Akuma no Puzzle

I really liked this collection of short stories, each of them had piece of the unexpected. Each story has a different setting.
*The first deals with a demon possessing a childhood friend.
*The next starts with an unexpected 'daughter'.
*Then there is a fantasy about a princess and a kingdom protected by a god.
In the last a rich young girl who's father is trying to make her marry and she runs away.
Some of the themes are deciding what you want in your future and dealing with your past. I don't overly focus on artwork, but the image for this is a good indication of what you will find inside. (I liked that the characters had different looks about them, instead of all looking the same.) The characters were diverse and each had a back story to them.
I have read a lot of predictable shoujo recently, I enjoyed these because I did not predict everything in them, but at the same time it was not some shocking drama filled twist turn plot where i feel like I am walking around an unknown building at night with the lights off and slamming into surprise walls whenever i think I get where the plot(or the hallway is going). Drama lama plots wear me out *end rant* This was not one.
Overall it left me with a good impression and made me smile. If a story can make me laugh or smile then it usually has me, each story did this to some degree. Because of I read this, I plan to check out more of this author's works.

Art style-wise, Akuma no Puzzle is nothing groundbreaking. The characters are drawn well enough to be likable.

But I praise this title for its ambition to come up with plots that break the shoujo mold. There's fantasy, school romances, omiai, demons, etc., so you're bound to find a oneshot you like here.

Characterization-wise, I like how the mangaka developed the characters. The women aren't badasses, but they're not helpless, crybaby wimps either. They're even fairly entertaining, even at the height of their mandatory naivete.

Lastly, I must especially mention the male lead in the fourth oneshot (July Bride's Yuu, who's just the epitome of coolness), who I would welcome reading again in a series.