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Namely, Takamura Yuiko's Ayashi no Koi no Monogatari, which was actually really good. Of course, it's complete brain candy: this book is not trying to be anything more than a yaoi novel. But it's a clever yaoi novel that bucks a lot of the genre conventions that make such books hard to take in large doses.
To whit: our main character is Yuu, who, cursed with an ability to see people's futures is successively abandoned by a string of relatives until he ends up at one Murakami Jinja, where the head priestess raises him as a miko.
Yuu has all the trappings of a typical BL novel protagonist: an unloving family, a sad past, and an inability to fit in. By rights he should have spent large portions of the novel weeping prettily...but he doesn't. Takamura tells us that Yuu is lonely and has a hard time making friends, but she doesn't dwell on it, which actually makes it rather easy for readers to actually like Yuu as a character.
And then there's the relationship. Yuu predictaby falls into Great Danger early in the novel and is predictably saved by his future boyfriend/lover/mate Susano-o (all three of the Sankishi make appearances, although Takamura gives them clever ateji). Predictably, Yuu and Susano must then spend a considerable period pining for one another before they can overcome the odds and be reunited, but the novel doesn't wallow in this either. Best of all, when they are reunited, Yuu is very, very into it. This may be the first yaoi novel I've read in which sex scenes open with the uke saying "Oh yes, let's try this too, more please!" instead of undergoing the typical being-raped-into-realising-he-loves-his-seme training period. (And yes, I realise that the "rape" in these situations isn't really rape. But.)
The sex scenes themselves are also nicely executed, with neither too much nor too little detail, and a nice amount of progression and development as the story progresses. The secondary characters (Tsukuyomi and Kagutsuchi) are entertaining in their own rights, and their story doesn't simply parallel the Yuu/Susano plot, which is nice. And if that weren't enough to convince you, the fact that Shidou Kai did the illustrations should. I'll definitely be holding on to this one.
これで以上です。
To whit: our main character is Yuu, who, cursed with an ability to see people's futures is successively abandoned by a string of relatives until he ends up at one Murakami Jinja, where the head priestess raises him as a miko.
Yuu has all the trappings of a typical BL novel protagonist: an unloving family, a sad past, and an inability to fit in. By rights he should have spent large portions of the novel weeping prettily...but he doesn't. Takamura tells us that Yuu is lonely and has a hard time making friends, but she doesn't dwell on it, which actually makes it rather easy for readers to actually like Yuu as a character.
And then there's the relationship. Yuu predictaby falls into Great Danger early in the novel and is predictably saved by his future boyfriend/lover/mate Susano-o (all three of the Sankishi make appearances, although Takamura gives them clever ateji). Predictably, Yuu and Susano must then spend a considerable period pining for one another before they can overcome the odds and be reunited, but the novel doesn't wallow in this either. Best of all, when they are reunited, Yuu is very, very into it. This may be the first yaoi novel I've read in which sex scenes open with the uke saying "Oh yes, let's try this too, more please!" instead of undergoing the typical being-raped-into-realising-he-loves-his-seme training period. (And yes, I realise that the "rape" in these situations isn't really rape. But.)
The sex scenes themselves are also nicely executed, with neither too much nor too little detail, and a nice amount of progression and development as the story progresses. The secondary characters (Tsukuyomi and Kagutsuchi) are entertaining in their own rights, and their story doesn't simply parallel the Yuu/Susano plot, which is nice. And if that weren't enough to convince you, the fact that Shidou Kai did the illustrations should. I'll definitely be holding on to this one.
これで以上です。
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