Cress’s Reviews > Gate to Kagoshima > Status Update

It is so frustrating how much is told versus show in this book. This all could have been so much better and organic if we saw even have the things we were told about.

Also? Bokken stick? Google existed in 2005. It's a sword. Not a stick. Every time I had to read about a bokken stick was grating my nerves because I know Kuroki cares about this history. I KNOW SHE DOES. So why she calls a training sword a stick? UGH!

Ikeda and Toromasa showed more chemistry together in one paragraph than Isla and Keiichiro in 7 chapters.

I have started annotating this. God help me.

We didn't make it so far today. But we did discuss that Sakamoto Ryoma would make a great romantic lead for a time slip romance. Also that on the scale most famous people of samurai culture that Takamori Saigo, while famous, probably gets further down the down the list if you start adding in Sengoku period warlords alongside Bakumatsu period revolutionaries.

Why?

Every page read, I feel like I'm losing a part of myself that I will never get back #katanasword #swordhandle #haorijacket

I would once again like to know....where is the editor?

We had gems in chapter two the likes of:

"Isla jammed her hands into armpits..."

"She felt more alone than she had ever done in her life."

Also, the barista is a faceless, nameless man with a bun.

2007-2010 references: myspace, flip phone, clueless about boba (but then correctly calling it "bubble tea" in internal dialogue.

Editor....where are you?

I hope "ancestors / ancestors' homeland" isn't a phrase that keeps getting repeated.

I'm confused. Wait. Okay. Nevermind.