Poor book must be having an identity crisis. Advertised and sold as yaoi, but it really isn't. I hope future readers aren't too disappointed. It's still a short and sweet shojo.

He is a man on a mission,

but too are other men
wanting him in the mission position.

The die has been cast! And now a new set of books has pulled on their hiking boots and trudged off to a new camp! ;)

A book trade, a set of dreams, as it were.

This was one of the ones that I traded with someone else to get the copies to trade with another person, to get ones I really wanted...

if that makes any sense. :P

XD


Although, I did read this one... Weird. Yeah, just weird.

And that's saying something with yaoi! lolol

Actually, the whole doll aspect was kind of creepy until the reasons came out. Then it didn't sound so off. The characters themselves were a little wacky and out there. I don't think the author meant this to be taken too seriously, despite some of the darker aspects of what was going on.

It was just an oil and water kind of mix. As long as you are willing to completely suspend belief, it's a fun quick read. Nothing much beyond that. Also, given the main couple and gender, it feels like a cheat.

The box-o-trade-books arrived safely today; many thanks! This one definitely looks quirky, but that can be fun; will have to see. [The pink hearts on the cover suggest saving it for a release next Valentine's Day, but I hope I'll be able to move it along before then!]

Hmmm. Definitely not yaoi, though I can see why someone may have thought it was: there's some playing-around with gender-switching, from the whole "girl-in-boy-drag" situation (which the readers are tipped off about long before young Fen figures it out) to the "boy-in-girl-drag" situation where a rather charming villain fools Fen into kissing him. (When Fen is tipped off about *that* - yeah, he's pretty clueless - he goes into "Wait, I kissed a dude and liked it? That means..." mode, but it doesn't get any farther than that.) In general the attitude about gay people is rather negative, with the gender-switching jokes and the over-the-top-creepy sexual-predator archbishop - and the casual remark that "I personally can't stand men who kiss other men" by one of the more responsible characters. [That last *could* have been meant as a joke; it was used to tell Fen about that villain-in-drag - but it sounded pretty bad.]

All that said, the story itself was OK, though some of the motivations seemed thin. I got much more interested in the whole bran-doll situation once we learned about the truth concerning the king's wildly-mistreated younger twin brother, who was understandably furious, wounded, and vengeful. But the story zips through all the plots so quickly, and tosses in humorous tags after each dramatic reveal, that it's hard to feel much of anything for the characters: they're too sketchy and inconsistent. It occurs to me that if all of the main characters were, say, age 10 to 12, the whole story would work better {wry grin}.

The little bit at the end in which the author describes the process of creating the manga was pretty entertaining in its own way.

I did laugh out loud at the opening scenes, though: when Fen first wanders into the doll-collecting office (mistaking it for the more prestigious office he really wanted), and spots those beautiful men laughing together in the lavishly-decorated room, it reminded me of Haruhi Fujioka's first entrance to the Ouran High School Host Club!

I left this book in the Hippo free-newspaper box in front of AC Moore craft store on Amherst St. at around 2 or so; hope the finder enjoys it! (I thought the crafting-of-the-bran-doll aspect might appeal to craft-store shoppers.)

*** Released as part of the 2016 Keep Them Moving release challenge. ***

*** Released as part of the 2016 Wine+Food release challenge. ***