In the last volume, everything seemed to be working against Tomoyuki and Akihito. Akihito was making arrangements for marriage, though never exactly willingly. The head of the Ishizaki family requested Tomoyuki’s service in exchange for help with the marriage arrangements. It seems a lot went on behind the scenes between that volume and this one. Volume 4 opens with Akihito shopping at the market (which would have been unheard of for someone of his rank). He’s moved to a small apartment, and is trying out life without titles or society. When Tomoyuki finds out about this, he’s furious. He’s been working for the Ishizaki family, but hasn’t been able to get Akihito out of his head. Akihito has called off the wedding and is planning to abandon his title in hopes that Tomoyuki can take his place.

This one was a slight backtrack from the engaging third volume. I’ll admit to part of my difficulties owing to the fact that Tomoyuki and Akihito spent so much of this volume apart. Their stories were connected, but they weren’t together, and they spent most of the volume working against each other. I found Akihito’s attempts to make Tomoyuki’s ambitions come true to be romantic, in a dramatic sort of way. He was willing to give up everything just so Tomoyuki could have all the things he ever wanted. Tomoyuki, on the other hand, is finally willing to admit that he cares enough for Akihito to stop him from ruining himself.

One character who’s been a little flat for me throughout this series was Ishizaki, Akihito’s best friend. In the last volume, he gained a little more depth when Akihito and Tomoyuki found out about his relationship with a courtesan. In this volume, Tomoyuki is constantly telling him that if he cares for her, he shouldn’t worry so much about his place; he should be with her if he wants. Ishizaki is quick to point out the hypocrisy in Tomoyuki’s words. I think watching Akihito and Tomoyuki swing back and forth between love and duty has made Ishizaki a little nauseated.

I’ll admit that some of the dealing with social ranks in this one confused me. I’m not completely sure how Akihito was accomplishing his task to give Tomoyuki his title. In the end, I think things were turning out more in their favor. I guess we’ll see for sure in the next volume.

I tried to read the print version of this book three times before I picked up an audiobook. It was the best decision I could have made. I was afraid I’d never be able to make it through this book. Though I could have done without some of the details Dickens included, that was never why couldn’t finish it. I had the worst time understanding the speech of the people in the book. Since Dickens wrote in dialect, I had a hard time decoding what they were saying, especially Magwitch. This audiobook fixed that problem. Frank Muller reads the story perfectly. I’m positive I would have missed some of the intended humor without his expression. I’m an immediate fan of him. He brought this intimidating book to life for me.

I find it amazing that classic books like this are full of characters with such tragic flaws. I love and hate the characters all at once. Miss Havisham is such a horrid woman, until she finally shows Pip her true affection for him. Estella is so cold until she has a hard life. Suddenly, she gains some semblance of a heart. Pip, who was a kind little boy, gains wealth and becomes a total snob. He atones for his sins, but it’s just amazing what money, love, and hate can do. I thoroughly enjoyed reading this story about his journey.

One thing I liked about this audiobook was it’s inclusion of the “other ending” Dickens wrote. I think I liked it a little better than the one he published. It just fit the story a little better to me. We all love happy endings. They’re appropriate for some books. But they’re not really necessary in all books. This book worked well either way, but I particularly liked the not-as-happy ending.

I was reading Shelf Awareness the other day, and there was a link that coupled books with the best directors to bring them to screen. They coupled this book with Tim Burton. I have to say, that’s the perfect decision. I would kill to see this done by him. He has such a good eye for period pieces and the gritty look of London. I can only imagine how perfect his Miss Havisham would look.

Akihito is moving ever closer to an engagement that will put him higher on the social ladder. When he asks his friend’s father to be the go-between for the marriage arrangements, he’s horrified to find that Ishizaki wants Tomoyuki to come into his service in exchange. Meanwhile, a former houseboy finds documents that bring up some interesting questions about Tomoyuki’s birth. The relationship between Tomoyuki and Akihito remains turbulent, but passionate.

I was surprisingly more engaged by this volume than any of the previous ones. It’s common for a manga series to take a few volumes before it settles into a good pace. Often, the first two or three volumes are full expository material that can be difficult to trudge through. I admit being put off of a series by that before. I’ve been very interested in this manga series since the beginning, but I’ve noted the slow pace. It really picks up in volume 3.

One of the elements I think helped the pace is the changing dynamic of Tomoyuki’s relationship with Akihito. Until this volume, he’s seemed indifferent about all of it. Perhaps that’s simply due to his demeanor. Generally, he’s very serious and unsentimental. It’s made him seem somewhat unfeeling, and that’s certainly how Akihito took it most of his life. There’s a change in this volume. Tomoyuki is beginning to admit to himself that he actually feels something for Akihito. It’s refreshing because I’m never a fan of the one-sided yaoi relationship.

This volume was well done, and I’m eager to see where this one goes. My experiences with the yaoi that SuBLime is producing have been really great. It seems like they value a great story arc and original stories. So much of yaoi is clearly about sex and the stories carry no real weight. I think it’s important for me to make that distinction between what I would call the typical yaoi manga and this new, better crafted yaoi I’m finding.

Disclosure: I received this book from the publicist in exchange for an honest review.

Yaoi manga is something that I’ve read a few times, but never got into because the series I tried were too sexual. I’ve reviewed one yaoi series on this blog, Totally Captivated, which falls into the oversexualized category. It was a short series so I was able to finish it. Aside from that I’ve started a few and immediately stopped when it became clear the story was more about sex than anything else. Blue Morning came to via a publicist looking to promote VIZ manga’s new yaoi imprint, SuBlime. I’ve agreed to try out a few of their series.

If you don’t know what yaoi is, let me explain. Yaoi, or “boy’s love,” is manga targeted at a female audience with homoromantic (and sometimes homoerotic) relationships. This is a totally different genre of manga than that targeted at gay male readers (referred to as bara, and limited to Japanese culture). Yaoi has only become available to Western audiences in recent years. Previously, it could only be found on translation websites, such as Manga Fox or Manga Here. Don’t let the term “boy” fool you. The characters are teenagers or older. There are some definite gay stereotypes and the occasional homophobic language. Now that you have some background, let’s get on with the actual review.

Akihito Kuze was only ten years old when he inherited his family’s viscountship. He was put in the care of Tomoyuki Katsuragi, the family butler. Katsuragi raised him, tutored him, and advised him, but he was never warm. His iciness over the years has only caused Kuze to yearn to know Katsuragi better and become closer to him.

While this sounds like it could get really sexual really fast, it was more about social standings and advancing the Kuze name. Tomoyuki is invested in the legacy of the Kuze family, for some reason. There is a look into his past and his relationship with Akihito’s father. Akihito seeks, desperately for information on the relationship between the Katsuragis and the Kuzes. He’s also desperate to know why Tomoyuki has always been so cold. He’s spent years trying to please Tomoyuki, and over the years his need to please has turned into a secret romantic yearning. This could all lead to something more sexual than anything else, but the plot really stays away from that. There is sex, but it’s not all over the pages, and it’s not the most important part of the story. I’m so happy about that. I may have found a yaoi manga that I can read. In fact, I was pretty engaged by the family relationships and the social climbing. That was really the most interesting part. I’m not sure how I feel about Akihito and Tomoyuki’s relationship right now. It seems pretty one-sided.

We’ll have to see how this one pans out. The publisher has rated this manga mature, so I’m reluctant to recommend it to readers under 18. As for this volume, there was mild sexual content and some language.