Dahlia in Bloom: Crafting a Fresh Start With Magical Tools Volume 2

魔導具師ダリヤはうつむかない ～今日から自由な職人ライフ～ (Novel) #2

by Hisaya Amagishi, Kei (Illustrator), Nikolas Stirling (Translator)

Having escaped her doomed engagement, Dahlia is relishing her new life of freedom as an independent magical toolmaker. One day, she learns that her friend Volf, a knight from the Order of Beast Hunters, is to be sent out to the marshlands on a mission. But there’s a problem—traversing the marshes soon leaves the knights with soggy boots full of sweat and swamp water. Might a surprising pair of socks hold the solution? Dahlia uses know-how from her previous life to create toe socks with a drying enchantment and insoles imbued with air magic. She presents them to Volf, hoping they might help him and his friends, but nothing can prepare her for what a splash these items will make! Of course, there’s more than socks on Dahlia’s mind—she’s got her hands full crafting a man-made magical sword, an upgraded refrigerator, and more! Meanwhile, word of the young craftswoman’s exploits is spreading throughout the capital… Welcome to the second installment of Dahlia’s artisanal adventures!

Genres: Light Novel, Fantasy, Magic, Romance, Fiction, Cozy, Slice Of Life

316 pages, Kindle Edition

First published April 25, 2019

About the author

甘岸久弥

Reviews

[Russell Gray]

The first book was a quick read, so I picked up the second since I had a bit of time to kill. The characters in this story are annoying in a lot of ways tropes usually are, but there are some surprisingly poignant scenes sprinkled throughout the pages as well.

A lot of the flashbacks involving Dahlia's childhood with her father are more touching than I expected. The romance subplot here resembles the whole Japanese sexless marriage thing, which I'm not sure how satisfying it makes things for people who enthusiastically ship the couple.

[Akeesa]

Dahlia is not very good character. She wants clear-cut business relationship from almost everyone. No relationship can give her any favoritism and all pending favors must be payed back immediately and not letting any relationship live and grow, aside from the (slow blooming love interest/ totally just friend for ever).
Not showing any negative emotions in public is also very Japanese culture like. Her behavior is unlike the world/city culture she now lives in.
She is very naïve in many aspects despite having the extra years of experience on previous life.

Not sure if the title should have been "Dahlia eats with friends" since that is what every other chapter was about. So this is very slice of life feeling to it and very little plot.
Dahlia had very few thoughts or opinions, she just did things. Made food, made magic tools, business deals.

[Laura Quevedo]

Well, this volume disappointed me quite a bit. Besides the moments where she would craft something I found it boring. There were times where there were business matter and it wasn't interesting at all to me. Also, I thought that at least she had some knowledge when she let the others convince her to start her trading company but I didn't think that she would be completely useless.
There was also too much drinking and descriptions of foods that paired well with different types of drinks and I, myself, not being a drinker got really bored and skipped those parts.
I don't really care much about what will happen next, I can't find anything to look forward to, I really like light slice of life stories but this one didn't grab my attention.
So I'll stop with this volume.

[Jen]

Very good, but it seems like half the book is describing Dahlia and Volf eating and drinking.

Trigger warning: they discuss drinking alcohol a LOT. If you have issues with that, be aware.

Less one star for all of the talk of food and how well she cooks it.

4, I’m not jealous, you’re jealous, stars.

[ReadToBreathe]

The last chapter brought tears to my eyes💔 I wish the artist drew a picture of Dahlia's father bc I really want to see this loving man. His love and care for his daughter is so precious.

[Audry Lemke]

Average

If you take the length of this book I am of the opinion that half is just descriptions of meals the characters are eating or making. I get the author is a foody but it makes the story boring if half is about the characters eating and drinking. Use more plot to push forward the story and less about meals or food.

[Cynthia Anderson]

Loved the magic tool concept and the woman mc realizing her own worth, so vol 1 was plodding but ok...but by vol 2, I gave up...and with an angry kind of disappointment since I really loved the original concept.
As I said in vol 1 review: I just hated the execution, especially the lack of tool creation.
If Dahlia is supposed to be an alcoholic (she is constantly looking for reasons to drink alcohol...and doing it a lot...and she admitted her father was an alcoholic), then that's OK if there is some plot reason for it, like character development.
But so far there doesn't seem to be any reason for it. She just drinks to excess and eats food, and pretty much doesn't do any real magic tool building (kind of like another series about blacksmithing without any real actual blacksmithing!). So the whole hook that got me to read fizzled out and with the slow plot, almost arduous plot often times, lack of sympathy or likability for the main characters, and rather undeveloped characters across the board...well, I stopped at vol 2 and won't be continuing.

[Kim]

Same as last volume, there is so much food descriptions, I wish there is more magical toolmaking side than spending half a book reading what they eat and drink and how they taste like. I know what I was getting into after reading the manga (ongoing), so it doesn't bother me as much.

What bother me the most in this volume is how one of the character reveal that her noble husband makes her wear a tracking device at all time and finds it cute.

W.T.F.

It not??? I wonder if that part should read it like her husband trying to protect her since she was a commoner and that is to protect her from being kidnapped.

Anyways, it feel quite gross reading that part

[Judith]

More depth

Series where characters grow are so rewarding because the world and its people are made that much more vivid and relatable. Dahli-chan once again reaffirms her pledge to stand strong as her own person, finding her own way toward overcoming her father's shadow. Darling Volf also gains more insight to the pain we as humans share with others after having his heart opened up by our girl. And papa gets even more fleshed out even after his death in these lovely side stories. Enjoyable from beginning to end.

[Sol González]

Más lento pero igualmente lleno de sensibles momentos.
Este sin embargo, parece haberse decantado por contar acerca del placer de comer y beber con amigos. No me malentiendan, también tiene su carisma.

Al final sin embargo vuelve a recordar a su padre, y a la vez hay una historia corta del pasado donde su padre la ve todavía cómo una jovencita.

Esta es una historia acerca de crecer y de ir cortando raíces sin por ello quedarse sin anclas.

[Svetlana Barash]

Love this series!!!!

Beautifully written and funny. Great chats and their development as the story continues is awesome. Love the combination of.magic and monsters and science and the aristocracy thrown in. I'm also really enjoying the love story that is slowly unfolding. Can't wait for the next book.

[J-Lynn]

Volf clearly loves Dahlia. On the other hand, Dahlia thinks her feelings are only that of friendship… which they are not in my opinion. They’ll be together in a romantic sense soon; at least, I hope they will.

Also, everyone is an alcoholic. Alcohol morning, noon, and night is the way to go! (^_^)

[Elizabeth]

It's a lot of fun seeing how she improves the lives of people around her and revolutionize some of the conveniences in the new world she lives in. Can't wait to see how things progress for Dahlia. I'm still suspicious about the friendship with Volf. I think they're both in denial of their real feelings, but it remains to be seen!

[Nicole]

A book for Foodies

I am not a clam eatrr by any means, but I think they would taste delicious the way Dahlia cooked them, this book is an ode to food and I find that I want to try everything on the menu.

[selina c. jimenez]

Second installment is a page turner

We see our favorite characters deepen in this installment, with some of the periphery characters getting a chance to develop as well. Good action and fun pacing!

[Victoria]

This book it is not for everyone, it really technical. But I loved it, and it was so fun how 70% of the book was about foot wear and athlete's foot. 🤣🤣
I will said it again, not everyone's cup of te. 😜

[Sarah]

Maybe not quite as good as the first one but I got a real kick out of what Dahlia makes that creates such a hype in this book. I'm very interested to see where this goes in book 3.

[Stas]

I don't like her attitude. AT ALL.
This timid mouse should grow a spine and have at least -some- confidence.
Why the hell does -everybody- like her??

[Dantegideon]

Much more enjoyable when it concentrates on the protagonists’ stories.

[Yudi Lee]

i love how the invention revealed

[Robert Bowes]

fun story

A fun slice of life story, with likable characters. No harems involved in this story, just a slow romance. Smile

[Colleen]

I was enjoying the story until the parts about “breasts or behinds”. Completely unnecessary and gross it could have easily been cut out as it doesn’t add anything to the plot.

[Aelvana]

Dahlia is enjoying discovering life now that she's free of her former engagement. Inventions, food, friends . . . but soon everything starts getting bigger and bigger, and she's looking at more popularity than she can easily handle. Will her fledgling business manage the load?

Like the first volume, this one was pretty mixed for me.

I liked the increased focus on the business side. Dahlia is finally MAKING things, and sometimes having things go sideways, but a lot of what she makes she gets Volf to test, which gets the Knight Order interested, which is how she ends up with hundreds of orders for something that was supposed to be a single person's gift.

On the downside, this is way, way, way more information than we needed about athlete's foot.

Characters got a few new additions that look like possible regulars, from a few new Knights to a new business partner for Dahlia. I dislike how Volf is practically being shoved into romance male lead tropes. One thing I appreciated about the first book was that BOTH OF THEM agreed they needed time without romance, but now the plot is trying to have romance every time they interact. And what was that extremely awkward conversation about "I won't touch your girl because I like boobs not butts"?

Also there's a lot of prose wasted describing food and (excessive amounts of) drink.

Overall I did still mostly enjoy this, but I found a lot more things annoying this time around than with the first book. I wanted more business focus, yes, but the way Dahlia's inventions are praised by literally everyone and hailed as the savior of the Knight Order felt like way too much. Hopefully the series can find a better balance going forward. I rate this book Neutral.

See my reviews and more at https://offtheshelfreviews.wordpress....

[Pieter]

Volume 2 continues were 1 ended. Dahlia continues her research, and proposes an odd idea for a magical tool to Volf. The product is unexpectedly well received by the Beasthunters and her business suddenly grows a lot. The result is an interesting story with some interesting product and character development with a touch of romance (no drama this time). The biggest downside though is the amount of time spend on food and especially the kind of alcoholic beverages that go well with it to the point that I simple paged through those sections as opposed to really reading them. Without it, I would have given 4 stars. Still, I am curious were things are going both with her business, magic and the romance. I just wish less words were spend on food and drinks.

[Sammie]

The second volume of Dahlia in Bloom follows much the same route as the first volume. Dahlia is busy with all the tasks necessary to start her own company and it's growing at a pace that's surprising even for her. She's also hard at work creating newer and better magical tools. A lot of which are geared towards the convenience of the Knights' Guard this time as Volf's company inspires her to create tools that can help him. Her former fiance's older brother also makes an appearance in this volume and tries to make amends. Dahlia and Volf get closer and are getting increasingly more dependent on each other, although both are still firmly under the cloud of denial. Other people start to notice their feelings for each other.

[My]

The audacity of the author to put athlete's foot at the forefront of the story in between scenes of eating good food and drinking liquor? 10/10

I like that the narrative feels like an episodic slice-of-life in light novel form, but with the slightest of plot every now and then. But this is also to its detriment, since there's only so much about athlete's foot one can read.

[Lissa Hawley]

Still enjoying this series, but as has become my experience with light novels it gets bogged down a bit with technical details of magic systems and excessively detailed accounts of eating and drinking.

[Tom Smith]

gah the ending

I’m super curious on who her mother is. Is she still alive? She has a brother aparantly a year younger?
I don’t know her age ?? I’m guessing around 18/19

That diary ending. Ugh tears.

[T]

This was a good read good to just relax and read.

[j]

idk i like the slow burn