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Yaoi Review: Manhattan Love Story

Manhattan Love Story
Story and Art: Momoko Tenzen
Published by the Juné Imprint of Digital Manga, Inc.
Copy supplied by Publisher
ISBN-10: 1-56970-038-9
ISBN-13: 978-1-56970-038-9

Review by Kris

Manhattan Love Story is a collection of related vignettes tied to a midtown flower shop. Dan “Diamond” Loving is the manager of a flower shop in midtown Manhattan that is owned by his lover Rock Melville. Rock is a powerful CEO and is rather busy so the time that the two of these men is few and far between. They love each other but Dan has a hard time dealing with not being able to see his lover as often as he would like.

We also get stories featuring Dan’s employee Kanan who falls in love with a Japanese high school student who is in town visiting family, Kenji’s (the Japanese high school student) nephew falling for his teacher, and Rock’s secretary Jessie is dating an old college friend of Rock’s. Jessie met Louis at a bookstore he was working at. This is the couple that adorns the front cover.
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Manga review: Princess Princess Plus

Princess Princess Plus
Story and Art: Mikiyo Tsuda
Published by the DokiDoki Imprint of Digital Manga, Inc.
Copy supplied by Publisher
ISBN-10: 1-56970-090-7
ISBN-13: 978-1-56970-090-7

Review by Kris

There is a somewhat strange tradition at the all-boys Fujimori Academy. Instead of having a more traditional style of mascot (you know something along the lines of Jaguars, Cougars, Spartans, Bees, etc.) they have the Princesses. A few of the prettiest boys are chosen to dress in drag and cheer on the various clubs on campus. Mikiyo Tsuda introduced us to the Princesses in her series Princess Princess and continues the concept in Princess Princess Plus.
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Yaoi Novel Review: Secret Moon

Secret Moon
Written by Siira Gou
Art by Satou Tomoe
Published by Juné, imprint of Digital Manga, Inc.
Copy supplied by Publisher
ISBN10: 1569706166
ISBN13: 9781569706169

Review by Linda Yau

After years of living abroad, Viscount Akihiro Tomoe moves back to Japan where he lives with his servant, and has enough business and money so that hardly anyone questions the front that he has. He is a vampire and shares the allergies of a vampire in only be able to go out after dark, but what sets him apart from being a vampire, is the fact that he doesn’t have any fangs. He is living what he believes to be a monotone life. One night after checking one of his many businesses, he sees a fight between a young man and some street thugs. Continue reading “Yaoi Novel Review: Secret Moon”

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Yaoi Review: Boys Love

Boys Love
Story and Art by Kaim Tachibana
Published by Doki Doki Imprint of Digital Manga, Inc.
Copy supplied by Publisher
ISBN10: 1569700885
ISBN13: 9781569700884

Review by Linda Yau

Mamiya is a magazine editor who has his first high profile feature on famous teen model Noeru Kisargi. He was quite enthused to get the job, but then he meets the model, and it goes down from there. Mamiya learns that Noeru lives a very irresponsible and tormented life with underage drinking or sleeping with random men. He is in other words a jerk. Continue reading “Yaoi Review: Boys Love”

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Yaoi Review: Clan of the Nakagamis – The Devil Cometh (vol. 2)

Clan of the Nakagamis – The Devil Cometh (vol. 2)
Story and Art: Homerun Ken
Published by the Juné Imprint of Digital Manga, Inc.
Copy supplied by Publisher
ISBN-10: 1-56970-033-8
ISBN-13: 978-1-56970-033-4

Review by Kris

Everyone says that their family is crazy (believe me I’ve used that excuse a time or two) but in the case of the Nakagamis, they are truly crazy. You have a family obsessed with the middle son Tokio, an older son who is a cross-dressing shojo artist, and a younger brother who is somewhat gullible when it comes to his older brother. But the siblings are just the tip of the iceberg. The mom and dad are eternally youthful and look much younger than their children and the grandfather is the youngest looking one out of the bunch, if you didn’t know any better you’d think he was around the age of ten or so. If you’re interested in checking out reviews for the first volume you can read mine or a great male perspective by Tom Good.

Things seem to going OK with Haruka Iijima and Tokio Nakagami but they aren’t moving fast enough for Iijima thanks to the butting in of the rest of the Nakagami clan. But an ominous wind blows in the son of the head of the family and president of the Nakagami Group, Hibari Nakagami. It seems weird to the rest of the family that Hibari just shows up out of the blue to collect Grandfather Mitsuru (the ten-year-old looking grandpa). But instead of leaving with Grandfather he seems to have taken Tokio’s heart with him leaving Iijima, and the rest of the family worried. Only they’re worried about different things, Iijima feels that Hibari is taking his beloved sensei away from him, and the Nakagami clan figure that Hibari is using the fact that Tokio once had a thing for him to take advantage of him and his youthful appearance. Will Iijima and the rest of the Nakagamis be able to rescue Tokio before anything horrible will happen to him?
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Yaoi Review: Hey Class President! vol. 1

Hey, Class President! vol. 1
Story and Art: Kaori Monchi
Published by the 801 Media, Inc. Imprint of Digital Manga, Inc.
Copy supplied by Publisher
ISBN-10: 1-934129-30-5
ISBN-13: 978-1-934129-30-2

Review by Kris

For any yaoi reader you know that when you have an all-boys school there is going to be hooking up. In Kaori Monchi-sensei’s Hey, Class President! there is plenty of sex to go around.

Kokusai and Chiga have been in the Judo club together but recently Kokusai has been elected as class president. It seems that the school’s tradition in to elect the most wanted guy. And that guy is Kokusai. Kokusai gets to select his vice president and that lucky soul is Chiga. Chiga doesn’t understand why on earth anyone would want to elect Kokusai as the class president. He’s slow and clueless to things that are going on around him. He’s a stalker and pervert magnet and he’s always being groped by strangers on the train. Now that Chiga is in the picture he keeps creeps at bay. Chiga is a known womanizer and never has a shortage of girlfriends but since he can’t seem leave Kokusai alone he finds himself attracted to Kokusai as well. What will happen to these two?
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Book review: A Touch of Dead-Sookie Stackhouse: The Complete Stories

A Touch of Dead-Sookie Stackhouse: The Complete Stories
By Charlaine Harris, published by Ace Books a/k/a The Berkley Publishing Group, Penguin Group
Copy purchased by reviewer
ISBN: 0441017835

Reviewed by Ida Vega-Landow

For those of you who can’t get enough of Sookie Stackhouse, this slim volume contains five short stories about our mind reading heroine by her intrepid creator, Charlaine Harris, the Southern belle with the macabre sense of humor. This book is for those who wonder what Sookie does between books—I myself have often wondered when and how she found out about her cousin Hadley’s death before she went to New Orleans to settle her estate in “Definitely Dead”—and whether Ms. Harris can tell a complete story about Sookie without it being book length. Happily, she can do so, with the humor and solemnity we’ve come to expect from the creator of the Southern Vampire series.
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Book review: Roanoke, A Novel of Elizabethan Intrigue

Roanoke, A Novel of Elizabethan Intrigue
By Margaret Lawrence
Published by Delacorte Press, February 2009
Copy supplied by the publisher
ISBN: 0385342373

Review by Ida Vega-Landow

If you’re looking for a good mystery to read during this Season of the Witch, I recommend “Roanoke”, which is about the first, failed English colony in America. Nobody really knows the ultimate fate of the little group of Englishmen and women who settled on Roanoke Island back in 1585. It’s now a thriving city in the state of Virginia, but back then it was a backwater island up the windswept coast of the Carolinas, past Cape Feare, inhabited by the Secota Indians.
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Yaoi Review: Love/Knot

Love/Knot
Story and Art: Hiroko Ishimaru
Published by the Juné Imprint of Digital Manga, Inc.
Copy supplied by Publisher
ISBN-10: 1-56970-029-x
ISBN-13: 978-1-56970-029-7

Review by Kris

By day Keigo Someha works as a somewhat unsuccessful private investigator. But for his evening job, an assassin for hire, he’s much more successful. On his way back from his evening job he finds a young man who’d collapsed in front of his house. This young man has a unique look and piques Keigo’s interest. When the young man awakens in a strange environment, he freaks out. Keigo, like a good host should, introduces himself and learns the young man’s name, Emiya Nozaki. Emiya is very wary but poses an interesting proposition. Since Keigo is not the best detective, Emiya gives him some information about a person he is currently looking for. If the info is correct Keigo has to let Emiya stay with him. Of course Emiya’s information is spot on so Keigo allows him to stay. But while on another job he that a top secret government experiment escaped and that he may be getting a call. It turns out that Emiya is the government experiment. He possesses a high intellect and seems to have ESP abilities. Now that Keigo has accepted Emiya into his life will he be able to hand him over to the government, or will he protect him from having to go back to the place he tried so hard to get away from?
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Yaoi Review: Awaken Forest

Awaken Forest
Story and Art: Yuna Aoi
Published by the Juné Imprint of Digital Manga, Inc.
Copy supplied by Publisher
ISBN-10: 1-56970-058-3
ISBN-13: 978-1-56970-058-7

Review by Kris

Yoshimori is a newcomer to the editorial department but for some strange reason he’s been tasked to retrieve the manuscript of the well-known and very talented author, Orito Suga. He had the opportunity to meet Suga-sensei and his brother at a work function. These two brothers are beyond handsome and Yoshimori is looking forward to spending a little time with these two handsome men. But behind these two gorgeous yet mysterious brothers lies a secret that can be the end of these two, and with Yoshimori not only living with the Suga brothers but also feeling an attraction to Masato something dangerous seems to be lurking.
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