To celebrate Japan's Coming Of Age Day (January 12th, 2026), Yukio Mishima's The Sailor Who Fell From Grace With The Sea become my companion to understand and probably, once again, put my perspective from the eyes of a teenager.

This book certainly caught me off guard from the beginning until the end. I thoroughly appreciate how the author approached the idea of masculinity and femineity through the characters of Ryuji & Fusako which clearly shown on Noboru's perspective as a teenager. In my opinion, it serve as one of the example on how a young boy trying to comprehend the world around him.

But despite all of this astonishing depiction of characters, I have to admit multiple scenes are pretty graphic and intense for a coming-of-age story. Few times, I have to take five and sit in contemplation, wondering where this story will take me.

Anyway, regardless of that, The Sailor Who Fell From Grace With The Sea is such a clear sailing prose and an enjoyable one.

I expected The Princess Diaries yet I'd met The Crown...

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Heavily influenced by British's Royal Family, The Heir Apparent is a story about a girl who have to decide what's best for her future; the crown or her freedom.

The story of Princess Alexandrina or Lexi is an engaging one. I find myself unable to put down my e-reader and keep on continue to find out what's happened inside the wall of the Royal Family.

There's a lot of info dump inside about what happened to Lexi's inner circle: from his parents, twin brother and her bestfriend, which is for me , is a major plus point. It's not easy to write a family's history along with the conflict & intrigues but Rebecca doing a marvelous job.

One thing I didn't really comprehend is how Lexi's secret felt like it'll ruin her if it leaked into the public. In my opinion, it's fundamentally logical; for a girl living inside the palace, encapsulated with security & stability in general, what she did is pretty reasonable and I wonder why for the half of the story, she thought it'll be catastrophic for public to know. I think the plot is weak and not strong enough to be put inside Lexi's storyline.

Anyway, The Heir Apparent is a perfect match for readers who enjoy a royal family story with a sprinkle of competition & cunning plot inside