Souya Himawari

This is one of those series where the main characters are already involved sexually (due to prostitution, of course), with one party feeling a growing emotional/romantic attachment while to the other everything is supposedly business. In this case they are also childhood friends with a couple very disapproving brothers. The outcome is obvious, and even the usual course is followed to the letter without the slightest deviation.

Same old story, but I actually liked this one. My main pet peeve with stories like these is that the supposedly unemotionally attached character is so, so, SO obviously lying to themselves that their partner should really be able to figure it out, much less the character them self. In this case, though, the character is perhaps slightly less obvious, but I think the main save was that neither seems to have completely ruled out the possibility he MAY feel something more for his friend, and that ever so slightly more realistic approach made this a lot easier to read. In addition to that, it has a very nice balance of smut/story, it fits a surprising amount of background into only a volume without it seeming too much like a boring information dump, the art is pretty without having anyone be too girly, and the brothers add a slightly different flavor to the story, giving a feel that the characters aren't in this emotionally tumultuous situation completely alone. And for another note on the smut, the expressions and positions were mostly cute, rather than giggle/snark inducing.

I read Miyamoto Kano's Rules just before this, which had a thread with this same pattern, and while Miyamoto's writing feels much more mature with characters that feel more complex and human, this has its own charm. It's a little lighter and bouncier, more like the feel of your usual happy variety of BL. Just kind of simple and sweet. Not something that would have held my attention for too long, but one volume was just perfect. Not something I'm going to jump out of my way to recommend to anyone, but if I were ever compiling a list of BL that didn't suck, this would surely go on it.… (mere)