TW: Some non-con content

When good girl Sakurai gets saddled with getting the truant new girl Honda to attend school in return for a recommendation from her teacher the pair end up embarking on a business friendship where Honda agrees to come to school if Sakurai does her a favour every day. As a consequence, sapphic tension arises!!

I adored this, I don't read much manga but this was such a sweet story and a really good volume one, I'll definitely keep an eye out for future volumes to see how the story progresses.

Thank you to Netgally and Kodansha Comics for a free arc in exchange for an honest review.

This was my first dive into yuri and I have to say the art is really pretty and it was the strongest aspect of this manga for me.

However, I really didn't enjoy the story. I was very uncomfortable with the "dubious" consent that was present all throughout this manga: I don't like romances where a character is pretty much forced to interact in romantic ways with another without ever giving any enthusiastic consent. I was hoping for this to change at some point but it didn't and this just makes me not want to pick up the next volumes, regardless of whether that gets addressed or not.

Again, the art is very pretty and the characters were also very cute and interesting (if we ignore the situation I mentioned in the previous paragraph). The book probably just wasn't for me.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for providing this arc, all opinions are my own.

2.5. This was mostly sweet and I may have enjoyed it more without the non-con/coercive elements, and if the story/characters had been fleshed out better. I realize this is only the first volume but I'm not sure I'm interested enough to continue the series. The artwork is cute, though.

Over all this was a very cute, fun, and quick read. At first I did not like the setup. It felt like dubious consent and I wasnt sure if the FMC felt forced I to the situation, but it turned out to be adorable from that point on. I would definitely read the others.

Sakura, in exchange for a university recommendation, has to go convince a classmate to return to school. Worse, it's someone she knows from her OLD school.

Honda, entertained by the whole situation, returns to school to tease Sakura and, gradually, they start to fall for each other.

Good art, good story. You DO need at least SOME knowledge on Japanese culture to get why Sakura is going along with all this, but the manga mostly explains. And the teacher is amusing if very weird.

Cute enough, even if the setup feels really flimsy - Sakurai getting more and more entangled in making sure Honda attends class and does well, agreeing to requests, and Honda making the requests in the first place. We don't really get a sense for why anyone is making the choices they are, but since it's still wrapped up in a sweet high school falling in love setup, it's fine for now. I'll definitely be continuing to read, mostly to learn more about all the characters!

this was a quick and fun read! i thought the characters were nice and can't wait to learn more about them. my only complaint is the way it all started, since at first ayaka can't say no and has to do whatever the other tells her to.

thank you netgalley for the e arc!

This was a fun read. I enjoyed it and think it was a cute read. It was a classic school romance and it was a great read when I needed a cute pick up romance to read

I Can't Say No to the Lonely Girl book #1 is such an adorable yuri manga. The manga took me less than an hour to binge through. The plot is very simple - one student (Sakurai) is blackmailed by a teacher to get another student (Honda) to go to school. The adorable situations shown in this manga make you reminisce about experiencing high school relationships for the first time. I can't wait to see what happens between these two characters in the next book.

I would like to give a huge thank you to NetGalley for this copy in exchange for my honest review.

This was really freaking cute. The characters definitely lovable and I really need to find out sooner rather than later if they end up together 🥹

I really liked the book.
I was quite surprised.
The characters get to know each other little by little throughout the book, which is super adorable, but their physical relationship develops faster, which leaves the main character trying to understand her feelings.
I really liked the two characters, who are dealing with things in their lives and the presence of each other on their lifes.
The drawings are fantastic, they convey the story, personality and what the characters are feeling easily to the reader.
I really want to read the next volume.
I loved it.

I think this manga would have ben improved with translation notes, since many aspects might be confusing to newer manga readers. I was a little bothered by the blackmail aspect.

This is a story about 2 girl who knew each other before but had never actually spoken to each other. Our main character desires to get into a good college and because of this she is coerced by a teacher into completing a task in order to get a recommendation letter. This kickstarts the two girls getting back into each others lives. The relationship is never clearly defined within this first novel and I’m not sure that I can ever be completely comfortable even calling this a potential romance as the way in which it began leaves me feeling a bit uncomfortable. It was hard to get a good grasp on who these characters were especially the love interest. Nothing really happens within the book to even make it interesting plot wise and I fail to see who this book would appeal to

Thank you so much Net Galley for this e-arc.

I Can't Say No to the Lonely Girl is an adorable sapphic novel about ours. main protagonists Sakurai and Honda. Her homeroom teacher pressures Sakurai to get Honda to class. Honda brilliantly gives Sakurai a task every day to get her to go to school which starts with a kiss, The story is very low-stakes and cozy. The story shines with Honda and Sakurai's relationship and the adorable art style. I can't wait to continue the manga series.

I originally read the whole series online and have such fond memories of watching Ayaka and Sora (and the rest of the crew) grow, but I realized when revisiting this that I remembered very few details of their early interactions. Ayaka is so expressive and the art lends itself to making her emotions really plain and obvious. At this point in time, the. rest of the ensemble cast isn't super clear, though I know they end up playing a much larger role later on. I think the manga also takes pains to make Sora and the homeroom teacher more zany than malicious, which is a fine line keeping the manga wholesome rather than straying into weird.

I do think that American readers who aren't well-read in. manga / knowledgable of how Japanese schooling works might be confused by the weight of the homeroom teacher's blackmail, so that's something that could have gone in a "translation notes" section (which I notice was missing in this version)

Overall just as enjoyable as I remembered and i can't wait to own my own copy for my shelves!

A cute yuri manga about a girl willing to do whatever it takes for a referral, even if it means acquiescing to a request from a classmate every day. My only issue is that Ayaka agrees to the deal and she doesn't hate when Sora kisses her, but it's still a little dubious. I would continue the series, though.