Product Description

Minami has a hot start as a young interior designer. In fact, he has just been chosen as the primary designer of a new luxury hotel. When he enthusiastically goes out to meet the client, the hotel owner, Asakura, turns out to be a dazzlingly appealing man, and Minami is overwhelmed by his sexiness. On top of that, the contract, though it does turn out to be for hotels, is for love hotels! Seeing that Minami doesn't have any expertise in the area, Asakura promises to show him the ropes. But, is it really necessary to try out the beds too!?

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #728623 in Books
• Published on: 2009-04-08
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 250 pages

Customer Reviews

A bit too short
It is often said that mixing business and pleasure is not a wise thing to do, but what about situations where it cannot be helped? Kasuga is a young architect who gets employed to design the interior spaces of a new hotel, only to fall into the trap of its beautiful, yet somewhat strange owner, Asakura.

This book is not really the sort that will be enjoyed by every yaoi fan out there. If seduction and non-con situations make you nervous, you should skip this one. The writing is well done, but at times it seems things happen too quickly. I will give Masaki-sensei extra points for intensity. The accompanying illustrations by Masara Minase are as elegant as the rest of her work. The translation flows nicely and there is a bonus color page.

A final word of advice to my fellow yaoi fans: for whatever reason, major retailers (Borders and Amazon included) usually get books of this type rather late, sometimes weeks after the announced street date. As I write this review, the products page states that it would take Amazon 1-3 weeks to ship the book and there are several offers of used copies, starting at $75 and going all the way up to $999! Please do not pay that much for it - this simply isn't worth more than $9. Every time a yaoi title is late there are ridiculous offers from third-party sellers, even for items like this one, which shouldn't be out of print.

Instead of spending all that money, I suggest that you look for a small local comics shop or anime retailer, if there are any around. That's how I managed to get this title and many others right when the publisher said they would be available. You'll have your book on time and at the normal retail price and you'll be able to help the local economy and support your favorite artist/ publisher.

He sure was lonely!
A 23 years old virgin raped at first encounter with 30ish old male and then have to work together! The nerve of Asakura looking at Minami the next day like nothing happened!

I must say that I read this novel twice! I got so in love with Minami and Asakura that I could not breathe while reading this. At first, I did not like the drawings but while reading the book I can see the resemblance of the characters in them. I do not give this a five stars because I found some misspelling, misused verbs, and I feel that some things were lost in the translation.

Not my favorite
First the positives:

Pretty good translation- text is not choppy, and though there are some editing errors, there is some style in the translation. Excellent when compared to some other yaoi novels.

Art is gorgeous- I have always loved Minase's work, and this book is no exception- scenes are well chosen and beautifully drawn.


Negatives:

I figured that there would be noncon, so that wasn't what bothered me, as it is common in yaoi and I was expecting it. However, this book walks a fine line- in most yaoi, everyone seems to accept noncon to a degree where it doesn't eve seem strange- in this book, refreshingly, many people are aware that it is wrong. But despite rape being portrayed negatively, it still went for rape -> physical response = true love. This bothered me even more in a format where rape is seen badly. (I have never liked this in manga- but most of the time the situations are so unreal that the wrongness I can just ignore.) I suppose it would have been too much to expect a single novel to break the one of the most common tropes of yaoi, but it led to a weird melding of reality and fantasy that came off as uncomfortable to read, at least to me. I didn't even want to finish the novel, I just skimmed it after a certain point.