Ayaka couldn't get into the school she aspired to, so the teacher offers to help her by giving her a letter of recommendation in exchange for her talking to Honda about attending the school. Honda finds out about their deal, so Honda asks Ayaka for favors in exchange for her silence.

I liked it more than I thought. What I didn't like was the teacher. The plot has interesting elements of intrigue and character development. The twist in which Ayaka discovers new feelings for Honda adds emotional depth to the story. The dynamics between the characters, especially the tension created by the deal between Ayaka and Honda, add an element of suspense and complexity to the plot.

Thanks to NetGalley for the opportunity to review this manga in exchange for an honest review.

04/23/2024 || I Can't Say No to the Lonely Girl: Volume 1 by Kashikaze || #ICantSayNototheLonelyGirl #NetGalley

Thank you NetGalley, Kashikaze, and Kodansha Comics for making this e-ARC available!

Please note: This review may not be reproduced or quoted, in whole or in part, without explicit consent from the author and myself.

All of my thoughts are my own~

Full 5 Stars!!

Friends to Lovers is such a precious pipeline and adored the soft, gradual pining the characters seem to be growing towards. I cannot wait for more volumes to drop- I will be reading every single one now!!!!

3.25 stars.
Honestly, I was pretty taken aback by the first chapter and I really needed a moment to convince myself to read the rest. It felt wrong and I was kinda uncomfortable, but I'm glad I continued because it got better after that. I'll probably continue the story as well because I wanna see how it unfolds.
It's actually a pretty sweet story (or I think it will become one) and the characters are unique and fun to watch interacting with each other. Side characters are interesting as well and I really liked how they add quite some energy and space for the main characters to evolve their relationship.
The professor was kinda weird, though?
Anyway, I do hope the next volumes will have a bit more structure and will develop relationships of both main characters and their friend group.

A fast-paced, sweet little yuri. The title made it sound more menacing than it really is. Very fluffy (a compliment). Excited to read the next one!

Manga covers the mild misadventures of Sakurai, as her teacher Egawa bribes her with a college referral if she can convince Honda to come to school. Honda finds out about this and proceeds to blackmail Sakurai for what amounts to kisses, handholding, random activities, etc.

A mild yuri romp, at least in this first volume, nothing too weird or gross happens. Generally a pretty wholesome and funny experience, all things considered.

This was really cute and surprisingly light-hearted compared to what I’d expected. All of the moments between the girls were really sweet and I like that other characters are slowly being introduced more into the overall plot. I’m not the biggest fan of the teacher, but she was definitely a needed catalyst. I’m excited to see how their relationship grows and how their new friends support them. It was a very fast read, so I hope there’s a new volume soon.

This manga is about two girls in highschool get closer and how they start to like each other. It's a slow realisation of one of the girls that she likes the other girl, though at the beginning she clearly didn't like her. By the end it was cute.

very cute and charming! the art was fantastic and i really liked the two main characters & their dynamic. i’ll absolutely read more of it when it comes out! <3

I'm a sucker for yuri and slice-of-life manga, and this was such a cute start to this story! I can't wait to read more of it. They kiss on the first page and yet still, somehow, it ends up also being a slow burn. The character designs and the art is really nice and the dialogue is honestly a good cut above a lot of other manga I've read. Honestly, my only complaint is that I don't have volume 2 in front of me to read immediately.

Having said that, if this story were in anything other than a yuri manga, I'd probably have a problem with it. Honda's first "request" of Sakurai (in exchange for coming to school to appease their teacher -- yes, the plot is paper-thin, but we love it) is a kiss and she just... lays it on her. This happens a few more times -- the consent, she is dubious. This is kind of par for the course with a lot of yuri though, and the subtext is that Sakurai clearly is actually attracted to Honda, she's just not admitting it to herself. They were also friends in middle school, so it's possible there's a future plot reveal that Honda knows something we as the audience don't. Even still, I can understand this not playing well with English-speaking audiences.

I actually really enjoyed this Manga and it was given to me at the perfect time since it's lesbian visibility week and i've been making it a point tp read as much sapphic romances as possible.
This was a cute and quick story that had me hooked from page one, I thought the premise was a fun one and I'm so sad that I have to wait for the next Mangas and that I don't already have them available to read right now.

highly recommend if you want a cute sapphic manga with one fmc knowing her sexuality and another definitely having les panic and not knowing what to think!!

Thank you to Netgalley and Kodansha Comics for providing me with a free copy of this manga in exchange for an honest review!

3.5 rounded up

Thank you to Netgalley and Kodansha Comics for providing me with a free copy of this manga in exchange for an honest review!

Whilst this manga absolutely follows some typical tropes of yuri manga (main character who is majorly in denial despite obviously being attracted to the female love interest, pushy confident love interest, etc) I still had a great time reading this! We don't get a whole lot of character development for the main characters, but considering this is the very first volume, there is definitely potential. Some seeds have already been planted, particularly in the case of Honda, the love interest, and I'm interested in discovering her past and possible interest in Sakurai in the past.

I do wish the manga didn't put the main character into a position of, at least at first, having Honda kiss her without her consent. Whilst we as the audience know that Sakurai is developing feelings and isn't feeling completely uncomfortable, despite her denial, this wasn't shown to us before the kiss, and Honda definitely wouldn't have known this. I'm of course giving this leniency as, since I mentioned before, this is very much a common trope of yuri manga, and other than the initial kiss, you could make the excuse that, based on some cues the love interest is giving, Honda could maybe tell that her feelings are becoming more reciprocated. That's probably my main gripe with the volume at the moment, and there's a chance there could be a backstory going over this, but that's still something we're yet to see.

The story itself was quite fast-paced, but the relationship between Honda and Sakurai still felt authentic whilst still leaving a lot of room for development in future volumes. It's still early days, and I'm very much looking forward to where this manga goes!

I have also reviewed this manga on StoryGraph.

Sakurai’s exam nerves meant that she didn’t do as well as she expected and didn’t get into her preferred school. A teacher offers to write her a referral to her dream school if she can get a truant student to start coming to school.

The artwork fits the vibe perfectly and there is a comic element to the plot which I enjoyed. Overall, it's really cute if you ignore the blackmail/coercive start to the couple's relationship. It really wasn’t needed.

Honda could still ask for daily favours and they eventually start getting closer and catching feelings. The semi-forced kiss ruined it for me and felt very out of place.

Thanks to Netgalley for the ARC

Thanks for the ARC Netgalley!
This is a cute little beginning of this series. Very sweet and funny, can't wait to see Sakurai's lesbian panic progress. Also desperately wanna know more about Sora's real feelings to Sakurai. The cat chapter is the funniest and gayest thing in the entire book, especially, two lesbians looking for a cat and clutching onto one another coz lightning, while Sakurai is just blundering her way into gay dates with Sora, who I'm sure is straight up like "how long will it take until I don't have to make a special request?"

Like nothing groundbreaking but I enjoyed it thoroughly for being really lighthearted, fun high school yuri. Five stars for a good, cute yuri time. I can't wait to read the rest in the series!

It’s been a long time since I read a romance manga, especially a yuri one, but I have to say Lonely Girl was such a cute read and I instantly was hooked. I’m most definitely getting physical copies of the volumes. The Art is really sweet and I loved the characters, particularly the ‘lonely girl’. The romance is really sweet (which any one who knows me knows normally this isn’t something I instantly fall for but in this case I did).

I highly recommend to fans of a slice of life and romance manga. But even if your tastes aren’t in those genres please give this ago. I adored it and can’t wait to find out more.

I received a copy of this book in exchange for my honest review. Thank you NetGalley.

I adored this manga. This manga is a romance featuring a "goodie two shoes" female student and a truant female student. Her teacher offers her help if she will get the truant student to show up to class. Thus begins their romantic dynamic.

This manga was cute and engaging. So worth the read.

As a lesbian I always look for more wlw stories and while this one was fine it had some issues im not a fan off. Its kind of uncomfortable that the FL it forced in to the kisses even if she seems to enjoy them. Over all I might continue to see where the story goes but only time will tell

Really enjoyed this!! Exciting plot and really lovable characters! Even the side character, the teacher was super funny and had a big personality!

This manga is so adorable! While the premise caught me off guard, I quickly fell in love with the character. I'm 100% going to have to buy all of the volumes now!

*This review is based off of a NetGalley Arc*

3.5 🌟 This was such a fun and quick read and I quickly fell in love with the characters and their cutesy relationship! I loved the art and the sense of humor. I will definitely be continuing with volume 2.

This book has beautiful artwork and some truly lovely moments, but it's hard to get past the abuse of power dynamics between Sakurai and her teacher as well as Sakurai and Honda. I was immediately uncomfortable with the premise of blackmailing someone and using that knowledge to gain physical access to them. There are really wonderful parts to this story but it was very hard to get past that discomfort.