Gorgeous Carat Galaxy

Gorgeous Carat: Galaxy does not pick up where the first series left off, but an unspecified amount of time after the man characters’ return to France. There’s no reference to the North Africa arc at all, as if the previous two and a half volumes hadn’t happened at all. This was disappointing for me, as a great deal happened in those volumes (over half of the original series, for those of you keeping track at home); events that would have had a permanent impact on Florian, Ray, and their relationship. There should be no going back to the way things were before, but the onlychange appears to be the rumors going around society about the nature of Ray and Florian’s relationship. The story itself feels more like an arc from an overarching series than an independent sequel. A relative of Florian’s going through hard times contacts him in the hopes that his sugar daddy (?) can help out by buying a few heirlooms. Florian convinces Ray to go check it out, and the two of them plus Laila travel to the remote mountain estate. They meet the daughter of the previous master of the house, Eleonora, who has developed a fixation on Florian since his last visit ten years earlier and wants to steal him away from Ray. Her story is without question a tragedy, so modern readers who want everything to be fluff will want to steer clear. I think the main reason anyone would pick Galaxy up after the first series will have done so because they want to see the progression of Ray and Florian’s relationship. In that regard, Galaxy is absolutely a disappointment. It’s a pretty good mystery/action story, but with very little space to let the characters breathe or emote. Their relationship is still quite ambiguous, with no real character development for anyone other than Eleonora. Even the attempt to connect this volume’s storyline to the Black Hand plot from the previous series feels quite clumsy. I did like Galaxy, but i can’t help wishing for more; the pacing was too fast to develop properly. Even letting the same story spread out over two volumes would have let it breathe and better convey what these characters are going through. There’s still a couple more sequels after this, though, so maybe they will bring some closure to the overarching story of Gorgeous Carat.