James, Eloisa - Your Wicked Ways

(there may be a whole lot of LJ-spamming as I attempt to catch up on book-blogging)

Helene has endured about ten years of her husband Rees' affairs, possibly culminating in an incident with naked Russian dancers on their dining room table. He won't give her a divorce or children, so she finally decides on getting a makeover to try and snare a lover to impregnate her.

Eep, I'm sorry rachelmanija, I didn't like it =(. This makes me very sad, particularly because it hits a whole lot of my buttons, including an established couple learning to love each other again, people who don't have magnificent sex on the first try, and second chances. Unfortunately, the tone of the piece is so un-Regency that it totally throws me, and I don't even know anything about the Regency. I mean... I'm very glad that a romance really explores sexuality and how people learn to have better sex, but at the same time... sex outdoors? With no one having more than the slightest of qualms?

I think it wouldn't throw me as much if it had been a Kinsale or something involving shipwrecks, secret princesses or penguins, but because it is set in society and because the characters do care about what society thinks, it kept throwing me.

Also, for a book about a couple getting to know each other again, there's surprisingly little time given to the couple. There's a subplot with Rees' vicar brother and his mistress, along with something else involving a child (never a good sign). I wish that there had been more time for Helene and Rees, and I was never quite convinced by how quickly they got back together, given ten years of resentment. Also, the somewhat Freudian reasoning behind Rees' relationship with his brother felt too pat as well.

On another level, I was disturbed by how Helene's dramatic transformation was sparked by her great desire for a child, especially when it was framed by all her friends having children. I assume all her friends are heroines of their own novels, since I got to see some of their (very spectacular) sex lives. I don't think it's that odd for her to want a child, but given the nearly hallowed status of babies in romance, it bugs me.

Takeuchi Mick - Her Majesty's Dog, vol. 01-03 (Eng. trans.)

Although Amane looks like your average high-school girl (as do so many manga heroines), she's actually a master of words and uses them to bind spirits. Hyoue is her loyal spirit-dog companion, who takes the form of your average (though very cute) high-school boy. She feeds him her life force via kisses, which leads to some awkward situations at school.

I really love the art in this one; it's wispy and thin and stylized in a way that I can't quite describe. I also adore Amane, who's so clueless that she doesn't quite get why everyone is confused by her making out with Hyoue all the time. And by clueless, I mean she's emotionally clueless in the ways of some of my favorite characters (read: Jin, Ishida, etc.), and it's even better because she's female. Also, the bond between her and Hyoue is absolutely adorable.

The plot is very thin, and while I got a little bored in vols. 2-3, mostly it was because I wanted more interaction between Hyoue and Amane. I love how protective they are of each other and how each is fairly clueless with regards to most things, but always manage to figure each other out.

Um, but being me, I would love it even more if it had just a wee bit more angst between the two. Or more plot. Or... actually, just more scenes between the two would be good.

Narushima Yuri - Planet Ladder, vol. 01-02 (Eng. trans.)

Ummmm.... I read this one really fast, so I don't quite remember what it's about. There's a beautiful black-haired, blue-eyed girl named Kaguya, who is not only adopted, but also the secret princess of somewhere or the other. There's a robot boy who looks exactly like a prince that Kaguya keeps dreaming of. The robot (named Gold, I think) is of course a soulless killer who possesses a hand of living gold. I think. And there's a long-haired insane guy who controls said robot, and another guy who seems to be trying to rescue Kaguya.

Also, there are nine different dimensions, and Kaguya can somehow pick the one that will survive, while the others fall into confusion.

Alas and alack, I did not get to meet the giant robot chicken.

The best thing is that Rachel was reccing this to me as a fairly standard, non-cracktastic manga, with the exception of the Giant Robot Chicken.

On page two, I said something about the emotionless killer robot with the hand of living gold.

"Oh yeah. Maybe it's not that standard," Rachel admitted. "I forgot about that. It's really not that cracktastic, except for the chicken and the robot boy!"

A few seconds later, she added, "Oh, and the mysterious disease that makes people's heads randomly fall off."

The best thing of all is that she is absolutely right, particularly when compared to Cross.

Anyhow, I can't even do a standard plot summary, because I have absolutely no idea what happened. This was probably not helped out by the fact that the character introductions in volume two were misprinted so that the villain and the hero were switched around.

CLAMP - Legal Drug, vol. 01-03 (Eng. trans.)

Lalalala I am so susceptible to CLAMP!

Much like Her Majesty's Dog, I very much enjoyed this, despite the very thin veneer of plot. Actually, I don't even remember the characters' names.

I think I may have read too much manga this weekend.

Or: since there is no such thing as too much manga, I think all the cracktasticness may have addled my brain.

Anyhow, there's a Pretty Blonde Boy, rescued by a larger Dark-Haired Guy. There is a beautiful panel of the rescue in the snow. Pretty Blonde Boy and Dark-Haired Guy become roommates and work together at a drugstore (legal! Not crack!) run by a blonde guy with glasses (hereby known as Glasses). Glasses seems to have some sort of relationship with a tall, dark-haired guy who always wears shades (hereby known as Shades).

When introducing the manga to me, rachelmanija mentioned that the relationships in the series were very subtext-y. Then there was the page in which Shades was nearly licking Glasses' ear, pulling down his turtleneck, and turning Glasses' face toward him. We both decided that that was very much text.

Glasses has some weird jobs on the side, which he frequently sends Pretty Blonde Boy out on. These jobs frequently involve cross-dressing, prettification, and very revealing situations which enable Dark-Haired Guy to come to his rescue.

Oh yeah, Pretty Blonde Boy is somewhat psychic.

Obviously, this is all a ruse to get pretty boys together, but since they are so pretty, I don't mind very much at all. In fact, I feel rather bad for Dark-Haired Guy, who is quite obviously pining away in a very Gothic but non-bloody fashion, since Pretty Blonde Boy has the emotional maturity of a mushroom. I must specify that Dark-Haired Guy does not want to possess Pretty Blonde Boy's eyeballs, stalk him, kill him, torture him, torture his friends, be his twin star, steal his destiny, steal his organic sword (literally! No phallic symbols involved!) or drive him insane. I say Gothic just because it is CLAMP and because the romance between Dark-Haired Guy and Pretty Blonde Boy is pushed forward by things like possession.

While I am enchanted by Dark-Haired Guy's silent angst (he doesn't actually angst, but I imagine that he must angst a whole lot. See above re: Pretty Blonde Boy and mushrooms), I am even more entranced by the love of the two guys with glasses. I think they should get their own series called Framed and have many perfectly innocuous conversations that would be completely devoid of innuendo if they weren't pulling down each other's turtlenecks and licking fingers.