While being a bit formulaic, this first volume is an interesting beginning and I have hopes of improvement. The characters are their own take on archetypes, but they have their own nice twists. I like that that Soujirou is willing to reach outside his usual milieu and both tries Kaoru's creations with an open mind AND that he comes looking for him when Kaoru doesn't show up.. I like Kaoru's fire, but I worry he'll be burnt up by difficulties Soujirou's storyline implies are likely to come. If you like romances with young feeling protagonists, if you like sweets and are interested in Japanese confectionary on some level, this is not a bad beginning. I'll wait to see where things go.

This manga took me by surprise but in such marvellous and wonderful ways!

We follow our main character, Kaoru, who runs a western style bakery and his rivalry with the man who runs a Japanese sweets shop down the street. That rivalry quickly turns to friendship, sharing sweets and ultimately with them ending up together.

This was adorable, sweet enough to melt anyone’s heart but with some sexy scenes thrown in that really brought the heat up! So if your heart wasn’t melting from the sweetness, it definitely would with the fire and passion between the two of them.

I highly recommend this queer manga if you’re in the mood for it!

5/5⭐️

TW: sexually explicit scenes

It was impossible to read on a kindle not formatted for it. From page 24 to 116 . The manga was nice. I tried to find a story but again because of the format, it wasn't possible.

The stars are for the cartoons

This was a cute yaoi but nothing extraordinary. I found it a bit rushed to be fair. When Kaoru and Soujirou kiss for the first time, they directly go home and Kaoru expresses his desire to have sex with him. However, from the previous chapters, I did not get this longing Kaoru said he had. So it didn’t feel realistic to me. However, the characters are cute and if the book had been longer, or even a short series, I would have love them much more. Also, I have a problem with the scene where Kaoru puts alcohol in his dessert to get Soujirou drunk.
Overall, it’s a nice and entertaining read but it could have been much better if well executed.
I recommend to people who like yaoi and just want to have a fun and relaxing read. It contains some mature scenes.
3/5

While this manga is very cute it wasn't to my tastes. I never really connected to the characters because we never learn more about them than what they do for a living and that they're attracted to each other. Even the small wrinkle of conflict that crops up midway is quickly resolved. Also, it felt like the romance happened at hyper speed, which isn't something I'm a fan of. It wasn't a bad story and the artwork is very pretty, it just lacked any substance. However, if you want a quick sweet treat with a very steamy finish then this might be for you!

This is the first manga that I have ever received as an ARC so bare with me.

Cheri, My Destiny is a BL manga about a pastry chef from France and his rival, the owner of the new and upcoming Japanese pastry chef. Kaoru goes to seek out the competition and finds Soujirou.

I found this story to be just average. There was little to no character development and the love story felt very instant. There were also a few questionable scenes that rubbed me the wrong way. One of the main character's puts alcohol in a pastry to try to get the other drunk to seduce him. Which, I think could have been excluded completely.

Overall, I did not personally enjoy this manga and would not recommend it,

not well formatted for kindle, impossible to read
.......................................................................................................................

DNF at 50%

I didn't enjoy this manga as I hoped I would. It feels as if some big chunks of the story are missing. The protagonists fall for each other pretty quickly, without much build-up actually on the page. You don't get to see the pastry chef slowly realize he's falling for his supposed rival. He comes to a sudden realization out of the blue and doesn't question it at all -- not to mention he didn't even wonder about it beforehand. In regards to his 'rival,' he also suddenly falls in love out of the blue, without any hints. This felt really stunted and dry.

I quite enjoyed this one, even if it wasn’t anything different compared to others I’ve read. It’s filled with the misunderstandings, love confessions, and standard Yaoi tropes so anyone that is into this genre will enjoy it.

There’s a few fade to black moments but one semi explicit scene so that was nice.

It’s about two pastry/candy chefs who meet as rivals though one of them really thinks that while the other is the stoic oblivious one who lets him go crazy trying to win. I did enjoy it but like I said it’s not really anything new.

Thank you to Tokyopop & Netgalley for letting me read this ARC in exchange for an honest review.

I got an ARC of this book.

The only thing I like more than gay cowboys is gay bakers (well specifically gay Jewish bakers, but I can settle for just gay bakers). SO when I saw a cover that was so clearly baking and gay I NEEDED IT.

The story went really fast. It was very much fluff. It was basically two guys that got together out of their love for sweets. One is grumpy, one is straight. There were a lot of tropes, but none were really explored in depth at all. I liked it because it was so much fluff that there really was no thinking or big emotions to process. Super low angst. The little big of angst was just to set the scene and to give character, not because it really felt like it should be there. I am talking incredibly fluffy BL here.

I needed a bit more of a transition from barely talking to lovers for this to be a five star read. If this was two or three volumes, I would have loved it. The tiny one shot stories at the end were incredibly cute and I would have loved to explore more of their relationship.

Overall, fluffy and fun.

4 stars

Very cute and funny yaoi/BL manga.
I thought it was *good* or satisfactory for a standalone but could have benefited from being a short 3-4 book series. I thought the plot development and character’s romantic relationship seemed too rushed. I would have wanted it to expand into at least a second volume. Also, I feel like it could have resolved a lot of my unanswered questions as far as plot holes and giving side characters purpose/agency.

The translation itself was great overall! I had no problem with it and the dialogue was appropriate.

3.5 stars

This was a short story but very cute, it follows Kaoru and Soujirou romance, very fast-paced and good for reading it in one sitting. My only problem with it is a scene where Kaoru makes sweets with alcohol and gives it to Soujirou, which for me was unnecessary and weirded me out. But other than that I would 100% recommend this for anyone who I think would enjoy it!

Thank you NetGalley and TOKYOPOP for allowing me to review this!

*Thank you to NetGalley for providing me with an eARC. All opinions are my own.*

I was really excited for this manga based off the description. LGBTQ rivals to lovers with bakers? Sign me up. Unfortunately, it was not what I was hoping for.

The MC deliberately puts alcohol in some chocolates to get to LI drunk after he specifically tells him that he doesn't drink alcohol because it lowers his inhibitions. He does so WITH THE INTENT of having sex and they do. I was about to put the book down right there, but I finished it for the purposes of this review.

The story was cute enough early on, and I enjoyed the art, but there was little to no relationship development, and it felt very shallow to me. I would have enjoyed it more if not for the AT BEST dubious consent, but overall I just felt like I wasted forty minutes reading this.

Very cute, very enjoyable. I am so glad I got a chance to read this. It was the perfect thing on a hot Sunday afternoon.

This bl manga, though as spicy as advertised, doesn't just follow the standard bl script. Cheri, My Destiny was on the softer, sweeter side and was an enjoyable read.

Cheri My Destiny is a one-shot BL manga about two rival confectioners, one who focuses on French style and one who does Japanese style, as they fall in love with their candy and each other. It's a cute one-shot BL story if that is your thing. The art style for me was a little weird (at first I thought it was an older title because the style seems 90s-inspired sometimes). Not my favorite style. And lastly, the main character learns that Sojiro can't handle alcohol well so he makes candies with whiskey in them to get Sojiro drunk so that he sleeps with him, which is kind of gross.

Thank you to netgalley for a free copy in exchange for an honest review.

This one was extremely cute (Right up until the last chapter, but I'll get to that). The main character, Kaoru, is really fun and rambunctious, and is nicely balanced by the calm and honest Sojiro. The art is cute and has some good personal style flair to it, and the illustrations of the confectionary are divine! I want to be eating sweets right now!! Anyway, a very fun bl manga here.

The premise is that a French patisserie owner/chef gets mad when he hears about a nearby traditional Japanese sweets shop, and goes to check out the competition. Trying to prove to the Japanese baker that Western sweets are great turns into more and more visits and eventual courtship. It's very fun and pretty funny.

The downsides: First, there's no real conflict -- it's pretty much smooth sailing and even the attempt to introduce a misunderstanding is cleared up with no actual actions having to be taken. Second: The last chapter introduces alcohol into the seduction in a way that, in the narrative itself, is played clearly for laughs/doesn't bother the characters, but is definitely a situation of one person deliberately lowering the other's inhibitions regardless. I figure readers should go into it aware of that.

This started out great and made my heart flutter many times. I loved the pastries and French references in the beginning. Everything just made me want to consume more sweets (even though I am not a chocolate person at all). I was a bit disappointed when two protagonists got together, not because of those more revealing scenes but because I think the story lost its flair. Also, what the hell was going on in the end? Deliberately making the love interest drunk so that they can go to the “next level” is way wrong. I would have loved this 100% for sure otherwise.

The way to love is through chocolate, trust me. At least for the cute boys in here lol - Kaoru is angry a traditional Japanese sweets store is stealing his costumers, goes there ready to fight Soujirou, and of course through eating sweets together they fall in love.

There’s like no conflict here, anything that comes close to angst is resolved in like two pages, so it’s a very light, fluffy read. Despite being short, and deserving of more pages to really develop better the relationship, I really like how there was none of the usual “but we’re both men!” thing we can find in BL manga so often.

Both characters were direct about their feelings, so it was quick to get to their romance, with some bonus scenes of their life together. So while I can’t give a full five stars, since there wasn’t much depth or anything new here, I really enjoyed this fluffy manga, and I’m interested in reading more of the author.

While I'm not necessarily the target audience for this manga, I really enjoyed it. The story was incredibly sweet (pun intended) and I'd definitely buy a full color copy of this and other volumes by the authors.