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"Alone In My King's Harem"
Alone In My King’s Harem
Author: Lily Hoshino
Released by: Digital Manga

Summary borrowed from Wikipedia: Alone in My King’s Harem (ハレムでひとり Haremu de Hitori) is a 2004 manga by Hoshino Lily. One of the first titles released by Digital Manga Publishing. Alone in My King’s Harem is composed of six stories, with only the last two stories containing the same characters. The stories are largely romantic in nature with some erotic tones. The stories focus predominantly around the “ultra-femme” uke character, with the seme character taking more of a supporting role.

aStore: print

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This book here has had a profound effect on my life. The artwork is oddly endearing and almost hauntingly cute, if such a thing can happen. It’s as though someone took the art styles of 80’s anime — the Q-tip hair, general androgynousness, and the open expressions — but ran them through a filter of sexiness, cuteness, and just basic moe! kawaii!

Lots of male/male romance, not too much graphic depictions, more sweet than anything. Everything is kind of dreamy and her stories are set in fantasy worlds that are very familiar, yet are also very different. It honestly feels as though you’re stepping into a brand new culture, and that very much appeals to me.

The titular story, “Alone In My King’s Harem,” is about an adorable male concubine that catches his king’s eye. So to please his little love, the king decides to take over his corner of the world so that he can lavish all of his love and everything else on the concubine. Unfortunately, at some point his dreams surpass reality and he forgets about the concubine, ends up with dozens of others, and just basically becomes a titanic jerk. Reality reasserts itself, he loses a big battle, … Read the rest “RE BOOK: Alone In My King’s Harem, by Lily Hoshino [manga]”

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"A Frozen Flower"

Movie: A Frozen Flower
Genre: mm, Korean, historical
Director: Ha Yu
Writer: Ha Yu (screenplay)
Stars: Jin-mo Ju, Ji-hyo Song, In-seong Jo
Rated: R for graphic violence, sex

IMDB says: A historical drama set in the Koryo dynasty and focused on the relationship between a king and his bodyguard.

HanCinema says: Source http://www.koreanfilm.or.kr  Synopsis:  In the end of Goryeo era politically manipulated by the Yuan Dynasty, the ambitious King of the Goryeo Dynasty organizes Kunryongwe. Hong Lim, the commander of Kunryongwe, captivates the King of Goryeo, and the Queen keeps her eyes on the relationship between Hong Lim and the King with a reluctant view. Meanwhile, the bilateral relation between Goryeo and the Yuan gets worse as Yuan demands to install the cousin of the King in the Crown Prince of Goryeo with ascribing it to no son the King has. The King refuses it resolutely, so the high-ranking officials of Goryeo, who are in submission to Yuan, are discontented with the king. One day, the King gives Hong Lim a covert yet unobjectionable order to sleep with the Queen instead of himself to protect the independence of Goryeo from the Yuan by making a son, the successor to Goryeo throne.

aStore: DVD


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So, okay, I watched this the other day and the only thing I can say is that the cinematography is excellent, as is the camera work in every scene. I fell in love with the characters and I desperately wanted them to have happiness in every regard. But given the nature of what they were doing and the time period when they were doing it in… well, there’s no other way it could have gone, not with the tone the movie was taking.

I honestly wish the King and guard could have loved each other the … Read the rest “RE MOVIE: A Frozen Flower [Korean]”

Title: Exquisite Corpse
Author: Poppy Z. Brite
Genre: horror, serial killer, mm

Summary: After escaping prison, serial killer Andrew Compton heads for New Orleans to pursue the art of what he calls “the art of killing boys.” He joins up with a dissolute playboy who has pushed his art to limits even Compton hadn’t imagined. Together they set their sights on a young Vietnamese-American runaway, whom they cast as the perfect victim.

aStore: print, kindle

My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Definitely NOT for children or anyone with a weak constitution or any kind of gag reflex. Seriously, the stuff in this gets pretty heavy-handed and pushes the limits of everything that’s right in the world.

“Exquisite Corpse” is, at its base, a story about someone looking for a soul mate. Someone that is alone in the world and sees the people around him, but has no real connection to them in any emotional capacity. Oh, and he’s like Jeffrey Dahmar.

This is basically Dahmar (or a character startlingly like him!) somehow escaping from prison and going on the lam. He kills a bunch of people on the way, and somehow manages to find his way to the French Quarter in New Orleans (where the vampires and ghouls live, because that’s where I would live if I was a vampire or ghoul. Though honestly, I’d probably move to Alabama, which my nephew firmly believes is overrun by zombies and that’s why we don’t go there. Or Amsterdam.)

He meets a man that shares his morbid interests and they get together to have sex amongst the rotting corpses and plot to kill a somewhat wide-eyed street kid that was probably the most interesting character in the whole book (a male Vietnamese prostitute? Hell yeah.) From there, things get hinky.

All … Read the rest “RE BOOK: Exquisite Corpse, by Poppy Z Brite [horror]”

Title: Plastic Jesus
Author: Poppy Z. Brite
Genre: faux-biofic, mm romance

Summary: The 1960’s brought Seth and Payton all they’d fantasized about — perfect friendships, a successful four-man band, and most importantly, each other. Together they embarked on a tour that brought them stimulating highs and shattering lows, and they prospered and suffered in one another’s arms. The two men carried each other and carried a group that created both a history and a future for rock. But at some point their music blurred with the news of their love and the world was faced with the choice to embrace its heroes or revert back to its deep-rooted prejudices.

aStore: kindle

My rating: 4 out of 5

Based on the Beatles, I found this a very interesting “What if…” Wonderfully written, fairly short, and the edition I read had some pen-drawn illustrations.

A quick-read, it’s one of those books that everyone should read once. If you like the Beatles anyway, and really wish that John and Paul could be more than friends. Though this isn’t the Beatles, of course, this is Seth and Payton. Two guys that just seem very familiar.

If you don’t like m/m, then this is not for you. If you do like m/m, this is an interesting story.

It’s kind of like she took her fanfic, changed a few names around, then published it to a world of AWESOME.

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