Dahlia in Bloom: Crafting a Fresh Start with Magical Tools · review
Hopefully I'll keep it short. This LN is not great. Yes, the idea is entertaining, but the execution is flawed. The synopsis got some things wrong, but thats ok because it wont change the fact that people will or will not read it. Lets begin with simple stuff. The premise is isekai, but with a twist: her memories are selective. As in, she remembers her past life, her parents, job etc, but she can't remember her old name. Ok. Actually, fk this. I was about to start describing as to why this is a bad LN. Here's faster: the story is full of plot contrivances, plotholes, plot devices. Everything happens because the author needs it to happen a certain way. The pacing is all fked up too. And some people even promoted this story as some cute fantasy, slice-of-life, romance thing. Well, it is a fantasy, but no world-building . Slice-of-life, meh. Romance, no. The author makes you think there might be something in the future, but 9 volumes later its the same. Btw, one volume has about 250 pages, so you'll read it maybe in 6-8 hours. The anime series takes 5 hours to watch and covers the first 2 volumes (plus some scenes from the half of the 3rd one). Its a bit weirdly constructed but the story is the same, if you wanna give it a go and see what all of this is about. Later it gets worse. Yeeey.
So, this is a story about food and drinks, sometimes about creating magical stuff, with some fake romance going on. All forced to go in a certain way because the author wills it. This is the best definition of reading something to waste .. ermm, to pass time. No world-building, no character development, no bad guys, mostly going for "see? they have layers, there's more to the story" angle. Nothing. Lots of inner dialogue and assuming stuff, instead of just talking like 2 normal people. Fake romance, fake drama. Problems? Thats ok, the next chapter will have it fixed.
The story is ongoing (I'm up to volume 9) and I don't know how many more volumes are in the works. Probably as long as the author wants money, not a good story. That means at some point the author will drop it, because there's no way to end the story in a satisfying way (same as george rr martin and a song of ice and fire, aka the game of thrones stuff).
I'm giving it a 4, for the idea and for those very few good scenes. Not recommended, no return value, obviously. Oh, also the art: It was kinda ok at first, but later it gets mostly meh.
Have a lovely day.