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NEW RELEASE BLITZ: Doink by Crea Reitan
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PREORDER BLAST: He Should be Mine by Jessica Jackman
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NEW RELEASE BLITZ: Dream Swimmes by Jo Carthage (Excerpt & Giveaway)
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PROMO BLITZ: Something To Prove by Lane Hayes
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PROMO BLITZ: Broken Highway by Logan Rivers
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MUSIC MONDAY: Of The Sorrows by For Those I Love
Pick a song that you really like and share it on Monday.
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SERIES TOUR & NEW RELEASE: Island Confidential Series by TA Moore (Excerpt & Giveaway)
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NEW RELEASE BLITZ: The Coach’s Daughter by Alex Winters (Excerpt & Giveaway)
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MANGA: Susumu x Minoru
Susumu x Minoru – Mochino Kome
Unsuccessful in getting his work serialized in a shounen magazine, struggling manga artist Susumu is advised by his editor to try drawing BL instead. He feels disheartened, thinking he is finally being ”designated for assignment,” when his junior Minoru comes forward with a suggestion to start dating for the sake of research. What starts as purely research becomes something more, as Susumu finds himself captivated by Minoru’s sincerity…
Susumu x Minoru is a BL manga about a mangaka creating BL while slowly falling into a BL relationship himself. How meta can you get?
Susumu is the mangaka about to venture into BL. He was going to give up when his friend Minoru encouraged him to give it a try by making him read BL. Since most BL mangaka are female, Minoru also boldly proposed that Susumu do what only he can do, being a male BL mangaka, gain a first-hand experience of his stories, a.k.a. date him.
The first time I read this, I couldn’t finish. Second time’s the charm because this time, the pairing clicked!
Before, I was bored with Susumu’s denseness, but now I find his cluelessness and internal dialogues amusing. Some people needed a push in the right direction, and bless Minoru’s soul, the boy knows his friend occasionally needed an extra shove or two.
Minoru loves cooking for his food-loving, kitchen-useless friend. While he enjoys doing things for Susumu and is clearly in love with him, I’m glad that he’s not a doormat, and it’s a relationship of equals. He gets justifiably angry when Susumu is being an idiot, and the dork had to grovel a bit, especially when he realized he’s in love with Minoru.
It wouldn’t be a manga about BL without the fujoshi. One was a coworker, the other was the editor in charge of Susumu, who would both have derpy expressions when discussing their favorite topic. His description of the “mad dog” look was hilarious! We fujin can all relate to the urge to rave about our ships, but we had to keep our mouths shut when in the presence of the uninitiated.
Overall, the romance is cute, and the transition from friends to lovers is fun and well-executed. It’s not anything groundbreaking, but it’s a cheeky take on life imitating art imitating life.
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REVIEW: Mercy by Ian Haramaki
Mercy – Ian Haramaki
A PRIEST AND HIS ANGEL…
Father Ilya Pavlovich Sokolovis a lonely priest and pariah of his small town. Tasked with killing an injured monster in the woods, Ilya is certain of his death. Instead, he heals the monster’s injury and lifts its curse, revealing a handsome, memory-less man.
Cocksure Danya is a man lost in an unfamiliar world. He struggles to recall his past life, flashes returning as he and Ilya grow closer. Soon, his appearance begins to change once more, but not into a beast — instead, Danya grows into something just like the Sun that Ilya has worshiped all his life.
With complicated pasts between them, the two must work together to deal with the corruption of Ilya’s own church, as well as their blooming feelings for one another.
Mercy by new-to-me author Ian Haramaki has that irresistibly eye-catching cover typically found in YA books, so I went into it blind.
The opening chapter is a mesmerizing scene of the unpopular priest-healer, Ilya Sokolovis, forced by the townsfolk to slay the beast in the forest, only to secretly take the beast back to his church to heal it. The beast then transformed into a man, Danya, who had no memory of what had happened to him.
The following chapters felt like time was standing still, a.k.a. nothing was happening. The pace trickled like molasses as the grumpy, neurotic, and touch-starved Ilya struggled with his attraction to the undeniably lovable Danya, who promptly latched on to the young priest with the enthusiasm of a Labrador retriever.
As cute as all that, it was a struggle to continue, and I had to put the book on hiatus twice. It was that blah, which was too bad because it had many interesting aspects, and the premise was intriguing. The pairing of an angel and a priest isn’t something I encountered often, and I need more of it!
The setting is a Russian-flavored alt-history set in the 1920s, in a small town. Most of the technology, such as radios and telephones, was invented by a woman, which we later learn was connected to one of the MCs.
Their religion worships the Sun Mother and Moon Father. Ilya is a priest of the Sun, a position he inherited from his father. Magic and magical creatures exist, and angels, who were sons of the Sun, and demons, who were creatures of the night, show their presence to humans.
Their world captured my interest, but unfortunately, it wasn’t well-developed. It mainly included fleeting references with minimal details. The elements felt like a jumble of surface-level fantasy, a vague historical atmosphere, and modern language that seemed out of place and didn’t blend with the overall setting. And there wasn’t any magic done all, which was a huge disappointment.
Ilya’s late father is well-loved by the town, and when he fell ill and died, the people blamed 10-year-old Ilya because he could not heal his father. This is a grudge they have carried until now. His mother was especially bitter and harsh, and she hated him with vitriol. Ilya did all he could to avoid her.
Understandably, Ilya is a mass of guilt, anxiety, and woes. Unfortunately, most priestly love interests are of this mold, which I found rather tiresome. The only man of the cloth I knew who’s chill and happy with himself is the motorcycle-riding vicar Archie Thorne of Seven Summer Nights by Harper Fox. That was a joy to read, so give us a happy gay priest MC, please!
The plot is very romance-centric, and happily, it delivered! The pace also sped up considerably when the two MCs became romantically involved. The dynamics between Danya and Ilya were fun, fluffy, and hella swoony, and I loved how the author played off their opposite personalities. Most of the conflict was external, and this highlighted the strength of their bond and protective instincts.
Danya and Ilya went overboard with the Russian petnames, which were silly but also ridiculously cute! Danya, truly a son of the Sun living up to being Ilya’s solnishko, just wants to love on his human, protect him at all costs, and tinker with his many gadgets. His positive effect on Ilya made the book worth reading!
Mercy is a story of healing and embracing happiness. It has a lot of potential, and with better execution, it could have been a real gem. It might be slow-paced and simplistic in some aspects, but the love story at its core shines true.
Rating:
3 Stars – not exactly setting my world on fire but I liked itSoundtrack: Light Prayer
Artist: School Food Punishment
Album: amp-reflection
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