Akuma To Keiyaku (haru)
Seme (Dominant) ML is hot, famous actor who "held nothing precious in his life until he fell for" the good-natured Uke (Submissive) ML, who reveres the Seme ML and also aspires to be an actor. Above all, I want to say: Neither "Romance" nor "Love" have room for Rape in the relationship. Period. There are other genres for that shiz, guys. Otherwise... Considering that this is set in the entertainment industry, the story is predictably progressed through drama related to aspiring actors (like coerced sexual favors), popular actors (such as psychotic, homicidal fans/stans), and the development of the yaoi relationship itself (including a rape that is forgiven in the blink of an eye, because "love"). Personally, I detest when stories treat rape dismissively. I find that it is my biggest qualm with this story so far. More specifically, the uke ML fully recognizes that he was raped by the seme ML; the seme ML also recognized what he had been doing in the middle of the act, and then just walked out on the uke. Even so, the uke pursues and forgives the seme ML in the next chapter because he "doesn't care" what the seme ML does, because he "loves" the seme ML. -- This whole development could be summed up to me as "garbage". Honestly, if the rape had been left out of the story it would've been much better. The rape is completely out of place and out of character. The seme ML may be aloof and possessive, but he is not depicted in any way to the extent that actually raping someone in anger is believable of him. What is more frustrating is that nothing changes because of this event, so even if it never happened every other chapter afterwards could remain unchanged and you wouldn't feel like you missed anything. I consider it completely amateurish to include a rape scene solely for the sake of drawing readers attention; if nothing else it just serves as a huge flag in the middle of the story that screams "bad writing and flimsy plot". If you can pretend those 2 chapters don't exist, then the quality of the story and romance increases significantly. Even then, however, you are left with an aloof guy (Seme) who basically forces a good-natured guy (Sub) into a contract with him. They go through the ups and downs of helping the aspiring actor start his career, and they deal with drama along the way. The times when they are "good" to each other are actually really sweet and well depicted. It is really a shame that what could've been a decent yaoi romance story was spoiled by a crappy decision to include rape and a few other minor developments. The art is pretty decent, nothing amazing. Basically, the decent art and the story of the relationship (minus the rape) earns about 2 stars. The rape is dismissed so completely that I had honestly forgotten it even happened until I happened across a scene of it, so it makes it easier to focus on the "nice" elements of their relationship and rate the story higher. If I take the rape into consideration I'd probably say this was a solid one star. But since I can't give the absolute rubbish stories that are even worse than this one "zero" stars (as opposed to one star), I'll opt to let this story barrrrrely keep 2 stars. Overall, I've certainly read worse, but I have also read much, much better. My last thought: I will never, ever label a relationship that includes rape (especially an aggressive rape, where both partners are fully aware of what is happening, and which is abruptly dismissed entirely) as a "romance". So I can only call this story "drama" or just "fiction", since there isn't much else to it.
Pretending to Sleep Can't Stop Him...
Dropped. It is bad to mediocre at best in every aspect. Plot, characters, art, smut...everything.
The Wicked Queen
Instead of the very typical wise, gentle, beautiful, skilled, etc. female protagonist in an asian harem that wins over the emperor (or prince, or prime minister, or whatever) from the wicked Empress, this story is centered around the wicked Empress as the protagonist. The story shows her motivations, reasoning, and thoughts as she goes around being a servant-slapping, self-centered, sometimes misunderstood (more often than not, NOT misunderstood), "Wicked Queen". Meaning that, she is expected (for certain reasons) by everyone to become the Emperor's proper wife (the Empress), but (for other certain reasons) she is married to him as a Queen (Concubine) with the belief that she will one day force the situation to be as she wants, such that she will wind up Empress. It is interesting to watch the dynamics between this woman and the man she fell obsessively in love with, the Emperor. Additionally, it is interesting that they include PTSD/psychiatric disorders as a characteristic of this protagonist. Lovely full colored art, as well. The story definitely makes you want to slap the protagonist and her husband frequently though. lol.
Warm Wedding