I got this softcover at the Used Book Superstore in Burlington MA. It's the second volume in a series I hadn't encountered before. The premise: Short, homely nerd Reiichi has a crush on the lovely Yumiko, but doesn't dare tell her for fear of ridicule and rejection. When he's hit by a car while saving a dog, he wakes up to find he's been transformed into a handsome young man - turns out the dog's a wizard, though its powers are fading. As of this volume, it seems that Reiichi has attempted to reach out to Yumiko, only to find that when he touches her he reverts to his old form. What he *hasn't* figured out yet is that Yumiko actually likes nerdy guys and has fond memories of the old, now-thought-dead Reiichi...

Typical magical/romantic-comedy confusions continue here, with handsome-Reiichi being paired up with Rikako, a female version of Reiichi's old self; he goes into this with good intentions, simply trying to be kind, and then can't figure out how to tell her he really doesn't want to be her boyfriend. (He also doesn't seem to have learned that if *she* is brave enough to reach out to the attractive person she's interested in, why couldn't *he* have been that brave? But perhaps it'll work out by the end of the series.)

In the middle of all this, there are magical complications that leave Reiichi in his old form again, and apparently for good - and also stark naked, leading to several hilarious panels of him fleeing and hiding and falling past windows (Yuriko notices and says "I swear I saw my friend from junior high fall past this window" - as you do, eh?)

By the end of this volume, Reiichi has a third potential love-interest, activating the "we aren't really blood-siblings" trope. Um, OK? From experience with previous romantic-comedy series, it seems that it's required that obstacles keep cropping up, lest the main couple get together early on and force the story to wrap up, but I can't say I found this mish-mash all that entertaining.

[There's a short TV Tropes page on the series.]

I left the book in the Little Free Library on this warm and windy day; hope someone enjoys it!

[See other recent releases in NH here.]

*** Released for the 2018 Royalty release challenge. ***