Sweet Blue Flowers, Vol. 2 by Takako Shimura
My rating: 3 of 5 stars
Kyoko’s fiancé invites a group of her friends to join them at his family’s summer home. But the trip ends up including more than just ghost stories and horseback riding—Fumi can now confirm that she has feelings for Akira. And Akira learns more than she wants to about Kyoko’s private life with some accidental eavesdropping. After this, how can the girls just return to school like nothing’s happened?
This sapphic slice of life series about high school girls continues with Fumi now moving on from her first relationship, and Akira wondering about sexuality and romance. The book starts with a vacation at Kyoko’s fiance’s house, but Akira overhears something that makes her wonder what the family dynamic is in that house. Kyoko’s fiance, meanwhile, seems to know that Kyoko is more interested in girls, but they also have a childhood bond, so I’m not really sure what is going on between those two. The book also has a LOT of secondary characters, so good luck with keeping up with who is who, but there are plenty of f/f romance pairings going on in this one. Homophobia implied in the case of some older characters, though.
I think one of the reasons I did not like this as much as the previous because I could not keep track of which character is which character’s older sister and who had a high school romance with who! Lol, really, the Little Women side arc had me like – WTF are you? Where did you come from? Halfway through the book, I was convinced I was missing something and was almost tempted to go back and read the first one, because things did not make much sense. There was also the repeating trope of younger student having crush on older student, but on and on to the point of it becoming a tired cliche. (There is literally a new student who transferred to this high school because she though Yasuka might be here) But there is also Fumi coming out with her feelings to Akira, and things becoming a bit awkward. Akira, meanwhile, is very naive in terms of romance entirely, and she feels lost in this new hormonally charged atmosphere.
Look, I’m invested in the series – I feel it has promise – and am going to keep reading, but looks like I will soon need a guide to keep track of the characters. 😀
Received an advance reader copy in exchange for a fair review from Viz Media LLC, via Edelweiss.
Previous books in series
YA on my Mind 
The story sounds interesting, but I definitely hate it when I can’t keep track of who the characters are.
Yeah volume 1 was very focused on where the storyline was going and most of the character arcs were related to it. But this one was like one romantic subplot and the rest plot arcs are like children running through a park
I just read your review for the first volume. Too bad the second one was so confusing, but maybe it will be easier to keep track with the characters in the anime?