Reviews - The Graphic Library

The adventure Zone vol 5 by the mcelroys

5/17/2023

Cover of The Adventure Zone volume 5. The three adventurers are surrounded by a glowing blue clock face. Outside of the clock face is glowing orange flames.

Vol 5: The Eleventh Hour

Magnus, Taako, and Merle are dispatched yet again for another Grand Relic. This next one is inside a small Western-style town in the desert that is currently protected by a bubble that keeps it separated from the rest of time. The relic they seek is a chalice that allows the wielded to control time itself. The three manage to pieces their way through the bubble and are immediately apprehended by a deputy, who is a suit of armor and a small talking bird. They are just becoming acquainted with the town when they are sent back to the beginning again, and they realize they’re stuck in a time loop!

The faraway paladin vol 3 by KANATA YANAGINO

5/16/2023

Cover of The Faraway Paladin volume 3. William walks in front of two other men. he is in a dark blue tunic that seems to have the stars in it. He also has a long, white, flowing cape. Behind him is the lord of Whitesales in a red tunic with his hads resting on a tall sword. On the other side is the Bishop of Whitesails in a black priest robe.

Adapted by Mutsumi Okubashi

Williams slays a wyvern and manages to become a Paladin as a reward. Since the lord of Whitesails has no men or resources to help the people of Beast Woods, William uses his money and influence to put together a band of mercenaries and trades folk who can fight back the beasts but also establish the villages as trading outposts. William becomes an unofficial lord of Beast Woods. On one of their quests, they run into a formidable chimera who lures them into a trap and decimates the group, even with William’s strength and skill. Will spirals into doubt and panic as he believes he is leading people into situations that are too dangerous.

The Least we can do vol 1 by iolanda zanfardino

4/26/2023

Cover of The Least We Can Do volume 1. Uriel is holding out her hands and her Justice Stone is floating above them bathing everything in a gold light. Her curly blonde hair frames her face. Behind her is a menacing person with red eyes glaring at us.

Illustrated by Elisa Romboli

In a United Kingdom that has already been ravaged by war, soldiers have magical Medium Stones that augment their deadly fighting skills. Uriel is dissatisfied with the powerful Eden Army, which uses their Medium to oppress and exploit others. She steals a Justice Light, a powerful type of medium, and absconds to join the Eclipse Rebels in the fight to bring Eden down. Uriel also has a mind for inventions and hopes her inside knowledge and creativity can bring more solutions to the Eclipse as they face a foe much larger and much more powerful than they. Along the way, Uriel has to prove herself to the rebels by not only providing them with valuable information but attuning with a stone that already has a master.

witch hat atelier vol 10 by kamome shirahama

3/28/2023

Cover of Witch Hat Atelier volume 10. One of the brimmed hat witches floats in front of a city scape at night.

The Atelier is busy preparing spells and selling their goods at the Silver Eve festival. While out and about, Tetia stumbles upon a young boy who is avoiding the festival guards. She uses her sand tent to hide them both, and discovers that he is the crown prince of the kingdom, Eolio! He's slipped away from his bodyguards to more fully enjoy the festival, but he also fantasizes about being a witch. Tetia and Eolio switch cloaks for a while and walk around the various stalls. In another part of the festival, Agott sets her new spells on fire after learning the Head Librarian of the Tower of Tombs, her mother, will not be attending the festival and won't see her in the Silver Eve Procession. In another place, Coco and Tartah try to figure out how they can get into the procession as they are being forced to work with the Brimmed Hats and their former friend, Cuestas. They also find Dagda and realize that a seal has been inked on his chest - a counter clock seal, which is setting him back a day but only temporarily staving off his life-threatening injuries.

The fiancee chosen by the ring vol 2 by Yue Matsuyuki

2/22/2023

Cover of The Fiancee chosen by the Ring volume. Aurora leans out a picture frame in her standard pink dress with pink bow in the front. Her yellow hair and green eyes shine in the light, and she's smiling at us.

Lady Aurora and Lord Felix have been invited to a Lumis party, but Felix’ family is bitter rivals with the Lumises! This causes the family to go into overdrive planning for the two to have a spectacular debut. Felix’ mother and sister prepare them by gathering tons of information on nobles for them to memorize; a beautiful dress is commissioned from one of the kingdom’s most sought-after designers, and there is, of course, dancing lessons. While this started out as mostly a front, Felix begins to fall for Aurora, and his feelings come gushing out of him at the most unlikely of times - at the party in front of tons of nobles!

Frieren: beyond jouRney’s end vol 6 by tsukaSa abe

2/20/2023

Frieren: Beyond Journey's End volume 6. Frieren, Fern, and a few other adventurers stand at the entrance to a dungeon.

Applicants who passed the first part of the Wizard First Class test are now set to take the second part of the exam. This portion requires the applicants to get through a dangerous dungeon. Sense, the instructor, tags along with Frieren and Fern, but the rest of the candidates split up and go solo or create small teams. They soon learn that this was a mistake, that this particular dungeon requires cooperation. Inside, there is a monster who makes nearly perfect clones of the adventurers, and the group must work together to identify each other's weaknesses in order to defeat them. But, the last clone will require all of them, as they find Frieren’s powerful clone guarding the final doorway.

The wolf never sleeps vol 1 by sheinbishop

2/16/2023

The Wolf that Never Sleeps volume 1. Lecan is holding his sword and wearing his all-black armor. Behind him is a black wolf staring downward with his yellow eyes.

Illustrated by Gonbe Shinkawa

One day, when out adventuring with a friend, Lecan and his companion spy a black hole inside a dungeon. These black holes have been known to transport adventurers to difficult dungeon levels where they must defeat that level's greatest monster in order to return. Sometimes, adventurers come back fairly quickly, while others don't come back at all. Lecan decides to try his luck at this black hole, and he's actually transported into another world! Almost immediately, Lecan saves a noble family from a fierce beast, and he's taken in by them to be employed as their daughter's personal guard. This gives him a chance to learn the language and customs of this world, but his senses tell him that something far bigger and far more powerful lurks in the woods beyond their home.

Prince freya vol 7 by Keiko Ishihara

2/14/2023

Cover of Prince Freya volume 7. Freya is in a white dress with brown ribbon tying up the sleeves and trimming the bodice. Around her are white wings and puffy pink clouds.

Freya becomes even more entangled in Nacht's dealings. It seems that the queen, the rightful heir to the royal line of Nacht, was deposed when Sigurd took control of the kingdom. Her infant son was snatched from her, and her husband, the ruling King, forced to marry a Sigurdian princess to keep the kingdom firmly under the thumb of the evil king of Sigurd. Freya has uncovered the whole plot, but wonders if the deposed queen has the strength to bring her people back to her side. Freya vows she's not doing any of this in order to force Nacht into a pact with them - she's righting wrongs, and they can come along against Sigurd in their own time.

The fiancee chosen by the ring vol 1 by yue matSuyuki

1/31/2023

Cover of The Fiancee Chosen by the Ring volume 1. Lady Aurora Porta is lying down with her embroidery supples around her - two spools of thread and a loom with embroidery cloth. She's in her signature pink dress with white lace down the middle on her front. At the top of her bodice is a pink bow. Her blonde hair frames her face. She's looking at us with two green eyes and smiling slightly.

Adapted and illustrated by Jyun Hayase

Lady Aurora Porta is the daughter of a minor count and doesn’t get invited to high society functions all that much. But when she does, she takes the opportunity to indulge in one of her favorite pastimes - studying embroidery. At parties, she’s specifically looking at patterns on the ladies’ dresses and trying to learn more for her own embroidery patterns. At the latest affair, she is hit in the forehead with a ring, a ring that was chucked by Sir Felix, who is so tired of his constant barrage of suitors that he chucked his ring randomly and declared who it hit to be his bride-to-be. Between Sir Felix' duties as a guard for the Crowned Prince and Lady Aurora's special embroidering, the new couple has a lot on their plate in this slightly humorous romantic fantasy.

Beauty and the Beast of Paradise Lost vol 3 by kaori yuki

1/30/2023

Cover of Beauty and the Beast of Paradise Lost volume 3. Belle is in a high-collared white button-up shirt that also extends all the way to her wrists. Her lilac hair is billowing all around her, and there is a sadness in her amber eyes. There are a few blue butterflies flying around her.

Belle has followed the Beast into the lair of la Médium, and she's come face to face with the villain who carted off her mother all those years ago. Belle learns more about the history between the Beast and la Médium, and the Beast denies none of it. He savagely asked la Médium to kill his parents so that he could ascend to the throne, but when la Médium found out he was just using her for her powers, she lashed out jealously and cured the Beast and his people. She then swore to find a face he could fall in love with so that he would finally reciprocate her feelings. Belle gets further entangled in the stand-off between the two, and the Beast discovers there is a spy amongst his subjects who has been feeding la Médium valuable information!