Cute series, frequently funny, nice artwork. All around this is a pretty solid title for fans of light-hearted manga. My biggest issue is that it suffers a bit from the "I've seen this story before, just slightly altered" issue, but it's not a big problem as the it's told in a charming fashion. Well worth a read. 4/5 stars.

My thanks to Netgalley and the publisher for providing me with a copy in return for a review.

This was a pretty solid first volume. I liked how there was a quadruple? love square, or rather, an implied one. It was very intriguing, and the ending only makes me want to read the second volume even more. I absolutely adore how the family dynamic played out with Nanami and her little brother too! However, I only wish we got to learn more about the boys and their backstories, especially about Rei's friends. Nevertheless it was still a very a fun read that I hope other people will also enjoy!

(Also, on page 82, I believe there is a typo. The chairman says 'taken' twice.)

This was such a good and wholesome story. Perfect for fans of Fruits Basket, My Little Monster, and Kaicho-Wa Maid-Sama. The lead character has the optimistic personality of Tohru Honda while having the bite to stick up for herself similar to our tough as nails Shoujo heroines.
The boys are all very likable and easy to relate to. The "tortured" main boy is a favorite trope and may come off as a bit cliche', but it certainly works.

A definite solid Shoujo piece and left me wanting to pick up the second volume right away.

My one critique (while leaving it vague to avoid spoilers) is that I would have liked a bit more relationship depth from Ireiri. The twist with him towards the end was a bit of a downer (And predictable for this genre) unless they are going to pull the very much needed representation card in the next volume similar to Arina Tanemura's Gentleman's Alliance.

I love these kinds of Manga. The ones where there are a bunch of misunderstood 'bad boys' who aren't necessarily bad who protect one girl. I eat that up, and this? This was all of that. Everything I expected and wanted from this manga.

Just when I was getting into this, it ended. Which obviously makes me want to read more and more of it. I need to see what happens with this chemistry between the main characters, and what kind of trouble they get into next.

Such an easy, light read to escape the drudgery of life. The artwork is absolutely beautiful too.

Thank you to the publishers and NetGalley for providing me with a copy of this manga in exchange of an honest review.

THANK YOU, THANK YOU, THANK YOU SO MUCH to the publishing company, Kodansha Comics and Netgalley for providing me with a copy!!!

I have a very small manga collection and I’m excited to continue growing it and add this one to it!
I haven’t read one in such a long time and reading this has definitely sparked my interest in getting back into mangas again (specifically shoujos)!

This is a cute and swoon worthy read! Honestly it doesn't have the most unique storyline...It’s very similar to other shoujo mangas, but you can't help but get compelled! And you can’t help but get sucked into the storyline and wondering what will happen next! (I have saved the date for the next volume)

This is a great pick me up book! It is fast paced, fun and I enjoyed seeing the friendships between the main characters blossom. I really enjoyed how sweet Midori is and I love how she doesn't judge. She is a great main character!

The art in this is really stunning and I'm so excited to continue on with this series!

A huge thank you to Netgalley and Kodansha for the ARC in exchange for an honest review!

If you love slice of life/drama/romances like Honey So Sweet, Horimiya, or Daytime Shooting Star, this is another great story for you. Like most shojo manga in that genre, it's girl meets boy and her heart skips a beat. While it has those ever-familiar tropes of a classic shojo manga, it's different enough to stand out on its own. I love watching Nanami grow closer to the three boys she's been roped into helping. I definitely plan on reading the others in this series.

I received my copy through NetGalley for an honest review.

I loved the art, the characters, and the story while playing on familiar tropes felt original and fresh. I haven't read any other Nogiri works but it does have me wanting to pick up their other works. As a big fan of shojo I enjoyed this a lot. I do plan on continuing to read this series and see where it goes.

Slice of life reverse harem manga following Nanami a young girl given the task of wrangling three wayward boys from her school, who were suspended and never returned to school when their suspension was over.

This was a fun cute manga about youths from different but challenging backgrounds learning about building friendships while meeting new people and having new experiences. I cannot wait for the next volume.

Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for this Arc in exchange for an honest review.

Another fresh and sweet Shojo that I intend to continue reading. I liked it and had such a nice time while reading it. I love Kodansha comics and all the books that they publish are amazing.

This book is about Midori a nice and hardworking girl who finds herself obliged to work at night because of the debts left by her father. Unfortunately, she is discovered by the chairman at her school who sees it as a chance in order to use poor innocent Midori for a mission that consist in bringing back three boys to school who refuse to come back to class and if she doesn't succeed, she will be expelled from school . A beautiful story about first love and friendship .

The characters are interesting and after reading just this first book, we are curious to know what will happen next with Midori and Ichijo.

Those Not-So-Sweet Boys, Volume 1, by Yoko Nogiri is a manga style graphic novel. Midori drops her wallet on her first day of high school, but her new classmate Ichijo swoops in to help. She wants to thank him, but he’s part of a tight-knit trio and none of them are ever in class! Rumor has it that they all got expelled for acting up, and studious Midori’s actually at risk of expulsion, too. In order to help support her family, she has a part-time job, which is against the school rules. When the chairman of the school board catches her leaving work, he says he’ll let it go—but only if she’s up to the task of bringing the three boys back to school. Well, why not? It’ll be a piece of cake…right?

Those Not-So-Sweet Boys is a fun and engaging graphic novel. I liked the dynamic of innocent and hardworking Midori and the fairly mysterious boys that helped her out but getting her wallet for her. Her sweetness and determination in getting the boys to school, and integrated with their peers, is fun to watch as the guys try to balance their tough guy images and desire to be seen as not caring about school or their reputations. The story really works, and leaves readers looking for more details about how things came to be like this, and what might happen next. I will be continuing this series, because I want to see Mirori's brother have more page time, and I want to learn more about all of the characters.

I liked the story, although I do think that I had previously read the digital version of the manga- because it was all very familiar to me. Since I subscribe to a couple manga websites, this is not overly surprising. It was fun, with an underlying mystery and interesting development of characters and friendship.

A very sweet first volume that is giving me all the feels! In this high school romance/drama, our main character Midori is tasked with getting three difficult, rich students to come back to school. As she gets to know the boys, she finds herself liking one a little more. Cue some classic romance drama and tropes, with a clean art style and hopefully a great romance!

Definitely one to watch in the future, or if you’re a fan of the genre this will be a sweet ride! Thank you to NetGalley and Kodansha Comics for the ARC!

I absolutely adored everything about this manga and I refuse to hear anything but positive things about it until the end of time.

This manga was uber cute. I definitely recommend this to my romance loving friends because even though we didn’t get an established romance in this first volume, I can definitely see the ground work for a sweet romance in the later volumes. I really love the art style in this volume and how each character is so distinctly unique. Also the storyline was cute enough to drive the plot forward and get Midori in some interesting situations. I really love the friendship that develops between the entire group and how they interact.

This is a really amazing first volume! I cannot wait to see what else happens in the series!


*(I received an ARC from the publisher via Netgalley. All thoughts expressed are my own.)*

So glad I got to read this first volume, i thought it was a really nice story where a young girl despite her troubles manages to stay optimistic and through perseverance and hard work slowly works on bringing the three outcast boys out of their shell and tries to make them more apart of the class. There's a nice cast of characters some of my favorites which were Midori, midori's boss, midori's brother and ichijo. I'm eager to see how the story continues in volume 2.

I really enjoyed this manga! There is still so much more story to come with this and I cannot wait for volume 2. I want to read it right now! I liked the development of the friendship between the main character and all of the boys, and especially the development between the main character and Rei. I’m excited to see even more development in future volumes, especially since this ended on a cliffhanger! I like all of the main characters so far, and of course love the adorable dog Kota!

I can’t wait to see where this series and the romance goes in the future!

This was a sweet start to a new romance series, where a girl must convince three rebellious classmates to come back to school or risk losing her scholarship. I love a good "bond or else" trope, and I was happy to see that the boys came through for her instead of blowing her efforts off for the whole volume. The art style was very cute, and I loved to watch the growing bond between Rei and the main girl. At first, I was worried I'd have to note that I wanted more screentime from Yuki, since he didn't seem to have as deep as a personality as Rei and Chihiro. When you learn why, my eyebrows picked up! I'm looking forward to the next one.

I was given access to an eARC of this manga in return for an honest review, thank you NetGalley.

This story follows schoolgirl Midori as she is tasked with making sure a group of three seemingly bad-boys attend school.

I thought the illustration style of this was incredibly cute, and I really liked the traditional right-to-left reading style. Midori was very sweet and I enjoyed seeing her friendship with the boys blossom. We were left on a bit of a cliffhanger, so I’d love to see the second volume and continue reading!

A lovely, cute and quick read.

Disclaimer: I recieved this ARC in exchange for an honest review from @NetGalley.

This manga is perfect for fans of Ouran High School Host Club!! I loved reading about Midori. Midori's very similar to Haruhi in the sense that they're both independent characters who owe a huge debt to someone else. In Midori's case, the person she owes a huge debt to never shows up to class and she finds out from rumors spread around her school that the other person got expelled with his friends! When the chairman catches her at her job (which is against school rules) he tells her he'll make an exception if she can bring the person and his friends in so that they go back to school. She thinks it's going to be easy at first, but, she's in for a surprise! Okay, this manga was SO FREAKING CUTE and I absolutely loved it!! I'll be doing a book review on my blog soon. I highly recommend it.- especially if you loved Ouran.

Those not-so-sweet boys is the same cliche poor girl rich boy love story. I found this story a lot similar to Boys over Flower.
The art style is really beautiful. The story is sweet and enjoyable. If you are new to mangas, this will definitely be a delightful read. On the other hand, if you are already familiar with mangas, manhwas, this book will not intrigue you much.

Midori drops her wallet and is struggling to get it back from a group of older boys when her classmate Ichijo steps in and helps. Before she can properly thank him, he leaves with his two friends. Turns out they are a tight knit group of friends. So when all three of them stop coming to school, rumors run rampant.

Poor Midori is basically blackmailed into getting the boys back into class by the chairman of the school. This begins a fairly long quest to keep the boys up to date with their homework while she tries to convince them to return. Discovering the reason they won't go back, Midori takes matters into her own hands and gets herself into a bit of trouble. Fortunately the boys like her enough to come to her rescue and their precarious friendship seems to take off as the chairman manipulates their deal to ensure Midori is stuck babysitting the boys (making sure they don't fail for starters) until the day they all graduate.

so what did I think?

The storyline is something of a familiar one (it's been done before), but none the less I thoroughly enjoyed it. There is a lot of potential for it to go many different ways as this is just the first volume. Midori's crush is pretty cute, even as she tries to wrangle in all three boys. The art is absolutely lovely and I will CERTAINLY be keeping an eye out for the rest of the series!

*DISCLAIMER* I received a free copy of this book for review purposes. I only accept books I think I’d like because life is too short to waste on bad books. That said if I don’t like a book, I’ll say so, free or not. With that out of the way, onto the review:


Main cast of characters:
-Midori Nanami - a very sweet but slightly awkward freshman, her dad left the family in serious debt

-Rei Ichijo - lives alone, son of the head of the Ichijo conglomerate, his mom died a few years ago

-Yukinojo Ieri - son of doctor / owner of a clinic

-Chihiro Goshima - successor to the Goshima gang


One line review: As a punishment for violating her school’s rules about employment, Midori must encourage three troubled boys to go back to school or risk losing her scholarship


Slightly longer review: On Midori’s first day of high school she loses her wallet. A group of “Not so sweet” boys (Rei, Yukinojo, and Chihiro) see other boys trying to take the money from it and prevent that then hand her wallet back to her.

After that day Midori sees the boys, specifically Rei, in a new light. There’s rumors about the boys. They don’t have the best reputation. Then they disappear from school. The rumors seem to grow and grow.

Then the chairman of Midori’s school catches her violating the school’s rules on employment. She really really needs a job. Her dad left the family and he did so after running up a lot of debt that they’re now stuck with. Midori’s mom already works day and night and Midori doesn’t want her younger brother to have to take on a job so young. She begs the chairman to let her work. They reach a compromise - bring the three boys back to school. Midori does that and so much for the boys. Do they appreciate it? Does Midori like Rei? Are the boys really the trouble everyone thinks they are?

The chairman keeps moving the goalpost but does finally find Midori a job, is it a coincidence that’s it’s at the boys favorite restaurant?

Super cute story about an awkward girl, some boys who have maybe earned their reps despite not being nearly the bad boys that most see them as. A bit of fairly awkward flirting. Oh and there’s even a super cute dog.

I’d gladly read more of this series.