The Shurin Returns
Shurin Koukou Dainiryou Returns 1 by Tsukimura Kei and illustrated by Ninomiya Etsumi is the first book of a second series about a student, stuck with taking care of his totally worthless brothers in a "big sister" syndrome, who decides to attend a school with a very nice dorm. Unfortunately he is assigned to the second dorm, which is a private house populated by worthless students and a worthless teacher. He ends up doing all the housework and becoming the assistant/manager/underling of the good-looking and outwardly very nice but in private jerkish published author upperclassman. The first series of three books frustrated me for a variety of reasons. First, the author seemed to have been going for eccentric residents (like Greenwood with real boy-on-boy action, possibly?) but to me she ends up with abrasive and annoying characters with very little charm or worth. Even the put-upon main character (who usually is able to gain sympathy points for being relatively normal in an insane world) enables the others to take advantage of his nature (which, we are led to believe, can't be changed with some backbone and a bit of saying "NO"), yet continues to bitch about being put-upon. Constantly. And loudly. His love interest, the author, takes the "boys like to be mean to those they like" concept pretty far. It's sad seeing boy who can't convey his feelings in love with but treating badly (most of the time) a clueless boy who constantly wonders what the other guy thinks of him even as he does everything he's told to do. Basically, I didn't really like anyone in the series. I despised several of the characters and their relationships intensely, but they weren't the two main characters. My second problem with the first series was that it ended the main relationship with a question mark. I felt cheated out of a conclusion after putting up with all of these really unpleasant people for three books (and felt dumb reading all three books despite my problems with the series)...which is why I decided to put up my hard-earned cash and buy the first book in this new series. I wanted closure. I wanted to know that the main characters actually got together (or not), and not be left in limbo. Luckily the author really moved things along in this first book. She also introduced a nice character! The first character I actually like in this series! Hopefully this trend continues and this second series ends decently...