Starting with the positives: Karakuri Odette is an enjoyable read. The female protagonist is very likable, and is what makes this series truely shine. For the most part, it makes you want to continue reading, and only becomes draggy somewhere in the middle. Nonetheless, Karakuri is simple, light hearted read. If you are looking for a shoujo with a serious romance and solid plot, then I'd suggest avoiding this series.
The negatives: My main issue with Karakuri, is obvious lack of direction it exhibits. Suzuki Julietta seems to be overly ambitious, and wastes time introducing a vast array of characters and plot lines , without being able to decide to focus on a few and fully develop them. For example, it felt as though she couldn't decide on which male character as Odette's main love interest.
At first Asao seems the most likely, not to mention that she ditches Chris, although I understand that he was meant more for the one-shot in chapter one, before the series became serialized; and then she introduces Yukimura and makes it seem as though Odette is developing feelings for him, only to completely drop that plot line! And she does this throughout the series, to the point where it became increasingly annoying. She continuously drops characters without tying up loose ends (E.g.:Chris disapearing for 10 chapters or so, Mika-chan, Yukimura, the reason for Odette's battery issue).
This is a real shame, because Karakuri is driven by it's cast, and there are a few great characters who had a lot of potential, and could have benefited from more background story development, such as the professor. Instead, Suzuki introduces even more characters very late in the story who I didn't care for (Shirayuki, Travis/Grace
! mainly due to them being introduced so late in the series, and to purpose an unnecessary over-dramatic conclusion
) The ending was also very unsatisfactory on my end- I felt like absolutely nothing was properly tied up.