Books That Didn't Trip my Trigger - February 2026

Surprisingly, there weren't too many flops this February. But alas, there were still a couple reads that fell short:

Nue's Exorcist, Vol. 1 by Kōta Kawae

Synopsis:

For as long as he can remember, Gakuro Yajima’s been able to see spirits—beings that are drawn to human sadness and anger. A fateful encounter with a quirky pop culture–loving spirit named Nue marks the start of Gakuro’s spirit-exorcist adventure!

Outcast Gakuro Yajima’s only goal in life has been to avoid spirits and try to live in peace. One day, he accidentally enters a sealed room and meets Nue, a quirky spirit who asks him to defeat the evil ones roaming his school. Gakuro is reluctant to take her up on the offer, but the spirits won’t be waiting patiently for him to make up his mind…

My Thoughts:

I've kind of fallen off the manga train in recent years. It's an expensive hobby on top of many other expensive hobbies I dabble in. Not to mention that it's hard dropping a lot of money on a manga series when it sometimes takes a few volumes for a story to really start picking up and become worth investing more funds into. I'm trying to be a bit more selective with what I buy....but I still try to branch out and read stories I hope will be exciting. I've really loved manga like Blue Exorcist and D.Gray-man, so I was hoping to find another demon hunting series to pick up. 

Unfortunately, I don't think Nue's Exorcist truly brought anything new and exciting to the genre. We're presented with a fairly typical setup: a high schooler with a tragic past finds themselves able to see spirits, so they naturally become an exorcist and fight monsters, but this time it's with the help of Nue...a very... shall we say...well-endowed character. It's a formulaic plot without any out-of-the-box happenings. All major events are also restricted to the school thus far, so we aren't getting any interesting setting changes and ✨pizazz✨ to our scenery. Although it's possible that we'll branch out to other locations, it seems unlikely since Nue is tied to the school. 

I do see a lot of reviews complaining about the fan service. I think I've become so desensitized to it since it's quite prevalent in manga and anime, but I honestly don't think the fan service in the first volume is as over-the-top or egregious as other manga I've come across. 

I've also noticed some sites mark the series as a harem manga. I don't think we've really started to see that aspect too much in volume one, but I can definitely understand how some of the teen girl characters initially introduced to us  (and Nue herself) could lead to a harem forming in later installments. I'm not really into that type of cliché plot device and tend to get overly annoyed at boys picking up high school girls like they're Pokémon. It's overdone and very....male fantasy centered.

Unfortunately, this will probably be the first and last volume of Nue's Exorcist that I'll be picking up.

Alchemist of the Wilds: An Ex-Assassin's Guide to Cozy Romantic Brews

by A. T. Valentine, Potomac Stories (Editor)

Summary: 

Lianthorn Belladonna could have been so many things. An artist, a mage, a gardener. Instead, his family sealed his future, trapping him in a life of scheming, poison, and murder.

He’s through with it.

On the cusp of completing his poisonous masterpiece, Lianthorn makes a choice that will change everything. He flees the gilded cage of their family manor and seeks refuge in a quiet town on the outskirts of civilization, where the name Belladonna means nothing.

With his family’s infamous scarlet-bound recipe book hidden away, he attempts to forget the toxins and discover the simple joy of helping people. But out on the frontier and in the company of a red-scaled Draconian working as a carpenter in spite of her fire powers, ‘helping people’ will require all his skills.

Including the alchemy he worked so hard to escape.

Lianthorn abandoned everything he’d ever known to gain his freedom. Now, to flourish in his new life, he’ll have to learn a whole new way of living and maybe, just maybe, discover the recipe for love along the way.

My Thoughts:

I am deep in my cozy fantasy era, and this book definitely fits the bill. A noble elf wants to escape his fate, so he runs away from the family estate to a new frontier and joins an up-and-coming town by posing as an alchemist. He needs to keep his past and true talents hidden but also utilize some of his old skills so that the town has a chance to survive and even thrive. Think of it as a magical Wild West...except you need to replace Wild West with Wild Magical Forest. 

Alchemist of the Wilds has all the makings of a great book -- an interesting main character with a compelling backstory and abilities, a fantastical setting, and a diverse cast of characters who must work together to succeed. Yet, I couldn't fully connect with it partially because of the writing style and partially because I read a physical copy. Let me explain.  

The writing style is heavily reliant on info-dumping. It's honestly understandable that Lianthorn is dropping chunks of information every so often, especially since the author is trying to explain the various races, kingdoms, magic systems, and overall world building as we go along. Nevertheless, this form of storytelling is not one I'm fond of.

In terms of format, I have a love-hate relationship with physically reading cozy fantasy books. Case-in-point, I ended up unhauling The House Witch by Delemhach after reading the physical copy. I just didn't love the experience -- there's a lot of mundane day-to-day happenings occurring in the first book, and it was kind of boring to read. But then, a couple years later, I listened to the audiobook and LOVED it. I've listened to and really enjoyed Cursed Cocktails by S.L. Rowland, too. It's a bit weird and ultra-specific of me, but I've come to the conclusion that I don't like to physically read cozy fantasy...but I do love listening to it, especially if the narrator does a fantastic job of making me feel like I'm living the story myself. Maybe I would have a different opinion of The Alchemist of the Wilds if I'd consumed it in audiobook format.

I admittedly was also slightly annoyed by some characters. Nasha is a side character that's overly boisterous and excited by EVERYTHING she does. I don't remember if her exact age is provided, but she's allowed to go out into the dangerous magical wilds on her own and Lianthorn hints that he thinks there's something more to her than we're shown. And by something more, I mean that she's potentially putting on this front to hide something dangerous or darker about either herself or her past. She came across as having a very childlike personality, and I am not a fan of women being portrayed with childlike qualities. I see that so often in anime, and it's not for me. Speaking of anime tropes, Lianthorn also likes to refer to several of the women as "cute" when he first meets them. And I don't mean that he's using cute in an "oh I think she's cute and datable" kind of way. It's more like, "ah, this grown-ass woman is adorable like a kitten." I don't know why, but this tendency of his reminds me of anime's proclivity to infantilize women...and it irks me.

Lastly, the relationship that progresses between Lianthorn and Alys comes across very stiff on the page. I've read A LOT of romance over the years, and I wasn't feeling this one. The couple's banter and interactions come across as clumsy and awkward rather than fluid and effortless, and I don't think that was the intention.