You Can Have My Back (Light Novel), Vol. 2

You Can Have My Back #2

by Minami Kotsuna, Hitomi Hitoyo (Illustrator ), Aleksandra Jankowska (Translator)

Leorino, the fourth son of a margrave, retains the memories from his past life as the knight Ionia and love for Prince Gravis. Leorino is unaware that he has come under the prince’s protection. Prince Gravis’ decision results in backlash against Leorino, and interaction with a jealous colleague ends in Leorino falling down a flight of stairs.

Genres: Light Novel, Romance, Fantasy, LGBT, Historical, Queer

464 pages, Paperback

Published November 21, 2023

Reviews

[V~ · Rating 5 out of 5]

4.9/5 🌟

As Leorino comes of age, it’s time for him to step out from under the protective wings of his beloved parents and family. Determined to carve his own path, he decides to find a job—one that will allow him to remain close to his Highness, Gravis.

Gravis, now unapologetically using his authority to keep Leorino by his side, doesn’t hide his possessiveness. But it’s not sinister—it’s a sincere, deep-rooted love, shaped by loss and longing. In contrast to the past, when he was the one protected at the cost of losing someone dear, Gravis now vows never to let that happen again.

Leorino, however, is caught in an inner battle. His mind is sharp and determined, but his body, weakened by disability, often betrays him. Driven by a need for truth and justice, he begins to rebel—seeking answers about the tragedy that unfolded 18 years ago. His quest stirs old rivalries, straining the fragile trust between him and Gravis.

Leorino’s defiance places him in harm’s way, and Gravis does everything he can to protect him. Their fear for each other deepens their emotional and physical intimacy, strengthening their bond in ways neither expected. What doesn't kill them only forges them closer—physically, emotionally, and spiritually. Their love becomes consuming, and Gravis takes it upon himself to introduce Leorino to new realms of pleasure and self-discovery.

This awakening is a struggle for Leorino. It is physically demanding, yes—but more so, it stirs memories of Ionia, blurring the lines between past and present, pain and desire.

In time, Leorino learns to accept his role—not as a reflection of others’ expectations, but as his own truth. He begins to differentiate between who he was, who he is becoming, and the complex, distinct feelings he holds for both Gravis and Lucas.

[Rebecca · Rating 4 out of 5]

To love and be loved for all time in any shape or form is the true appeal of reincarnation romances, and while the details of said rebirth in this novel are a little murky, it still perfectly captures the beauty of a soul mate bond.

The plot slows down quite a bit here, but this allows for much needed growth in these characters together and apart.

[L. · Rating 4 out of 5]

Okay this is... hard. I really, really loved the first volume, and while I still really enjoyed this volumes, I was let down a bit. Also this got real long, so apologies, skip to the bottom if you just want to know about the structure/plot of this volume.

I did get my dream, which was for Leorino to finally realize that there are others he can rely on and trust, however I got a lot more of things that I did not ask for.

In my review of the first volume, I praised this book for having a disabled character who needed to work within the limits of his disability, instead of being able to miraculously overcome it, and I would have like to see more of that happen in this volume. It would have been a logical continuation of Leorino's character development and mindset at the end of volume one, after all. Instead, I got Leorino being continuously, and forcefully, reminded of how weak he is, how powerless he is, and how much he needs other people to protect him.

This was... hard to read. Even though it does connect back to Leorino needing to work within his disability, this idea that he is powerless did not come from Leorino himself and was instead coming from outside forces that were belittling and stifling him... which just makes it feel like no one respects him or sees him as capable of doing anything by himself (which, granted, is a realistic depiction of how people treat the disabled -- and women, which Leorino is very heavily coded as). The novel attempts to explain other people needing to step in and teach Leorino this, as if he is not perfectly aware of his own condition and limitations already, by restating that Leorino himself is in a tough spot mentally, as he knows he is limited in his body and yet still holds himself to the standards of his memories of Ionia, so he is constantly doing and wanting to do more than he truly able to do. To me, this seems like a bit of a cop-out, given that Leorino had faced his limitations at the end of the last volume and was working within them, which just makes everyone's additional comments very insulting and dismissive.

However, while infuriating, it does help build up the characterization other characters very well. Many of the people who are reminding Leorino of his powerlessness are his family members, most (if not all) of whom are actively planning on having Leorino marry Julian (fuck him) in order to protect him from the outside world. From this lens, constantly reminding Leorino of his condition makes sense, since they want him to give up on his dreams of being independent.

And yet, not all of these characters are Leorino's family members. In fact, a huge culprit of this behavior is Gravis himself, who previously wanted to support Leorino in his quest for independence and learning of the outside world. Gravis' excuse for his behaviors is that he needed to teach Leorino just how powerless he was, so he would stop putting himself in danger, which makes sense given Gravis' possessiveness and fear of losing Leorino like he lost Ionia, but the way he went about it specifically just sits wrong with me, even if it is unlikely a civil explanation would have actually gotten through to Leorino.

And yet, this was not my main issue with this volume.

There were multiple instances where characters demand that Leorino think from their perspective and empathize with their situation, but rarely do they attempt to empathize back. Reading this is annoying at best and upsetting at worst. Leorino is essentially forced to take on all the emotional turmoil and burdens of all these other characters (mostly men, which is interesting from a feminist literary analysis perspective, as it furthers Leorino's feminization more than his appearance and disability already do by having him responsible for the emotions, grief, and pain of the other men in his life), without anyone offering to help him in turn. Now, some of this can be written off as Leorino not opening up to others about his real concerns, but I'm not even talking about the plot and Ionia's memories, which I will get to in a moment. Leorino's family writes off his own wishes and concerns, Julian (fuck him) pushes the burdens of his feelings onto Leorino, multiple characters critique Leorino's navigation of a social situation in a way that neglects to take his feelings into consideration and forces him to, again, empathize and prioritize the feelings of others, and Leorino is constantly having his own frustrations and wants being diminished by other's emotions or the grand scheme of things. All of this ends up furthering Leorino's guilty consciousness and seems to further alienate him from others, as he is not being understood or seen but is expected to do the same for everyone else.

Again, I do think that these events have value in the overall plot and characterization of Leorino and others. Leorino being critiqued about navigating society and interpersonal problems does further the idea that he is sheltered and uneducated about both the finer points of social interaction and the politics of the world. Leorino's family ignoring his wants shows how they don't really see him as someone who can make his own choices, and how they don't truly believe in his ability to be independent. Julian (seriously fucckkkkk him) making Leorino responsible for his emotions shows what a fucking asshole he is.

Despite my dislike for Leorino needing to take on other's emotional burdens, I think the plot events around Ionia's memories were handled very well. Even though I do not think it should have been Leorino's responsibility to make Lucas understand and see him for who he is, I think he did it in a very touching way, and I loved to see Lucas' newfound loyalty to him (as well as the depth that was given to Lucas in his interactions with Gravis, and with Julian) (also fuck Julian fr fr). I also liked that Gravis, near the end, was beginning to understand the weight that Ionia's memories were having on Leorino, and how significantly they have impacted his sense of duty, self worth, self image, and relationships with others. I really hope that these relationships continue to develop as more people learn about Leorino's condition, and I hope that finally Leorino will have others seeking to empathize and seek to understand him.

I am also sad to say that The Plot ended up being mostly backburnered for the this volume. Yes Leorino does meet an important connection, and some people get let in on his secret, but overall nothing major was done to unravel the mystery. The complex web of characters and politics that I loved so much was present on occasion as well, but it too was set aside. This was a volume that focused mainly on developing character's relationships, which I do not think is of itself a bad thing, but I feel like I read at least 100 pages of just like, pillow talk and sex scenes (and detailed bathing scenes), and it was really a bit much. I would have liked to see the character/relationship development of this volume better interspersed or blended with actual plot development, and I hope the next volume will shift to focus more on that component. This book set up a traitor in the kingdom, a potential war and invasion, a delicate balance of power within the kingdom that could be shattered at any moment, a subtle social battle about who should take the throne of the kingdom... and if all that ends up as just background plot to the romance, I'm going to be disappointed. Yes, I love romance too, but this book set itself up as more than that -- it's a fantasy political drama, with incredible world building, and I want to see that develop more than I want to see Gravis pin Leorino to the bed or sit him in his lap for the umpteenth time.

[Rebecca · Rating 3 out of 5]

Still giving off big MXTX energy, this second novel isn't quite as good as the first, largely because it gets a bit bogged down by describing how physically different Leorino is from Ionia. (And it has some impressively long sex scenes. Seriously, I thought I was reading a romance novel from the 1990s.) But the heart of the story, that Leorino struggles with his own identity and how much of him is Ionia, remains strong, and this is worth the high page count.

[Paris Nguyen · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book didn’t have any flash backs like the first book. However with the opening scene frok book one(sex scene) we finally got on that timeline in this book and damn. The plot is now finally moving with him telling people his secret. He is charater developing and starting to not be useless. I think gravis is perfect for him and just want he needs. It ended with him telling dirk and Lucas who he was. I can’t wait for book 3.

[J-Lynn · Rating 3 out of 5]

Leorino is so stupid and needs to stop trying to do stuff all by his weak self cause he freaking sucks at accomplishing tasks. Seriously, left and right he fails when trying to gather answers about Io’s past! I bet that Leorino will find the traitor by accident and get assaulted in the process of trying to either stall for time or run away…..

Side note, the art reminds me of that one yaoi art trope of small head with giant shoulders and hands. In other words, the art isn’t the best in my opinion. Regardless, im gonna finish this series even if it kills me. How hard can it be?

I only have one volume left….. ৻(•̀ ᗜ •́ ৻)⊹｡₊*⊹.˚

[Victoria G.H. · Rating 3 out of 5]

I’ll start out with what I love about this story before jumping to the issues I have with it, specially the second volume.

I think that this is a really unique approach to the reincarnation/destined lovers/etc. trope in that Leorino is truly not Ionia, but rather someone who has lived vicariously through him in his dreams. I love that Ionia and Leorino are so intensely different, both physically and psychologically. It’s not the same person or two people with overwhelmingly similar qualities, they’re both truly individuals that have shared experience. I will continue reading this story because I think this, along with several other characters + plot points, are extremely interesting and enjoyable.

As far as qualms I have, the first volume had two main issues for me: the constant chirping about Leorino’s beauty, and the fact that every man that wasn’t his family or like 3 other men in the story didn’t want to SA him at all times. This volume also had this issue, but there’s something that stood out to me and bothered me even more. The constant, CONSTANT referring to Leorino as weak drove me nuts. Even Gravis, the one who is meant to believe in him, constantly puts him down (endearingly maybe? I’m not even sure) and calls him weak. I understand that he is physically weak, but at this point it’s like everyone around him, including his love interest, is trying to make him mentally weak as well. The few times that Gravis stands up for his mental fortitude to others isn’t enough to negate the times he directly forces Leorino to be viscerally aware of his weakness rather than building him up. I love the disability representation in the story, but I feel this frequent occurrence is potentially insulting to those who have physical disabilities.

And speaking of Leorino’s “weakness”, I do genuinely wish he could cry a little less. Even for a highly sheltered child, it’s a bit difficult to believe a young adult could cry and tear up at every roadblock he experiences. I’m sure that there are people like this, and that those people have valid reasons, but for a story about Leorino finding strength outside of his physical capabilities, his emotional regulation is lacking and not improving much with time.

That being said, I do love this series, and I’m hoping to see both Gravis and Leorino show some growth in the coming volumes because outside of their relationship strengthening, I do believe they have a lot to work on as individuals. Also please…….. please, not everyone has to want to SA Leorino to show me how beautiful he is. I believe it!!!!!!!!!!

[Xix · Rating 3 out of 5]

This second volume spoiled the rest of the story for me in a bad way, to the point that I'm entirely content with whatever outcome comes in volume 3- I mean whatever. The character development went down the drain in the middle of the book. It was hard to see the alleged Male Lead —Vi—gaslight his former lover —Ionia— memories, ending, and existence in the book's last half to justify and excuse his new love. The issue in this volume is that inaccurate description of a reincarnation that isn't a reincarnation but looks like a reincarnation but might as well be Leorino's spiritist or medium sort of power to gather Ionia's soul into himself at birth time or whatever along those lines.

Unfortunately, Leorino isn't a character that can stand alone in this story without Ionia; the victim's role and damsel in distress just elongate and drag the story unnecessarily, and to be honest, I lost all sort of empathy, and I didn't even enjoy the intimate part of the book, at first I couldn't connect with it. Then, I felt a bit of repulsion and boredom from all the nonsense it came from. I feel let down since the book has a good premise, and it just flushes it down the drain. I will finish volume 3 out of sheer willpower. I was very disappointed in Lucas and Vi as love interests, mainly in the last one. He didn't love Ionia at all, knowing that the former had passed through, and he demonstrated that he didn't love Ionia at all. I will wait to see how the story ends, but I don't think my opinion will change far from what it comes to now.

[Emily · Rating 3 out of 5]

While I still enjoyed reading this book, I was disappointed by the lack of progress. This book was 455 pages long and barely anything happened. The plot took a minuscule step forward. Leorino also hasn't really grown as a character. This book basically only focused on the romance between Leorino and Gravis, but also not really. While the romance was definitely the main focus of this book, we still don't really get that many scenes of the two talking or getting to know each other. It is a lot of Gravis just marveling at how innocent and naive Leorino is, which is kind of icky. Based on my rating scale, this book should honestly probably be 2 stars instead of 3, but I still somehow really enjoy reading it.

[Ren · Rating 3 out of 5]

On the one hand I understand the utter dichotomy of Leorino and Ionia’s personalities is needed to juxtapose Leorino’s frailty and weakness against Ionia’s strength. It’s revealed to be the whole reason why Leorino hid his identity from the other main players of the story, which is what’s driving the entire plot. And yet Leorino can’t seem to go a single page without crying or getting assaulted, and it’s really quite a frustrating read. The story only started to get more interesting once Leorino finally came clean, but then the second volume ended at such an annoying cliffhanger… All in all I’m still going to read volume 3 but only grudgingly.

[Jenny · Rating 3 out of 5]

while im glad stuff finally progressed between leorino and gravis.......... i am so tired of the lack of character growth in leorino. gravis is in his late 30s, this man aint fucking changing. but leorino is our mc and the way the plot throws him into helpless maiden situations, even with his not so great leg, is soooooooooo fucking boring and too repetitive. i need there to be more plot than just oh no leorino's fucking helpless once again, someone save the mfer. like actually take some steps toward letting leorino become independent like he wants. or stop mentioning it if it's not gonna happen. leorino is a pathetic mc and gravis is a little boring as ml.

[Camron Winger · Rating 5 out of 5]

I enjoyed this book much more than the first. I was glad to see V and Lucas finally accepting Leo’s memories and not trying to force their idea of the man they lost onto him. Wasn’t a fan of the constant rape attempts on Leo but I’ve come to (unfortunately) accept them as part of the story. Finding out the outrageous age gap between Leo and V was upsetting, I was constantly changing Leo’s age in my head when I read the parts of him getting intimate with V. Other than that….I loved the details of the intimate moments and can’t wait to see how their relationship develops in the 3rd book.

[shae · Rating 5 out of 5]

You can have my back 2 - 5⭐️
Better than the first! The world building of the first book really pays off once reading this book, it so so satisfying to watch Leorino and Gravis’ story play out. The chemistry is off the chart and the angst -mmmmmmm- it’s top notch. Another book that had me kicking my feet! The confession scene is either the best of second best confession scene I’ve ever read; heart clenching, tear-jerking, the dialogue is so good.. it all ties in to the title and its just better than one could imagine. Onto the third book!

[Gray · Rating 5 out of 5]

OMG STOP TJIS IS UGHH- the truth is officially out and our main couples are coupling

[Mekashi · Rating 5 out of 5]

My heart was beating so fast and hard, that I couldn't stop my reading before finishing it. So it took me less than 24 hours, right after the first one.

This book was even more addicting than the first one, the romance hitting the fan (yes, Leorino and prince Gravis are finally together, body and mind). Because yes, finally some secrets are revealed and with that, some truths are revealed. But it's not that easy and simple, since the conspiracy in the story is getting more and more present and gosh, I'm stressing. It's nerve wracking and I can't wait to finally be able to read the next (and supposedly) final volume (please make it final, my heart won't live long enough if there's gonna be a fourth one).

[Meow Meow · Rating 5 out of 5]

The looming conflict with another country mostly takes a back seat and the romance part of the story takes a center stage in vol 2. This may be the most emotionally complicated story that I have read regarding reincarnation. For example, There is MC feeling inferior to his previous life who was physically much stronger than him. There is ML1 who feels he betrays his old love when he feels attracted to MC before he finds out about the reincarnation which he is absolutely happy about but still can’t stop asking himself what if MC was just like his past life. Or ML2 really longs for the physical appearance of MC’s past life and not just his soul. I absolutely love all these complicated emotions, which make the characters more real and more human. I think I’ll read other reincarnation stories with higher standards from now on.