I have never been an excerpt of Yaoi, cause, as for fanfiction, my background is not that but “classical” romances; I have read Yaoi at the beginning, cause, at the time there wasn’t much choice, but then truly Yaoi romances remained an exception in the majority of new releases. So take my saying on this novel with this preamble: I think this was a quite interesting Yaoi novel, where the author tried to mix western and eastern approaches without betraying one or the other side.
Michael Black represents the western side, a former foster kid with a juvie record, he was presented with an option: joining a dojo and learning martial arts or doing time in prison; of course the choice was obvious. Sure maybe his character was a little over the line, but again, from my experience that is pretty common in Yaoi novel, exaggerating the characteristics, both physical than not, is part of the package. Michael is, after all, a good boy, not a nerd, but neither a very impressive character.
Kiyoshi Kimura aka Hikaru Nakamura is a 19 years old Japanese-korean boy too old for his own age; a past involving abuse and psychological issues, he has a split personality, the cute dancer Kiyoshi and the tough fighter Hikaru. Both personality have a distinct behavior and they cohabit inside the same body. Both agree they want Michael, and perhaps that is the only thing which they agree.
Maybe the point where this novel withdraws the most from an ordinary Yaoi novel is that there are no distincitive seme or uke, or perhaps, seme and uke are molten together inside Kiyoshi/ Hikaru.
Big warning to the reader, as clearly stated this is volume 1 in a 2 books series, and it’s likely recommended to read both books to be able to close the cycle of the story.
Publisher: Ai Press (August 21, 2013)
Amazon Kindle:
Dragon and Crow Vol. 1 (Dojo Boys) Series: Dojo Boys
1) The First Misunderstanding:
http://elisa-rolle.livejournal.com/1576944.html2) Dragon and Crow 1
More Reviews by Author at my website:
http://www.elisarolle.com/, My Reviews
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