About a Love Song, Volume 1

by Hiroko Natsuno

Hoshina dreams of making it big with his band—but writing love songs has never come easy.

That is, until he meets Seto, a sweet and disarming part-timer who shines a little too brightly in Hoshina’s jaded world. 

When a rainy night leads to an unexpected encounter, Hoshina finds himself drawn to Seto’s honesty and warmth. But discovering Seto is still in his final year of high school leaves Hoshina spiraling with guilt... 

As Hoshina tries to distance himself, Seto only steps closer—determined to love, and be loved, even if he’s still figuring out how to be a grown-up.

Maybe love doesn’t have to be perfect to be real... Maybe it just needs a good melody!
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CWs : age gap

Genres: Manga, Romance, Yaoi, LGBT, Boys Love, Contemporary

Kindle Edition

Published December 9, 2025

Reviews

[⋆ ࣪˖ ִֶָ sel ་༘࿐ · Rating 3 out of 5]

I liked how stupid, slow, and simple this was, haha!

[Emily · Rating 1 out of 5]

I wish I would've read the description of this one before starting it. I am so tired of high school student x adult romances. I kept reading because Hoshina seemed really guilty about his feelings after learning Seto's age, but it was just used to cause more drama. Hoshina doesn't touch Seto after learning his age. He then ends up telling Seto point blank that they cannot be together since Seto is so much younger. Seto doesn't like this, but Hoshina holds firm and cuts off all contact. I thought we were going to get a large timeskip with them reuniting after Seto had been an adult and matured. But no, they ended up getting together a few months later. Maybe a year? But not enough for it to stop being super icky.

[Imanewreader ✨ · Rating 4 out of 5]

cw - age gap (~ 10/15y)

that was adorbs !!! love how mitzuki is mature and wants seto to be something and not kept from becoming someone before actually be with him

[Casey Vasilis · Rating 1 out of 5]

what the fuck was this and why does my library have it 😭

[Andrew · Rating 2 out of 5]

psa that guitarist ten years your senior won't save you

[Naomi · Rating 3 out of 5]

wenn ich aufhören soll, hau mir eine rein

Die Geschichte war toll - es handelte sich um eine Slow Burn Romance mit dem Trope Age Gap. Die Diskussionen rund um den Altersunterschied war omnipräsent.
Meiner Meinung nach, war es ein bisschen viel hin und her. Ein klein wenig weniger Drama wäre auch absolut ausreichend gewesen. Wohingegen der Schluss sich um 180 Grad gedreht hat und meiner Ansicht nach eher unpassend erschien. Als wäre das Happy Ende hingeklatscht worden.

About a Love Song las ich, da es sich wie White Liar um einen Standalone handelte. Der Artstyle gefiel mir sehr gut.

[13encolère · Rating 1 out of 5]

Le grooming c’est pas de l’amour mais une emprise psychologique
Le résumé qui dit que ça aborde le consentement ???? Svp les editeurices faites votre travail correctement

[K · Rating 4 out of 5]

Mostly I'm very confused by the Volume 1 on the cover, because I can't find anything on Japanese sites that indicates this is an ongoing series. I certainly wouldn't mind more...but it's a little hard to judge something that may or may not be a complete tale where it stands now.

It does mostly feel complete. There's a big time jump at the end - 4 years - so I'm not entirely sure what a sequel would do, because I really don't think the in between time would be that interesting of a story to explore. (It'd be four years of friendship and no physical contact (fine) and very likely with Hoshina dating other guys in the meantime (not fine) because a rock star is not going be a saint...)

I have to wonder if Tokyopop just messed up with their labeling. It wouldn't be the first time an English publisher (*coughSevenSeas*) got something very wrong about one of their licenses, simply by making assumptions about it based on the mangaka's author work. I'll just keep an eye out and be happy to revisit this world if more crops up.

This was a very interesting story that's probably a bit closer to 3 stars, but I'm bumping it up because I really like Natsuno's writing style. There's a complex emotional depth that comes out in At 25:00 in Akasaka that's handled similarly here.

Hoshina is a 28 year old singer and songwriter in a band he's had since high school, much to his parents' dismay. They'd always assumed it was a youthful hobby that he'd get over - his dad is apparently some medical bigshot and would've wanted him to follow in his footsteps. His band isn't huge, but it's got a loyal set of fans, and he's able to make a decent living from it plus a part-time job at a convenience store.

One of his coworkers is a younger guy whose presence brings a lot of quiet joy to Hoshina's life. They don't know each other too well, but Hoshina absently finds Seto attractive and is drawn to him enough to take him home when he's standing outside in the rain, unwilling to go home.

They end up sleeping together, even though Hoshina tries his best to have some self-control (see again: rockstar behavior), and in the morning he finds out...Seto is a decade younger and not actually the college student he'd thought he was.

This sets off a whole progression of events that are frustrating for both of them, with Hoshina genuinely actually trying his best now to distance himself from Seto before he sways his life too far in any one direction. Seto is still young enough to look up to him and potentially make life choices he'd regret later on, or simply grow out of...leaving Hoshina alone when he did.

Seto very reluctantly allows himself to be pushed away, despite his deep annoyance at Hoshina telling him on the one hand that the decisions he makes now about his career and his future are his own and are worth sticking to...while not trusting him to make up his own mind about how he feels about Hoshina.

Reasonable thought processes for both of them, honestly, and I was kind of expecting a much bigger timeskip when we first see Seto scowling about Hoshina's band's breakout success.

This is one of the bigger issues I have with Natsuno's other series, actually: the way pretty major projects like movies or tv shows seem to have in a rather condensed amount of time. Maybe tv gets filmed super fast in Japan, but I'm still not sure how Hoshina's band could go viral from his love song, have maybe that same song (?) be the theme for a tv drama, then do a whole rush of interviews and promotions and televised music festival appearances, all in a single year.

...During which Seto is still in high school? I guess maybe he'd met Hoshina at the very start of his senior year, but it truly would've made a lot more sense for him to have been partway through college by the time he saw Hoshina's band making it big.

Honestly, at first I'd thought it was maybe even a time jump to Seto as a working adult and teacher, the dream he'd been afraid to tell his teachers and parents with their high expectations for him. But Natsuno probably didn't want to make a story that angsty that would separate the two of them for that long. I get that. Some of the structure just felt a little wobbly.

Still, I liked the characters, including the side ones - Hoshina's bandmates and Seto's mother - and I appreciate how much they were wrangling with their feelings and dreams. It's the sort of stuff Natsuno does well, and I'll always give their stories a try.

[R. · Rating 2 out of 5]

Hoshino needs to make up his mind and stop acting out or claiming he can't control himself. On the one side, he is genuinely trying to do what is right, but on the other, he ends up essentially stringing Seto along and giving him small pieces of false hope only to dash them until he figures things out. The age gap is a little strange as well, so it's understandable, though Seto does seem to know what he wants and is legal as he puts it. Though there isn't much detail towards the end, it seems the boys are together for some time before Hoshino can be convinced to speak his feelings and actually act on them. Despite all of the emotional drama, Seto seems to be exactly the wake up call Hoshino needs to pull his life together and focus on his success.

[Shawna (endemictoearth) · Rating 3 out of 5]

2.5 stars - The mangaka tried to not make this creepy, and mostly succeeded. Instead, it is frustrating. Very hard to believe at the end that for three plus years they spent so much time together and never or barely even kissed again. Whether or not that's strictly true, it does appear that they have been very chaste because the older MC doesn't trust himself not to go too far? Or possibly doesn't trust that the younger MC knows his own mind about what he wants? For three years? Did they never talk (possibly true)?

This felt like an unsatisfying imitation of some other one shot BLs. If it is continued, I would give it another try, to see if things get a bit more depth.

[Heather · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5 stars (Goodreads give us half stars!!!)

There is a significant age gap with this couple, but I think it was handled very well. Based on other reviews I have read, not everyone agrees. Hoshina & Seto spent time apart after their first encounter and when they got back together they still didn't rush into a physical relationship. I don't have a problem with age gaps as long as both parties are adults, which is the case here.

The artwork is amazing and I want more. The book cover indicates this is the first volume so I will be watching for another volume.

[Julie · Rating 4 out of 5]

Rating: 3.5*
Not usually one for teen x adult especially a 10 year age gap, but this one did it well. The adult acknowledges the fact that he could be taking advantage of this kid and tries to put distance between them. They don't really come together again until he's older and even then it's not immediate. I enjoyed the writing and I'm interested in seeing where the story will go.

[The Therapy Book Club (Chantal) · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5 stars ⭐️

[cyberghost · Rating 5 out of 5]

something soft for a quick read, not a whole lot of spice (if you just ignore the bonus chapter 🤭). would definitely recommend heheheh

[Rebecca · Rating 3 out of 5]

I appreciate that the older half of this couple has zero interest in pursuing the relationship until the younger half has time to grow up. Eighteen may be legal, but it's still very young.

[ava · Rating 3 out of 5]

very sweet

[Gothdoll666{In Rue's Pocket} · Rating 3 out of 5]

Cute and sweet. I didn't mind the age gap at all. I didn't see any grooming in this book and who the fuck cares, because it's fiction! I love to read about things I would detest & abhor in fiction because it is not reality. It is absolutely okay to like the fact that an underage character has sex or falls in love with an adult character. I love age gap romance, because I like to see the how they handle the generational gap and how it brings them closer. I wouldn't have cared if Seto-kun was 14!

This BL is just mid for me. I just wanted a but more and the translations for it was off.

[Rosaya]

ชอบเพราะว่าพระเอกเล่นดนตรีแล้วมีฉากที่นายเอกเห็นพระเอกเล่นดนตรีแล้วเริ่มชอบ? แต่ว่านายเอกยังเป็นเด็กม.ปลาย โดยที่ตอนแรกพระเอกคิดว่านายเอก็เป็นนักศึกษาและเริ่มความสัมพันธ์กันตอนจะจบเล่มตอนวันจบการศึกษา