"Ascendance of a Bookworm - part 2" by Miya Kazuki

Translated from Japanese into English by Quof, with illustrations by You Shiina. This is a post about four books, the second arc in the Ascendance of a Bookworm light novel series. They're book 4-7 in the series and won't make much sense if you haven't read the first arc. At this point, the series has fully won me over and I'll probably read all volumes at some point. I mostly read these four during the recent heatwaves (plural, sadly), because they're so easy to read. Even when I'm tired or find it hard to concentrate, I can always make it through these books. In its core, this is still a book series about a bookworm in desperate circumstances trying to get her hands on books after being transported into a fantasy world where illiteracy is the norm and books are a rare handmade luxury. But the pacing and tone have changed quite a bit in this arc. The stakes have gotten incredibly high, and there are now action scenes, plots twists and cliffhangers. Some subjects that got introduced…