One Peace Books recently debuted My Death Flags Show No Sign of Ending, a new isekai title. However, their July debut is as far away from fantasy as you can get, as Teppeki Honeymoon offers us a new shojo story to enjoy. Is it worth a read? Let’s find out!

Our story follows Ena, a high school student who is renowned for her strength and often runs around delivering bento boxes for the family business. With her mother having passed away when Ena was young, she’s a major support for her father and younger twin brothers. Unfortunately, her family are deep in debt, and although the bento business is doing okay, Ena finds herself constantly worried about the future. Luckily for her, a solution soon presents itself…

While running around making her deliveries, Ena happens upon a crowd trying to pull a sword from a stone. Thinking they need help, Ena decides to attempt drawing the sword herself, which she successfully does, but finds this was a contest of strength, and the winner is going to become betrothed to the heir of a major security company! Ena’s not exactly thrilled by this, but as part of the deal they’ll also pay off her family’s debt, which is a lot more enticing.

Ena’s husband-to-be is Sakae, the 25-year-old heir who is entirely fed up with his parents forcing girl after girl upon him in the hopes he’ll finally settle down and get married. Given their age gap and the circumstances that have led to their meeting, Sakae has no particular intentions of marrying Ena either, but he does request she play along for now so he can enjoy a period of peace from his family.

Ultimately, Ena struggles under the pressure of both living with Sakae and with the fact that his family are constantly meddling (such as swapping all of Ena’s usual underwear for sexy ones instead) in their affairs. It’s bad enough that they quietly decide to forget about the whole thing until Sakae comes up with a new deal for Ena. Instead of getting married, she just needs to pretend to be his lover for two months, and then he’ll pay off her family’s debt. With no long-term commitment necessary, Ena agrees and the two continue on with their daily lives, but could it be that romantic feelings are beginning to bloom between them…?

Fake relationships are a staple when it comes to romance series, but mangaka Meca Tanaka is no stranger to the theme either, with their previous long-running series Faster Than a Kiss (unlicensed currently) being built upon a similar premise (and also an age-gap romance). And perhaps it’s that experience that leads Teppeki Honeymoon to prove such an entertaining read despite not technically doing anything all that original.

Ena and Sakae are a likeable pairing, too. Although Ena is younger (but still 18), because of her (borderline inhuman) strength, it never feels like she’s put into a situation that she can’t get out of. And despite living together and forced to make lovey-dovey reports on their relationship every day, Sakae keeps to his word and never does anything to make her uncomfortable. Even when it becomes clear the two are attracted to each other, it’s often Ena who is shown as desiring more from their relationship than Sakae, which is a good way of balancing the situation.

Having run in Hana to Yume Ai, this is a fairly traditional shojo style of artwork. Pages can feel a bit cluttered as Tanaka draws in quite small panels and sometimes has a lot of speech bubbles overwhelming a scene. However, the characters are expressive, and Tanaka conveys their emotions well. The most important moments in the volume are given a lot more room to breathe and delivered well, so that helps balance out the rest of it.

As mentioned, Teppeki Honeymoon comes to the West thanks to One Peace Books and has been translated by Laura Egan. The release reads well and also includes a colour spread at the start, which is always a welcome addition.

The series is complete in Japan with 8 volumes. Meanwhile, here in English, #2 is scheduled for a release in January 2026 with nothing currently pencilled in beyond that. Like a number of the newer One Peace Books’ debuts recently, we’re in for quite a wait for more of this.

Overall, Teppeki Honeymoon volume 1 is an entertaining read, provided you’re interested in the central premise and unfazed by the (small) age gap. While not particularly original, the cast is likeable and the story moves along at a snappy enough pace that you’re unlikely to be bothered by it not being groundbreaking.

Our review copy was supplied by the publisher, One Peace Books.
© Meca Tanaka / HAKUSENSHA, INC.