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Aswil's motivations are not completely credible but the author gives enough glimpses of his own weaknesses and the societal pressures he feels to allow the reader to (somewhat) suspend disbelief.Finally, there is a kind of poetic justice in the end in that to gain Tomoyuki's love, Aswil has to experience a loss of freedom similar to Tomoyuki's before they can find any semblance of happiness. I also found Tomoyuki's inner turmoil, his resolve to return home even in the face of his conflicting feelings towards Aswil to be fairly realistic.
I had really low expectations of this book when I first saw it and I almost didn't buy it. This was a surprisingly good read.
There was very little sex in the novel, period. I thought it would follow the pattern of the usual "Sheik captures uke" yaoi manga/novels in which the uke is not only taken to a far away country against his will, but while there he is also taken against his will by the seme yet still professes his love for his rapist in the end.Eternal Love thankfully moved away from this formula enough for it to be enjoyable.
Tomomyuki is kidnapped by Aswil but apart from one dubiously consensual scene, there are no brutal rape scenes. I appreciated that he didn't spend his time simply pining for Japan but actually took concrete actions to try to get himself there.Of course, with this kind of book there is always the problem of explaining how a person who kidnaps his lover is anything but an abusive tyrant but even this I thought was handled quite well.
This wasn't a perfect read by any means but overall I thought Eternal Love was a well-plotted story with surprising depth for its genre.
I really didn't get into this story. The story just went on and on about nothing. It finially started to get really good at the last chapter, and for a 5 chapter book its pathetic.
Months after Tomoyuki found that Aswil was the king's son of a little Arabian country and that he needed to marry for political reason. hard-core. And Tomoyuki even if he is still in love with Aswil, can't accept to loose his freedom and to be treat like an object by Aswil.As I said the story could be very more erotic than it is. Not Eternal Love: this romance is almost innocent, the only sex scenes are old style the type in which all happens behind closed doors.Tomoyuki is a young Japanese business man; while studying in England six years before he fell in love for a college mate, Aswil, an arabian guy with a mystery halo around him.
This romance resembles a bit the "sheikhs" Harlequin, the sweet romances which take inspiration from the "historic" bodice rippers of E.M. Aswil had almost a royal behavior, so proud and aloof. After months of blissful love, Aswil was forced to return home, but he promised that he would return for Tomoyuki. Not that I read many, but usually the yaoi novel are all quite. you know that the sheikh, in the shadow of the tent, makes passionate love to the heroine, but you don't read it. When Tomoyuki asks for his behavior, the only excuse of Aswil is that he makes all for love, that he wants to respect the promise he made to Tomoyuki.
It's not that Tomoyuki and Aswil didn't have sex, it's only that you don't read about it. Only the first time you have a bit of information on the almost non consensual sex Tomoyuki has to suffer, but then you only read about the regret of Tomoyuki, on how he feels guilty and how much he wants to run away from Aswil, but the reader can't quite understand it since he doesn't know what happens between them.
Same here: you know that Aswil does something to Tomoyuki, but you haven't the privilege to be present. I often think to them like little porn; maybe for the format, the print book is so small, rather cure, but inside they are scorching.
Hull, The Sheikhs, and which inspired the famous movies with Rodolfo Valentino. Tomoyuki gave up to their love and returned to Japan.Now six years later, Aswil lures Tomoyuki into a trap and drags him in his country.
He holds Tomoyuki in captivity, even dresses him up as a woman in the women quarters of his palace. In those romances, the sheikh is always a mourning man, who sweeps the heroine from her quiet life to drag her in the desert, better if on the back of an horses.
well I feel like the author robbed me of something.On the other hand, this is maybe the first yaoi novel I read where there are also other characters other than the two heroes, and maybe it's since the two heroes need to do something else since they aren't always in the bedroom.
They have come a long way since OTRFK v01. Being an uke isn't synonymous with being a whiney, little wuss.Which brings me to my second complaint. This was a pointless story. The seme, Aswil, didn't really speak much in his few short scenes. What I can't stand, is that I was supposed to find anything endearing about the whining, useless uke in this story.First complaint, the uke, Tomoyuki, whined on every single page that he made an appearance - seriously. He had absolutely no redeeming qualities. First let me say that I love the yaoi novels that June publishes. The uke was a crying, nagging "woman" and the seme was a cold, sex machine.
But I just couldn't understand why Aswil would persist on pursuing what I consider to be the worst uke I have ever come across. The author seemed to depend too much on those kind of stupid stereotypes that ruin good yaoi stories. Tomoyuki thought he was a useless person and definitely not good enough for Aswil. I read this hoping, wishing and praying the seme would run as far away from this wimpy uke as possible. But this title should have been left on the shelf.I can forgive the stupid, cliched "sheik love story" and the fact that it was ridiculously predictable. He usually just proceeded to force himself on Tomoyuki and then would exit - stage left.
I didn't read this wanting the two guys to get together in the end. Even the smutty scenes weren't hot because Tomoyuki was whining about how he didn't want to do it. I guess from a couple of looks Aswil gave Tomoyuki; we were supposed to divine Aswil's true feelings. I'm inclined to agree.It's not much of a yaoi love story if you DON'T want the seme and uke to end up together.
It gets worse. But he just can't stay mad whenever they have sex because what little brain he has seems to be located below the waist.
It's like a bad sheik romance novel from the 80s. My summary:A Japanese guy and an Arabian prince have an affair in London, then the prince has to go home to stabilize the country because his father's dying.
I've been reading all the new June BL novels, and while I like some, this one seems to be filled with the most ridiculous plot of all of them. >.< Meanwhile, the Japanese guy is whiny because the other guy a) never called him once, and b) (kind of a big one) is getting married.
Six years later, his father is still dying O_o, but since the prince set a wedding date the country is more stable. So he kidnaps the Japanese guy and sticks him in a harem and tries to imprison and rape him nicely.
Plus he's still in love and he doesn't really mean to be mad but gosh darn it he keeps saying things that perpetuate the problem.That's just the beginning. This book was incredibly annoying.It's telling, I think, that the most interesting thing in the book to me is the heterosexual romance that crops up in the last third or so of the novel.
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