Blossoming Romance

I Married My Best Friend to Shut My Parents Up

Story and Art – Kodama Naoko

Manga, romance, contemporary, LGBTQ+, fiction.

Rating 9.5/10

Morimoto is being harassed by her parents to settle down with a husband, but Morimoto doesn’t want that life just yet. She’s enjoying being happily single and committed to her job. Her friend, Hana, offers to be fake married to her to help Morimoto not be harassed by her parents. Morimoto agrees to do this plan and the plan works. Only thing is that Hana must live with Morimoto for a while. Morimoto doesn’t mind until she finds herself craving Hana’s company. Morimoto starts to fall for Hana slowly and they decide to work on their relationship.

My boyfriend and I were looking for manga to read and he picked up this one to show me. At first, I thought that this manga was going to be some horrible romance comedy. Turns out, this one was very sweet, and very heart felt[KS1] . I enjoyed the sweet message that the manga left for the reader to find. I won’t say what the message is because that would spoil the ending. Overall, this manga surprised me in a lot of ways and opened my mind about reading manga. Not all manga is actiony and or science fiction, they can have contemporary storylines. I will continue to broaden my search for more variety of forms of literature.

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 [KS1]

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Alcohol, Playground Scandals, Gossip Never Ends Well

Big Little Lies – Liane Moriarty

Parents, children, murder mystery, gossip, scandals, fiction, thriller, domestic violence victim, single mother.

Rating 8/10

A new and single mother, Jane moves into this town hoping to find herself a permanent home for her and her son. Jane meets two other mothers, Madeline and Celeste. An incident happened at the kindergarten orientation and Renata, one of the big shot mothers, is blaming Jane’s son, Ziggy for hurting her Amabella. Ziggy never did harm Amabella but it’s a showdown between Jane and Renata. This scandal is only the beginning when a trivia night ends with a murder. A mix of alcohol and scandalous gossip tend to reveal truths and nothing good happens in the end. A murder resulting from too much alcohol, domestic violence, and a case of post traumatic stress disorder.

I loved this novel and the author is perfect. The plot line was perfectly written, and intricate truths revealed here and there made the novel juicer. I simply couldn’t stop reading. The only issue I had was with the parents who decided to be self-righteous, prudent, and gossip spreaders. It did add some drama, but I didn’t like that element. I loved the fact Jane decided to become a single mother rather than give up. The strength and the extent she went for her child was beautiful and how she was accepted for it was incredible. This novel sent many messages that a lot of parents should take note such as listen to all the children when it comes to bullying and deal with it appropriately. Don’t single out anyone because that is bullying.