I narrowly refrain from making a joke about his jingle balls, and am immensely proud of my restraint. Look at me, not babbling inappropriately! I'm already making progress.
This was an absolute delight. After being disappointed in the 3rd and 4th Under the Mistletoe novellas, I was nervous going into this finale, but it was such a great redemption. The main character was fully lovable, there was great chemistry between the MCs, and most of all, the short page count didn't stop it from evoking some serious reactions from me. I laughed out loud a few times and even got choked up once when Evie was reminiscing on her late grandmother. I would say this was a near tie with Cruel Winter with You for my favorite from the collection.
Best of all, I got to read this entire collection with my best friend, and that made it even better. ♥ Happy holidays, friends!...more
I haven't seen a lot of D/deaf representation in fiction in general, much less in manga, and I don't believe I've ever seen any representation at all that follows a character who is currently experiencing their hearing loss increasing over time. While I have an auditory processing disorder, I can't actually speak to the representation shown here, but I can say that from my perspective, I really appreciated some of the things this story touched on, like the way people (especially femme people) like to pity disabled people or feel as though they can "help" that person with their love and attention, or how frustrating it is for many people in Kohei's position to be told "nevermind, it isn't important" instead of the other party simply repeating themselves and allowing Kohei to feel included in the conversation. It was heart-breaking, some of the casual things people said and did that you could see were wearing down Kohei's self-confidence and his desire to be social with anyone aside from his mother and Taichi.
As far as watching the romance slowly bloom between Kohei and Taichi, if this tells you anything about how invested I am, it took me all of 10 seconds between reaching the end of this book and borrowing the ebook for the sequel from the library.
I haven't seen a lot of D/deaf representation in fiction in general, much less in manga, and I don't believe I've ever seen any representation at all that follows a character who is currently experiencing their hearing loss increasing over time. While I have an auditory processing disorder, I can't actually speak to the representation shown here, but I can say that from my perspective, I really appreciated some of the things this story touched on, like the way people (especially femme people) like to pity disabled people or feel as though they can "help" that person with their love and attention, or how frustrating it is for many people in Kohei's position to be told "nevermind, it isn't important" instead of the other party simply repeating themselves and allowing Kohei to feel included in the conversation. It was heart-breaking, some of the casual things people said and did that you could see were wearing down Kohei's self-confidence and his desire to be social with anyone aside from his mother and Taichi.
As far as watching the romance slowly bloom between Kohei and Taichi, if this tells you anything about how invested I am, it took me all of 10 seconds between reaching the end of this book and borrowing the ebook for the sequel from the library....more
I love a good "we've known and pretended to hate each other our entire lives" romance, so I really enjoyed the backstory on Evelyn and Dorian growing I love a good "we've known and pretended to hate each other our entire lives" romance, so I really enjoyed the backstory on Evelyn and Dorian growing up together and especially the moments when we got to see just how long Dorian had been pining over his sister's best friend. I think this is the kind of story I just would've enjoyed more if it had been longer and had more build-up to them caving into each other, but it was a fun Halloween romance! I don't get to read a lot of dom/brat romances where the dom is actually well-written like this, so that was a big plus, too!