Reviews for Dahlia in Bloom: Crafting a Fresh Start with Magical Tools

This review is based on the first three novels released in English. I have read through the fifth novel since writing this and none of the issues I have with the series have gotten any better. I really, really want to like this series. Dahlia is a fascinating protagonist with a lot of chemistry with the supporting cast. The world building is great. The isekai element is pretty unnecessary but leads to entertaining commentary. But if you want anything aside from conversations over dinner or in-depth descriptions of how magical appliances work, turn away now. What irritates me the most is the complete lack of any progressin Dahlia and Volf's relationship. This series does not pretend to be about romance but spends a lot of time having the supporting cast talk about Dahlia and Volf getting married in the future. Meanwhile, the couple themselves only rarely express any feelings hinting at affection. They're painfully chaste with each other, even factoring in the noble/commoner dynamic. Dahlia also takes any chance she can to say she doesn't ever want to be married and wants to be single forever (usually in Volf's presence, ouch). Again, this would be fine if there wasn't a conversation between supporting characters every other chapter about how obviously in love they are.

A big problem with this series is pacing. About midway through the third book, the main characters mention that they've only known each other for a month. This would be fine if a lot of impactful things happened in that month, but the author seems bent on writing every single interaction the cast has with each other. I don't know how else you can spend approximately 900 pages depicting the dinners and business meetings of a single month.

Hopefully I'll keep it short. This LN is not great. Yes, the idea is entertaining, but the execution is flawed. The synopsis got some things wrong, but thats ok because it wont change the fact that people will or will not read it. Lets begin with simple stuff. The premise is isekai, but with a twist: her memories are selective. As in, she remembers her past life, her parents, job etc, but she can't remember her old name. Ok. Actually, fk this. I was about to start describing as to why this is a bad LN. Here's faster: the story is full of plot contrivances, plotholes, plot devices. Everything happens because the author needs it to happen a certain way. The pacing is all fked up too. And some people even promoted this story as some cute fantasy, slice-of-life, romance thing. Well, it is a fantasy, but no world-building . Slice-of-life, meh. Romance, no. The author makes you think there might be something in the future, but 9 volumes later its the same. Btw, one volume has about 250 pages, so you'll read it maybe in 6-8 hours. The anime series takes 5 hours to watch and covers the first 2 volumes (plus some scenes from the half of the 3rd one). Its a bit weirdly constructed but the story is the same, if you wanna give it a go and see what all of this is about. Later it gets worse. Yeeey.

So, this is a story about food and drinks, sometimes about creating magical stuff, with some fake romance going on. All forced to go in a certain way because the author wills it. This is the best definition of reading something to waste .. ermm, to pass time. No world-building, no character development, no bad guys, mostly going for "see? they have layers, there's more to the story" angle. Nothing. Lots of inner dialogue and assuming stuff, instead of just talking like 2 normal people. Fake romance, fake drama. Problems? Thats ok, the next chapter will have it fixed.

The story is ongoing (I'm up to volume 9) and I don't know how many more volumes are in the works. Probably as long as the author wants money, not a good story. That means at some point the author will drop it, because there's no way to end the story in a satisfying way (same as george rr martin and a song of ice and fire, aka the game of thrones stuff).

I'm giving it a 4, for the idea and for those very few good scenes. Not recommended, no return value, obviously. Oh, also the art: It was kinda ok at first, but later it gets mostly meh.

Have a lovely day.

I am basing this review off of the J-Novel translations for "Madougushi Dahlia wa Utsumukanai: Kyou kara Jiyuu na Shokunin Life." Overall, the story is increasingly repetitive and attempts to explain various plot elements using various narratives. Such was the ultimate reason I dropped it a few pages into the third volume. Elective plot elements that are only loosely related to the primary plot comprise a majority of each novel. Further, these elective plot elements lack variety and often focus on superficial details that have no direct importance to the main plot. The reader is therefore encouraged to skip paragraphs. For me, this encouragement built andbuilt until I was skipping entire pages.

The book also suffers from a lack of consistent narrative, often jumping from third person limited to third person omniscient or third person limited to third-other-person limited within the same chapter. Sometimes these jumps in narrative serve to flesh out the motivations for characters other than the protagonist. Unfortunately, they frequently repeat themselves and distract the reader from the main plot, causing the story to feel drawn out and stretched thin.

4/10.

I am basing this review off of the J-Novel translations for "Madougushi Dahlia wa Utsumukanai: Kyou kara Jiyuu na Shokunin Life."

Overall, the story is increasingly repetitive and attempts to explain various plot elements using various narratives. Such was the ultimate reason I dropped it a few pages into the third volume.

Elective plot elements that are only loosely related to the primary plot comprise a majority of each novel. Further, these elective plot elements lack variety and often focus on superficial details that have no direct importance to the main plot. The reader is therefore encouraged to skip paragraphs. For me, this encouragement built and built until I was skipping entire pages.

The book also suffers from a lack of consistent narrative, often jumping from third person limited to third person omniscient or third person limited to third-other-person limited within the same chapter. Sometimes these jumps in narrative serve to flesh out the motivations for characters other than the protagonist. Unfortunately, they frequently repeat themselves and distract the reader from the main plot, causing the story to feel drawn out and stretched thin.

4/10