#Doughnut Review

[doughnutdaily]

Lidl Chocolate Doughnut

We're back again so soon after the last review. This doughnut was bought as a fun treat to top off a nice day, which makes a first for this review blog! I had just enjoyed my first Nando's in about five years with some friends we were visiting. It is their favourite restaurant and we love that for them.

Where from?

This doughnut was picked up from the Lidl bakery in the UK. Lidl is renowned for its bakery. They have a seeded loaf that I would probably kill for. But we're here to talk about doughnuts. Full disclosure: I did not eat this doughnut on the day of purchase. This doughnut was eaten for breakfast the following day because I was offered a pastel de nata and it would have been criminal to say no.

Initial Thoughts

It is sometimes difficult to parse my initial thoughts. I was a bit food drunk when I bought this doughnut and would have been in awe of very little. But I distinctly remember just being a bit chuffed that there was a doughnut left for me. It looks unassuming and yummy. Forgive my photo which was taken after travel in my handbag. The cracked topping shouldn't colour your opinion.

The Bread

Now let me tell you. I bit into this doughnut and had to take a minute to recover. The bread so so perfectly smooth and soft. It was like biting into brioche, though not as buttery. You can see in the photo that the dough is slightly underproofed. But not so much as to impact the flavour and texture of the bite.

The Topping

The topping had just enough sweetness and chocolateyness for its presence to be made. It did taste like the doughnut had been dipped in perfectly tempered chocolate, rather than some approximation of chocolate flavoured sauce. It had just enough of a snap to it before it melted in your mouth. It wasn't chocolate with a doughnut (as you might see with loaded doughnuts), but the perfect balance of doughnut with chocolate.

Final Verdict

These are the best doughnuts I've reviewed on this blog so far. If you're near a Lidl right now, go in and get one! They are completely delicious.

Do you have any doughnut suggestions, questions or ideas? Reply to this post! And you can support by sending a gift card to your favourite doughnut shop using this email: doughnutdaily.blog [at] gmail [dot] com (UK based only at this point, thank you!)

[bluepoodle7]

#KrispyKreme #DoubleChocolateÉclairFilledDoughnut#CrèmeBrûléeFilledDoughnut#RaspberryAndVanillaCrèmeToppedDoughnut#FilledDoughnuts #ToppedDoughnut#DoughnutReview

This is part 7 of the Double Chocolate Éclair Filled Doughnut, Crème Brûlée Filled Doughnut, and Raspberry And Vanilla Crème Topped Doughnut these are the rest of the images.

[ladyloveandjustice]

My Favorite Continuing Manga I Read in 2023

I went into the brand new manga I read in this post, but here's an update on some great continuing series!

Shout out to She Loves to Cook and She Loves to Eat for having phenomenal storyline about find the courage to cut toxic family members off, which is pretty rare to see (in manga especially)! The story explores how your family can impose a relationship with food that harms you in many different ways, and how finding acceptance of your food habits helps you heal. It also continues to be a lovely exploration of queer adults finding themselves that makes the point that your experiences don't have to fit in a box.  And I appreciate that they included a character who doesn't like eating that much for me to relate to! See my first review here, 

Now for a quick word about the other great continuing manga I read:

- I Want to be a Wall really upped it's game and included a nuanced discussion about asexuality that I loved seeing. See first review here.

- Yuri is My Job is still the best lesbian drama manga around and hits hard. See previous discussion here,

- A Man and His Cat is still the sweetest and Yona of the Dawn is as action packed and intriguing as ever...I feel a climax slowly coming!

- A Bride’s Story is still wonderfully done historical fiction with lush art while How Do We Relationship continues to develop its web of queer relationships nicely.

- Witch Hat Atelier is still a wondrous story of magic, creativity, accessibility, and struggling under unfair systems, all told in a fascinating fantasy setting with loveable, complex characters and incredible art.

A lot of manga I like concluded this year too, so let's take a slightly longer look at the conclusions!

Dungeon Meshi- The conclusion to one of my favorite fantasy manga ever was fittingly bombastically weird and fully satisfying. It filled you up like good food should. Live well instead of being consumed by fear of death and loss. Eat well instead of working yourself to the bone and neglecting your needs. Follow your own path, but cherish your connections and get together for a good meal. This series and its intricate world and wonderful characters will stay with me for a long time.

Catch These Hands- See my first review here. I enjoyed the cute conclusion to this series, and it was nice to see a little ace rep and a message about not conforming to society's expectations of "adulthood". It's an ode to delinquent girls that a sukeban stan like me can get behind! A lot of the stuff that annoyed me in the second volume was mostly dropped for the third and fourth, so that's also nice.

Run Away With Me Girl- See my first review here. I wish this had been a little longer, but the conclusion worked well and was cathartic.

Doughnuts Under a Crescent Moon- See my first review here. A nice conclusion to a cute, slow-paced little romance series, with yet more ace rep!

The Two of Them are Pretty Much Like This- see my first review here. This conclusion felt a bit rushed, with plot lines still dangling, like it was cancelled early or something. But the series is still good overall, and I'll miss it.

My Love Mix Up -This sweet-as-pie series about cute gay misunderstandings leading to romance comes to a fittingly sweet conclusion. It's sad waving goodbye to these silly, good-hearted kids, but I'm satisfied with where they ended up.

[threewaysdivided]

awwww 😭😭😭😭

Did you write a review on the legendary teen Titans series? (Aka what young Justice could have become if they weren't overly ambitious)

What's your opinion on Paul Dini as a writer?

(Follow up to these two previous asks)

Sorry nonnie! 😅

It seems that we both tripped down a rabbit hole of doughnuts.

I assume you’re talking about the Teen Titans 2003 Animated TV Series?  In that case, you might be thinking of another user – I haven’t personally written any reviews for it.  I do have a lot of fond feelings towards the show, though; it was my first real introduction to DC Comics alongside the Justice League/ JLU animated series.  My Tumblr has a Teen Titans tag where I share art, meta etc. and I do have some thoughts about specific plots or narrative elements – you might also see me make occasional reference to it as an example on some posts in the writing advice tag.

Just for the sake of expectation management, I should explain that my Tumblr isn’t really a traditional “review blog”.  And yes, I know that probably sounds a bit crazy considering the frankly unhinged amount of YJ analysis I’ve written, especially since I’ve been blogging less about other stories in the last year. Burnout, what can you do? 

Really I’m more of a writing/ story-analysis blog.  Sometimes I might write a semi-review style post where I try to break down and articulate a particular technique/ element/ execution/ implication of a narrative in order to understand what it’s doing well or why something isn’t working.  As I said in the very first Frustrations with YJ essay, I think storytelling is fundamentally about communication and understanding.  I got into fandom as a fan-reader turned fan-writer (AO3 wink wink), and before that I worked as a casual English tutor.  I want to learn from the ways different narratives succeeded or failed at communicating their stories within the restrictions of their medium(s) so that I can better find, discuss and even tell stories myself. 

Because of that, I’m also a big proponent of the Death of the Author approach to media analysis.  Let me copy the definition over from that first essay real quick:

DEATH OF THE AUTHOR This theory posits that, because commercial art is created to be consumed, not just created, the audience’s interpretations of a work should be considered as just valid as the creator’s.  The work must stand on its own and creators cannot micro-manage their audience’s response to it. 1.  A creator’s intentions and biographical facts (political stances, religion, etc) should hold no special weight in determining the validity of an interpretation. 2.  Save for re-releases/reboots or new entries, the creator cannot and should not attempt to retroactively insert information or interpretations that were not present in the original text.

I generally don’t look too deeply into or follow the specific people behind (non-fan) works.  This isn’t always the case – if I like a specific author’s style I might look up their body of work to read more; some stories are clearly rooted in their creators’ specific opinions or experiences, which makes for interesting context; and sometimes I like to learn about the behind-the-scenes methods/techniques/production woes of a bringing a specific story to life – but mostly I put the priority on what I can learn from the final product.

As I’ve said before, commercial storytelling is the result of more than just one person.  Under the right conditions I think a rank amateur or complete hack could produce something amazing and, if faced with enough production headaches, a usually-excellent creator could end up outputting utter drek although I expect that drek would at least be creatively interesting.

The questions that interest me more are: what was this narrative trying to communicate?  what techniques were used/ creative choices were made?  how well did it succeed?  could a different approach have been used? and, what restrictions/limitations/priorities could have led to the final creative decisions?  To me, information on a creator’s circumstances provide context for narrative analysis.  Since I generally don’t know them I try not to postulate their actual intent too much, only the potential intent suggested by the story.

SO WHAT THE HECK WAS I DOING WITH YJ, THEN? What happened with Young Justice is actually an outlier for me in both regards because of how baffling flawed the series ended up being.  Back in the pre-revival days I paid a lot of attention to the textual canon of Season 1 because I had started writing a fanfic based on it and wanted to do the story justice (heh).  The result was I went into the later seasons with a lot more awareness of the canonical details and storytelling techniques – and (like I said in the final Invasion case-study) I ended up being blindsided by how instinctively bored and annoyed I became just a short way into an attempted Season 2 rewatch, despite the fact that I was actively trying to study it. 

The reason I kept coming back with more and more posts is that I never felt like I had successfully grasped or articulated why I had such a strong and unexpected negative reaction.  I think it’s a similar impulse to what Dan Olson cited as making the Nostalgia Critic’s Parody of The Wall so weirdly compelling: there's a confusing contradiction between the level of work required to implement the sheer amount of stuff that Young Justice tries to include, and the absolute thoughtlessness of how sloppily that stuff was actually executed. A multi-season, multimedia story like Young Justice is a long-term project: there are too many layers of production involved for the end result to be made in a brief flash of impulse or accident. It needs some sort of sustained creative motivation to drive it… but I could never find a coherent creative intent that would satisfyingly explain the decisions on display.  Never before or since have I seen such a promising launch be followed by sequels so fatally flawed as to strip away every component of the original’s creative identity.  There’s a reason I subtitled that masterpost A Massive Failure of Narrative.

This is also why I went after lead-showrunner Greg Weisman a bit, despite not usually doing that.  The choice to exclude (or consciously excise) over 70% of the critical narrative substance and sequester it away in non-textual social-media /ask-blog retcons means that you cannot escape engaging with Weisman when trying to engage with the later seasons at any level of depth.  As a Death of the Author proponent this ticked me off just on-its-face, but it also meant that he and those seasons are inseparably intertwined.  Regardless of whether it was a conscious choice arising from his sense of creative entitlement, or simply a case of narrative incompetence self-selecting for a primary audience with a high tolerance for media-illiteracy Nigerian Prince Email Scam-style, the end-result is the same: Weisman gouged holes his narrative and left it to suffocate while he sucked up all the oxygen in the room.   Then, later, as I encountered people from other fandoms whose narratives had been similarly decimated by Weisman, it became impossible to ignore how inseparable his personal flaws are from those narrative failures.  As I alluded to in the last ask, you can separate the original seven Harry Potter texts from their author: Joanne Rowling and her politics could evaporate tomorrow and it wouldn’t change people’s ability to enjoy the story as a standalone work (in fact, the absence of her modern politics might make some of the more unpalatable flaws easier to accept as honest oversights rather than ominous foreshadowing).  Meanwhile, Young Justice is such a disaster because the later seasons stop being about the original story and increasingly become about Greg: his failures at basic storytelling, his disinterested misunderstanding of his own characters, his weird fixations, his patterns of reactionary prejudice, casual double-standards, deeply disturbing attitudes about consent and power, and a self-righteous entitlement that resents being held accountable.  Unlike Harry Potter, you can’t put Young Justice S2+ in a bubble. The problem at the root of every other problem with Young Justice is that it doesn’t have an actual narrative... and in the absence of a coherent central narrative, the text itself has become the story of Greg Weisman's terrible creative choices. His self-indulgent proclivities pervade every step of the later seasons' broken theming, bad pacing, warped characterisation, contradictory lore, intra-textual hypocrisies, over-stuffed cast and weird fanservice: baked-in at a level that cannot be ignored or rationalised away.

It makes me empathise a lot with how Hbomberguy said he felt on discovering the recent James Somerton stuff: it’s not fun to stumble down a rabbit hole of learning that a prominent figure in one of your communities is sucking up air via association with work from their less-credited colleagues, then using that air to present themselves as an ally, dominate the narrative and delegitimise valid criticism, all while spreading their own prejudiced agendas, refusing to change their behaviour and continuing to profit.  That’s why I felt the need to explicitly point out some of the clearer patterns of reactionary bigotry and hypocritical non-apologies in Weisman’s work – I wanted to make sure the evidence was at least available somewhere outside of Weisman’s carefully-filtered reputation-protecting PR statements.  People put pieces of their lives into communicating something that will hopefully be worth the pieces of life their audiences invest in return -  I find the idea of someone exploiting that trust for gain to be deeply disgusting.

Now, with that exceptionally-overlong context provided: Paul Dini. 

The disappointing but predictable answer is that I don’t really have an opinion on him as a writer.  Having looked up his credits, I recognise a lot of works that I personally enjoyed (including the cancelled-after-one-season Tower Prep).

I really like Batman: The Animated Series, both for the human element it brought to heroism and the tone it set for the following DCAU (colloquially Timm-verse) generation of animated series.  Justice League was one of my first introductions to the main DC roster, so that set a lot of my core understanding of their characters.  I find Harley Quinn, especially her early B:TAS/ DCAU story-iterations, to be compelling in a way that’s equal parts fun and tragic.  There are some parts of the DCAU that I find a bit silly (a couple of background ‘ships that make me go whaa?) but I think I was really lucky to grow up during a time when the DCAU and second-order series inspired by its tone and storytelling ethos (e.g. Teen Titans 2003) was the childhood DC experience for kids my age.

That said, I don’t know enough about the story behind the works in Dini’s credits to feel confident in speaking about him as a writer.  Just looking at his resume, he certainly seems like a passionate and prolific creator who did a lot of very influential work.  At the same time, however, I don’t know how much of that was Dini himself, how much was his frequent co-creator, Bruce Timm, and how much his works may have been adulterated by the influence of other, less-visible members of the production and editorial teams who worked alongside him.  It can be convenient to elevate one or two prominent members to Great Man status as an easy shorthand for discussing works they’ve been involved with, but that can come with the risk of crediting or platforming the wrong people through mis-attribution or just plain projection. 

I’ve learned my lesson on blind-lionisation after being thoroughly let down by all the Weisman nonsense, the same way others have learned from being let down by creators they previously idolised (Supergeekmike did a really good video covering this which also includes discussions of Death of the Author and Authorial Intent).  Without doing proper research into and comparisons of Dini’s work, I wouldn’t feel confident making an assertion about his personal skills as a creator.  I greatly enjoy many of the stories he’s been credited on, and can recognise the influence those stories had in shaping a generation of DC fans (and writers)… but while I’m happy to talk about the writing of those stories, it feels a little irresponsible of me to talk to the character or intent of a real person without knowing more about them.  I’m not making that mistake again.

In the meantime though, I do want to talk more about actual writing.  I’ve been taking it easier this year lockdown and job burnouts finally caught up to me and it suuucks, man but I'm hoping to pick back up in 2024.  I want to finally get back to working on my main fanfic so I can share the companion meta without spoiling people.  I have thoughts about some possible meta-textual metaphors in Across the Spider-verse.  I might do a case-study piece exploring why the years-long timeskip in Arcane Season 1 worked really well while others haven’t.  And there’s an ask about a canon-divergent-post-Season-1 Young Justice episode premise that’s been burning a hole in my inbox for at least 5 months now.

So yeah.  More writing breakdowns to come.  In the meantime, I previously wrote a Frustrations With analysis of how My Hero Academia’s story struggled following the Hideout Raid Arc if you’d like to check that one out.  There’s also this big compilation of links to my Young Justice and Danny Phantom meta (plus recommendations for fanfics and other stories), and you can check out the writing advice tag for general storytelling discussions.

Hopefully that makes up for the drought of Teen Titans content!

[parsleysagerosemarytimemachine]

'Doughnuts Under a Crescent Moon' wraps up nicely; I loved seeing them finally figure out their feelings and get together. Really appreciate a good ace romance, and also how supportive their friends and family all are. (Pushy too, but it's a good type of pushy. :) Also also, 'My heart is a little bit like a doughnut.' is such a good line after all the set-up.

[mythos05reviews]

2.5/5 stars

I thought I would like this but ended up thinking it was ok. I was originally going to give this a 3 star but decided against it because I didn't really like this book. I'm usually ok with the fast paced of it's done right but this was not the case. I felt like the story ended before it actually got going in a way.

A lot of the "conflicts" were resolved too quickly. So much so that it didn't really give me an enemies-to-lovers vibe. In this case, it was more of a show than tell. I originally believed that the fight was going to be a major part of the story but that is quickly overshadowed by the curse situation. The curse itself was confusing because not a lot was explained. Also, kudos to Elena if I had been cursed, I would have been a lot more bitter towards the person who was the cause.

[hungry-little-owl]

14 March: dinner at Burger Amour in Thetford

apparently Brits don't go out to eat on Tuesdays... the Chinese restaurant was take-out only (and we were set on eating in not ordering out), the highest-rated local restaurant was closed completely on Tuesdays (contrary to what all maps and websites said about it), and this lovely burger joint was out of half of their ingredients. But once we finally got food, it was good.

I wanted a chicken burger, but of course that's what they were out of. So I had a vegetarian burger, like my partner. The restaurant was also out of... ice?? literally out of ice!! SO we couldn't order the cocktails we wanted either - I got lemon sanpellegrino instead of a limoncello, and he got wine instead of an espresso martini.

the burgers were alright, the doughnuts were amazing, and the fries were also excellent. not pictured: haloumi fries appetizer, which was so so good, but definitely more like mozzarella sticks than haloumi fries (lots of breading, cheese gave no squeak).

the restaurant also was kind of a ghost town. idk if Tuesday just isn't a big night out for diners or what, but there was one woman by herself already finishing her meal when we walked in, and while we were there only two other tables got seated. and it was not a small restaurant - there were probably two dozen tables/booths so, it looked very empty unfortunately.

6/10 - not the worst but far from the best. would give it another try on a night where we weren't disappointed that our first two restaurant choices were unavailable, and also maybe the night AFTER their weekly delivery arrives rather than the day before.

[angelsportion]

Review - Hunter Laing, Journey Series, Islay Journey, Blended Scotch Whisky, (No Age Stated), 46%

I saw the strangest thing. It was early, a little after 7:00 AM. I was on my way to the office. Barely a quarter mile from my subdivision’s exit, I pulled into the parking lot of our town’s only hardware store to fetch something from the rear of my Wrangler. Item in hand, I mounted the pilot’s seat and prepared to resume my journey. Rolling toward the lot’s exit, I noticed two pedestrians—a man…

[noris-food-and-drink-thoughts]

Sea Salt Donuts

These donuts are a bit dry, similar in both texture and flavor to those little mini snack donuts that come in packs of 6 or so. They are definitely fried, not baked. The flavor is sweet and fried-bready, with just the SLIGHTEST hint of salt.

Rank: 5/10, was hoping for more salt. I got a box of 20 of them so I'll be set for a while lol.

[banjolandsblog]

SPOOKTACULA-DUNKIN HALLOWEEN DOUGHNUTS

[doughnutdaily]

The Morrisons Mini Doughnut

These doughnuts were brought to me as a little treat when I was in the middle of a very stressful project at work. And they were just perfect for a little injection of joy. They come packaged in a cup. Who doesn't want a whole bunch of tiny doughnuts in a cup?

Where from?

These doughnuts are from Morrisons in the UK which has an excellent selection of cakes and treats. They are often found by the front entry gates or right by the self service tills and have been taunting me for some time.

Initial Thoughts

As we've already agreed, a cup full of tiny doughnuts is joyful and should be a regular feature in your diet to achieve a happy and healthy life. The cup contains two different types of doughnut, chocolate and pink with sprinkles, which is a treat compared to the packs of four identical doughnuts that you're usually bound to in the supermarket.

The Bread

These doughnuts were quite sweet and claggy. Even as such a small size, each bit did gum up my mouth a fair bit. I think they might have been overworked before proofing.

The Topping

The choice of two types of doughnut in the cup was delightful. They looked nice all tumbled on top of each other. The pink doughnuts are excessively sweet. With a higher ratio of bread to topping, maybe this would have been better balanced. But the bread itself was quite sweet. The chocolate was disappointing too. Despite the rich colour, the chocolatey flavour couldn't cut past the overwhelming sweetness.

Final Verdict

Would I buy these again? Absolutely, I would. The concept of tiny doughnuts in a cup is just too cute to resist. I would return daily, if I could, just to make sure I hadn't gotten a too sweet batch. I enjoyed that I could stick these in my handbag and take them on a road trip. There is endless whimsy in offering your travelling companions a small doughnut as you hurtle towards your destination in a 22 year old car with more knocking noises that we should probably ignore. But I would probably not send you out with your hard earned cash to buy a pack. They're just too sweet!

Do you have any doughnut suggestions, questions or ideas? Reply to this post! And you can support by sending a gift card to your favourite doughnut shop using this email: doughnutdaily.blog [at] gmail [dot] com (UK based only at this point, thank you!)

[bluepoodle7]

#KrispyKreme #DoubleChocolateÉclairFilledDoughnut#CrèmeBrûléeFilledDoughnut#RaspberryAndVanillaCrèmeToppedDoughnut#FilledDoughnuts #ToppedDoughnut#DoughnutReview

This is part 6 of the Double Chocolate Éclair Filled Doughnut, Crème Brûlée Filled Doughnut, and Raspberry And Vanilla Crème Topped Doughnut these are more images.

[ladyloveandjustice]

My favorite Manga and Graphic Novels I Read in 2022

I read 54 different manga and graphic novel series in 2022 (you can see them here, from the beginning until the print novels start with Hench. I only included one from each series for my own weird reasons but I'm up to date on everything except Adachi and Shimamura and Prince Freya, which I dropped for now). You can also see my favorite novels of 2022 here! 

Here are my favorites!

Snapdragon by Kat Leyh

A young girl gets involved with a witch who has has lots of skeletons (animal and otherwise). I’ve always loved Leyh’s work, and this is her usual super queer fantasy that has everything I adore- cute art, cool witches, animal magic, older butch lesbians with eye patches, lovable characters and lots of sweetness.

SHWD by Sono.N

It’s refreshing to see a dark sci-fi yuri about incredibly ripped adult women fighting monsters, and it really pulls off the horror of the monsters well with some gripping action. The characters were pretty charming too and there was a lot of attention paid to the trauma of the situation.

However, it does have a 'character who looks like a child', which is not my favorite trope for a lot reasons. It bothers me a bit less than other series because the art style does not do cutesy. She just looked like a short adult. The reasoning for having her there was...interesting, I'm not sure where they'll go with that, but it's original, though potentially weird?

Anyway, I like what it's doing and I'm interested to see where this goes. I hope we continue to get a variety of yuri like this published over here!

The Two of Them Are Pretty Much Like This by Takashi Ikeda

Two ladies- 32-year-old anime screenwriter and 22-year-old newbie anime voice actress- live together and navigate their romantic relationship. It’s mostly done in short vignettes, but the central couple has a fun dynamic and the art is nice, and some plot threads slowly develop as the books go on. It’s a cozy read, and it’s nice to see the ups and downs of an adult relationship where they share living space. I also find the 32 year old attractive, to be honest, I’d date her.

Until I Met My Husband by Ryousuke Nanasaki, art by Yoshi Tsukizuki

An autobiographical story of the first religiously recognized gay marriage in Japan. It’s not super lengthy or meaty, but it’s a sweet read.

Gender Queer by Maia Kobabe

You might have heard of this book based on how it was banned in a lot of places, it’s simply an autobiographical story of growing up genderqueer. It’s a breezy read with some nice evocative art, and Kobabe is pretty relatable.

Nubia: Real One by L.L. McKinney, Art by Robin Smith

I read a bunch of the DC standalone YA offerings from the library this year and found most of them to be a let-down, but this was a good one. It follows a young Nubia, a black girl who discovers she’s an Amazon related to Wonder Woman herself, and uses her abilities to confront some very real dangers and injustices, while also struggling against racism and other forms of prejudice. Satisfying, solid YA.

Who Killed Jimmy Olsen? By Matt Fraction, Art by Steve Lieber

Another library read. A fun riff on the zaniness of Silver Age Jimmy Olsen comics with a healthy does of humor, it follows the bizarre life of Superman’s BFF as he tries to avoid assassination and does some viral YouTube videos .I especially liked the weird but sweet relationship Jimmy and Clark had in this, and the gentle dunking on Batman.

Run Away With Me, Girl by Battan

Maki’s girlfriend, Midori, broke up with her during her high school graduation, saying she had to “move on” to dating guys now that she was grown up. Ten years later, Maki runs into Midori and finds she’s in an abusive relationship with a man she’s engaged to after getting pregnant. Maki asks Midori to run away with her, but will she?

This is definitely a darker yuri- the abuse Midori faces escalates, and the dude she’s with is basically an incel- but it’s handling the subject matter well so far and I’m really interested to see where it goes. There’s been a notable amount of yuri lately that’s tackled the belief that love for other women is just a childish phase, but this is the first one I’ve seen that explores what happens to a woman who believes that and forces herself into a heterosexual relationship. The abuse Midori faces is not at all framed as her ‘just desserts’ or anything, but a tragic circumstance that happened to a woman who was desperate to fit in and not be alone. The art is also fantastic and distinctive. I really hope it sticks the landing!

She Loves to Cook and She Loves to Eat by Sakaomi Yuzaki

A slice-of-life foodie yuri manga! Nomoto cooks more than she can eat, and she notices her next-door neighbor is a big eater and invites her over. A very slowburn romance strikes up. I got interested in this because of the authors marriage equality activism, and it’s a cute read. It’s laid back and slow paced, but there are nice moments of realism that make it very grounded- the way the women talk about being mistreated at work, Nomoto complaining that all the fashion articles she look up talk about impressing men- it was relatable! I also liked that Kasuga is large and butch and doesn’t have to look conventionally ‘cute’.

Cheer Up: Love and Pom-Poms by Crystal Fraiser

A cute YA about an acerbic young lesbian joining the cheer squad and repairing her relationship with her people-pleasing trans friend. It’s for a younger audience, but it’s a sweet romance with adorable art.

I Want to Be A Wall by Honami Shirono

I’m interested to see where this one goes. An aro-ace woman and a gay man in love with his (seemingly, so far) straight best friend enter a marriage of convenience. Yuriko’s obsessive BL fandom can get annoying, but it’s always refreshing to see the ace character represented and the manga is realistic about the struggles we face. I’m rooting for this one!

Doughnuts Under a Crescent Moon by Shio Usui

A slow burn office lady romance, it’s just downright cute. It might be a little slowpaced for some but I enjoyed it!

Catch These Hands! by Murata

I’m a huge sucker for delinquent girls, so the story of two former delinquent girl rivals who meet again as adults, only for one to challenge each other to a fight with the condition that she’ll date her if she loses? Sign me up! This is, unfortunately, a little uneven- the second volume was kinda eh and introduced an annoying side character with some questionable tropes-but the third volume picked things up again and included a wonderfully absurd training montage. Though it starts with one of the women wanting to change and appear less like a delinquent and more ‘normal’, the clear message of the series is she doesn’t need to. If you don’t like any kind of violence, no matter how weird and divorced from reality, this isn’t for you though, as there is the whole challenge-to-a-fight thing, but it’s tongue in cheek and wacky enough I don’t mind.

Continuing favorites:

Witch Hat Atelier- Can't believe Witch Hat punched the 'funny anime pervert' trope to dust like it deserves, while also exploring and denouncing victim blaming in a genuinely affecting way. This manga is legendary. Also I'm very worried for everyone.

Yuri is My Job!- Really escalated wonderfully with it’s tangled web of relationships, rich backstories, and commentary on how people, especially queer people, often put on a performance. What IS the true self? One character’s commentary on how she wanted her work place to ‘like romance without the romance’ (a la class S) yet can’t suppress her true romantic fantasies was especially well-done. There’s also a character saying ‘friggin’ heteros’. The accurate representation we need, clearly. I just really enjoy this cast of characters.

Spy x Family (A Yor arc! Finally! And there’s just as much murder and mayhem as that should entail!), My Love Mix Up! (continues to be adorable), Yona of the Dawn (dramatic backstory reveals!), How Do We Relationship? (it’s really interesting to read a gay romance where the central relationship is acknowledged as not good for both of them and they try to move on), Delicious in Dungeon (the dungeon adventures are ramping up!), A Man and His Cat (more kitty cuteness), The Way of the House Husband (more hijinks), Bride’s Story (another volume of the beautiful historical epic! It’s been a while.), The Adventure Zone graphic novels (continue to be a lot fun with fantastic art), I Think Our Son is Gay (continues to be a sweet look at a mom supportive of her gay son), Monthly Girls Nozaki-Kun (I’ll always love these idiots) and My Wandering Warrior Existence by Kabi Nagata (another entry in Nagata’s moving autobiographical series about the struggles of mental illness, self reflection, and queer exploration).

[writerlunawinters]

Title: Doughnuts and Doom

Author: Balazs Lorinczi

Genre: Graphic Novel, Sapphic Fantasy

Published: September 21, 2022

My Thoughts: Witches, Snakes, and Queerness, Oh My!

Margot and Elena, a teenage witch and a rock star, meet for the first time, sparks flying between them. Margot is a stressed-out witch trying to get her potions business off the ground, while Elena is a struggling rock musician. Could this be the start of a new relationship or a bad-luck curse leading to doom?

This is a recipe for a great read. A graphic novel with brilliant illustration? Check. Sapphic romance? Check. Badass witches and kickass rock stars? Double check. I’ll read anything with a witch in the plot. Doughnuts and Doom gives you a beautiful taste of fantasy while catering to the romance lover. While the story and characters felt a little underdeveloped, creating a plotline that sped up more than I would have liked, it was still enjoyable.

Queer fantasy romance with witches. That’s the recommendation. Oh, and a snake as a familiar. We can’t ask for much more.

[brucedinsman]

Book Review: The Devine Doughnut Shop by Carolyn Brown

The Devine Doughnut Shop by Carolyn BrownKindleMy rating: 5 of 5 starsOh for those donutsI really enjoyed this story with more of a spiritual element but laced with worldly troubles we all encounter. We must admit that some of that was self-inflicted (Sarah in particular). But I did like Macy dealing with her disappointment also. Though not part of a series Hope Springs pops up a lot for this…