wantmangojuice

[wantmangojuice]

I Think My Boyfriend is Sick - finished - 83 chs

Premise: Our unnamed MC is convinced due to certain circumstances that his boyfriend (ML) has health issues involving a certain...area. The ML may or may not agree.

A short, cute read. (Pay no mind to the number of chapters; each chapter is, like, 1-2 pages each.)

Miscommunication hijinks! Your enjoyment on this will depend on whether you find "shenanigans due to miscommunication" funny or annoying.

From the same author that brought to you the insanity that is The Wrong Way to a Demon Sect Leader. I think I preferred Demon Sect Leader (because that one had both funnies and plot), but this one is also a cute, amusing (if not substantial) book to pass the time.

#my reading journal

[wantmangojuice]

god of literature decides to find out what humanity's most popular works are, is surprised and delighted by what he finds.

#peach blossom debt #hengwen qingjun #with bonus song yao #my fanart

[wantmangojuice]

WN Non-Sapient Animal Upper Bracket

["Anti-Propaganda" is NOT allowed. Please be courteous and only give reasons to vote FOR a character.]

The Victimized Geese Turned Messenger Birds from Golden Stage

Submission: VICTIMS OF UNJUST WORK CONDITIONS. Fu Shen shoots them down (but doesn't kill them), heals them and gets them working as messenger geese cuz he wants to send a message to Yan Xiaohan during wartime and there were no phones in Ancient China. Good birds who Deserve Better.

Luo Yiguo from Silent Reading / Mo Du 

Type of Animal: cat

No propaganda submitted

Carrd Link

#look those geese worked very hard okay? #golden terrace #golden stage

[wantmangojuice]

Telling Ghost Stories at My Ex-boyfriend's Wedding - finished - 13ch

Premise: Ghost!MC hears that his ex-boyfriend/ex-sugar-baby, who had stayed by his side as he was dying, is getting married seven days after his death. He is, understandably, not happy about this. "At least wait a month after I died, you asshole!" And then he goes and gets stuck inside a medical skeleton. While a ghost. Yeah, fun times.

Here's another "POV character's narration is, like, at least 500KM away from the bulls-eye any given time" novel.

Me halfway-through: So is this a human x skeleton endgame kind of thing? 'Cause I can roll with that, why not.

A combination of comedy because our POV character is insane + HEART KNIVES + getting a career-change while in the afterlife.

Old Man Li! <3 Happy for you, man! :D

#my reading journal

[wantmangojuice]

Peach Blossom Debt - finished - 26ch + 1 extra

Premise: Soft-hearted, romantic, destined-to-be-perpetually-single accidental-immortal MC is tasked by Heaven to play the villain in the love tribulations of two other immortals. He...does his gosh-darned best. But, also, what about MC's hopes for romance, huh, heaven? What if he wants to fall in love happily, too???

I didn't expect to enjoy this as much as I did (I only bought it on a whim because I wanted to finish a relatively-shorter danmei novel) but I really did!

MC Song Yao is such an endearing character. He's immortal but definitely still has the heart and sentiments of a mortal, he cares so so much, his narration is quite funny, and every other chapter I just wanna give him a hug.

I was really really rooting for Hengwen to be the ML almost from the beginning -- and I was right! Ha!

Related to the above bullet point, yes, the ML is not immediately apparent from the get-go (the sheer number of "Oh please be the ML" comments I had in my ebook copy whenever Hengwen shows up is hilarious) which I think adds to the fun/suspense. (I admit I caved halfway through and looked it up, though, 'cause I knew if it wasn't him I needed to brace myself for the disappointment hahaha.)

And on that note, regardless of whether they're the endgame pairing or not, I really enjoyed the twist and turns and reveals and feels that the Song Yao-Hengwen relationship had. I think one of the reasons they endeared themselves to me was that according to the book, they've been friends for over a thousand years, and their interactions certainly sold me on that. Everytime they're in a scene together there's an air of familiarity and comfort between them that I appreciated so much. Like, sure, there are complications, like how Song Yao has been pining for Hengwen for so long, and how Hengwen's nature as a never-been-mortal immortal makes it sometimes difficult for him to understand certain things about Song Yao-- but the bedrock of their relationship is that they're friends who can rely on each other first and foremost, and I enjoyed that.

The main couple getting their HE by the skin of their teeth arrrgh I love them.

Loved the interesting interplay of debt and "being fated" and how much of that really matters in the end (especially since it's revealed in the end that Song Yao's "destined to be perpetually alone" thing was actually all just hogwash).

What does it even mean when your fate is tied to someone else's, anyway? Question: If various karmic debts mean that you're soulmates with someone you don't love, and the person you love is not your soulmate, what do you do? Answer: You love the person you love anyway, even if you have to go to extreme impossible lengths shuffling those debts and those karmic ties around.

Honestly, the more I think about how things were resolved at the end of the book, the more I like it. Song Yao & Hengwen really found a way to make each other their soulmates: Song Yao by breaking all their other soulmate bonds, and Hengwen by everything he did afterwards that resulted in the two of them forming a karmic bond. They essentially became soulmates by choice, which is such a neat way to wrap things up.

(Interestingly, this is the second book I've read which plays with the "the person you fall in love with is not your soulmate and your soulmate is not the person you love" thing, the first one being Qi Ye, and even then Qi Ye was kind of a borderline case because there's some hints that WuXi was, in fact, Jing Beiyuan's soulmate after all. Just... something about the whole concept of "No matter what the bonds of destiny says, you are the one my heart has chosen" kind of gets me right in the kokoro.)

Probably gonna be jumping into the sequel of this book soon out of desperate hope to read more of these characters hahahahaha.

#my reading journal #peach blossom debt

[wantmangojuice]

Best character surnamed : Shi

Come and vote for the best characters with the same surname!*

What does best mean? It's up to you! Whether you love them, are intrigued by their characters, love to hate them, or they're your '2 second blorbos whose personality you made up wholesale', these are all reasons for you to vote for your favs!

*note, the surnames are not exactly the same in all the cases, as often there will be a different character. I am, however, grouping them all together otherwise things got more complicated.

Propaganda is very welcome! If I’ve forgot anyone, let me know in the notes.

This is part of a larger series of ‘best character with X surname’ polls’. The overview with ongoing polls, winners, and future polls can be found here

#oh wow shi jingzhi is here! #shi jingzhiiiiiiiii #poll

[wantmangojuice]

Best Character surnamed : Gu

Come and vote for the best characters with the same surname!*

What does best mean? It's up to you! Whether you love them, are intrigued by their characters, love to hate them, or they're your '2 second blorbos whose personality you made up wholesale', these are all reasons for you to vote for your favs!

*note, the surnames are not exactly the same in all the cases, as often there will be a different character. I am, however, grouping them all together otherwise things got more complicated.

Propaganda is very welcome! If I’ve forgot anyone, let me know in the notes.

This is part of a larger series of ‘best character with X surname’ polls’. The overview with ongoing polls, winners, and future polls can be found here

#the “surnamed gu” characters i'm fondest of are #gu heyan from rebirth of the general #and gu yiliang from ismm #such good boys #(usually fairly smart but put them near their love interests and they lose all braincells) #but of these choices i'm going with gu xiang #gu xiaaaaaaaaang #(ಥ﹏ಥ) #poll

[wantmangojuice]

You Boys Play Games Very Well - finished - 83 ch

Premise: Poison-tongued high-level casual gamer MC randomly plays a game against an even-higher ranked player ML, becomes a meme, winds up being an internet-celebrity streamer, and lives happily ever after. Along the way there are many fruits. So many fruits.

My first e-sports-genre book, except it's not really so much e-sports genre as slice-of-life (?) romcom with gaming as a background, IMO.

Mengmeng!! :D A lot of the humor comes from the Lemon himself, plus the commentary of his stream viewers. Some truly funny zingers/one-liners.

🍋🍋🍋🍋🍋🍋🍋🍋🍋

It was a lighthearted, fluffy read. Not deep, and honestly there isn't much of a plot after the first half or so (I'm not sure if I'll re-read this again), but it's a fun story with some genuinely laugh-out-loud moments and a charming, likeable main character. Not bad at all.

#my reading journal #you boys play games very well

[wantmangojuice]

Me reading the summary for Sending the Divine: Oooh this looks like a fun miscommunication premise! I bet it's a rom-com or something.

Me after reading the first few chapters: ...Um, it's not a rom-com.

#sending the divine #to be clear i'm enjoying what i'm reading so far #i just should have looked at the tags more closely #ahahahaha

[wantmangojuice]

Spring Trees and Sunset Clouds - finished - 54 ch

Premise: MC transmigrates into a the body of a prince and does everything in his power to put his younger brother into the throne, only to be repaid by betrayal and torture and near-death--and finds himself in a peaceful village run by a humble civil servant ML. He gets to start over in his new place, living day by day and rediscovering the joys of simple life. But perhaps there's something more to this village and to the ML than what first meets the eye.

Quite an interesting book! On one hand it's like a slice-of-life novel where the MC gets to heal in a tranquil neighborhood. On the other hand, there's quite a bit of disturbing things happening in the background, actually :D

That is a happy ending for the couple, but not for the world, it looks like! :D

Or is it even really a happy ending for the couple?

The ML is very sweet and also, as it turns out, quite a sociopath (if that's the right term) and their MC-ML romance dynamic in the end is, ah, interesting.

Criticism which I don't even know how to articulate: I...don't really buy the setting? A secret super-special country-thingamajig which can control the rest of the world, but from everyday life doesn't seem to be any particularly more technologically-advanced than any of the outside countries (aside from medicine I guess), and I'm like. Hmmm. Not really convinced.

Not sure how to categorize this book, really. Do I mark it as "recommended"? I'm not sure if I'll re-read this. But it certainly went into directions I didn't expect, and I'm not sure if that's for the better or for the worse.

#my reading journal #spring trees and sunset clouds

[wantmangojuice]

#the absolute insanity of this book #disabled tyrant's beloved pet fish

[wantmangojuice]

when there's a handsome prince you kinda like, but you're still stuck in fish-mode 🐟

#disabled tyrant's beloved pet fish #my fanart

[wantmangojuice]

Roughly a third of the way through Spring Trees and Sunset Clouds and what is up with this town??

[wantmangojuice]

OH MY GOD WHY ARE THEY LIKE THIS DISGUSTING (blushing like a tomato and dying of cuteness)

#such a wonderful book #i ship my adversary x me

[wantmangojuice]

I Ship My Adversary x Me - finished - 47 ch + 1 extra

Premise: What do you do when you're an actor and you stumbled upon the fandom of people shipping you x your co-actor ... but their pages upon pages of shipping manifesto are...surprisingly compelling? Kinda makes sense, actually?? And you find that, oooh that's some excellent analysis they've got going there, some fanfic, too-- and before you know it, you're neck-deep in shipping hell-- but you're literally one half of this ship. But that's okay, right?? It's just some nice, feel-good fluffy thing from your fans, it absolutely will not affect the way you interact with said co-actor, right? Right???

My premise write-up above does not even begin to cover how hilarious this thing was.

This novel made me so happy. SO. HAPPY.

MC's narration is so ridiculously delightful I don't think I stopped smiling once.

Have you ever read a book and thought, "This man is so stupid I love him so much please never change" about a character? That is This, The Novel (TM).

Love the ML's diary excerpts they're amazing.

"They all talked about Schrodinger's cat. Gu Yiliang was probably Schrodinger's heterosexuality." Yanyan please 🤣

The greatest misunderstanding plot ever. >!Who is sugar-dating who??!<

Xiao-Chen deserves a 500% pay raise at least.

I don't feel coherent enough to leave adequate words of recommendation. Just. Please. Please read this.

#my reading journal #i ship my adversary x me

[wantmangojuice]

Just finished reading My Adversary X Me and it's *sooo* much fun, I don't think I stopped smiling all throughout.

#I ship my adversary x me #yanyan my love

[wantmangojuice]

to celebrate the dtbpf cover reveal, just a quick fanart in honor of the all-consuming love between a man and his pet fish.

#disabled tyrant's beloved pet fish #my fanart