List 2- BL Collection: Personally Reviewed and Rated

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List 2- BL Collection: Personally Reviewed and Rated

* have not reviewed some coz of IRL time constraints

Link to List 1: https://www.novelupdates.com/viewlist/17336/

Second list…

These are the BL novels I’ve chosen to read and complete and then personally rate between 1 and 5. 5 almost always being an absolute read again! (Order of books are from best to worst). I tried not to give away plot details (keep an eye out for the SPOILER ALERT! to avoid any plot points when reading reviews).

My reviews are based on personal satisfaction and opinion, once completed.This list contains a mixture of plots and character types in the BL genre.

Note: This list contains completed translations as I try to avoid reading ongoing translations as I lack the patience.

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10 Followers

Reyleisha

Created: Jul 17th, 2021, Updated: Dec 16th, 2023

Created Jul 17th, 2021

Updated Dec 16th, 2023

CN (4.5)

#26Your Memes Are Better Looking Than You

129 Chapters Every 31.3 Day(s) 5296 Readers 107 Reviews 02-04-2023

Comedy Romance Yaoi

Rating: 4/5- Cute, fluffy read that goes quickly but doesn’t bore you too much, ... more>>

CN (4.2)

#27Let’s Talk About That Guy Who Transmigrated to Pursue Me

82 Chapters Every 87.7 Day(s) 4839 Readers 82 Reviews 10-15-2020

Completed Action Adventure Drama Psychological Romance Shounen Ai Xianxia Yaoi

Rating: 3.5/5- uhhmm I don’t know how I feel about this novel. Whilst reading this I couldn’t help feeling that all its potential seemed unused. ... more>>

CN (4.4)

#28Everyone Knows I’m a Good Person

187 Chapters Every 6.3 Day(s) 10845 Readers 171 Reviews 02-19-2024

Completed Action Adventure Comedy Fantasy Romance School Life Sci-fi Yaoi

Rating: 3.5/5- I enjoyed this story until it got to the last 4 arcs and then I was kind of disappointed. ... more>>

CN (4)

#29The Obsessive Shou Moves On

68 Chapters Every 55.1 Day(s) 5120 Readers 121 Reviews 02-10-2022

Completed Drama Fantasy Psychological Romance Yaoi

Rating: 3.5/5- Uhm it was a quick and interesting angsty read… buuut I dunno. ... more>>

CN (3.7)

#30Beastman Forcefully Raising a Wife

111 Chapters Every 9.5 Day(s) 4816 Readers 66 Reviews 01-09-2024

Completed Fantasy Mature Romance Slice of Life Smut Yaoi

Rating: 3/5- This story was average. ... more>>

CN (4.2)

#31In the Future, My Whole Body is a Treasure

191 Chapters Every 63.1 Day(s) 8317 Readers 105 Reviews 11-08-2021

Completed Comedy Fantasy Mecha Romance Sci-fi Yaoi

Rating: 3.5/5- This is a super cute novel but it’s a once off read. ... more>>

CN (3.9)

#32Rebirth of the Supreme Celestial Being

783 Chapters Every 59.3 Day(s) 8886 Readers 87 Reviews 10-23-2023

Completed Adventure Romance Shounen Ai Xianxia

Rating: 3.5/5- So this novel is certainly a journey and there are tons of twists and turns. It’s very enjoyable overall, but it’s not the best in its genre. ... more>>

CN (4)

#33Wu Chang Jie

281 Chapters Every 68.1 Day(s) 4972 Readers 65 Reviews 08-11-2021

Completed Action Adventure Drama Mature Mystery Romance Smut Supernatural Xianxia Yaoi

Rating: 3/5- I love the translator (Corgi Edits) more than this story. Excellent translation with fantastic footnotes and content warnings. This story however… uhm… ... more>>

So I’m not a fan of this author in the first place but I did relatively enjoy her novel Professional Body Double (I was in the mood for dog blood) and because I’m a huge Xuanhuan/Xianxia fan I was looking forward to Wu Chang Jie. There was some reviews comparing this to ErHa and being a massive Meatbun Stan I really had high hopes for it.

That was a bad idea…

Wu Chang Jie would have been good if it was my first Xuanhuan/Xianxia novel, except it wasn’t. The writing is clunky, the characters are two dimensional and you can literally see where the author had massive author’s block as she wrote. I guess it’s true what they say about this specific author- it’s either you love her or hate her. I really can’t seem to enjoy her work (I’ve dropped two of her other novels, this being the 3rd now)

The flow is really bad and jumping between past and present but leaving no valid room to weave the surprises and villainous twists and turns caused the novel to feel very flat. Also it’s hard to get into the novel because the author uses executive info dumps to move the story forward. The foreshadowing is a few lines of plot between massive amounts of unnecessary information that I would forget anyway. It’s not like it would tie back and wow me in later chapters.

The premise was interesting but the characters struggled to carry this story forward and by the end of the novel I was frowning from annoyance and disinterest.

When I got chapter 247 literally felt the way Xie Bian felt when Fan Wushe apologised- Indifferent…

This author has a knack of always writing flimsy MCs and ridiculously sadistic MLs without clearly justifying their behaviour or keeping it consistent. It’s like their actions don’t match their personalities and you struggle to really care about them. You always feel like a bystander instead of feeling invested in their journey and choices. Instead of being able to empathise with her characters, whenever you try to feel for them you’re slapped with a WTF by their sheer s*upidity or inconsistency.

Like you can’t write characters that are unreasonably pitiful but have the fate of the heavens- it’s contrary. And if you think you’re going to get redemption for the abuser MC from the rapist ML (this seems to be this authors favorite type of character to write (gorgeous, lustful dumbhead) - haha! In this book you must wait all your of 230 chapters to get about 40 chapters worth of redemption. The punishment scale is uneven and the redemption unsatisfactory.

This shouldn’t be compared to other novels if you want to remotely enjoy it. I pushed so hard to keep reading and I truly love Corgi Edits and I will read anything they translate because the quality is fantastic.

If you aren’t looking for superb writing, well woven angst and plot, fantastically intricate and dynamic characters (main and side) then go for it. Or better yet, read this as a starter pack into Xuanhuan/Xianxia.

Alternatively give this a skip if you get annoyed fast by inconsistent and mind boggling characters who behave s*upidly but have “imperial destiny”. <<less

CN (4.7)

#34Restricted Area

66 Chapters Every 59.9 Day(s) 5129 Readers 89 Reviews 12-01-2021

Completed Action Mystery Psychological Romance Shounen Ai

Rating: 3/5- Average read. Will probably forget this.... more>>

CN (4.6)

#35This Omega is Sweet and Wild

122 Chapters Every 63.3 Day(s) 7780 Readers 120 Reviews 10-23-2021

Completed Comedy Romance School Life Sports Yaoi

Rating: 3/5- This was average story telling. ... more>>

CN (4.2)

#36Do You Remember My Name?

41 Chapters Every 147.9 Day(s) 4799 Readers 35 Reviews 09-09-2019

Completed Comedy Romance School Life Shounen Ai Slice of Life

Rating: 3/5- a pretty okay story, simple however inaccurately portrays social phobia and the seriousness of it which dampened the read for me. ... more>>

If you’re reading this for fluff then you’ll enjoy it. If mental illness triggers you, then this may not be a suitable read. There are many tropes used in this story that warps the concept of mental illness and ptsd caused by socially incited trauma. Of course the biggest taboo of the story was highlighted in many reviews: non-consensual tampering of medication.

Another massive peeve is how the author creates a character with so called social phobia but did not write his personality or behaviour traits in remote consistent with said Psychological diagnosis? The MC is on serious medication but nowhere does it state he goes for regular therapy whilst on this meds to monitor his progress. His triggers that caused the ptsd are never raised or addressed ever again and he shows no resistance in line with social phobia whilst in social situations. All because the ML is his knight in shining armour. How disappointing.

I wanted to like this story, but felt immensely disturbed by the MLs manipulative behaviour. I personally couldn’t find their relationship healthy due to the dependency the MC eventually formed for the ML. The MC ended up not making any friends outside of the ML, he didn’t have a social life, he hardly even increased interactions with his family. Throughout the story his “healing” is defined solely by his relationship with the ML and no one seems to find this weird? Or unhealthy?

I’ve said this in a previous review with an MC if similar mental health: LOVE DOES NOT CURE ILLNESS.

Mental, physical, emotional- you name it. It’s all fine and well to read a story for lighthearted moments but this author really did not pay attention to the subject matter she based the entire novel on, which was really unpleasant.

Overall- a book filled with potential and a topic that could have excelled if researched and completed faithfully, unfortunately all you’re left with is a flat, trope like novel with very 2D characters and subtle manipulation and toxicity until the end. <<less

CN (4.1)

#37I Have Paid Too Much For This Home

71 Chapters Every 79.4 Day(s) 4583 Readers 58 Reviews 05-30-2021

Completed Romance Shounen Ai Slice of Life

Rating: 3/5- Ahhh… this was average. ... more>>

CN (4.3)

#38An Accident in Broad Daylight

69 Chapters Every 65.9 Day(s) 2501 Readers 33 Reviews 04-30-2022

Completed Drama Romance School Life Shounen Ai Slice of Life

Rating: 3/5- Excellent translation of what looks like a super difficult novel. But it's a draggy, slow paced drama that leaves you with a bit of an underwhelming, flat feeling.... more>>

So I expected this to be angsty, dramatically sad and memorably moving and perhaps it is to others. To me, it was kind of a realistic portrayal of the difficulties of traditional families and their views on homosexuality. Another highlight is the reality of how horrible parents still have good (albeit kinda deficient) children and that children can't help but love their parents no matter what.

Besides the above, this story is actually very poorly paced. It's written in a sort of airy, essay type style. There's a ton of filler information that add no value to the story so I just skipped through pretty much all of that whilst reading. The side characters were okay… but I also didn't feel deeply for them. I'm not sure why it was so hard for me to connect to this story, but the poor pacing and literary writing style might have been what threw me off.It's kind of hard to call this a very good book but it's not a bad book either. It's got a very good premise its just that the ending for all the melodrama that was set up, falls flat. You go through this long, extended period of liking, confession and then dating, cohabitation and then the coming out and then 3 chapters defines an entire separation. All that airy, filler type writing from the 60 chapters before fall away and you get a conclusion. So it doesn't actually fit well to be a convincing end. I would have felt more closure if the individual separation experience and character thought process was elaborated as it was from the beginning.

I think that the author focuses too much on "writing well" with metaphors and nuances instead of building an emotive and captivating plot.From a romance perspective, it's not all that romantic. It's a book about the consequences of dealing with a family who cannot accept you for being different to what they expect. I picked up some character inconsistencies but maybe because this novel didn't get me invested in the struggle of non-acceptance. I’m convinced I’m the wrong audience for this book so please don’t rely on my review and have it prevent you from finding your next ultimate romance.It's an okay read overall. I didn't find it all that memorable. Perhaps this book was just not written for a reader like me and others may enjoy and appreciate it a lot more. Do not read it if you want something light- the writing is complex with heavy undertones.

Give it a go if you don't mind more literary pieces that are choppily paced that may leave you with mixed feelings. <<less

CN (4.1)

#39My Cherry Will Explode in the Apocalypse

0 Chapters Every 1922 Day(s) 6701 Readers 68 Reviews 02-02-2019

Completed Action Comedy Romance Shounen Ai Slice of Life

Rating: 3/5- hehehe… this author’s brain holes are just wow… ... more>>

CN (4.4)

#40How to Survive As a Villain

241 Chapters Every 64.4 Day(s) 14488 Readers 224 Reviews 11-27-2021

Completed Comedy Drama Mature Romance Tragedy Yaoi

Rating: 3/5- started off strong and funny, had some great intense middle parts but then ended bland. ... more>>

CN (4.2)

#41Accompanied by a Fool To Do Farming

90 Chapters Every 61.8 Day(s) 5008 Readers 69 Reviews 11-15-2021

Completed Historical Romance Slice of Life Yaoi

Rating: 3/5- Simple plot with nothing truly memorable. But it’s simplicity is enjoyable if you’re looking for an escape read.

CN (3.3)

#42Double Pleasure

102 Chapters Every 63.9 Day(s) 2175 Readers 20 Reviews 10-13-2021

Completed Drama Fantasy Psychological Romance Smut Yaoi

Rating: 2.5/5- The translator gets a 5/5 from me. I enjoyed the T/N notes the most! If you read this story without switching on your brain and morals., you can scr*pe by. ... more>>

But uggghhh this book made me uncomfortable. So I was fully aware of what I was getting into but what I didn’t enjoy was the complete lack of plot. The smut was also some of the most uncomfortable smut I’ve ever read. I couldn’t really enjoy it without squirming and cringing. It’s like the author made up the biology of the MC as they went along.

Overall it’s a super weird concept of a revenge rapist realising that he’s in love with his victim after confining him, assaulting him and humiliating him twice. It took all of two times to fall in love with his victim- yep SMH.

Thereafter he used manipulation and blackmail to force the victim to act as his boyfriend so he can eventually hypnotise the MC into believing he can’t live without him. He succeeds of course which I find quite hard to believe because the ML us kind of insane and psychopathic and had weird family dynamics.

The MC also has a history of s*xual assault from his stepfather. All of these factors could have built up to something more twisted and better thought it. The Yandere potential was high but this author is just a terrible writer. They lack imagination and common sense (as is evident throughout the book). The research was non-existent and it felt like the author was writing some kind of half-boiled fan fiction.

This story lacks substance which is quite sad. I felt like with more effort this could have been much better and perhaps even Yandere enjoyable. The ML is not Yandere. He’s all sorts of confused and the MC is pretty much a poorly written Stockholm syndrome victim.

Their dynamic and chemistry are just… meh.

Instead we had random kidnappings, a mother who has a weird close but distant relationship with her doting son, two parents who are incredibly neglectful and abusive but can suddenly appear to pull the “take this cheque and leave my son” trope.

To end things off we even got mpreg bruh… I was defeated.

This is a very messy story. Go in with super low expectations and a switched off brain. Also expect to feel discomfort with the smut. <<less

CN (4.1)

#43Back to the Countryside

99 Chapters Every 56.3 Day(s) 3813 Readers 39 Reviews 02-09-2022

Completed Romance Slice of Life Yaoi

Rating: 3/5- Average read.

CN (4.2)

#44Guanshan Muyu

57 Chapters Every 53.1 Day(s) 2366 Readers 27 Reviews 03-09-2022

Completed Drama Historical Psychological Romance Shounen Ai

Rating: 3.5/5

CN (4.3)

#45Dongfang Bubai’s Reborn Yang Lianting

66 Chapters Every 55.8 Day(s) 2149 Readers 35 Reviews 01-28-2022

Completed Drama Romance Wuxia Yaoi

Rating: 3.5/5

CN (4.3)

#46Sick Beauty [Rebirth]

145 Chapters Every 42.5 Day(s) 6104 Readers 65 Reviews 09-29-2022

Completed Psychological Romance Xianxia Yaoi

Rating: 3/5 - I had higher expectations for this novel, as it started off strong. Instead, you can’t help but feel that the more chapters... more>>

CN (4.5)

#47Joyful Reunion

240 Chapters Every 37.7 Day(s) 4026 Readers 41 Reviews 01-06-2023

Completed Action Adventure Drama Martial Arts Mature Yaoi

Rating: 5/5 - This book makes my “best reads” book and it’s also on the “tear duct irrigation” list too. ... more>>

CN (4.6)

#48Qiang Jin Jiu

0 Chapters Every 1568 Day(s) 9741 Readers 91 Reviews 01-22-2020

Completed Action Adult Drama Historical Mature Mystery Romance Yaoi

Rating: 665567532246799/5 - No words will ever describe how beautiful this book is! The world building! The intrigue! The characters! I can’t fault anything except that... more>>