The cover of this one caught my eye at Borders, and when I found that it's a yaoi title, and that the two guys on the cover are not in costume but are actually foxes - literal foxes, as well as good-looking-guy foxes! - I had to pick it up.

Turns out it doesn't have a lot of story, more like vignettes about the relationship and past history of the two main characters, but it's still very charming - and sexy! It opens with a dignified illustration of a temple, with its two guardian fox-statues - until one of them sneezes, and takes on his human form. [It's very boring being a guardian statue.] A'ura is a white fox, the most noble type, while Unka is a red fox, of the humblest class. Unka frets a lot about how A'ura could possibly be interested in him - though as he's a stunningly gorgeous fellow with copper skin and red-gold hair, his low self-image seems a bit silly - until we see a flashback to their childhoods - cubhoods? - where he does get picked on by the other foxes. And one of those foxes turns up, all grown up, to flirt with A'ura, putting poor Unka in a snit (again)...

Not to worry, though; these little upsets don't last long, and the make-up sex is stunning. When in human form, the guys are well-muscled and lovely, with long hair, fox-ears, and fluffy fox-tails, and watching them pounce on each other - my, it's getting hot in here!

There are five tales about the fox-spirits, taking up less than half of the book; after that there are three more stories about other characters. "Disappearing into the dew" has a lost traveler encountering a studly weather-god; nice little romance there. "Cheeping" has a contemporary setting, with a male model falling for the guy who delivers his meals. And the two-part "Cross My Heart" has a police officer meeting an old friend, who may be on the other side of the law. They're fairly simple stories, with the lovers dancing around their feelings a bit before tumbling into the sack; nothing terribly deep, but I like the artwork and the romance.

I'm not ready to part with this one permanently yet, but I've decided to make it the bookbox journal for a shrinking yaoi bookbox, in the hopes that it can be read quickly by the participants and then replaced in the box for the next hop - and, with luck, will eventually return to me. See mailing order below, and starting contents in the next JE.

Bookbox rules:

When you receive the box, post a JE to this book (and to the forum thread, if you like), and contact the next person in line for their address - this gives them a heads-up, and ensures that you'll be ready to mail the box as soon as you've made your choices.

If you want to read the journal-book Your Love Sickness, start it right away; ideally you'll move the box along within a week or two, and you should be able to read this book before then.

Choose the books you want to take out, replacing them with BC-registered yaoi manga of your own. NOTE: This is a shrinking box, so you can take out up to four (4) more books than you put in; I encourage everyone to take full advantage of this option! (Yes, it's OK to take out 4 books and not put any in, but it's more fun if you add some books to the mix.)

Journal the books you've taken, and use the controlled-release option to make release notes for the ones you're adding. If you choose to read this book, you can add your comments on it to your JE - and can add a list of the books you're taking and adding, as well.

Pack up the box - including this book! - for mailing to the next in line. Media-mail rates are quite reasonable, and will get more so if people use the shrinking option, which could knock a couple of pounds off the mailing weight each hop {wry grin}. I advise getting package tracking as well; this won't guarantee that the box will travel safely, but it does make it easier to work out how far it got.

Enjoy the books you've taken out!

Mailing order:

Keitorin [TN]
spacedog [MA]
HI77 [FL]
KateKintail [VA] - Here
lynmarenjensen [CA]

and back to GoryDetails.

The box will start with the following contents - 43 books, plus this one. There's a variety of angst-vs-bubbly, explicit-vs-mild, funny-vs-dark, etc. Hope people enjoy them!

***

Awkward Silence 1
Awkward Silence 2
Awkward Silence 3
Awkward Silence 4

Don't Blame Me 1
Don't Blame Me 2

Kurashina Sensei's Passion 2
Kurashina Sensei's Passion 3

Little Butterfly 1
Little Butterfly 3

Maiden Rose 1
Maiden Rose 2

Menkui! 1
Menkui! 2
Menkui! 3

Blue Morning 1

Bond of Dreams, Bond of Love 4

Challengers 3

Clan of the Nakagamis

Devil's Secret

Exorcisms and Pogo Sticks

Gakuen Heaven

Gakuen Heaven: Endo

Happiness Recommended

Hide and Seek 1

Hot Steamy Glasses

Il Gatto sul G Vol. 1

Jazz 2

Level-C Vol. 1

Love Control 2

Lover's Flat

Prisoner of the Immortal

Secret Thorns

Selfish Mr. Mermaid 1

Shout Out Loud! Vol. 1

Solfege

Two of Hearts

Voice or Noise 2

Wagamama Kitchen

Wild Honey

Wild Rock

Yellow Vol. 4

ZE Vol. 2

This is the bookbox journal for my Yaoi Manga shrinking bookbox, which will set out on its first leg tomorrow. Participants are welcome to read this book while the bookbox is with them, but please put it in the box for the next hop.

*** Released for the June Brides release challenge, for "love". ***

It's here! Everything is in order. I shall contact the next in line and get to work. :>

---

Here's my thoughts on 'Your Love Sickness'!

I can see why you enjoyed this GoryDetails, it has some of the cliches of this genre but at the same time it broke out in a lot of ways.

Spoilers ahead~

I love shapeshifters and anthropomorphism, not to mention fantasy, so of course I loved that.

When I first started reading, I got the feeling that it was going to be a more antagonistic relationship because of Unka, but as it unfolds you quickly realize that's just a front. You shift through stories of their childhood and recent past together to add layers onto their relationship for better a understanding.

Unka and A'ura were totally adorable as little ones. *o* And the two's relationship is really sweet sometimes. I could really relate to Unka.

One of the things I enjoyed was that while there was the typical 'you're cute' from A'ura and he was the top, Unka did or said some things that broke out from the mold of what an average uke would do, and I quite liked that.

By the end I really liked the art, I felt like it fit the story well and didn't try to make Unka look more feminine, although his face came out weird at times.

I really liked the stories after that too, they were a lot of fun!

I'm really glad you decided to put this in the box, GoryDetails. :]

Sorry for the wait! The bookbox is off in the mail to spacedog. I do have DC for it just in case.

Thank you for running this, GoryDetails.

Since I have limited resources, I ended up having to read several of the manga before deciding on which I really wanted to keep.

Overall there were some books I didn’t like but I’m really happy with the ones I did and chose to keep. It reminded me why I love BL even while it reminded me not to be complacent of the bad side of it!

I think I'm a bit burnt out on manga for a while now though!

I loved your stamps BTW, very useful. And putting the stickers in sideways on books with dustcovers (preferably facing inwards) is helpful.

For those curious, here's the box stats now:

Took out:

Lover’s Flat
Maiden Rose
Maiden Rose II
Hide and Seek
Menkui 2
Menkui 3
Awkward Silence 1
Awkward Silence 2
Awkward Silence 3
Awkward Silence 4

Put in:

The Aristocrat and Desert Prince
Gravitation Collection volumes 5 & 6
Just Around the Corner
Othello
Takumi-kun v.1
Man’s Best Friend

Everything else is still in. Hope everyone finds something they like!

the first part involving fox spirits and a god of thunder were pretty entertaining and hot, although the rest of the stories were less memorable. a decent read overall, though, and apparently a fairly hard-to-find release nowadays.

will be sending this out today, although i'll post the tracking number and a list of the box's current contents a little later. thanks for organizing!

tracking #: 9114901159818251096242

took out:
- Takumi-kun series vol. 1 June Pride
- Blue Morning 1
- Devil's Secret
- Gakuen Heaven
- Gakuen Heaven: Endo
- Happiness Recommended
- Hot Steamy Glasses
- Love Control 2
- Secret Thorns
- Two of Hearts
- Voice or Noise 2
- Wild Honey

added:
- A Gentleman's Kiss Vol. 1 by Shinri Fuwa
- Prince Charming Vol. 1-3 by Akemi Takaido
- Hero Heel Vol. 1-2 by Makoto Tateno
- Fake Fur, Manic Love by Satomi Yamagata
- Kiss Blue Vol. 1-2 by Keiko Kinoshita
- Don't Say Anymore Darling by Fumi Yoshinaga
- Shy Intentions by Shoko Takaku

Boys with their

tails wagging swiftly,
boys just wanna have fun.

And the box is off to the next person! :D

I have taken out:

-Man's Best Friend: Inu Mo Arukeba by Kazusa Takashima

-The Aristocrat and the Desert Prince by Ai Hasukawa, Haruhi Tono

-Ze Volume 2 by Yuki Shimizu

-Challengers, Vol. 3 by Hinako Takanaga

-Wild Rock, Vol. 1 by Kazusa Takashima

-Just Around The Corner by Toko Kawai

-Bond of Dreams, Bond of Love, Vol. 4 by Yaya Sakuragi

-Kiss Blue Vol. 1- 2 by Keiko Kinoshita

-Don't Say Anymore Darling by Fumi Yoshinaga

-Kurashina Sensei's Passion Volume 2- 3 by Natsuho Shino

-Selfish Mr. Mermaid by Nabako Kamo


And add in:

-Loveholic Vol. 1 by Toko Kawai

-Renai Sousa: Love Control, Vol. 1 by Ai Hasukawa

-Red by Sanae Rokuya

-Passion Volume 1 by Shinobu Gotoh

-Gorgeous Carat Volume 3 by You Higuri

-Desire of the Gods by Insanity Team

-Exorcisms And Pogo Sticks. Vol. 2 by Stephen Doerr

-Skyscrapers of Oz by Yoshino Somei, Row Takakura

-Gakuen Heaven by Spray, You Higuri

- Kissing by Teiko Sasaki


I hope these books will find some new readers! ;)

I received the bookbox a few days ago and set to work reading this book during my lunch breaks this week. I loved it and can see why it would be a favorite :-)

I loved the fox-spirits. I didn't love how often they needed to remind us of the fact that they were from different classes, but that was its only drawback for me. I loved their situation, their protectiveness of each other, and the passion they had for each other. I loved the amusing little wrinkles of "where did the statues go?" or "we'd better bind these statues in place so they can't leave" from the humans who don't realize their fox-spirit statues are going off to have the sex all the time *EG* The flashbacks to when they'd first met or were in training were adorable. I loved the sacrifice of giving up something of themselves to help the other. And I really loved the tails. OMG yes.

I was sad when the fox-spirits' tales (see what I did there?) were over. But I was actually pleasantly surprised and really enjoyed all of the other stories in this collection. That's rare for me; usually there are some stories I like and some I don't, but this was a great combination of stories I really liked!

There's a story about a weather god falling for a mortal and the mortal going back to him (reminded me of some Celtic faerie stories). I loved the passion and attraction in that. In "Cheeping" I loved the way the hurt model with a broken leg falls for his food delivery guy but is a bit shy and antisocial... and his food delivery guy's been attracted to him since the first time he set foot in the restaurant. Awwww. And the police officer who was childhood friends with a man who's now a gang leader was a lot of that "we can't have a relationship; we're from different worlds!" but given that they had a childhood together, they're actually from the same world and the gang leader's just trying to take care of the town not just because of gang/family obligation but because of his loyalty and memories of his friend. Another awwwwwww.

I really enjoyed this book. Thanks for giving me a chance to read it!

Putting In:
* Picnic
* Love Circles
* Little Cry Baby
* Crimson Snow
* Happy Yaoi Yum Yum Vol 1
* Tricky Prince
* Madness Vol 1
* FAKE Vol 1

Taking Out:
* Gravitation Collection Vol 3 (Volumes 5 & 6)
* Level C, Vol 1
* Menkui! Vol 1
* Red
* Georgeous Carat Vol 3
* Desire of the Gods
* Skyscrapers of Oz
* Kissing
* Gakuen Heaven
* Manic Love
* Fake Fur
* A Gentleman's Kiss Vol 1

Read (or re-read) & Put Back In:
* Your Love Sickness
* Jazz Vol 2
* Exorcisms and Pogo Sticks Vol 1
* Exorcisms and Pogo Sticks Vol 2
* Love Control

Thank you so much for letting me participate in this generous and fun shrinking bookbox!

The box returned safely today, nicely shrunken (my groaning bookshelves thank you!) and yet with a number of tempting new titles for me to enjoy. And my hunky fox-spirits will return to pride-of-place on my keeper shelves, for now anyway!