This manga has a lot of similarities to other mangas I have read which was good! Most of the tropes I have enjoyed and it was cool to see a different spin on them in this one.

I am always drawn to a book about friends, especially when they are closed off from others besides the ones in their circle. Midori has her work cut out for her when it comes to them because they can be quite stubborn but she is also determined as ever!

Even though the school sees the three boys as troublemakers. I liked how the manga starts us off with a different look at them before jumping into the troublemaker aspect. It shows that everyone isn’t as they appear and Midori will see them for who they truly are.

There is also a difference in how they have grown up since the boys come from wealthy families and Midori has to work to help pay off her father’s debt who left her family with it. I am sure it will play a big role in future but it does come into play once so far.

The illustrations are amazing and I love the little corgi. 😍

Overall, this was cute and is a very promising start to this series. I will definitely be keeping my out for the next as it does end with a cliffhanger.

*Thank you to the publisher, Kodansha, and to NetGalley for providing me with a digital ARC of this in exchange for an honest review!*

This was my first foray into manga after years of not reading it, and the more I read of this volume, the more I loved it. This story is a slice-of-life shoujo manga that follows our main character, Midori, as she unwittingly gets involved in the life of three boys at her high school, eventually becoming friends and maybe falling for one of them.

Midori's character was a really interesting shoujo heroine: she is the eldest daughter of a woman who became a single mum after the family father abandoned her, her daughter and her little son. Between the three of them they make do: the youngest son is in charge of cooking, and between the mother's full-time night shifts and Midori's part-time salary, they manage. Midori had gone through her own share of hardships, and this had made her a kinder person. I loved the way she was not naive or dumb just for the sake of being cute or sweet. She was perceptive, yet gentle, and she had the emotional struggles of a teen. When we see her develop feelings for one of the love interests, she can't identify them as romantic feelings immediately. I really liked this, as it felt very natural, and not at all like insta-love, which shoujo manga tends to fall into. Midori's relationships with the boys she meets start as friendship first of all, in a very platonic, everyday, school-classmate way. It's so nice to read how that evolves, over the course of the volume, into something that she finally starts recognising as romantic attraction. But this takes its time, and it's only at the end of the volume that it happens! It's nice to see a comic that takes its time building the connections between characters.

The boys were all very charming and nice people, all in their different ways. Their characterisation sometimes veered towards archetypal (especially Chihiro's), but it didn't fully fall into manga-love-interest stereotypes, and I ended up really loving them all for different things. The addition of a dog into the group was truly adorable as well.

Additionally, the adults (Midori's mum, the chairman of her high school, her work boss...) tend to be kind people, a refreshing take. I was ready for all the kids to not like their elders, because that's what edgy teens do... but not really. Even the three boys, who are textbook-edgy, have a very good relationship with Miyuki, the boss at the restaurant that Midori works at. We don't see a lot of complexity from them yet, partly because they have a pretty secondary role and partly because most of the story is told from our heroine's point of view. However, we are shown that there's more to them than we know just yet, so I'm looking forward to seeing them in future volumes.

And the art... my goodness, the art was beautiful. The use of screentones (halftone dots, shading) was masterful and it created a really tangible sense of atmosphere and setting. The technique really was at the service of the story, and it made intimate moments feel magical, delicate, and almost otherworldly. The lineart was also really soft and delicate: lovely hair is almost a guarantee with any shoujo manga, but on top of that, the facial and bodily expressions were so well-realised that they really conveyed the personality of each character.

I enjoyed the second half of the volume a lot more than the first one, where we dwell on the introductory details a little too long. At the same time, I recognise that it was a requirement to spend time developing the friendship between Midori and the three boys, and all the buildup started paying off in the second half. We were also left with some open ends and an understated but very interesting cliffhanger at the very end of the volume, which cemented my need to read the second instalment of this! I truly thought this would be a basic 3-star shoujo manga with more style than substance, but the characters and the handling of the plot were so well-done that they bumped my rating to 4-stars. Bravo, Yoko Nogiri! Really excited to read the next one and get back into manga.

What can I say? I loved this! I loved the will they/won't they aspect of the storyline, I loved the character development and I loved the illustrations. I thought that having the 3 main boys as 'mean guys, that arn't really mean' to havng turn into a sort of love story was really good and engaging. I contimually thought that there will be more to this story in the next chapter and found myself to be holding on for is there going to be romance? I also thought that having the chapter titles as school lesssons was clever and in keeping with the theme. I am excited to see where this now follows on to in book 2!

Loved this one.
Hit a lot of my favorite tropes with super likable characters.
Can't wait for the next volume.

Recommended for fans of Fruits Basket and Toradora and the like.

It was good and I enjoyed a lot. The only thing I didn't like is that it ended with a cliffhanger and I really want to know what happens next. Waiting for next volume.

I really enjoyed this title and am looking forward to reading more volumes! Midori is tasked by the school chairman to bring 3 boys who were suspended (and have not returned) back to school and take their midterms or else she will be suspended and risk losing her scholarship for having an unsanctioned part-time job. Desperate to keep her job so she can help her mom with the bills, Midori sets out to bring the boys back. This proves difficult as they have zero interest in returning. Midori trying to bond with these boys - who are viewed as dangerous and scary by the rest of their school mates - leads to a cute and humorous story. And there's a really cute dog!

Thank you to #NetGalley for allowing me to read a copy of #ThoseNotSoSweetBoys1 by Yoko Nogiri in exchange for my honest review.

Another head-strong, silly girl (Midori) is the relatable main character in Nogiri’s latest work. I think this book will be a huge hit with fans of Fruits Basket but just different enough to be a refreshing change of pace. The art style is beautiful and the writing is fun. I found myself laughing at the jokes and enjoying the interactions between characters.

After getting saved by one of the trouble-making boys, Midori seems to find that they keep coming to her rescue. As Midori grows closer with the boys, she learns what’s really keeping them away from school. I look forward to learning more about the three boys’ connections and seeing how they grow in the story along with Midori.

A fun story about a girl who is in debt and in order to not be expelled from school she has to convince the three guys who are always absent to attend school. Midori has just started highschool, her family is in debt and she has a part time job, however part time jobs are banned for her school and when the school chairman sees her he offers her a deal, either get expelled or make the three absentee students come back to school. One of the absentee boys was a boy who helped get her wallet back on her first day and she’s developed a crush on him. The story is really cute and fun, the romance is very light and the book ends on a cliffhanger so I can’t wait to see where this story goes!

*Thanks Netgalley and Kodansha Comics for sending me an arc in exchange for an honest review*