw Kanda as the epitome of cool elegance and idolized him, while Kobayashi knew the loneliness his friend had been going through and appreciated the joy that Fukumaru added to Kanda's life, even if he didn't personally understand what Kanda saw in Fukumaru.

I loved the artwork. Fukumaru's cartoonish looks were initially a bit odd, but I got used to it. And oof, Kanda. It was easy to believe that his younger male coworker would idolize him and younger female coworkers would crush on him a bit.

I absolutely plan on preordering the next volume. I'm looking forward to seeing Fukumaru and Kanda make each other happy, and I'm interested to see what Sakurai plans on doing with this series.

Extras:

A couple pages of full-color artwork and a full-color four-panel comic, as well as a one-page comic-style afterword by the author.

 

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

Disclaimer: reviewing uncorrected pre-publication galley via NetGalley

 

This was an awesome read. To be honest, I decided to review it because it was getting so much prelaunch hype, but I kinda thought I wouldn't be the target audience. I really just couldn't care less about Vikings, and so much of the marketing around it emphasizes that element.

 

If you're in the same camp, not to worry. Sky in the Deep is incredibly well-done and tells an exciting, high-stakes story with a fierce multi-dimensional main character who goes through an incredible character arc and journey. I don't think it's positioned as fantasy, but to me, it felt as much like fantasy as historical fiction.

 

Eelyn is a warrior, and the book opens with her totally eviscerating guys in battle. Which . . . I wasn't that into. I think I was afraid she was going to be really flat, like some implausible, too-perfect super-warrior, but she becomes more of a sympathetic character pretty quickly because her dead brother shows up to the battle. So maybe she's crazy or in shock, but then he shows up again--and when she chases him, she gets captured by the enemy.

 

Eelyn lives by a sort of warriors' code and puts honour above all, so being taken captive and forced into slavery by the group they're perpetually feuding with is nearly grounds for suicide. However, this isn't really the story of Eelyn the Viking superhero shutting down the old-world slave trade. It's way more nuanced than that.

 

I really appreciated the slow development that shows how someone with a rigid view of the world could come to understand others and challenge her own beliefs and those of her family/community. The slow-burn romance wasn't bad either~~

 

I'm looking forward to seeing what else Adrienne Young has in store for us. This was a beautiful, powerful debut about a girl who's not only a wicked-strong warrior, but has the strength to learn, grow, and love others despite the cost.

I absolutely loved this clean historical western romance. I've given it a 5* rating. There was humor, fury, sadness and determination throughout this story and so much more. And some of the other characters were very interesting, to say the least. I was sorry to see it end and wanted to know more. I'm looking forward to reading more of her work.

Series: Texas Cattleman's Club: After the Storm (Book 5)

A secret baby brings ex-lovers together in this tale of lost memories and second chances.

 

Getting hit with divorce papers isn't the fresh beginning Jake Holt wanted with Skye Taylor. But when he returns to their Texas hometown, he finds Skye has a child…and no memory of the couple's painful breakup.

 

After a long coma, Skye doesn't remember being swept up in a tornado or nearly losing her baby girl. Seeing Jake again rekindles their all-consuming passion. Then she starts to remember… Is their love strong enough to overcome the past so they can become a real family?

 

Four years earlier, Jake and Skye had run away together. As the children of two feuding families, they were raised to hate each other, but that didn't work for them. They fell in love and managed to keep their relationship a secret for a long time, but when it came out their families were furious. Rather than deal with the hate, they left to make their own life together. The day that the tornado came through Royal, Skye had come to town and been caught in the path of the twister. She was badly injured and her baby was delivered prematurely. Skye herself was in a coma for three months, while her sister Lark cared for the baby (Because of the Baby...).

 

No one knew where Jake was and why he hadn't been with Skye. His brother Keaton has been trying to find him to tell him what happened. At the beginning of the book, Jake has just arrived in Royal, looking for Skye. He had arrived home from ten months out of the country only to find divorce papers waiting for him. He is stunned to see the damages in Royal, and worried about whether Skye was okay. Thanks to a confrontation with Keaton, he discovers that Skye is in the hospital, having been in a coma, and that he is the father of a daughter. He never knew that Skye had been pregnant, 

 

Jake had never intended to step foot in Royal again. He has spent the last four years building his business, working insane hours and trying to make a better life for himself and Skye. Unfortunately, it also put a strain on their marriage, and they'd had a huge fight before he left on his last job. When he arrives at the hospital he discovers that Skye has a two year gap in her memory and doesn't remember that she had filed for divorce. She thinks that everything is just fine, and her doctor wants her memory to come back on its own. Jake looks at it as the opportunity to repair their relationship. If he can show her how he really feels, maybe things will be okay when her memory does come back.

 

Skye had been disoriented when she came out of the coma. She didn't remember being pregnant or coming back to Royal. She didn't know why Jake wasn't there with her and why no one would tell her where he was. She was relieved when he arrived and was so happy to see him. Because her doctor didn't want her too far away as she finished recovering, they stayed in Royal. Jake found them a house to live in and he spent his time taking care of her. But something didn't feel right.

 

The rekindling of their relationship was really interesting. Skye didn't know that there had been anything wrong to start with, as those were the memories that were missing. She likes having Jake around so much, as her last memories were from just as the business started taking off. She behaves the way she did when they were first married, which confuses Jake. She's frustrated by the feeling that there is something going on that she doesn't know about, but she's determined to make the most of their time together. As she starts to get her strength back, bits and pieces of her memory return. Can she trust that the Jake she is seeing now will be the one to stay, or will the workaholic make a return once she is well again?

 

Jake had been upset to find the divorce papers, as he still loved Skye very much. He had known that things were going wrong with their marriage, but didn't know what to do about it. Finding that Skye has no memory of the breakup of their marriage, he is determined to use the time to fix things. One of the stresses in their marriage had been his refusal to go back to Royal because of the way they had been treated by their parents. On his return, he discovers that the arrival of baby Grace has begun to change his parents' attitudes and that they are far more welcoming than they had been before he left. This removes one of the obstacles to he and Skye getting back together. He also begins to accept that she had had valid complaints about the fact that he worked all the time, putting his work ahead of her and their marriage. Once he makes that connection, he realizes that he has to make changes if he is going to save their marriage. When her returning memory collides with a new business opportunity, Jake has some important choices to make.

 

The family dynamics were great. We had seen the beginning of the attitude changes by Jake's parents in the previous book, as they got involved with baby Grace. I loved seeing Jake's confusion over those changes when he first saw them again. It takes him awhile to adjust to those changes, and also to seeing his brother with Skye's sister. Skye's parents continue to be a royal pain, and she is stunned by the attitude they still have. They, too, have to learn to let go of the past.

This book was quite enjoyable but a number of factors meant it wasn't totally great. The storyline had great potential but the way it was written was highly unbelievable. I loved the idea of the biological father having a relationship with the adopted father and raising their son together. However I couldn't believe in the love betweeen Dimitri and Mason. Mason seemed so formal in his manner and conversation and making him a millionaire was just so unnecessary. I think I would have preferred it to be a love story between two regular people. I mean, how did Dimitri's sister even meet and have a one night stand with a drunk and gay millionaire anyway? I also found the way Dimitri spoke to his son a bit annoying (not too sure why) and got sick of them saying entaksi and was totally annoyed by the overuse of the "robin's egg blue" when describing eyes - twice on the same page is too much. I am probably being a bit too picky but found these things noticable enough to slightly dampen my enjoyment. Still a three star read.