Ascendance of a Bookworm: I’ll do anything to become a librarian! Part 2: Apprentice Shrine Maiden, Vol. 2 by Miya Kazuki, You Shiina
Series Name: Ascendance of a Bookworm: I’ll do anything to become a librarian! (Light Novel)
Genres: Fantasy, Isekai
Intended Age Group: Teen
Publisher: J-Novel Club
Edition: Paperback
ISBN: 9781718356047
Rating: 3.5/5
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Description from the Book
As Myne continues her busy life as an apprentice blue shrine maiden, some good news changes everything: Her mother is pregnant! Naturally, she immediately sets out to make a picture book for her future little sibling. But there’s still so much she doesn’t know about the temple that doing anything is a struggle. As always Myne has bitten off more than she can chew, but she charges forward with her love of books giving her strength. She soon faces problems which escalate dramatically as her shrine maiden education continues, the orphanage prepares for winter, and nobles get involved!
Personal & Info
Despite the gap for when I’m posting this review, I actually read this book immediately after the previous one. This series is becoming a comfort read, and it’s hard for me to want to read anything else between volumes. At the time of this post, I have four more volumes available to me, and I need to make myself spread them out a bit better.
Characters
Myne’s Family
Myne, previously Urano Motosu, is the main character. Now that her Devouring is under control, she mainly just suffers from normal poor health.
Tuuli is Myne’s sister. She is one year older than her, and is very responsible and capable for her age. Her current occupation is seamstress’s apprentice.
Effa is Myne and Tuuli’s mother. She dyes clothes for a career.
Gunther is Myne and Tuuli’s father. He works as a soldier who guards the South Gate.
The Gilberta Company
Benno is a wealthy merchant. He is Corinna’s older brother, and Otto’s brother-in-law. Benno currently runs the family fabric store, and takes care of Myne and Lutz in relation to their merchant endeavors.
Mark is Benno’s store manager. He teaches all of the apprentices they take on, and tends to important store matters on Benno’s behalf.
Corinna is Otto’s wife and Benno’s sister. She is a professional seamstress.
Lutz is Myne’s friend. He is the same age as she is, and he looks after her to monitor her health. Thanks to Myne, he is now following his dream to become a merchant.
Otto is Gunther’s coworker. He handles all the important paperwork for the South Gate. Benno is his brother-in-law, because Otto married Benno’s sister, Corinna. He does not appear in this volume.
The Temple
The High Bishop is mentioned, but does not appear. Due to events from Part 1, Volume 3, he hates Myne. He is supposed to be in charge of the temple, but he pushes all responsibilities onto the High Priest.
High Priest Ferdinand is Myne’s guardian at the temple. He is twenty, fairly new to his job, and convolutedly related to the High Bishop.
Fran is one of the High Priest’s best attendants. He is seventeen, and reassigned to Myne upon her joining the temple. By loyalty, he technically works for the High Priest instead of Myne. Fran is assigned to Myne to help her learn and adapt to life in the temple. He is also responsible for watching Myne’s health while she is at the temple.
Gil is about ten. He is assigned to Myne as an attendant, by order of the High Bishop, specifically to cause her trouble. That plan has failed, and he now works hard to help Myne and be useful.
Delia is eight. She is assigned as an attendant to Myne, by order of the High Bishop, to spy on her.
Wilma is one of Myne’s new attendants. She is good at art, and permitted to stay in the orphanage to take care of the children.
Rosina is one of Myne’s new attendants. She has a talent for music, and previously worked for an eccentric blue shrine maiden along with Wilma.
Arno is one of the High Priest’s attendants.
Ehrenfest’s Knight’s Order
Karstedt is the captain of Ehrenfest Knight’s Order.
Damuel is a kind knight.
Shikza is a mean knight who looks down on people of lower status. He apparently used to work at the shrine as a blue priest.
Other
Hugo is the chef Benno hired. He is about twenty, and he is learning to cook in a noble’s kitchen by practicing in Myne’s quarters at the temple.
Ella is the apprentice chef Benno hired. She is in her early teens, and is learning to cook with Hugo in Myne’s quarters at the temple.
Todd is the new chef Benno hired. He starts learning in Myne’s kitchen after Hugo.
Johann is a craftsman at the smithy. He specializes in small detail work that is typically too difficult for others.
Story & Thoughts
This is probably the weakest volume out of the five, so far. The plot isn’t as strong. Most of the story focuses on busy work. Myne makes sure the workshop is productive and attempts several ideas. There’s much less drama.
For the majority of the book, the problem with Rosina is the only real drama. She only ever worked for an eccentric apprentice blue shrine maiden, so she thought that was how life was supposed to be while serving one. Once disillusioned about that, the story focuses heavily on Myne’s projects.
I was going to rate this book a three, because the whirlwind of work going on feels monotonous. I bumped up the rating by half, because the story gets more interesting and intense in the later sections.
Trombe seem to be getting more important and prevalent. The last couple volumes expand on them, and this one shows a trombe at one of it’s worst appearances. It really puts into perspective what kind of danger they’ve been playing with by making paper out of trombe wood.
The epilogue is interesting, too. A second person now knows Myne’s secret. Instead of just knowing about it, they actually see it. I’m curious to find out what they will do with this information.
The last quarter or so of the book recaptured me, and I can’t wait to read more. This series always leaves me wanting more. I can’t fully express how much I adore this series.
The Attendant of an Apprentice Blue Shrine Maiden
This bonus chapter is in Rosina’s perspective. It goes over what her life was like working for apprentice blue shrine maiden Christine, then jumps to the present. We see what her side of things is like for Myne’s ultimatum and what her thought process is like in regards to everyone telling her she needs to participate in work instead of just playing music every waking hour. She genuinely did not know Christine was an eccentric.
Apprentice Chef in the Temple
In this bonus chapter, Ella is teaching gray shrine maidens Nicola and Monika how to cook, because they will be helping her all winter. In Ella’s perspective, we get her backstory, and learn about how she got her current job. It’ also pretty clear she likely has a crush on Hugo.