The relentless appetite， no， not that one， the regular one， of a teenage boy marches on and Shuko continues to be up to the task。 This time out， Yamato’s entire family gets involved and the spectre of age gap romance is raised， but I guarantee it’s not from the place you’re expecting。Minus a couple of wobbles， this might be the most perfect distillation of this series we ever see。 It’s doing all the things it tends to do very well - the comedy， the heart， the cooking as an expression of affectio The relentless appetite， no， not that one， the regular one， of a teenage boy marches on and Shuko continues to be up to the task。 This time out， Yamato’s entire family gets involved and the spectre of age gap romance is raised， but I guarantee it’s not from the place you’re expecting。Minus a couple of wobbles， this might be the most perfect distillation of this series we ever see。 It’s doing all the things it tends to do very well - the comedy， the heart， the cooking as an expression of affection - and a little bit extra besides。The first section is the introduction of Yamato’s highly precocious sister and， like many before her， she is easily swept up in Shuko’s love of feeding。 The way these two swiftly bond is quite sweet， plus it immediately deflates the ‘no parent would ever allow this’ angle by mentioning that Yamato’s mother is very aware of the whole situation。This segues into a thoughtful gift that leads to a powerhouse of comedy expressions as Shuko is forced to tackle a cooking project that’s well above her usual efforts。 There’s a very sweet acknowledgment at the end of how feeding Yamato has really helped to heal Shuko and bring her back to the real world as a lovely flourish at the end。Heck， there’s even a good chapter featuring Rui， who I didn’t love in her first appearance， as a random dream has her thinking that Yamato prefers older women and has her on the attack to save him from that ‘smut novel Jezebel’。 Minus an obvious ‘attack by creep’ moment， this one is a gem。We learn a lot about Shuko’s former husband as well， both from flashbacks to her college days as well as a story about the nature of family recipes versus ‘the real thing’。There are still flashes of the inappropriate romance around， such as a workout session that plays off the usual ‘I have gained weight， oh noes’ trope for some cute moments and the appearance of the appropriately named Yuri， a friend of Shuko’s who turns out to be a very kissy drunk。This chapter starts of really annoying， but has a lot of good insight into Shuko and addresses the elephant in the room a ton while also not quite doing that and egging it on a bit instead。 There’s no doubt that this story knows what you’re thinking and is happy to have fun with it。It’s a great read full of warm fuzzies and surprising directness on certain topics。 I’m not one for flashbacks， but the things we learn about Shuko’s previous relationship are really interesting and completely not what I expected （the foreshadowing earlier in the book with his drawing pays off nicely）。4。5 stars - this book is warm and joyful and shows the lives of two people who are making things better by being there for one another， in whatever capacity that winds up to be。 I always love these takes on shared meals and this is becoming one of my favourites。 。。。more