Review: I Cross-Dressed for the IRL Meetup 2 by Kurano

I Cross-Dressed for the IRL Meetup 2 (I Cross-Dressed for the IRL Meetup #3-4)
by Kurano

My Rating: 4 stars

Genre: Contemporary/ Slice of Life
Age Category: New Adult
Type of romance: m/m and m/f

Blurb:
Cross-dresser Satoshi Morinaga, using the online handle Cocoa, lives for his once a month IRL sweets meetup where he’s become fast friends with fellow sweets lovers Opera, Lemon, and Kantentaro. With the weather warming up, the group decides to shake things up a bit, and instead of their usual sweets meetup, they go shopping for swimsuits (after deciding which swimsuit to exactly buy…) and hit the beach for some fun in the sun. When a group of guys hit on Lemon and Taro, refusing to take no for an answer, an ultra hottie swoops in to rescue them. But this hottie may spell the end of their little group after Satoshi spots him out on the town with Opera, sparking something unexpected inside of him…

My Review

After finishing the first volume I knew I wanted to continue the series and bought the next two volumes. I started volume 2 right away and got through it pretty fast. I’ve been very stressed lately and this book was exactly the type of read I wanted.

It was easy to get into this book as I read it right after the first volume and this time I had none of the few issues I struggled with in volume 1 as I already know who was who and I found there were less confusing switches this time. I really liked reading this book. It’s easy to read, the art looks nice and I like the story and characters.

I really liked reading more about Cocoa and her friends and their sweet meetups. This series reads like cozy slice of life story, but I like how there are interesting topics as well with how it really delves deeply in the topic of cross-dressing, what it means to cross-dress for the various characters as well as about self expression, being queer and being yourself.

In this volume there is a new character who joins the group. Aki wants to cross-dress, but he is tall and muscular so he thinks he can’t, so he only does cross-teching. I never heard of that term before, but he basically changes his appearance with software. It was interesting seeing how a new member in the group changed things up and seeing his point of view and how he had different struggles than the other characters.

I also liked seeing the romance between Opera and Cocoa progress. Both in their cross-dressed forms as well as outside of it. Cocoa has to come to terms with the fact they’re crushing on Opera and that Opera is a boy like him. There are some really sweet scenes with them and I look forward to seeing where their romance goes.

To summarize: I really enjoyed this second volume, I read it right after volume 1 and easily got into this one. I enjoyed reading more about Cocoa and her friends and the sweet meetups. I like the cozy slice of life vibe of this series as well as the interesting topics it addresses like the reasons for cross-dressing, queerness and self expression. I liked how there was a new character joining the group in this one and how he has his own challenges when it comes to cross-dressing. The romance also deepens a bit and I like seeing how they like each other cross-dressed and outside of it, I look forward to seeing how that progresses. All in all I had a great time reading this one and it was just the read I needed during a stressful time.

Links:
– Goodreads
– Amazon
– B&N
– Kobo

You can also read my review on Goodreads.