Reading is my passion, I guess

Masterposts:

Assistant to the Villain by Hannah Nicole Maehrer

The Fae Guardians by Lana Pecherczyk

Flora Magica by Vanessa Walder

The Guild Codex: Spellbound/Demonized by Annette Marie

The Guildhunter Series/Elena Devereaux by Nalini Singh

Magilumiere Magical Girl Inc. by Sekka Iwata and Yu Aoki

The Hollows/Rachel Morgan by Kim Harrison

Maggie the Undying by Ilona Andrews

My Stepmother and Stepsister's aren't Wicked! by Otsuji

One Piece by Eiichiro Oda

So I'm a Spider, so what? by Okina Baba

My Tags:

Janchei reads:

The Main Tag. I use this for everything I read to make it easier for people to block my tag instead of my Blog. Though, speaking from what I do, I think most people just block me in the whole lol

Janchei reads books:

I use this for all the Novels I read. Sometimes I use it for short stories too, but I think I at least tried to use its own tag for that.

Janchei reads Manga:

Exactly what it says. Every Manga I read goes here.

I did all Volumes on their before, but for shortter series this makes little sense. So we'll see how this one will evolve in the future!

Janchei reads Light Novel:

All the Light Novels I read go here, to the surprise of no one really. I review one volume at a time, which might make it confusing, now that I think about it. Longer running Light Novels have a lot of Volumes, after all. Maybe I'll implement a new tag for each Light Novel series, like "janchei reads light novel: [series name]".

Janchei reads Manhwa:

I'm reading a lot on the go and especially Manhwa make that easy. I never really know when I started reading a series (except for when it is a re-read), so I am mostly skipping the dates in my reviews. I try to always write about a whole season. The only exception to this is when I don't finish a Manhwa. This rarely happens though.

Janchei reads Manhua:

A tag I don't see myself using. I got burned one too many times with Manhua. Some of the tropes they use are just major icks for me (the "she deserves to get raped" one for example), so I stay away from Mahua unless I know 100% that these tropes aren't used.

Recommendations! (Coming Soon)

Books

Light Novel

Manhwa

My thoughts:

After watching the Anime, I just had to get Manga - and I loved it!

Now, before I get to the Manga itself, I need to talk about the publisher for a second. It's a relatively new one called Dokico and when I saw their prizes, 12€ per Manga, I expected one of those Manga that are a bit bigger. But no, it's a small Manga, which really confused me. Usually a Manga this size costs around 8€ where I live, plus/minus 1€. When I opened the Manga it became clear why the cost was what it was: they used really thick, white paper, which, yes, feels nice, but wasn't really necessary. For selling a Manga the pricing is important and I have to say, if I hadn't seen the Anime first I really wouldn't have gotten the Manga for this amount of Money.

But I did and I read it and it was great! The translation did something that's normally not done in germany, which I always missed and wished was there: it kept on calling Kaya "Kaya-chan". And Chie-Sensei stayed Chie-Sensei or Sensei. And one more thing: it didn't feel like this was translated for a toddler. This is a huge problem (to me) with a lot of german Manga! Their translations feel like they were made by children, for children. So this was really refreshing! I hope that the publisher manages to stay afloat and gets bigger - with a bit more sensible pricing. Manga don't need the best paper of the best lol.

About the Story: the Anime is a very faithful adaption, so I knew what I was getting into. In the first Volume, there was one chapter that didn't make it into the Anime itself, which was Chapter 4: Kaya-chan isn't afraid?. This chapter was, somewhat, in the ending of the Anime though, which was really nice to see.

Other chapters that didn't make the cut for the Anime: Chapter 7: Kaya-chan isn't afraid of electrical outlets, Chapter 17: Kaya-chan isn't afraid of animals and Chapter 19: Kaya-chan isn't afraid of "quiet now".

I like the Manga Designs of all of the characters more than the Anime Designs. Chie-Sensei looks a bit too weird in the Anime, but in the Manga she's really cute. Kaya, too, looks cuter in the Manga. That doesn't mean her Anime Desigm is bad, it's just my preference.

I still hate Kaya's mother. Her behaviour is inexcusable, no matter how much trauma she has endured. That woman planned to use her baby to kill her mother and when things didn't work out, she planned on having another baby to kill her mother, sister and first child. She's insane and shouldn't be around people.

My thoughts:

This might just be the best book I have read in 2026! (So far)

As a fan of the genre, I had to buy this book when I saw it. Once I read a few chapters, I also preordered the german special edition, because, genuinely, UK/US books are shit, the quality is so so bad, I really can't. How do you people live with books like this?

Anyways. The paper quality might suck ass (and so does the formating), but it's what written in the book is that counts - and, in this case, it blew me away.

The Ilona Andrews Duo managed to build a vivid, interesting world, full of political intrigues and interesting characters. I am normally not for novels that are heavy on intrigues and a huge cast, but this one had just the right amount of people to keep me interested. It helped that the whole thing was fully written in Maggies PoV - I like it when my book only has one PoV! Which is funny, considering I always write multiple PoV stories. But oh well.

The cast is relatively big, with Maggie, her bodyguard, her maid and not-quite-adopted son, the family of four mercenaries they hired and her "cousin". And this is just the regular cast! There's allso the evil guys, the brothel people, the homeless people, the ones from other kingdoms! They all have different personalities and wants and surprisingly I always knew who was who when their name was mentioned, because they were all so different.

I liked Maggie a lot, especially because she didn't make annoying decisions. She's a grown ass adult and she acts like one, most of the time. I even liked her little romance! Hope she grows a pair and kills the guy, though, because he is a highkey psychopath :)))

(I liked him!)

I have literally nothing negative to say about this book - except that evil cliffhanger. And even that I enjoyed so, so much. I loved the writing style, I loved the characters, I loved the world and the story. Everything was great! 100/10, I already recomended it to several customers and had them preorder the german version!

My thoughts:

This one got axed so hard it's not even funny.

There was no conclusion to the (barebone) story, the ending didn't make much sense because it was way too open...

I wouldn't recommend this for anyone to read lol

My thoughts:

I didn't read this book, I listened to the audiobook. I know some peoole count that as reading but I don't, since to me reading and listening are two very different things.

Anyways! There's not much to say about the book that hasn't already been said once before.

I liked Book!Boromir a lot less than Movie!Boromir (kudos to Jackson and Sean Bean for making him so likeable!) and I think it's hilarious how very much more dumb Pippin is in the movies. Poor boy. It's not his fault.

My thoughts:

This is definitively one of my best reads of 2026!

Once upon a time I read a very, very, very shitty MTL version of this story - and I loved it despite the horrible grammar and all the mistakes.

Now that there is a proper translation and it is all I ever wanted now do Who made me a Princess too, come on.

The story of Penelope is in book form even better than it is as a Manhwa, because, just as Penelope said in the book, the true horror of what is happening can't be comprehended by just looking at pictures. It is so interesting to hear some of Penelopes deeper thoughts on things and people. I already knew that I love her - she is a proper villainess, after all, cunning and charming and lying her way over the course of the whole story - but seeing her inner thoughts explained in more detail made me love her even more.

Reynold and Derrick are just as horrible as I thought of them before (and since I know that only one of them has at least a bit of growth, eh), Winter is Best Guy, Callisto an ass and Eckles. Well. I know how he will be (and already is).

I finished this book in June 25th, 2026

The german volume ends right before the hunting festival, I'm not sure when the english volume ends.

Bonus: the german Cover

My thoughts:

Wonderful book, 100/10, would recommend!

It's a very short book with roughly 130 pages and I went in rather blind. I didn't know it was Zelda inspired, but I clocked it really fast, with The Water Temple Hero and The Speedy Runner Hero - both of which are hilarious concepts. Loved it.

I was a bit reluctant to start this book, since I hated "How to become a Demon Lord and die trying", but I did and was not disappointed. Yui is a hilarious protagonist, her bestie Ken is just perfection and don't even get me started on Vex, Dirk or Fitzgerald, who was totally not Nameless Kage. Or a Princess. Not at all!

I am also so grateful that the author didn't make Yui weirdly sex obsessed (as the author of a certain other book did). She was just a normal (well, relatively) person doing the best she could in a horrible situation. Thanks, Mr. Rowe! You restored some of my faith in male authors writing women, there's so few that actually manage to make them feel like people and not just perverts or walking boobs.

My thoughts:

Shame on me, I have to admit: this book was not on my to-read list. It wasn't even anywhere near it. (I'm actually not even sure if it counts as a book, seeing how it's just over 200 pages!)

The story was cute enough, with Viola being an adorable protagonist - until about the halfway point. I know some people won't agree with me, but girly basically forces herself on Jesse in the hot tub scene. If the roles were reversed everyone would be screaming sexual assault, even if Jesse likes her. Something similar happens again later on and again, if Viola was a man and Jesse a woman everyone would think the behaviour is rapey. But alas, maybe I am too ace to understand the need to grope someone and too aro to get the yearning.

While I liked Hazelwoods Fantasy-series for all the stupid, over-the-top Drama, I'm not sure if I like it in this book. The rivalry between the two studios seemed a bit forced, probably because there was a lot of "Tell, don't show" and while all of the sidecharacters were interesging and unique enough for me to remember them all, I also think they were a bit lackluster. I have no idea if the Bosses of Jesse and Ali are still having an affair by the end of the book or not, but I'm not gonna lie, I was more hooked on them than on Viola.

My biggest gripe with this book was probably how childish most of these supposed adults acted. Their stupid little pranks were exactly that: stupid. And I also didn't see any of them, aside of one for which Viola was responsible, because, again, for some reason I was only told about them instead of reading about them directly.

About ⅓ of the book was smut, which, to me, was annoying. The fact aside that it wasn't that well written (not the worst I ever read but also just very... meh), if you have a 230 pages novella and 80 pages of that is the characters making out... maybe there's not enough plot for a book. (There really wasn't enough plot for this book.) Maybe, at this point, some novella should be released without plot at all, so the smut girlies can enjoy that and I can just not touch them, ever, thank you very much.

All in all I didn't hate reading Two Can Play, but I probably won't ever read it again. I couldn't even be bothered to read the Bonus Chapter, which is about the first meeting between Viola and Jesse. I just... wasn't interested. At all.

My thoughts:

"Apprentice to the Villain" starts a few days after where "Assistant to the Villain" lefts the reader hanging. Evies plan to safe the villain is in full motion and of course she succeeds - not wothout deeply traumatizing the poor villain, but she doesn't know about that and won't for about half of the book.

Book two concentrates more on finding Nura Sage, Evies mother, with a bit less time for some of the side characters. Becky gets some time to shine though, which I loved! Seeing more things grom her point of view was great, especially when it came to her view of Evie. It was interesting to get to know her reasoning for disliking Evie and anything else about her, really.

There was also a few chapters of the book written from Gideons point of view, Evies back-from-the-dead brother, but if I have to be honest, he was very much not interesting. His whole thing also made me realize something that annoyed me greatly: there's so many couples in this book. So far, very few of the characters exist without a love interest and those that do are either too young, of another species (Edwin, I would take you, promise) or, well, actually bad people.

At times, the book dragged on in my opinion, but you can say that's "normal" for second books. They usually fall short to the first one. Since the third one won't be released in germany for another few months, I'll have to wait. I could read the next book in english, but I'm not sure if I want to lol

I finished reading this book on June 5th, 2026.

My thoughts:

This is one of the best Manhwa I read in a while. The reason? The female lead is an actual child.

Otome Isekai is a great genre and I read it a lot, but I am so annoyed with the re-usage of the ever same tropes in the exact same order with the exact same characters. "I Became the Male Leads Youngest Sister in Law in a Ruined Harem" didn't do that at all. The female lead is, as I said above, an actual child. She knows part of the future, but she doesn't know what to make of it - or how to prevent her beloved family from dying. Still, she does her very best! Only that a six year olds very best isn't really all that good.

All of the sisters have unique characters and quirks and they all feel like different people. Swapping one for another wouldn't work, because they all have struggles, wishes and interests. One is a Knight, another a Mage, the last is the Beauty - but they all aren't defined by this only. The Knight also takes up the role of the family head, she takes up the role of the female lead's mother, despite being her oldest sister. She is calm and collected in everything but the youngest sister, who is sick. She also becomes queen later on - without her having to outwit others in weird ways, as it is so often the case with other fictional women in her position. She does what needs to be done, which, in this case, means marriage.

The Mage sister has a terrible temper, but she is like the oldest sister: she, too, does what needs to be done, even if it means that others might think she betrayed her sisters. Even if it means her sisters think she betrayed them. Despite that, she has the softest hard among the sisters and worries the most. She is scared and frustrated, but she won't stop.

The last sister is the Beauty. She charms others... and has the ability to control them. She doesn't use it, but she hates herself for it, simultaneously trying to get closer to people and pushing them away. She seems frail and always kind, but she might just be the most insane of them all.

The youngest sister is the female lead. She is... a child. She is happy and energetic and a brat, sometimes. She knows how to say what she likes and dislikes, she trusts her sisters and hates the people who are trying to hurt them. She manages to befriend most children without trouble and melts the hearts of everyone around her - if only she had a bit more willpower to actually stay on track! I get it though. I'm the same. It's the goldfish brain....

This Manhwa is unique in the sense that it actually vividly shows how children handle loss and pain. The female lead and later on one of her friends both have no parents. They are both raised by their siblings - whom they love! But a sister is different to a mother and a brother is not a father. The children know that, they understand it. They get that their siblings are doing their best, but they also miss the parents they never knew - and the siblings that actually left them. I loved seeing how those two interacted and healed one another without the adults even noticing.

Season one has 52 chapters and if Season 2 keeps up the incredible work when it comes to character development, this Manhwa will become one of my all time favorites!

My thoughts:

I'm not even trying to summarize the story because it is the same as any other Revenge Isekai/Time Travel Manhwa. The story itself is very simple, new things are made up on the spot to give the illusion of suspence (and you can tell they are made up on the spot because they have conveniently never been brought up before) and the Art is nice enough.

Despite the "villain" in the title, this is not an Isekai, but a time travel story (as of the first season, every veteran Manhwa reader knows this can change any second). The FL is like any other time travel FL and sadly rather forgetable. It doesn't matter that, in the past, she has been a drug addict and that these things have a lasting impact on the psyche - she's totally fine since she travelled back in time! Who cares about all the abuse she's been through? She's a badass now! Wooo, female empowerment - except when she needs to be the Damsel In Distress, for the male lead to swoop in to save her. Then she's all of a sudden an emotional wreck and incapable of keeping it together. Only with the male lead around she can show her "true feelings" and cry it out! Soubds familiar? Yes, that's 95% of all Otome Isekai/Time Travel Revenge Female Leads.

The Male Lead isn't any better. He hates his father (ofc), has a trauma (for the Female Lead, and only her, to heal!) and is an ass to anyone but her. Of course, he also falls for her first because she's an adult in a childs body and can't notice him yet - that will happen once she's an adult and his sexyness is to the max, so he can seduce her. Or something. And of course, the female lead is the one to repair his relationship with his father, since she is a woman and the only ome who can make two men talk to each other! That's her job! Not the adults (who are all emotionally stubted and strangely fixated on this maybe 12 year old girl).

As always, I am also very annoyed by the "Every Male in her vacancy is jealous of any other male around the female lead" trope because come on. Even her brother? That's just disgusting and not cute at all.

Still, it is good enough for a fast read - and since I am a sucker for fairies, which the female lead is (all with wings and stiff!) I will totally read the second season also.

The first season only has 42 Chapters, so reading it in one go is totally possible.

My thoughts:

The main story ended with 80 chapters and was different than the novel, which is a bit sad. Since a while arc was cut, I don't think the story did too well - which is a shame, because Suradel is the best male lead I have seen so far. His level of respect regarding the female lead, her wishes and wants is something all other male leads should have. Even when Lia wanted to do something he disagreed with, he did his best to empower her to achieve what she wanted to do instead of forcing his will on her. I love him!

I didn't love that creep of a second male lead, though, I think he got off way too mild. Boohoo, he was stripped of his title, boo boo. He's still living a comfortable life without ever having to worry about food or shelter. On to the streets with the loser! Down to the dungeon!

Season 1

My thoughts:

I loved this book!

It was stupid and cringe, but both just the right amount. Evie was hilarious - the first real sunshine I ever encountered in a book - and the villain was, too - he was appaled when he realized that he likes Evie more than the normal amount.

The worldbuilding was fine, but it is clear that to Mahrer the characters were more important. To me, that's fine, but I can see how others wouldn't like it. I have questions, too, but I am sure they will be answered eventually - and if not, I can always write fanfiction about it.

Finished reading on May 18th, 2026

My thoughts:

Oh, wow.

I finished reading this book on May 9th, 2026

First of all: I loved this book. Nathalie was a very believable main character and everything that happened was just... wow.

The story of this book is told in two timelines: the past and the present. In one timeline Nathalie is a tradwife influencer, living the american dream: she stays at home, pops put one kid after another, and her husband... well, he lives off of his fathers and her money, if we're being honest. And, to be even more honest: this is mostly how "traditional" families can work. Without already existing wealth the "Stay at home" part of the tradwives wouldn't work. And, just to throw it out there: back in the good old days women worked, too. People just didn't acknowledge it. Teachers were usually female, as were nurses and other "traditionally female jobs". Women worked two jobs, one being a housewife and the other being whatever broight in the most money to support their families - and no one cared. This is the case in the book, too: Nathalie makes serious money off of the ranch, while her husband can't grow shit. They aren't profitable without her - but this is their money! And as a good christian wife she only takes a little bit of the money, secretly, just in case, really, it's for her husband and -

Anyways.

In the other timeline Nathalia lives at the ranch still, but this time everything is different. There are no modern appliances, her children are gone, changed for other children, and she has no idea how she got here or how to get away. Her husband beats her multiple times, he rapes her and from the children only the oldest daughter, Mary, is any good. The boys don't respect her as a woman and the youngest daughter, Maeve, doesn't understand what is going on most of the time. Reading this timeline was in a way harder than the other - though, to be fair, both were horrible for Nathalie. This poor woman never had a chance of happiness. Not with her upbringing, not with her surroundings, not with that poor excuse of a human being that curses himself husband.

The story handles the line between Nathalie falling apart from all the pressure (and who can blame her?) and her being picture pwrfect very well. Every time she is close to a breakdown she snaps herself out of it - until she doesn't. I especially liked the glimpses of what Nathalie really wanted but didn't want to admit, because that wouldn't be what a good christian women would do.

My thoughts:

With 37 chapters in season 1 this Manhwa is on the shorter site, due to the artists decline in health.

The story of this Manhwa is nothing to write home about. Literally, it is very obvious what is about to happen next and the characters were all so bland I didn't catch their names. It is one cliché after another, with the only character that was somewhat of a surprise being the women the FL's boyfriend cheated on, Sa-Rang. She's the only one I remember by name because she didn't behave as I expected (horrible fury of a woman eho always blames others). Sa-Rang seems to be an actual lovesick fool who never learned to not trust others. She loves the FL's ex and when she learns that she was second, Sa-Rang is hurt but doesn't blame FL for it. She does get angry for FL not telling her, though, which I think is really fair. If something like that happened to me I'd be pissed, too.

Anyways.

The ML is a walking red flag in my opinion. He seems to be sweet at first when they are at vacation, but he soon changes and threatens FL that he will block every job opportunity for her if she doesn't stay working for him. I don't care that he "takes it back" a few chapters later. This was the first time he behaved in a non-acceptable way, but it happens a few times more during the story: he starts a physical fight with the ex-boyfriend and then he basically rapes FL after she explicitly says no and stop. Again, I don't care that halfway through she "changed her mind", that is not how it works. Of course she changed her mind; that was her brain trying to make sense of the situation and not break down.

"Hurr durr, his feelings were hurt!" Yeah duh, no reason to rape her. There's no reason to ever rape anyone.

Ex-Boyfriend is meanwhile extremly delusional and thinks, of course, that FL will come back to him. She's the best and prettiest and best and... that's why he cheated on her and talked about marriage with another woman. Because FL is best, so she'd forgive him anyways, right? As much as the story paints him as an asshole (and he is!) he's got one huge thing on the ML... he never fucking raped his girlfriend (as of yet). And the arm grabbing thing is something the ML did, too, so, eh. Fuck this.

FL is, as I said, the bestest and prettiest and most wonderful person with a tragic backstory who ever graced this earth. She saw her mother cheating with her father's best friend and soon after her father killed himself over it. Yeah. She found him. This trauma made her emotionally unavailable for... everyone. She says she always draws a line before others and so on. Despite that, she was in a ten years long relationship! And a best friend whom she adores and who adores her! Yeah, so emotionally closed off, I can totally see that.

The art is fine, though I don't like how all men are built like fridges. Very tall, very wide, they all have sixpacks and, of course, they are all good at sex. Even the Ex-boyfriend! Just not shen it comes to FL. They are sexually not compatible or something. I liked the chibi art the best, as I thought it had the most charm.

As I said in the beginning, it was a really short Manhwa with only 37 chapters. Of which I skipped at least 15 because it was smut only. It didn't really interest me.

I hope the artist recovers soon - even though I won't be returning to read a second season.