Gratitude to Kondansha Comics and NetGalley for the copy of this lovely manga.
 
3.5 stars.

The manga characters' fake-dating trope gave me butterflies! Even though the story is kind of rushed and there is not much background about the setting of the story and the characters, I just enjoyed reading the story.
 
I also admire the illustrations. Whenever Sayo Akari is blushing, I can really feel how weak she gets when she's around Chizuru Kibuchi. I know that they are fictional characters, but their chemistry is overflowing.
 
Volume 2, please... my heart!!! Looking forward~

Here are some points that I highly appreciate while reading this manga.

-Translation is excellent, spellings, punctuations are on point.

-The style of the characters are great but I felt like the main characters needs a make over (They look like every

-The expressions of each characters are well drawn and distinguishable.


And here's the reason why despite of the things I appreciate above, I still gave it 3 stars. (This book has a lot of potential but it could really do more! ♥)

- There's not much background with Sayo and her ex-boyfriend

-This is definitely not a standalone manga so I'd say the whole plot is too fast, the story felt cramped in 1 volume. I don't want to give spoilers but you'll know what I mean once you've read it.

-Not enough banter and the main character is too submissive (I want submissive characters every now and then but not too much)

-Doesn't explain much why Chizuru is kind of apathetic but I guess it will be explained on the next volumes.

P.S. I've got a lot more to say but I'm afraid it will give spoilers and I don't want that. Anyway, still give this a try!!!

I'm an absolute sucker for the fake dating trope, and I really enjoyed this! I think the setup was a bit rushed, but I think there's potential for something cute and fun here. Nothing super groundbreaking yet, but the art style is cute and I'm intrigued enough to continue on.

From the synopsis this manga sounded pretty promising. Fake Dating is almost always a hit so I was interested in giving this a read. The art style is really nice and the general formatting and text are easy on the eyes. I find sometimes manga can come off as too busy and cluttered but this one was well done.

As for the story, I think theres definitely room to grow for this plot and these characters. Its an interesting take on things "composer needing a fake lover" and I'd be interested in seeing where this goes. Overall it was a fun read with nice art and good characters.

I am occasionally a fan of the fake-dating trope. Unfortunately this was not one of those situations.

When asked to interview a famous composer for work after finding out her boyfriend had a wife, Sayo finds herself in an even weirder situation. Chizuru, the composer, wants her to pretend to be his lover to find inspiration for his new compositions!

These two have no chemistry. While Chizuru claims he doesn't know what to do in a relationship, he clearly has physical experience and that is all there is between the two. The situation is definitely weird, but made weirder by their lack of connection. I liked the art style and theoretically should have liked this more, especially because it's josei and so often fake-dating is integrated into highschool manga. However, it felt like the same old story from this kind of a plot.

Thank you to NetGalley and Kodansha Comics for the ARC.

3.5 stars
A Serenade for Pretend Lovers seemed interesting enough by the synopsis. It involves fake dating and the art style is pretty damn cute, which is why I was excited to pick this up. It was really fun and light-hearted. The two main characters, Sayo and Kobuchi have an interesting dynamic. I did feel things between them were moving a little too fast for my taste, but overall it was a pretty fun read and the way it has ended has left me excited to pick up the next volume,

I am weak for fake dating and that’s basically what this entire book is about so 10/10 from me. It’s very fast paced but that’s not necessarily a bad thing with manga. A lot of times they take slow burn to an entirely other level where as this shocked me by starting so soon. It’s also more adult-ish than I initially thought it would be, which again, is good. All in all, I quite enjoyed it and I’m definitely hyped for the next volume. And really, who can resist a classical musician romantic interest. Not me.


Thanks to Netgalley and Kodansha for this ARC!

This first volume introduces our main characters, Akari Sayo and Chizuru Kobuchi. Sayo finds out that her boyfriend is cheating on her at her TV station job and that she’s asked to create a documentary about composer Kobuchi. During their first time meeting, Kobuchi proposes a fake relationship so that he can get inspiration for a serenade composition. From there they jump into a physical relationship and pretend to be lovers, while Sayo continues to work on the documentary. The art in this volume is very soft and lovely. I’m a huge fan of more mature josei titles, so I’m looking forward to upcoming volumes.

Thanks to Kodansha Comics for approving a copy of the e-ARC on NetGalley for this honest review.

Rating: 4/5 🌟
Characters: 4.25/5🌟
Cover: 5/5 🌟
Story: 4/5 🌟
Writing: 4.5/5 🌟
Type: Manga
Worth?: Yes all the way

Loved all the way. I cannot wait to read the next manga within the series to see how they progress the characters. I like seeing the growth happening already but feel like there is going to be some big twist happening soon 👀 definitely would recommend to others

**There are spoilers in this review**

I’m sad to give this 1 star only because from the cover and description, I thought this would be a cute manga to read.

Though the art is cute and the concept is something that you could make a good story out of, this failed to be executed well. I’m aware that this is only the first volume of the series but I don’t think that I will be reading any more of it.

The main character is Sayo Akari, a woman who needs to interview a musician - Chizuru Kobuchi - for 12 hours a day as a special feature.
When she arrives at his house he immediately says that he didn’t consent to her recording/interviewing him as he is overworked but as soon as he finds out her name, he changed his tone entirely. This is because her name is written with the Japanese characters for serenade and he took it as a sign that she would be able to help him with the song he’s struggling to write. It wouldn’t be weird if he then didn’t ask her to be in a fake relationship with him and then quite promptly oversteps boundaries.

He kisses her without consent and then abuses his position to try to become intimate with her the third time they meet? I didn’t like that at all and found it creepy. Thankfully, before he could do anything other than take her bra off, his manager knocks on the door and pretty much forced the reporter to go home because she will ‘hinder the composers work on the serenade’. Oh, and he also lets her and the readers know Chizuru is familiar with women as she’s one of many he has had to kick out before.

Another thing, how did we just immediately skip past the fact that her boyfriend was actually married and she spotted him with his wife at the start? Literally that was all we heard about that. No saying that she broke up with him. Honestly if I were her, I would have gone up to him and his wife and let her know about the affair because no one deserves to be married to a cheater :)

The only person with a brain in this book is her best friend that she met up with for a coffee. She said that Sayo was in over her head and that she probably shouldn’t agree to be pseudo-lovers with the composer but obviously her advice was ignored.

Honestly, just as I thought the reasoning\ were weird and this couldn’t get any worse, Sayo goes to Chizuru’s house at past midnight JUST so he could act out a scene from the movie script - hug her from behind and kiss her. He didn’t even like the kiss and told her to do it “properly” aka French kiss him and not just give him a peck. Um. Okay? I would never have gone over to someone I have just met’s house alone at a moments notice, especially at that time because god knows what could happen. She doesn’t know him, nor what he’s like. For all she knows he could literally be a murderer but guess what? Common sense DOESN’T EXIST in this book.

After she gets there and all this happens, they go to the basement to work and she records him for a little while before falling asleep. When she wakes up, his manager comes back and once again lectures her saying she is hindering his performance. Oh, but there’s plot armour that saves the day! The serenade composition he was struggling to write? Yeah, it’s done. In one night. After he had been struggling for ages and was worried he wouldn’t meet his deadline in a few weeks. Strange.

Honestly apart from the artwork I can’t find anything good about this book. Sure it’s cute and sweet in style and concept, but as I said before, it’s horribly executed and I’m upset it wasn’t any better.

Thank you to NetGalley, the author and the publisher for allowing me free arc in exchange for an honest review.

This book is a decent and cute romance, but there’s nothing all that spectacular about it. I appreciate how all the characters (except for the male lead) recognize what a weird situation this is. Maybe future volumes will develop them a bit more, but as of right now the characters are pretty bland.

Steamy fake lovers tale? Hell yes. This one is absolutely stunning with a premise that far surpasses other fake lovers situations. I seriously can’t wait for more of these two! And the music addition is perfection. Definitely continuing this series.

The artwork is captivating. I love the serenity and beauty of calm scenes and the intensity of the smut scenes. Beautiful!

(First of all, thank you so much NetGalley, publisher, and author, for providing me this ARC in exchange for an honest review)

OMG I just devoured it, I loved it so much!!
Read it in one sitting I don’t really have much experiences with mangas but it was so cute and steamy at the same time. Fake-pretending is always one of my favorite, so it was just a perfect read for me. The artwork is amazing I really loved how both characters look, and their encounters were so cute.

This was an interesting and wacky novel.
I really enjoyed the art work too.
I found many moments funny.
I can't wait to continue!

Thank you to NetGalley for an ARC in exchange for my honest review. This was a cute story, but VERY rushed. I love the fake dating trope, but would have loved this better if there was a build up.
I'm not exactly sure what I feel about the main MC. I hope he's not a playboy in disguise as it is alluded to that he brings girls over often. The artwork was cute and the main female Mc was adorable, despite making rash decisions. I love that she works in television too!
I will read the next volume as I'm curious enough to know what happens to these two.

I would like to thank Netgalley and the publisher for providing me an arc of this manga in exchange for an honest review. This read definitely surprised me. I wasn't quite expecting the storyline and found it a little rushed. There w
as one part that made me feel slightly uncomfortable. However I did still find it enjoyable and one that I will continue. Page 94 had me laughing so much. The art is truly stunning, the characters are relatable and interesting. I will be picking up volume 2.

1 star

Sayo is given the task to personally film and interview Chizuru, but this goes way beyond that. Chizuru was bold enough to ask Sayo to be his lover, and she accepted disappointingly quickly. It is clear that Chizuru is utterly consumed with lust, and he even admits that all couples do in a relationships is have sex. Poor Sayo agrees, even a bit reluctantly, all for her job, which is a bit dumb. She accepts to be his pretend lover for her job... and I'm not sure why she is even feels attracted to him. This story has no proper plot progression, which is a major red flag.

This is an insta-love story, meaning the characters immediately find interest in each other and they act on it.. pretty quickly

The male lead is used to bringing girls around constantly to relieve himself (manager revealed this), and he seems no different when it comes to the female lead.. which, I am so sorry for her. There was no good plot progression, this went from 0 to 100 really quickly, like woah!

I am a bit iffy if I will even read the second volume, because if the plot continues as is, this doesn't seem like a good story overall. It is really is up to you if you'd like a rushed story with mature scenes. So if you are looking for that, here you are. Otherwise, I'd say, wait until the other volumes are out before making your final decision whether to read or not.

Thank you to NetGalley and Team for providing me with an e-arc in exchange for an honest review!

Akari Sayo works in a TV station and gets an unexpected job that may take off her career : realize a documentary about a musician, Chizuru Kobuchi. Rejecting the journalist at first, the musician changes his mind when he learns the woman’s name : it is decided Sayo will become his muse, and to help him to compose his next masterpiece, they will begin a fake love story.

A Serenade for Pretend Lovers is like its name suggests a cute and cheesy story. I felt a little sorry for Sayo, that is kind of wtf at least half of the story, as Chizuru Kobuchi takes advantage of the fact of being a young, handsome and rich man. As the young woman wonders if love is more than physical attraction, we see an evolution in their relationship. This manga is a fast read exploring the world of music, as well as the one of journalism. If you wish to read a romance, this story will be perfect for you.

Thank you to NetGalley, Kodansha, and Tochika Nekome for the opportunity to read this manga in exchange for an honest review.

Saya works at a TV station and has been tasked to record famous composer Chizuru Kobuchi in his natural composing environment. The issue is that Kobuchi must write the music for a love story, but he has never been in love. How can someone write music with feelings one has never felt before? Because of this dilemma, Kobuchi asks Saya to be in a fake relationship with him so that he can see what love feels like.

Saya seems a bit uncomfortable, but rolls with the many kisses and other physical aspects that "being in love" entails. But isn't love more than the physical?

I really struggled between a 3/5 and a 4/5 on this one. I love the art and the ease of the story made for a light read. I really like the potential of the "fake relationship" trope as it becomes genuine feelings. The scenario itself felt a little lackluster and unrealistic. The start seemed too fast. Overall, I can tell where this story is going based on the general trope, and this series does have promise. I have a feeling volume two will be superior.

Sayo is a reporter who wants to do a story on composer Chizuru Kobuchi. At first he is resistant but after he learns her name means “serenade” he not only agrees but proposes that Sayo be his pretend lover and muse for the film score he is composing. All this happens in the first chapter. They start having intimate moments pretty fast and for me there was not enough romantic tension or build up. The art was very good and by the end of the story I was starting to become invested and root for the couple. This is something I would continue to read if it was on Kindle Unlimited or available at my library, but I wouldn’t add it to my collection.Recommended for people looking for a quick, fun romance manga with very little tension or conflict.