Reviewed by Larissa M.
April 03, 2008
"...manga will be something to watch in the future..."
When I was asked by WWR to review a new type of story, I was a bit skeptical. I'm a pure romance junky at heart. I love just about all types of romance...but this was one type I wasn't quite that sure of. But I took the challenge and here's what I thought.
Voices of Love
Mika Tsukahara, a young teacher and her student, Naokazu Kuga share more than class time. At first, I wasn't sure how this story would pan out. I'm not a fan of teacher/student relationships. Teachers taking their “power” over students and abusing it doesn't sit well with me, but it turns out the teacher is a young girl of 25 and the student is older than most of the others at the age of 18. The age gap isn't as crazy as it could be and the teacher really didn't go looking for a romance—she all but freaks out over the student's advances. In the end, the story setting wasn't as offensive as I'd first thought and as an erotic romance, the story was actually quite enjoyable.
One Summer's Day
Shigeru and Sana are friends—sort of. They'd been together on off all the way through school. They meet up again in college and find they easily fall back into their old ways of sleeping together for convenience. Once Shigeru starts seeing someone else, Sana puts her foot down and tells him their over because she'd found out he's sleeping with his girlfriend too. This story is an ultimate love triangle/best friends are lovers storyline. It definitely makes you feel for Sana and route for her to come to her senses...then hope their might be a chance for her to find love with Shigeru.
Rainbow Smile
This story deals with relationship abuse and breaking the cycle. The heroine finds her breaking point when she finds her boyfriend in bed with another. The “hero” for a lack of a better term is a friend who encourages her to want more for herself and is there for her when she finally takes the steps to leave. The problem with this story is two fold. First, the author goes a bit far in utilizing the abuse as a arousal factor for the erotic part of the story. And, second, the hero doesn't take any true action against the jerk who's beating on the heroine. I'm not fond of this story at all. It's thirty minutes or so of my life I'll never get back.
Picture of Us
Mizu is almost 40 and he's looking for someone to spend time with so he places an online ad. Fuyu answers his ad and lies about her age. They meet and fall in love. Kind of a basic story with little else going on but the age issue and Fuyu's being a bit clingy. This story was a bit slow at times and not as enjoyable as the first two in this anthology.
Teach Me Love
This story is about a girl who believes in order to have a friend, she has to let the guy have sex with her. Then there's one guy who shows her that's not the way. In the end, the girl not only gets a friend but also someone who loves her.
Overall, this anthology wasn't like what we're used to as romance readers. Though it is reminiscent of an anthology you might find at another erotica romance publisher, it's definitely different. Manga has graphic art work and is set up to be read from right-to-left instead of the typical left-to-right method found in most other books you'd find in the US. Each story appears to have a true storyline with a lesson of some sort and/or a fairly enjoyable scenario (with the exception of the abuse storyline). I believe manga will be something to watch in the future, and I would definitely recommend every romance reader try one out at least once.
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Buy » Voices of Love by Kanae Hazuki
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Book Description for Voices of Love
Passionate manga for ladies! Some say forbidden fruit is the sweetest! Voices of Love serves up a steaming-hot collection of five romantic, passionate, sexy stories about modern women and the men they love. The title story follows a relationship between young teacher Mika Tsukahara and Naokazu Kuga, an 18-year old student at her school. They're neighbors too, and can't control their attraction to each other!
