Sunbeams in the Sky, Vol. 1

About Despite having different personalities and attending different schools, twin sisters Himari and Mio are extremely close. After an event at school leaves Himari home and unwilling to return to school, Mio hatches a plan to help her sister by pulling the time-honored tradition of swapping places!

Thoughts Content warning on the front end, here. It's assault. Spoiler: Himari turns down a boy at her school, and he's rich enough to hire guys to beat her up in retaliation, and connected enough to make sure there's no investigation afterwards. The attack is so vicious that she passes out and wakes up in the hospital later.

It's no surprise that Himari doesn't want to go back to her school, and I wouldn't make her. Her twin sister Mio, worried that Himari is struggling, gets Himari to attend Mio's school instead, all while posing as Mio. This leads us to the bulk of the story - twin swap shenanigans. Himari is quieter and more stoic, while Mio is outgoing and cutesy, which leads to the usual hijinks of Himari attempting to mimic her sister's behaviors to varied success. (Mio's BFF is not fooled for a second.) It was very nice to see each sister's individual personality and interest shine through. There's a very fun arc about how the difference in the sisters' baking skills makes trouble for them maintaining the facade. There's also the added wrinkle of each of the sisters being interested in a different boy, which is that good tasty shoujo drama I adore. Both boys are interesting and kind with attractive designs, and I'm interested to see how this plays out. Himari's trauma makes it difficult for her to get close to boys now, and while the story doesn't spend too much time on it, it's definitely a part of her story. Even with that, the storytelling is soft and gentle shoujo fare: Sweet days in high school cheering for sports, doing club activities, and baking cookies. The artwork is clean and attractive with a very pleasant blend of classic and modern styles, with distinct looks for everyone involved. A handful of hints and the cliffhanger imply that things might get heavier in the future, but I am invested in seeing where these kids go from here.

Thanks to NetGalley and Yen Press for an advance copy! All thoughts in this review are my own.