Books

Book 1,041: Would You Like to Be a Family? – koyama

Apparently, there are three stories in this one short collection, and I only remember one, so that doesn’t bode well. The biggest struggle for me was the style. I’m not the biggest fan of the super stretched out/tall bodies and super angular faces. I think it just makes them all look creepy.

The story itself was actually very cute (or least the one I remember) Takemura is a shy loner who had a bad bullying experience in high school, so he keeps to himself, but his coworker Natsui is outgoing and has tried to engage him before. They meet one evening in the grocery store and Takemura finds out Natsui has a kid and can’t get out of a dinner invite.

Before you know it, they’re all hanging out all the time. There’s even an awkward moment where Takemura has to go pick up the kid (cannot remember their names) and it goes well even though Takemura is SOO nervous. In the end the kid is the one that’s like hey you need to move in here, we’re always happier when you’re here. I’m 99% sure the book was sex free and that anything that did or didn’t happen was 100% off page and it was kind of refreshing knowing how edgy manga/yaoi/BL can get.

Recommendation: It’s a cute read. I’m a little concerned I have ZERO recollection of the other stories, but the entire book was pretty short, so they must’ve been even shorter. Illustration style wasn’t my jam, but I could see where others like it as there are quite a few in this style.

Books

Book 1,036: Chef’s Kiss – Jarrett Melendez

I didn’t realize it at the time, but this has many similarities to Bloom, but with enough of a twist/reversal that it makes sense that I read it right after. It was purely coincidence though, this was one of the half dozen graphic novels/manga that were immediately downloadable from my local library. I won’t compare too much as it’s not really fair to either, but I just got a kick out of that realizing it now as I sit down to write my response (months later—whoops).

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Book 967: Our Dreams at Dusk (Our Dreams at Dusk #1) – Yuhki Kamatani

I found this one on a list of manga to read after really enjoying My Love: Mix-up! along with I Hear the Sunspot. So when I saw my local library had a copy of this I put it on hold and grabbed it before our weekend away earlier this month.

At heart, Our Dreams at Dusk is a coming-of-age and coming-out story. Tasuku has moved to a new town and he’s been outed and has to come to terms with either being open about it or trying to continue to hide it. So this one is not as light and fluffy as many of the other BL Manga I’ve read.

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Book 966: Theory of Happiness (I Hear the Sunspot #2) – Yuki Fumino

This book picks up a good while after I Hear the Sunspot, but mostly because Taichi and Kohei have been avoiding each other for stupid reasons. UGH, why do I love this crap so much?!

For me, the best part of this book is how much Kohei has grown and come to accept his hearing loss. He’s cut his hair shorter, no longer hiding his hearing aid, and is actively taking part in the hearing-impaired group on campus. He’s really grown and matured and for a good chunk of the book, we think he’s moved on from Taichi.

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Book 963: I Hear the Sunspot (I Hear the Sunspot #1) – Yuki Fumino

I grabbed this from my local library before going on vacation because lately, I’ve been reading a lot of chapter-based manga works on WebComics. I wasn’t sure my internet would be good enough to read those so wanted a quick read between other books!

What I hadn’t planned on was for it to align so closely to the previous book, Art Therapy, featuring a character with a disability and I also didn’t plan on half reading a book further in this series (Limit Vol. 2) and having NO clue what was going on because the titles for this series just aren’t that great.

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