Sweet Admiration (Yaoi Novel) [Paperback]

Yuuki Kousaka (Author), Midori Shena (Author), Andria Cheng (Translator)

Book Description

Publication Date: May 20, 2008

Kaysuya always had an immense admiration for Shio, his good friend's older brother. Now, through an interesting twist of fate, Shio and Katsuya have become roommates! Will Katsuya be able to control his feelings now that they are living together?

Product Details

• Paperback: 250 pages
• Publisher: Digital Manga Publishing (May 20, 2008)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1569707324
• ISBN-13: 978-1569707326
• Product Dimensions: 6.7 x 4.5 x 0.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 5.6 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 2.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (4 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #512,511 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
  • #37 in Books > 4-for-3 Books > Gay & Lesbian > Literature & Fiction > Fiction > Gay
  • #51 in Books > 4-for-3 Books > Comics & Graphic Novels > Manga > Mystery

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

14 of 15 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Okay but..., August 25, 2008

By 

V. Russell (Plainsboro, NJ) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Sweet Admiration (Yaoi Novel) (Paperback)

I buy every yaoi novel I can find that is printed in English. I confess that I'm not expecting anything great; just a little smut and some cute drawings. This had nice illustrations (though they were few and far between) but it was really poorly written. I don't know if it was a problem with the translation or what but the author would switch points of view in mid paragraph. That is confusing and extremely annoying. In one sentence we're getting Shio's thoughts and then we're suddenly reading Katsuya's thoughts without any transition.

It reminded me a little of that horrible first edition of "Only the Ring Finger Knows v01" which barely made any sense. But this wasn't nearly as bad.

I would say this is merely okay. The drawings were nice but there were hardly any for the first half of the novel (only 1 in the first 70 pages and then a little overkill for the rest of the novel). The story was sweet and predictable (just the way I like my yaoi). But I am trying not to think too hard about that bit between Shio and Takamasa. I don't want to realize just how old Takamasa was when that "incident" occurred.

9 of 11 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars A Sweet Read, May 28, 2008

By 

Lorettasilks "cristy" (CA) - See all my reviews

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Sweet Admiration (Yaoi Novel) (Paperback)

Sweet Admiration starts sweet enough, Katsuya reminisces his childhood and when he first came into contact with the beautiful Shio, his best friend's older brother. He remembers the slender quiet young man that was SHio and his almost feminine beauty. Though Katsuya is athletic looking with muscles he is not the seme in this story, in fact he is very self conscious when it comes to Shio who is unexpectedly harsh in the beginning with Katsuya when they are made to move in together. Shio also has a younger step brother who is obsessed with him, and treats Katsuya like the "third wheel". In Sweet admiration we follow these two unlikely candidates to fall in love with each other as they struggle to overcome their own differences. Although I had waited for a very long time for this novel I wasn't surprised that it wasn't going to be a favorite of mine. The cover kind of swept me up, when I began reading the story I noticed many things off such as Katsuya and the way he acted throughout the novel as well as Shio though beautiful and slender came off as having more of a masculine behavior especially when it came to Katuya's feelings. I won't say it was a perfect read but it did seem to come off as more realistic than many other yaoi novels out there in the market. Take the time to read a couple of pages as I leave you to make the decision, it really wasn't in my tastes especially in the whole uke and seme roles [that's not a spoiler you can see it coming a mile a way] but it was okay nonetheless.

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars "...sweet moments...", January 19, 2010

By 

Lissa Pattillo "~ Kuri" (NS, Canada) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Sweet Admiration (Kindle Edition)

Sweet Admiration is the story of Katsuya, a country boy who moves to Tokyo for work. The first thing Katsuya does is plan to meet with a childhood friend, Kazuki, in hopes of finding a place to stay while he awaits his company's housing development. However, things don't work out as planned; that is, until things suddenly take a turn in his favour when his new boss places him with a roommate in the "company dorms", with someone Katsuya has had on his mind since childhood: Kazuki's older brother, Shio.

With a believably fresh start, Katsuya and Shio's new living arrangement doesn't work out that well at first. Shio remembers Katsuya, but not nearly as memorably as Katsuya remembers him. Shio is understandably annoyed with the fact he was suddenly placed with a roommate. Not enjoying the cold state between them, Katsuya kindly and ignorantly ignores Shio's requests to leave him alone and keeps giving happy hellos and fresh-cooked meals each and everyday.

I enjoyed the pacing of Sweet Admiration, which though it does have a tone that's clearly suggestive of its boys' love nature, it never felt too overeager to get to the romantic coupling. Readers follow Katsuya and Shio's steadily evolving relationship over the span of a few months, which includes short tours around the city, and an emotionally clingy stepbrother who seeks to step between them.

Being a light novel, there's obviously a lot more translation work involved for the staffers at Digital Manga Publishing (June) than with a one-shot manga book. Overall I didn't have any problems reading through this translation re-write of Sweet Admiration. The wording was simple and easy to understand and I didn't come across any glaring spelling or grammar issues. The only thing that got me was the moment near the end when a sex scene started up. The simple writing style, reading very similar to teen books, felt a little awkward when suddenly describing such intimate details.

While I didn't think much of the cover illustration, I did like the black and white interior illustrations (all by Midori Shena). They were good representations of the scenes they were portraying and gave readers nicely drawn faces to put to the names.

All in all, Sweet Admiration was a nice read. It's easy to get through, has some sweet moments, and though nothing too spectacular as a whole, manages to have its own charm. I recommend this to first time light novel readers looking for some boys' love as I think it makes for a good branch between manga and novel.