Is J-Novel Club good? Which light novels with focus on romance would you recommend a newbie?
-
Hey guys, I‘m new here. J-Novel Club was recommended to me by a friend, because I slowly don’t have enough space for my books anymore (who doesn’t has this problem) and I really want to continue buying and reading light novels. So I‘m really curious, how do you view J-Novel Club? My friend literally raved about it!
Honestly I‘m also completely new to this ebook stuff, I only have some from Amazon for my new kindle and right now I probably feel the most comfortable that way, but this could change of course.
And which romance light novels could you recommend a bookworm girlie?
Many thanks in advance! -
Hi, Welcome. I am not sure if you want to buy books or read them from the library or follow ongoing series here. I am also not sure what kind of membership you have. See here.
So I will answer for both.
Buy/readers library:-
Culinary Chronicles of the court flower is a nice read and it happens to be on sale currently. It has harem (but not in the classical sense), lots of cooking and a slow blooming of romance too.
-
The troubles of miss Nicola the exorcist - is a mix of supernatural, isekai and otome setting. It was an interesting and is relatively short for light novel series - just three volumes.
-
Engaging with the Plot: A Former Cat’s Attempt to Save Her Now Temporary fiancé is a whimsical read about a cat who reincarnates as a woman and is forced into an engagement. It has lots of magic, a dragon, lots of cats and romance too.
-
Safe and sound in the arms of an elite knight is a classic romance where a knight in shining armour saves a high born lady fallen into tough times. It is a nice short read of three volumes.
Buy and follow along :
- Dahlia in bloom is one of my favourites which is ongoing. It is a slow burn romance set in a rich world of magical tools, monsters and lots of delicious food. The last volume was just translated and you might read it before it expires with you membership (if you are a club member).
In general you can set the filter to j-novel heart in order to be able to filter romance focused LNs.
One advantage j-novel has over Amazon is that the books here are DRM free. -
-
There are few of your standard anime romcom type stories here like Hookup Hiccups which are basically pure sugar and they are a few queer romances like Yuri-tama
If you want something with a bit more bite to it than I recommend
The Marielle Clarac series: A lady novelist gets embroiled in various intrigues and adventures alongside her husband, the Vice Captain of the Royal Guard. The setting is regency-ish and the character writing is strong.
Young Lady Albert is Courting Disaster: a stellar romcom about noblewoman Mary Albert who one day remembers her past life and realizes she’s the mean girl character in a video game about romance in magic academy. She decides to play her role with gusto, despite being too decent of a person to actually be really nasty. Shenanigans ensue
Also, I second all of @wanderer_1204 recommendations, just keep in mind that Dahlia is an Extremely slow burn.
-
@BookWormLala You can also go to the series page and search for the tag romance (101 series). Many of the titles are also in the reader's library, free to read with the reader's membership (how it works).
Lazy Dungeon Master isn't a romance series, it is primarily an isekai series with a focus on dungeon building and management, but it does feature a nice romantic relationship between the protagonist and the main female lead. They slowly go from hatred to love over the course of the series. It is completed at 17 volumes and is completely free in the reader's library.
Though it does have controversial elements, so if you aren't liking the story in volume 1, you should probably drop the series.
-
Bookworm is very much a unique series. I haven't found anything that does what it does at the same level of quality.
Close in quality but a different flavor is The Apothecary Diaries. It has the same sort of palace intrigue and "competence fantasy" where it's a story of a bunch of people running a country and trying to do the best they can. The main character never rises to quite the same level of authority as Myne does, so it's not quite as "comfortable" to read as Bookworm, though. There's an anime that covers the first four books, and I feel it does a good job, so if you already have a Crunchyroll subscription, you can watch that to see if it's for you.
If you're willing to compromise on quality, Fushi-no-Kami has a very similar plot about a reincarnie trying to rebuild civilization through the written word, but it's got a male protagonist, gets bogged down by cringe harem antics, and the setting/characters don't have nearly as much craftsmanship put into them as Bookworm's do.
I'll also second others' recommendations for Dahlia and Young Lady Albert. I haven't read most of the others, but they're on my list to get to eventually.
-
@BookWormLala - anything you buy directly from here can be loaded onto your kindle (and Kindle reader apps) using the "Send to Kindle" web page run by Amazon itself - https://www.amazon.com/sendtokindle
The books bought here are DRM-free ePub files and can also be loaded onto any other ebook reader, tablet, phone using any ePub reader app.
Amazon carries most/all JNC titles if you're not comfortable buying here.
A nice thing about getting a JNC membership is some tiers give you access to the Reader Library, kind of a JNC-specific Kindle Unlimited to read in a browser or phone app.
Other tiers let you read new titles before they are published, which is a nice way to try entire books before deciding if you want to own a series.
-
@rsog412 said in Is J-Novel Club good? Which light novels with focus on romance would you recommend a newbie?:
Bookworm is very much a unique series. I haven't found anything that does what it does at the same level of quality.
A salient point; @BookWormLala have you read Ascendance of a Bookworm? It is one of the most popular series on JNC, and as rsog mentioned, the writing is top notch. It’s not a romance per se but it is a great character driven story with incredible world building.
Here’s the setup: A bibliophile young lady in Japan who has just got a job as a librarian is killed by her bookshelf, full of books falling on her during an earthquake. She is reincarnated in another world as the daughter of a commoner family in place with medieval levels of literacy. She decides that if she can’t get books then she will just have to make books
-
@Lily-Garden - D'oh. I may have misinterpreted the premise of the thread. I thought that by "bookworm girlie" she meant that she was a fan of Ascendance of a Bookworm and was looking for other similar things.
-
@rsog412 your post made me realize that I wasn’t sure whether or not she was a fan of the bookworm series or just a bookworm in general so I thought I’d offer her this the opportunity to check out the series if she hasn’t already read it
…. So thanks for that.
-
@Lily-Garden - In fairness to ourselves, Bookworm is popular enough that the question "What should I read besides Ascendance of a Bookworm" has been posted on this forum at least twice already. It's almost like an tradition at this point.
For the OP (if she hasn't read Bookworm but is interested in it based on recommendations), I'll add it's a bit light on the romance for the main character, and the final canonical pairing is hit-and-miss for a lot of people.
