While the plot may follow some familiar fantasy tropes, and lets be honest what manga doesn't now a days the novel’s charm and character dynamics make it a delightful read for fans of magical romances and fantastical escapades. Volume two I cant wait!!

The best thing I can say for this is that the art is pretty great and stands out. It's lovely to look at. Unfortunately, I didn't really take away much from the story itself; I don't think this worked for me on a personal level. I think this has its audience, and that audience doesn't include me.

Este manga empieza con una persecución. Nuestra protagonista, Nina, acaba de robar junto con dos compinches un brazalete con una piedra preciosa del mismo color peculiar que sus ojos.

Varios días después uno de sus compinches la vende a la realeza ya que están buscando a alguien con ojos azules para hacerse pasar por la princesa que ha muerto en un accidente recientemente. Aquí es cuando conocemos a Azure, el príncipe del reino llamado Fortina.

A partir, de este encuentro tiene que aprender a comportarse como una princesa y hacerse pasar por la princesa muerta. Pasa de vivir llevando harapos sucios a vestirse de lujo con vestidos dignos de la realeza.

Nina tenía un carácter muy infantil tras haber adoptado la posición de princesa. Parecía como si hubiese cambiado su carácter tras haber cambiado de estilo de vida; antes, cuando no tenía suficiente para comer, se comportaba de un modo más maduro; después, parece una niña malcriada corriendo por los pasadizos del palacio. Pero al ver que Azure está en una situación incómoda con la madre de su hermano menor ella se lanza (literalmente) para salvarlo, por lo que me hizo cambiar un poco de opinión sobre su carácter.

Poco a poco vemos como los lazos entre Azure y Nina se van estrechando. Aunque en este primer tomo no hay romance estoy segura que a medida que vaya progresando la historia, veremos como se desarrolla la relación entre ambos.

I LOVE I LOVE I LOVE I LOVED IT. I don’t think I can say it enough how much I enjoy it! Can’t wait to see where it goes

Lush art style and a prince and the pauper style set-up with court intrigue and royal machinations. Looking forward to the next installment.

Thank you to Kodansha and NetGalley for the review copy.

I am really interested in this series. Though the politics are interesting on their own, Nina is an amazing character.

I'll be honest and say I was lured in by the pretty cover and whimsical title, and I don't think I was at all let down?

Like the art was really pretty and I enjoyed the style of it, especially the way Nina's eyes are drawn and all of the pretty outfits! I honestly got hooked into this pretty fast, I mean...who doesn't like a bit of drama? It was hard to put down because I kept wanting to see what would happen next and I was just hugely entertained!

Overall this one was very cool. The art is gorgeous, the story very interesting. I can’t wait for the next volume.

Thank you for allowing me the advanced readers copy of this manga! I found this manga hilarious at times, and somewhat romantic in others. Can't wait to read the rest of this series soon!

I’ve been into contemporary stories lately so, when this Fantasy manga caught my attention, I was glad to get a change of scenery.

Nina The Starry Bride is—in my opinion—a heartbreaking story at heart. From the very beginning, we see what kind of life Nina is living, and you can’t help but hoping the future has something better in store for her. However, is impersonating a dead princess truly any better? Only time will tell.

I really enjoyed this first volume, the story is quite captivating—I couldn’t help feeling sad for Nina—and the characters have interesting personalities.

Summary:

Nina has had a rough (horrible) life. She and her friends all lost their families, so they did the best they could to survive on the streets. Unfortunately, that sort of life is tough on children, so there was more loss on the way.

In an act of desperation, Nina's own brother sells her into slavery. As it turns out, the guy who bought her needs her for a specific reason – she needs to replace the recently (and secretly) deceased princess.

Review:

I think we've all read a series (or ten) about commoners secretly becoming royalty, but I still couldn't resist giving Nina the Starry Bride Vol. 1 a try. While this series does lean on many tropes, it has a certain level of charm that makes it feel unique.

The first volume goes a long way in establishing the plot and core characters. We have Nina (now Alisha), her two half-brothers (pretend?), the king, the queen (a potential problem), etc. Each character seems to bring their own plot, which is nice. It means there's a lot of potential going forward.

At the end of the day, all I want to do is protect little Nina. She's so young and has gone through so much. They designed her character well because she's very earnest and believable. She's the perfect protagonist.

Nina the Starry Bride Vol. 1 is a solid start to the series, and you better believe that I'll be reading the rest of it!

Highlights:
Manga – Shojo
Romantic Fantasy
Secrets & Royalty

Will I continue the series? Yes

Thanks to Kodansha Comics and #NetGalley for making this book available for review. All opinions expressed are my own.

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I enjoyed this read. The world building was interesting and the characters were well built. I am excited to see how the story progresses. I would want to learn more in the future which I think is a good thing for this book because there are defiantly manga i've started and not want to continue after book 1 or 2 but I do not think book 2 will let me down. I think the emotions and actions of each character were well planned out. I would recommend this to my manga reading friends for sure.

Young orphaned girl that lives in poverty gets a chance at a new life as a princess' double. It's not the most unique trope, but still makes for a fun read. The tone of the story at the start is dark and serious, but it actually quite quickly and abruptly shifts into something more light, cute and goofy. I'm willing to read a few more volumes before I form my opinion on this series since they are short and an be read really quickly. Judging the series only from this first volume though I found all of the the characters lacking in personality department and the plot was barely there. But the illustrations were really cute!

Hmmm... I won't do a full literary review for this book, especially because I DNFed a small percentage of it read. Indeed, the images were attractive, the reading was easy and fluid, but the story was not interesting. The MC was classic “powerless young girl who easily falls under the prince’s spell”, baaah not super interesting. However, thank you to NetGalley for allowing me to discover this book!

4.5/5

I have to say I really liked this one.
It's set in a fantasy world probably in a sort of past where this young girl who has almost lost everything and everyone finds herself thrown all of a sudden into a world of luxury and princes and castles.

I really liked the premise of the series, and especially how it was developed throughout.
Our main protogonist feels a lot of different emotions, and the author was able to deliver all of them.
The story starts when Nina has lost amost everything, she's living basically like a boy surrounded by only a few people who are left in her life after the plague took almost everyone. All of a sudden she finds herself taken by some misterious people, dragging her to this sort of court, where from now on has to learn to become a princess. She's in fact the only person they were able to find with the same eyes as the lost princess, who apparently had a terrible accident.

Her life is everything but easy, she has to adapt to this new life, know all the new people there and especially live without the ones she always loved and took care of her for so long.

In this first volume there's a lot going on, but the art is very clear and super pretty to look at and the story seems already very intriguing and very interesting.

Thank you to NetGalley and Rikachi for letting me read this!
This was such a cute and fun manga. It reminded me of Rei Toma’s works, which I absolutely love. I will definitely be reading more of this series and probably look to adding them to my physical manga collection. 🤭

I am not much of a shoujo manga reader, which is why I went into this with an open mind. And I'm really glad I did, because I enjoyed this a lot more than I thought I would!

The first volume pretty much just sets up the world, characters and the main plot, but was an enjoyable read all the same.
Nina lives as an orphan, when she is approached by the prince. She is to impersonate the recently deceased princess not just before the world, but even the king and queen, who don't know of the princess' death.

I had a lot of fun reading this and very much enjoyed the characters and their interactions. And with the end of the volume setting up the first conflict, it makes you want to pick up the next volume immediately!

Special thanks to NetGalley and Kodansha Comics for sharing this ARC with me in exchange for my honest review.

It's hard to give an opinion about volume 1 of this manga, mostly because there was a limited amount of content. Oftentimes the first (couple of) volume(s) of a manga are world-building and setting up the story. That was the case for Nina the Starry Bride as well.
There are some things that I can give an opinion on: the art-style is stunning. Depending on the genre characters may look different of course, but within a genre, there are also a lot of differences between manga artists. I really like Rikachi's style. Although not much is happening storywise, the story that is alluded to is very compelling. I will be keeping an eye on further releases.

I chose this mostly based on the cute cover and was surprised how much I enjoyed the story. Nina is a fun character and I really like the world building so far. The art work is gorgeous and I'm looking forward to reading the next volumes.

Adorable characters and beautiful artwork! I was hooked on the story almost straightaway and didn't stop reading until I finished the book in one go. Definitely continuing with the series!
Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for the review copy.