I was very close to DNF this one because it was very slow going. Until I decided not to binge read this series. I have to say that apparently to myself. ( )

I received a free copy of this book from the author in exchange for an honest review.

Yowzers!!!! Ryuu finally realizes that he feels something for Hiro and the boys get together. They are HOT HOT HOT together!!! I am so glad I continued to read this after Volume 1 confused me a bit (with its cultural references).

In this Volume, we see the boys try to figure out how to navigate a relationship beyond just friendship, but Ryuu has a lot of difficulty reconciling his feelings with what others might think. Ryuu was immature in Volume 1, and we continue to see that personality here. Ryuu has realized that he wants Hiro in his life and cares deeply for him, but acts in a contradictory manner without realizing it. My heart broke for Hiro and I wanted to smack Ryuu throughout the last quarter of this or so.

Regardless, I enjoyed the continuation of this story very much and am really looking forward to the resolution between Hiro and Ryuu. This book was MUCH better than the first and I found myself being able to understand it more and get emotionally connected with the characters. ( )

*** Review copy provided by the author in exchange for an honest review. ***

In Volume 2, Ryuu and Hiro’s friendship turns into something more. Ryuu especially struggles with this; while his the one making the first move and he acknowledges to himself he has feelings for Hiro, he feels they need to hide. In other words, he scared to come out of the closet. What will everyone else think? What will his band say? What will his fans say?

All this causes him to act badly toward Hiro and hurt him. Unfortunately Ryuu doesn’t understand this. He’s so scared of being found out he’s blind to Hiro’s pain. Time and time again he keeps denying Hiro.

As the story is solely written in Ryuu’s POV, sometimes I was missing the other side of it; I would have liked to be inside Hiro’s head too. On the other hand, Ryuu is the only one who doesn’t see what his actions result in. But still, there is so much more to Ryuu’s side of the story than just his relationship with Hiro so it’s only fair to think the same goes for Hiro. And while a lot comes across through Ryuu, the details are missing. Details would be nice.

I much preferred Volume 2 to the previous one. Things actually move onward and you still learn about the guys while they learn about themselves and each other. ( )

My fourth work by this author and second in this series. I use 'work' so I can include the short story I read. This would be the third novel I've read by him.

Okay then - this was, for various reasons, the weakest of the works I've read by Gabriel. I might even be tempted to rethink my rating and lower it to 2. As it is, I think it might be closer to 2.5.

On one level it's easy to see why I might not like this one as much as the first one - it's drenched in sex (which the first book in the series was not). Male gay sex. Something I'm not exactly keen on reading. Heck, I'm not that keen on reading male-female graphic sex, but at least there a woman is involved. Actually there is a woman involved in this one, more than one. Though only one involved in male-female sex (described mostly as - 'we had sex, twice').

I'm sure I would have called this bisexual instead of gay regardless of the inclusion of the sex with the woman, and the masturbation scene wherein the man had a great time picturing women, and the former girlfriend who had dumped the lead character some time in the past and who Ryuu apparently really really liked. Liked to fuck, that is. Less liked on a friend-friend level. So, Ryuu's bisexual not gay. He can alternate between having male or female partners, he has found out. Hiro, on the other hand, has a more concealed sexual orientation. Obviously he like sex with men, but, other than mention of girlfriends back in school days, there's no mention of prior girlfriends (or boyfriends). So, Hiro's gay. Or bisexual. But not straight.

So, the story of the two music idols continues. Told almost completely from Ryuu's perspective. With tiny tidbits from Hiro's that turn up in emails and blogs entries.

To a certain extent, the most interesting parts, to me, were the ones that involved that samurai television series. Where Hiro . . . um, I'll switch this sentence so not to be spoiler-y. Where Hiro and Ryuu both appeared on.

So far, this series really reads like a single book that got broken down into various parts. Like the first book in the series, this one just abruptly stopped. No warning just . . . oops, story over. This time I didn't immediately turn to the third book to continue reading. Though I did read the opening blog/email section of the third book through the sample. To give myself more of a closure to this second book.

It's perfectly fine, in my eyes, to break a longer work done into parts. The most famous example being The Lord of the Rings trilogy, which was supposed to be one big long book. But got broken down (with the Hobbit being a 'prequel' book that had been published about 20 or 30 years before the rest of the series). As I said, perfectly fine, just . . . there needs to be a natural beginning middle and end. Otherwise the broken down parts do not feel like separate entities but things unnaturally divided.

On the other hand, Gabriel might just be horrible with conclusions. I'll have to see, if I ever read it, how the final book concludes. I can't really use the short story as a guide, since it had a sex scene thrust into it near the end, so anything that happened after that was just there. I seem to recall that the superhero book, though, had a good enough conclusion. If I recall correctly.

This is one of those books that have, as an underlying theme, fear of disclosure. Fear of being found out to be gay (or have a same sex relationship). This is the second author who I have read that had 'gay culture in Japan' as an underlying theme. The prior author, also a series though I've only read one book there, was a woman writing about lesbians. High powered corporate lesbian to be exact. Who, it appeared, had no trouble with being a lesbian. In Japan. While here, the bisexual man was freaking out about being found out. The entire relationship, and his attitude to it was directly tied to this 'freaking out.' There's even a section that notes how a famous sports figure 'retired to spend time with his family', but likely retired because he had been found out, or was about to be found out to be gay.

So, two westerners writing about gay life in Japan. And two different takes on it. My prior understanding was that 'it's tricky/complicated/confusing'. There are openly gay/lesbian/transgender people in politics and entertainment in Japan. And the law does not forbid same sex relations or relationships. I had already known about yaoi and yuri manga, but you can't judge a culture and their laws by one thing. Especially if you do not know how deep or thin the impact of that one thing is in a culture. (hmms, looking at an article on gay culture in Japan - apparently there's a difference between gei-comi and yaoi comics, in that the first has two masculine gay men, while the second has a masculine top and feminized bottom).

Bah, I'd not be so focused on the issue if it didn't play a huge role in the book and series. I didn't focus on the issue as much when I read "Daite.", because gay culture in Japan didn't play a huge role in the book. Beyond the huge number of times the main character went to lesbian bars and hang out with friends. ( )