Dahlia in Bloom: Crafting a Fresh Start with Magical Tools Volume 1

Dahlia in Bloom: Crafting a Fresh Start with Magical Tools (Light Novel) #1

by Hisaya Amagishi, KEI (Illustrator), Nikolas Stirling (Translator)

After dying of overwork in Japan, Dahlia is reborn into a world filled with magic. Raised by a master of magical toolmaking, she develops a passion for the craft and becomes engaged to her father’s apprentice. Before her father can see her wed, however, he suddenly passes away. As if this weren’t enough, on the day before their wedding, her fiancé announces that he’s in love—but not with her!

Dahlia finally realizes she needs to live for herself. She vows to be her own woman from now on and devote herself to her craft, even if it’s not quite the quiet life she was hoping for! From a chance encounter with a knight to starting her own company, there are challenges aplenty on the horizon. But this young craftswoman is no longer a shrinking violet—she’s Dahlia, and she’s ready to bloom.

Genres: Light Novel, Fantasy, Magic, Romance, Manga, Slice Of Life, Fiction

278 pages, Kindle Edition

First published October 25, 2018

Reviews

[Jen · Rating 5 out of 5]

LOVE LOVE LOVE LOVE LOVE!!! On to the next and only the next, have to wait for the rest. Noooooo!!! 5, WHY do I do this to myself, stars?

I love how she becomes so independent and eff her ex fiancé and his new thang! Her new guy is SCADS better. So there!

[Rebecca · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is merely okay. It has some good characters and ideas, but it's stymied by mediocre execution.

[Akeesa · Rating 3 out of 5]

-The characters were interesting.
-The dialogue and crafting were written well.
-It has romantic feel to it but the two main protagonist have rather narrow views of love that they don't want to have. Dahlia has never even been in love , but acts like she has some knowledge of love which she now deems to have enough for this life.
-Dramatic personality change is odd thing beginning, since readers don't have experience of the previous personality, so it makes the change less impactful.
Had weak points and had good points, was enjoyable enough easy to read and I'll probably read the next

[Russell Gray · Rating 4 out of 5]

It's been a little while since my last light novel, and I've had the first volume of this series on my Kindle for a while. The anime adaptation started airing, so on a whim I decided to pick this up for a quick read.

It may just be a theory of mine, but I have the impression that a lot of isekai/portal fantasy/reincarnated in another world stories are a form of escapism for people in contemporary societies frustrated by the hopelessness of feeling like a cog in a machine. The idea of starting over in a world of magic would free a person of those tethers and be liberating.

So it's funny to me that there is a subgenre of these reincarnated stories where the character basically just tries to recreate modern Japan in their new Western medieval world by introducing Japanese cuisine, appliances, etc. An example it reminds me of is when people leave California and move to Texas for more freedom and then start voting for more regulation, effectively trying to recreate the problems they originally ran from.

This story has a slight twist in that the character is a female who was a female in their previous life as well. Otherwise, it follows the same path of the overworked salaryman who died of exhaustion and now still behaves as a doormat in their new fantasy world, allowing people to walk all over them. The difference now is they have various friends who look out for them.

Really, the story is also about 40% food and alcohol porn as it spends an inordinate amount of time describing the preparation and eating of various foods as well as the choosing and drinking of various alcohols. The character is plainly an alcoholic and workaholic even in their new world.

Despite all these things that are pseudo-criticisms, I still enjoyed this as a palate cleanser between heavier reads.

[ReadToBreathe · Rating 4 out of 5]

I hope it turns into an anime bc it was really good. My only complaint is that I didn't want to read the ex's pov.

[Elizabeth Aguilar · Rating 4 out of 5]

Very different from other Isekai stories. The focus, currently, is on the world she inabits. Her previous life does come into play for ideas of inventions she wants to create. But otherwise, could be considered a fantasy story.

Fascinating world building. Interesting characters. But I wish, despite the circumstances that we meet Tobias in, that we could have seen some good in him. He felt incredibly pitiful, despite being in the wrong.

[Laura Quevedo · Rating 3 out of 5]

It was an interesting start, I liked reading about the MC finding her own suppressed self. I understand how it can become a habit when one gives way to others and forgets their own wants and needs.
The MC had a rather rude waking up to but she was able to decide that it had been enough and it was time to live for herself. I'm interested to see her journey to growing her self confidence and self love.
And that leads to my second point that I liked, the relationship between our main leads starting out as friends. I think that both of them had been disappointed in life and the mere idea of love just doesn't seem right to them, so I liked this friendship that with time could develop further.
I also liked that the MC for all of her lack of confidence in other things she had confidence in her craft and had gained respect as a craftswoman. I liked the friends she had and the people that respected her and cheer her own.
I'll see how the story goes.

[Pieter · Rating 3 out of 5]

I enjoy the magic crafting and some of the interactions. The world and item creation intrigues me and I like Dahlia as a character who is finding her own way in the world. On the other hand, the trouble with her former fiancé and the so-beautiful-everybody-instantly-falls-in-love-with-you trope of the knight and the lack lustre romance was just too predictable to keep me hooked on the story. Not sure whether or not I want to give the next volume a try...

[Aelvana · Rating 3 out of 5]

Dahlia has been reborn into a world of magic, the daughter of a famous magical toolmaker. After her father's death, she's looking forward to her contracted marriage with a fellow apprentice---until Tobias dumps her on the eve of their wedding for another woman. Now alone, Dahlia is rediscovering who she really is, and who she wants to become.

This is a pretty interesting story, although it falters in a few areas.

First, it's mostly the story of Dahlia getting over a breakup, and realizing in that process that the relationship had been destroying her. I like how the story shows it's not ENTIRELY Tobais's fault (even though he certainly is responsible for a lot of it). He kept pushing her, but she never stood up for herself. They never managed to work things out when it was still at a level where their relationship could have been salvaged, if both of them were honest.

That said, it's also clear Tobias is the sort of man whose impulsive decisions have managed to ruin his life. And despite being officially broken up, he's continuing to haunt her (though a good part of this is his idiot lover who keeps pushing him back into Dahlia's life trying to make trouble).

I have no sympathy at all for Emilia. She deserves to crash even harder.

I also really like the fact that Volf, who is clearly being set up as the eventual new love interest for Dahlia, manages to have a conversation with her before the end of THIS book where they both agree they've had too much trouble from romance and would rather just be friends. Horray for people recognizing that big problems can't just be glossed over by shoving people in a "new and better" relationship, and that it's important to deal with things individually for a bit. And for CLARIFYING things so that both of them know they're on the same page here, and how far each of them is comfortable going.

On the not-so-great side, this is another one of those Japanese novels that will completely derail the plot when it comes to talking about food. TWO WHOLE CHAPTERS are nothing but eating. And drinking. You may not want to read this if you struggle with alcohol, or know someone who does, because I think the whole reason this is a fantasy is so that people can drink bottles instead of glasses. It also wastes way too much time talking about various marriage practices when it would have been easier to just introduce that through various characters instead of info dumping several pages of how it works.

Overall, though, I do like Dahlia, and look forward to seeing what other inventions she manages to whip up. I rate this book Recommended.

See my reviews and more at https://offtheshelfreviews.wordpress....

[♡ venus ♡ · Rating 3 out of 5]

Read for the 2024 Asian Readathon. Prompt 5: Read a book with a story, character, or world that represents what you would want in your next life. (Because who doesn't love a slice-of-life fantasy setting?)


Dahlia in Bloom is a simple slice-of-life fantasy isekai story following Dahlia Rosetti, a magical toolmaker whose engagement is suddenly called off. Dahlia realises that she needs to begin living for herself, and thus begins this new chapter of independance in Dahlia's life!

This book was dull. Not even boring, just dull. It wasn't hard to read or anything - the prose was good, the pacing was fine, and the dialogue was written well enough to be engaging - but this novel felt like it didn't have a proper plot.

Dahlia is an incredibly dull protagonist. Even after her glowup, where she dyes her hair and decides to start living for herself, her personality is still so plain. If you asked me to list three words to describe Dahlia's personality, I wouldn't be able to, because she doesn't have enough personality traits to list. Her whole identity is "magical toolmaker" and "likes wine". Every single side character in this novel was more interesting than she was. And the whole isekai thing? Where she dies of overwork in her world and gets reborn with her memories in this one? That's never mentioned beyond page 50, and is basically just a convenient way of relating things in this fantasy world to our world to make it more palatable for a contemporary audience, and to provide Dahlia with inspiration to make modern appliances in a fantasy setting. Why???

Not even going to talk about Tobias. He's not worth the time.

It felt like a good 65 percent of this book is just Dahlia and Volf eating food, drinking, and chatting. There's very little substance, it's just the two of them getting to know each other and worldbuilding. Speaking of which - the worldbuilding was one of the few things that I actually liked about this book. The world and magic system were both really interesting, and I wish we'd gotten to see more of those. It was a good start, but I wanted more.

This whole novel just feels like a set up for the rest of the series, especially with the fact that we meet a whole load of characters at the very beginning and then they're not mentioned again. Really disappointing that this first installment in this series doesn't stand on its own.

3 stars because I didn't even dislike it, it was just so flat and plain.

[Gigi · Rating 2 out of 5]

I wanted to like this book, because being localized with both a light novel and manga--and even yesterday finding out that there is going to be a spinoff about the main character's high school years, that's got to mean something! However, I just couldn't find Dahlia to be all that interesting as a character. She doesn't seem to emote very much and her rationality and stoicism kind of overtake the tone of the novel. All of her magical inventions just being recreations of real-world tools felt boring as well (if you have a system based on magic there is so much more you can do with it).

I also am a little unimpressed with light novels and isekais that use past lives and reincarnation as a plot device but do very little to make it an impactful part of the plot. In my opinion so far this would have been a perfectly fine tale of a woman learning self-worth and strength after getting out of a bad relationship where her true self was snuffed out would have been compelling enough. Reincarnation just feels like it muddies the worldbuilding in an unnecessary way, but maybe they'll do more with it in future volumes.

Volf's struggles with being the sexiest man in the kingdom--so hot that he can't make a single friend because all women will instantly try to seduce him and all men will hate him is also just super uncompelling. There was too much time spent on developing rules and regulations for a fantasy divorce, and not enough detail and care put into describing how Dahlia's trade as a magic artisan worked. I suppose Tobias got exactly what was coming to him considering his relationship with Emilia felt as lifeless as his relationship with Dahlia. Perhaps that was on purpose to emphasize how he should feel regretful for breaking off their engagement.

All in all, I'm a sucker for fantasy stories centering on magic artisans/alchemists and how their magic systems work. However...this story just hasn't really done it for me. I'm not sure yet whether I'll try to give this one another shot and see if the manga portrays it better or if it gets better as the volumes go on.

[Ichinose · Rating 3 out of 5]

Parte bene ed è molto interessante per la sua storia di crescita della protagonista femminile e la cura nei dettagli relativa alla specifica prospettiva di donna. Poi si impantana un po' in descrizioni molto filler-ish di visite di fiere, picnic e appuntamenti in cui si mangia in tre locali diversi e l'alcol scorre a fiumi. A riguardo trovo un po' preoccupante tutta l'enfasi sul "donna indipendente e cool = bevitrice abituale" al punto che sono andata a fare qualche ricerca e pare che lo stesso governo giapponese incoraggi molto il consumo di alcol (nella pubblicità e nei media) come palliativo agli stress emotivi della popolazione e deterrente dall'esplorazione di altre droghe non legali.
A parte questo, lo scenario, i personaggi e lo stile di scrittura erano piacevoli e senza particolari difetti, ma ciò che mi ha molto infastidito durante la lettura è stato il pesantissimo comportamento dell'ex-marito. In ogni singola scena in cui appariva si rendeva sempre più molesto con le sue richieste ridicole e spudorate. Mi chiedo davvero perché l'autrice non abbia fatto reagire Dalia con più fermezza e le abbia fatto patire situazioni da manicomio. Il fatto che questo verme non agisse con malvagità ma solo per idiozia non lo salva minimamente. Sinceramente ho molti dubbi a continuare la serie perché certamente questo personaggio insopportabile sarà presente anche nel secondo libro e a me piace leggere libri per divertimento, non per mettermi a urlare contro un personaggio di fantasia strappando le pagine del libro.

[Gaea · Rating 5 out of 5]

4.75 stars

A story of a young woman who gets dumped by her (trash) fiance and begins her journey to make a name for herself in the magical tool business. I really loved how the people around her were so supportive of her and encouraged her to do whatever she wanted. (That some of them refused to even use her ex-fiance's name was petty as hell and I loved it.) It was rather predictable in terms of the plot and there were a few plot choices made that made me roll my eyes a bit (most notably that of Volf not realising that he has the "look of love" in his eyes when it comes to Dahlia, despite those two having declared earlier on that they only see each other as good friends - I'm a huge romance fan so while I'll happily accept their eventual romantic relationship, I do think it could have been done a bit better... also, a strong platonic friendship wouldn't have been bad either), but it was a nicely quiet and relaxing read, and the two main characters actually communicated with each other. I very much enjoyed it all~

....Up until the extra story at the end centred on Dahlia's father. Which was still nice to read but curse thank you for making me almost cry at the last minute. :)

[sandrasliteratur · Rating 4 out of 5]

Auf Deutsch bei altraverse erschienen
Das kleine Mädchen Dahlia lernt schon früh von ihrem Vater, dass sich die Welt am Besten mit Neugierde erkunden lässt. Wie passend, dass sie damit in die Fußstapfen ihres Vaters, des großen Erfinders, treten kann. Okay, dabei nützt ihr ihr Wissen aus ihrem früheren Leben, diese Ausgangslage ist hier aber eher nebensächlich. Der Fokus liegt tatsächlich auf den Erfindungen und der Forschungsarbeit, bei der Dahlia und ihr Vater auch bald Unterstützung bekommen. Ob es von da an eher bergauf oder bergab geht? Davon solltet ihr euch selbst überzeugen. Ich für meinen Teil kann sagen, dass Dahlia in diesem Band eine enorme Entwicklung hingelegt hat und ich bin absolut Fan davon. Ihr werden wirklich einige Steine in den Weg gelegt, aber ja, wie der Titel schon sagt, sie lässt den Kopf nicht hängen. So zeichnet dieser Band ein schönes Bild von dem, was Dahlia alles durchleben musste und ich habe so das Gefühl, dass das Wissen darum in der Reihe noch für ordentlich Zündstoff sorgt. Denn bereits im Auftakt beweist das junge Mädchen, dass sie sich nicht auf der Nase herumtanzen lässt. Das gefällt mir schonmal sehr gut und ich bin gespannt wie sich die Reihe entwickelt.
Instagram: @sandrasmangas

[J-Lynn · Rating 4 out of 5]

Usually, I despise cheating. If one of the main protagonists is a cheater, it takes me out of the reading experience because I find the act so deplorable. At the start of this book, I assumed that Tobias was the other protagonist not a side character; also, I thought that this book would be about the two overcoming their issues to become a better couple..... I didn’t read the summary before starting this (can’t you tell). Therefore, the actual plot of this book exceeded my expectations!

I think the only parts in the book I don’t care about are Dahliah talking about the “blueprints” for the magical tools. While I understand that the “blueprints” are helping world build the functionality of crystals, I kept skimming those parts because I don’t care. Honestly, I don’t care how a faucet works, I wanna know more about Volf! I don’t care about all the tools that were created in this universe and their real world counterpart! Regardless, the romance (I hope it leads to romance) is adorable and worth the boredom from reading about the magic crystals.

[Jessica · Rating 5 out of 5]

I had gotten into the anime based off this story, and since the episodes always seemed so short - I had to read it. I consider the target audience to be at least young adults, but with a focus on being an adult and making life and business decisions - which I found refreshing in a way. Our main protagonist is a product inventor of a sorts - isekaied into a world with magic and she learned how to make magic tools as her living. Her memories and experiences from her past life help her with come up with new products for her to create and sell. The story starts with her having a personal set back in a relationship, and how she moves on from that. I find that this is a gentle story and feels like slice of life, but with more growth than what I usually associate with slice of life. Also, based off what I have read and seen in the anime, I believe a slow burn romance may in this story. But the type of slow burn that may require getting pretty far along in the story before either one is willing to even acknowledge they might feel more than friendship. Still, I look forward to it.

[MV · Rating 5 out of 5]

I absolutely loved this book and it has become one of my new favorites.

Here are some brief things I loved about it:
+ It's peaceful
+ The main character, Dahlia, is mature. She doesn't overreact and typically makes rational decisions
+ The side characters are great and have distinct personalities
+ There are hints of romance but nothing too intense right off the bat
+ Magic and monsters!
+ Crafting! Honestly this is my favorite part. I love the crafting system here and I can't wait to see what Dahlia will make. I also enjoy seeing the trial and error process that she goes through

I also want to add that I really enjoyed the translator's notes at the very end. They were really interesting to read and I think it's always nice to get a small glimpse into what it's like. In my opinion, the translation was really well done and it felt smoother and more natural than some other light novels I've attempted to read.

[A S · Rating 2 out of 5]

lame

Not that good. All the main characters are weak and I likable. Dahlia is pretty boring. Her talent isn’t much. A few things over the year. Little courage. Needs to be taken care of by men or co-workers or her father before. Volf is even more ridiculous. A man too beautiful for his own good because women just want him and men are just too jealous. A lame trope for a woman and just stupid for a man. His mother and Dahlia’s father seemed way more interesting. Tobias is supposed to be pathetic and he is. But in a sad kind of way so it’s just depressing to see how useless he realizes he is. Emilia is also a sad and pathetic character. They’re not that vicious or evil so that you’re happy about their downfall.

[Bernice Morgan · Rating 5 out of 5]

Really enjoyable read

Reading the sample, I decided to try this book. I enjoyed it so much I read it in one day. Looking forward to book two. The character development was written good, just enough background information to keep it interesting. Dahlia keep comparing Volf action to a friendly dog, can't wait for when she start seeing him as more than a friend. He seems to be developing feelings for her. I wouldn't mind seeing how Tobias and Emilia get along since his brother made him see what he had done. Book 2 soon hopefully.

[Elizabeth · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a really wonderful book! I'm going try reading the rest of the series! It's a really interesting concept for an isekai where the main character is reborn as a talented magical toolmaker who is using her own knowledge of her previous life (our world) to create innovative inventions or even just improvements on existing items. She's undoubtedly starting a magic-based technological revolution and even a low-key food revolution because of this otherworld knowledge she has. I can't wait to see what happens next with the relationships she's formed with her friends and now Volf.

[Judith · Rating 5 out of 5]

Soul mates

I love Dahli-chan!! She is such a strong and elegant woman, handling herself with grace even in the face of a truly shameless fool of a man. After being betrayed by her fiance of two years, she decides to live unapologetically as herself. While on her first rediscovery trip, she meets a knight in bad condition who turns out to be a deeply sad man in need of a friend. I can't help but look forward to Dahli's accomplishments in her work and the deepening of her relationship with the knight.

[Sammy · Rating 3 out of 5]

I'm getting the idea of what a light novel is with this one. Very direct in its writing and very focused on the main concepts. If you don't like the basic conceit you won't like the full novel. About 200 pages of the more or less daily life of an inventor in a fantasy world, with a good helping of fantasy bureaucracy. I'm sorta interested, but not head over heels for the series.

Also characters drink like nobody's business and that's the most fantastical part. 8 BOTTLES of wine? Like. The people burn alcohol like they were lanterns.

[Serenity13 · Rating 5 out of 5]

4.75 stars

If you are sick and tired of all of those generic isekais with overpowered/idiotic/edgy MCs, one-dimensional characters, harems, fanservice and shoddy worldbuilding, you'll probably love this one. I find it similar to '86' and 'Ascendance of a Bookworm', which is the highest praise I can give to a light novel.

All of the characters feel like real people which in our age of trash isekai is an extremely rare feat. I feel like the author actually cared about her work and I absolutely adore this book.

[Sol González · Rating 5 out of 5]

Acaban de hacer la adaptación de este libro a anime y lo estaba viendo sin pensar mucho. Sin embargo después del último episodio pensé que no quería esperar más a saber de la historia.

Es que… Dahlia ama tanto a su papá y lo extraña tanto, y el ha dejado tantas cartas de amor regadas en los rincones más inesperados.

Este par calienta el alma. El padre amo a su hija pero murió. Ella sigue sus pasos en su misma profesión y según avanza la historia se encuentra con gente que lo conoció y que le cuenta de nuevo lo mucho que él la quiso.

Y Tobías es un idiota.

[My · Rating 4 out of 5]

I enjoyed reading this one, and I like the most of the characters and the bits of worldbuilding every now and then.

Magical toolmaking is an interesting contrast to the straight-up fantastical magic in other similar isekai stories, but I feel like there wasn't a lot of it in the story yet (imho, we had more paragraphs dedicated to them eating and drinking).

For now, I'm not sure where the story wants to go but the next volume is a sure read for me.

[Lissa Hawley · Rating 5 out of 5]

4.5 stars
Unlike the last set of light novels I read (Accomplishments of the Duke's Daughter) I must compliment the translation on this one. I read through this much quicker and while I did get a little annoyed with the fact that the MC's doth protest far too much, the story and characters were very good and well written.

I also enjoyed the translator's note at the end discussing translating metaphors.

Recommended. Looking forward to the next volume.

[Nicole Nieto · Rating 4 out of 5]

I really enjoyed this story and the main character. She’s tender but steady and resolute after having to deal with an unfaithful fiancé. There’s some interesting stuff about the world and, because of the MC’s passion for magical tools, the different ways people live or try to make life more comfortable.
Dahlia’s relationship with Volf is also something I’m looking forward to seeing develop (hopefully slowly), so we’ll see how that goes.

[Anharu · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book has very little plot, but this could be because we are exploring this fantasy world in detail. You learn how hairdryers work in a world with magic crystals instead of electricity. We learn about the food. The relationship between Dahlia and the ML is so cute. They actually spend a lot of quality time together, and you feel them growing together.
Also, this book feels very adult in the way Dahlia reacts and how much wine she drinks lol.

[C]

This is one of the most enjoyable light novels I have read. Its a combination of crafting, romance, interesting characters. Its also a typical slice of life novel so I expect many will find it dull. What resonates with me is how it typifies the japanese kaizen philosophy of incremental improvements as a way of life. Dahlia's quiet and deliberate responses to trying situations is admirable. I look forward to the rest of the series as well as the anime!

[Jennine S. · Rating 4 out of 5]

Wish it was longer!

I enjoyed this story quite a lot. It isn't really a page turner with rousing tales of adventure. The characters are still interesting and very likeable and this is enough to make me want to know more about them and hear more of their story. Looking forward to more installments of this series!