ブレッド・ウィナー

by Kei Tsukimura, 月村奎, 木下けい子 (Illustrator)

きみの笑顔の隣で生きていきたい。

家出した妻の実家であるパン屋と連れ子の双子を抱え、太一は二十四歳にして人生投げやり気味だ。そこへ店舗の買い手として現れたのが、高校の同級生・長谷部。太一が売ることを渋ると、彼はパン職人として店でバイトさせてほしいと言う。忘れたい記憶につながる男と関わりたくはなかったが、いきいきとパンを作る長谷部はやがて太一の日常になくてはならない存在へと変わり…?

平凡だからこそ愛おしくて幸福な時間って、きっとある。
日常と恋を優しく描く月村奎の原点、ラブ増量＆書き下ろしアリで復活！

252 pages, Paperback

First published June 1, 1999

About the author

Associated Names:
* Kei Tsukimura (Japanese)
* 月村奎 (Japanese)

Reviews

[Sophie · Rating 3 out of 5]

I'M SO CONFLICTED. I loved the setting of the book - I have a weakness for stories with single fathers - and, like, 90% or more was done really well, but the two gripes I had with it were big enough to make it impossible for me to rate it either four or five stars.

The story is about Taichi, who is left taking care of the kids of his wife and her family's bakery after she has run away with her new boyfriend. Since their relationship has always been more like brother and sister rather than husband and wife, he isn't heartbroken, but he isn't exactly happy about the situation he finds himself in, either. Enter Hasebe, a former classmate of Taichi who is also some kind of baking genius, and who ends up working for Taichi. Even though Taichi is sure Hasebe hates him because Taichi used him to get rid of his own bullies back in high school, as they continue working together Hasebe becomes an important part of Taichi's and the twins' life. But Taichi is too used to life not going the way he'd like it, and so before either Hasebe or the twins can leave him, he pretty much pushes them away. It all turns out fine in the end, though, and Taichi learns to look at life a little more positively.

Now, let me say that while there were a lot of times I wanted to grab Taichi by the shoulders and just shake him, all in all I could see where he was coming from EXCEPT for his behaviour when the twins ran away. Childish or not, I'm pretty sure even a kid would try to make sure the twins arrived okay, and I gotta say there would have been a better way to make a similar point without him being quite so glaringly irresponsible. He could have sent the kids to their mom's hotel and then just not have called and they could have run away, for example. And I have to say, the fact that the authorities didn't really seem to be bothered by the fact that Taichi didn't contact the police after his kids ran away seems a bit... worrisome. I found his behaviour during this incident really unforgivable and it made it difficult to like the rest of the book.

Also, all in all there wasn't really enough interaction between Taichi and Hasebe to satisfy me. I don't mean sex, obviously - but unresolved sexual tension and muddled up feelings are why I read that kind of book, and there just wasn't enough of that in it.

I did enjoy what interactions there were between the two of them, though, and if my opinion of Taichi hadn't suffered for the previous mentioned reasons, I could have loved his relatively open behaviour unabashedly. But well, it is as it is.

This didn't quite live up to its promise - during the first half I was convinced I was going to love this a lot - but it was still good. So three stars it is.

(I feel really lucky I managed to pick two really great BL novels first, though. Even though they were so good the others I've read after that don't quite compare.. but 恋になるなら was so damn good that I have no regrets. Also, I started reading this on Tuesday evening, just saying.)