What light novel(s) have you read this week, and what do you think about it? [October 16. - October 22.]

Min-Maxing My TRPG Build in Another World: Volume 7 - I love this series again. Margit is one of my favorite side characters and finally, she gets the spotlight she deserves after she has been so rudely dropped in the previous arc spanning 5 entire volumes. But that's in the past! Margit is back and she's back with a vengeance. I love their romance and think that it is the best practice to handle it in a non-romance series. Intercourse for example is only ever implied if you read between the lines without any need for gratuitous sex scenes as fan service or some on-the-nose "wink wink" lines. I think every author should learn from this series how to handle intimacy in a series that isn't explicitly about fan service. Everything about their romance is perfectly portrayed without ever getting in the way of the story. It perfectly shows how deeply they feel for each other without feeling like it has suddenly jumped genres into a romance or ecchi title. The annoying "TTRPG hurr-durr schitck" also seems to be dialed down a bit. It's still there and very prevalent but it didn't annoy me as much in this volume as it did in the previous 5. Maybe it's just that I'm more forgiving now that I'm riding my Margit high. Sidenote: Have the fairies been retconned or did I miss something? - 8/10 best side characters.

By the Grace of the Gods: Volume 13 - One of the better volumes in the series. Ryoma goes on an adventure to the city of the undead and makes some new acquaintances. The volume felt very short though and I wish there was some more meat to it. The next volume should be interesting as well. - 7/10 grave slimes.

Death’s Daughter and the Ebony Blade: Volume 1 - Not a series for me. I liked MC and wanted to read more of her but the narrative is constantly broken up with boring and multiple paragraphs long exposition. Then after the exposition pieces, the POV switches to rando characters on both sides of the war. The actual chapters following MC are few. It's a shame really, since she is such an interesting character. There is also a blatant Grima Wormtounge trope that is so trite that it is hard to read. - 3/10 MCless chapters.

Taking My Reincarnation One Step at a Time: No One Told Me There Would Be Monsters! Volume 2 - I enjoy the series. This is mostly due to the likable MC and the slow low-stakes plot. That being said, the "big misunderstanding/mistaken identity” thing that was going on was amounting to epically stupid proportions. It has become so bad that there wasn’t a single character left in the story that didn’t look like a removed kid that kept on happily putting his hand on a hot stove again and again because it just can’t quite put one and one together. I wouldn’t have suffered through this for a third volume. - 7/10 fluffy cotton sheep

@NineSwords Didn't I Say to Make My Abilities Average in the Next Life?! 4, 5