Special thanks to Leontine from Leontine's Book Realm for the super header.


Saturday, October 23, 2010

Yaoi before Yaoi Con

I had a whole bunch of yaoi I need to read before I had to San Francisco in a few days so I've been buckling down and finishing it so I can pass it on to the next person there.

Wishing For the Moon by Dany & Dany

Allesandro is an up and coming actor (blond) and Luca, an aspiring author, becomes his roommate. They become good friends until they make the mistake of sleeping together and then trying to pretend they didn't. Allesandro starts an affair with his co-star who is in an open relationship with the director who is mentoring Luca and well as they say on your Facebook status "it's complicated". Eventually Allesandro breaks up with his new lover leading to his suicide and ultimately a HEA for the two men. I found this one pretty melodramatic. Kind of the artsy "oh I feel so much more deeply than regular people, my dreams are so much greater..." kind of thing that I don't have much patience for. I didn't enjoy it as much as the first one set during the French Revolution.

Anima by Dany & Dany

On a cruise, famous ballet dancer Danya (blond) will be performing. Also on the ship is investigative reporter Patrick who is accompanied by his android Ed. The two guys hook up and start seeing each other after the trip, but Danya's mentor/manager is not thrilled as he's involved in some shady business and he doesn't want Patrick to find out. Danya also has his own secret. The manager is determined to separate them, no matter how. *cue evil laughter* They said this steam punk but it seemed more futuristic to me, but I have to say I loved Ed. He has no emotions or filter on his mouth it seems so he just puts stuff out there, which is true but not very diplomatic at times. I liked this one much more as there is less of the "woe is me, I'm an artist *hand to forehead swooning*" stuff going on.

I.D.O.L. by Dany & Dany

Sigh. Back to more suffering artist angst. David is an artist who becomes fascinated by prostitute Adam. He hires him but to pose for a painting. This goes on for a bit until they finally sleep together and David just can't finish the painting, something is missing, and when Adam's job leaps up and slaps him in the face they have a fight where the painting is destroyed. He revamps it and hooks up with a rich guy he knows hired Adam for two months and surprise, he invites Adam to join them in a whole BDSM thing. David stops it and the guy is so mad he tries to run him over him and Adam takes revenge. There is no HEA here. Seems David's friends just delight in telling what a horrible person Adam is/was and he then draws him fantasizing about his love. Ugh. I didn't care for this at all. With friends like that who needs enemies? Although their drawing is of a style that works for me.

Chocolate Surprise by Lily Hoshino

This is a series of little shorts, predominantly about high school students but also with one story about a single father who is recently divorced and having a relationship with his daughter's tutor. The title story is about a popular boy who offers the girls a chocolate. Some of the have guarana which supposedly makes you hot. A young guy is talked into joining and if he gets it he can sleep with one of the girls. Well, he gets the chocolate but doesn't want one of the girls and the other boy offers to "help him out" with his problem. The others were similar friends to lovers, or popular boy and nerd, type stories. One drawing made the uke look REALLY young, in fact it kind of squicked me out although supposedly they are the same age, but .... I don't really care for the books that are a series of shorts, I prefer one longer story. It was okay though and is pretty typical artwork.

5 comments:

Chris said...

Huh. I am not at all tempted by any of those! :)

Jenre said...

I really liked Chocolate Surprise and thought it very cute. The 'spiked' chocolate story was funny.

I may like the angsty ones more than you because out of all the yaoi I've read the angsty ones are those which I still remember. We'll have to see.

Tam said...

Anima was my favourite of them Chris, it was very different and I did like Ed. :-)

Ah, well if you like the angsty ones then you'll be in for a treat Jen. LOL

Tracy said...

I think Anima was my fav of these as well. The IDOL book was just too WTF for my liking, that's for sure. It's been so long since I've read Chocolate Surprise but I think I remember liking it. :)

Erotic Horizon said...

Yup another one or two to add to my library list....

My library now reluctantly stock yaoi and I am making the best of it and giving them hell at the same time..

E.H>