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Sweet Admiration
Katsuya 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?
250 pages, Paperback
First published March 11, 2008
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280 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 17 of 17 reviews
August 8, 2021
Katsuya and Kazuki befriended each other over the course of a summer when they were kids, and they kept in touch after Kazuki went back to the city. While Katsuya considers Kazuki a friend, the person he really can't forget is Shio, Kazuki's older brother. It's now 12 years later, and Katsuya has decided to take a risk and accept a job with a small company Shio helped found in the hope of seeing Shio again.
However, things don't go quite the way he planned. Shio doesn't actually spend much time at the company now, and the company housing Katsuya was promised may have been a lie. Katsuya resigns himself to not seeing Shio, but the question of his housing really needs to be settled, so he confronts the company president about it...and gets assigned to a "company dorm" that's actually Shio's condo. Katsuya isn't sure whether to be happy or horrified. On the one hand, he gets to spend time with his childhood crush. On the other hand, Shio has made it clear that he's only putting up with this arrangement because the company president asked him to.
This could have been a decent, if somewhat boring, read. Shio's initial rudeness and coldness towards Katsuya was understandable - honestly, it was pretty weird that the company president would ask Shio, an executive, to share his company housing with a new and relatively low-level employee. Katsuya annoyed me, at first, with these huge risks he was taking for a guy he barely knew and hadn't seen in 12 years. However, his willingness to accept that he might not see Shio, plus his generally positive nature, eventually won me over.
Unfortunately, about halfway through the book the author introduced Takamasa, Kazuki and Shio's previously unmentioned stepbrother. Takamasa, supposedly a college student, behaved like an annoying, whiny, and clingy toddler whenever he was around Shio. His existence was clearly meant to drive a wedge between Katsuya and Shio, except that Shio showed no signs of wanting to ditch Katsuya in favor of Takamasa. So the author upped the drama and turned the story into a flaming train wreck. And not even a very interesting one at that.
I genuinely thought that Ugh. Just a mess.
The book ends with Katsuya and Shio a happy couple, but without any resolution to the giant mess that was The book's one sex scene happened while I was still trying to process everything.
It's a shame. If it weren't for all the Takamasa stuff, this would have been a bland but basically nice story about two guys getting to know each other, falling in love, and eventually having consensual sex. Not the greatest thing out there, especially considering the clumsy and sometimes repetitive writing, but not half bad for a Juné "yaoi novel."
Extras:
One full-color illustration accompanied by an exceptionally bad quote from the book ("Shio took the opportunity to slide his tongue inside Katsuya's mouth, in between his teeth, slowly invading his inner mouth."), plus several black-and-white illustrations throughout. There are also profiles for and brief comments from both the author and illustrator, as well as a short afterword by the author.
Rating Note:
I'm not even sure how to rate this. I'm going with 2 stars because the bulk of it was okay but a bit boring, although the Takamasa stuff kind of makes me want to rate it lower.
(Original review posted on A Library Girl's Familiar Diversions.)
However, things don't go quite the way he planned. Shio doesn't actually spend much time at the company now, and the company housing Katsuya was promised may have been a lie. Katsuya resigns himself to not seeing Shio, but the question of his housing really needs to be settled, so he confronts the company president about it...and gets assigned to a "company dorm" that's actually Shio's condo. Katsuya isn't sure whether to be happy or horrified. On the one hand, he gets to spend time with his childhood crush. On the other hand, Shio has made it clear that he's only putting up with this arrangement because the company president asked him to.
This could have been a decent, if somewhat boring, read. Shio's initial rudeness and coldness towards Katsuya was understandable - honestly, it was pretty weird that the company president would ask Shio, an executive, to share his company housing with a new and relatively low-level employee. Katsuya annoyed me, at first, with these huge risks he was taking for a guy he barely knew and hadn't seen in 12 years. However, his willingness to accept that he might not see Shio, plus his generally positive nature, eventually won me over.
Unfortunately, about halfway through the book the author introduced Takamasa, Kazuki and Shio's previously unmentioned stepbrother. Takamasa, supposedly a college student, behaved like an annoying, whiny, and clingy toddler whenever he was around Shio. His existence was clearly meant to drive a wedge between Katsuya and Shio, except that Shio showed no signs of wanting to ditch Katsuya in favor of Takamasa. So the author upped the drama and turned the story into a flaming train wreck. And not even a very interesting one at that.
I genuinely thought that Ugh. Just a mess.
The book ends with Katsuya and Shio a happy couple, but without any resolution to the giant mess that was The book's one sex scene happened while I was still trying to process everything.
It's a shame. If it weren't for all the Takamasa stuff, this would have been a bland but basically nice story about two guys getting to know each other, falling in love, and eventually having consensual sex. Not the greatest thing out there, especially considering the clumsy and sometimes repetitive writing, but not half bad for a Juné "yaoi novel."
Extras:
One full-color illustration accompanied by an exceptionally bad quote from the book ("Shio took the opportunity to slide his tongue inside Katsuya's mouth, in between his teeth, slowly invading his inner mouth."), plus several black-and-white illustrations throughout. There are also profiles for and brief comments from both the author and illustrator, as well as a short afterword by the author.
Rating Note:
I'm not even sure how to rate this. I'm going with 2 stars because the bulk of it was okay but a bit boring, although the Takamasa stuff kind of makes me want to rate it lower.
(Original review posted on A Library Girl's Familiar Diversions.)
November 11, 2017
I don't even know why I paid money for this, but okay... I gave it a try.
Even though it has a solid structure as a whole, the novel was light and superficial and the characters had no depth in personalily. I had a high expectation because the cover and illustrations are so cool.
Shio is blank and Katsuya has this clichee personality of a spoiler kid.... just dunno, it was hard to read it, but it's still a light yaoi novel so I guess its fine for others, just not for me.
Even though it has a solid structure as a whole, the novel was light and superficial and the characters had no depth in personalily. I had a high expectation because the cover and illustrations are so cool.
Shio is blank and Katsuya has this clichee personality of a spoiler kid.... just dunno, it was hard to read it, but it's still a light yaoi novel so I guess its fine for others, just not for me.
February 28, 2023
This was dual pov which I wasn’t expecting but it wasn’t clear when it switched from mc to mc. I think some of the story got lost in translation from Japanese to English but over all it was a cute first crush coming to fulfillment. Not use to the seme being the softer one and the more athletic one being the uke but it wasn’t bad.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
December 31, 2013
When I first read this book, I was younger and it was amazing and my ideal yaoi light novel. Now that I've read it a second time, it was still good. The characters were cute and the relationship was nice, but it wasn't really captivating. I felt that everything worked out a little too easily. Maybe I just like drama now, but it was mediocre in that department. If you like fluffy yaoi, I would say read it because it's cute.
February 13, 2017
** Books 59 - 2017 **
This books to accomplish Tsundoku Books Challenge 2017
4 of 5 stars!
After for a few days i'm already insane with my 1.389 pages readathon challenge (i'm only finished 4 of 5 books T.T) and also after i have read yaoi mangas Killing Stalking that makes my head dizzy since it full of dark-angst and also abuse. I need some fluffy, sweet and light romance books. I hesitate first when i pick this books but after i finish it wow... Simply i just love it!
The interaction way between Katsuya and Shio, how the progress of their relationship, respect each others, helping each others in kitchen and daily life it really makes me want to smile all day long! Cuteness and Sweetness overload! >__<
I wanna give the higher stars but i have zonk moment when i know I know it is already the past but yeah it kinda makes me really shock =__=a
I can say this books is kinda too good to be true but yeah I really don't care since it give me some diabetes and it can cheer me up today! :D
This books to accomplish Tsundoku Books Challenge 2017
4 of 5 stars!
After for a few days i'm already insane with my 1.389 pages readathon challenge (i'm only finished 4 of 5 books T.T) and also after i have read yaoi mangas Killing Stalking that makes my head dizzy since it full of dark-angst and also abuse. I need some fluffy, sweet and light romance books. I hesitate first when i pick this books but after i finish it wow... Simply i just love it!
The interaction way between Katsuya and Shio, how the progress of their relationship, respect each others, helping each others in kitchen and daily life it really makes me want to smile all day long! Cuteness and Sweetness overload! >__<
I wanna give the higher stars but i have zonk moment when i know I know it is already the past but yeah it kinda makes me really shock =__=a
I can say this books is kinda too good to be true but yeah I really don't care since it give me some diabetes and it can cheer me up today! :D
April 8, 2022
Just meh and bad and the pacing was terrible. Kinda a waste of an evening.
March 17, 2015
Stale like toast
This book honestly is pretty stale. It's an office lover type setting and nothing exciting really happens. That being said this book is a breath of fresh air from formulaic yaoi novels as BOTH the main characters want each other. It's balanced and everything is consensual versus the rape between the MCs that most all the other books have.The only con I have about this book is Takamasa. He's a throw away bratty character that is meant as the wedge between Katsuya and Shio. He is only mentioned really when the author needs to start that "wedge" process and is easily tossed aside after he's used.Overall it's not a bad book, just the story itself is pretty stale.
This book honestly is pretty stale. It's an office lover type setting and nothing exciting really happens. That being said this book is a breath of fresh air from formulaic yaoi novels as BOTH the main characters want each other. It's balanced and everything is consensual versus the rape between the MCs that most all the other books have.The only con I have about this book is Takamasa. He's a throw away bratty character that is meant as the wedge between Katsuya and Shio. He is only mentioned really when the author needs to start that "wedge" process and is easily tossed aside after he's used.Overall it's not a bad book, just the story itself is pretty stale.
January 25, 2016
This was a sweet love story. I enjoyed reading it. Katsuya has such an adorable and innocent POV and Shio was a surprisingly decent guy. There were a lot of coincidences in the book when it came to creating and solving problems, but that's fine. I can deal with coincidental problems and their solutions as long as they aren't disruptive or too unbelievable.
As an aside, my copy had a error wherein Katsuya's name was replaced with Kazuki's (Shio's younger brother) and it threw me off momentarily since it was in the middle of a scene.
As an aside, my copy had a error wherein Katsuya's name was replaced with Kazuki's (Shio's younger brother) and it threw me off momentarily since it was in the middle of a scene.
August 13, 2012
A sweet, kind of innocent love story. I really enjoyed it and devoured every chapter with expectation, the protagonist was so cute and innocent that it was hard not to like him. What I really liked was the relationship between the protagonists, it flew at its pace and when the time came it was so natural that I did not notice the difference between "before and after", although it really seemed to me that the seme was taking advantage of the uke, but whatever.
September 22, 2009
I have to say, it was very... detailed. It wasn't the best thing I've ever read...
Ok. I've started to appreciate the works of 'yaoi' and 'BL' more lately. So, I will give it one more star. It deserves it. I liked the book more than I realized.
September 28, 2023
I found this book in National Bookstore. For some reason they have a BL novel in their shelves. Bought it because it was cheap. Back when I was a stupid teenager I ate up these kinds of books. I guess I grew out of the phase because I didn’t enjoy reading this at all.
August 16, 2008
Sweet Admiration (Yaoi Novel) by Yuuki Kousaka (2008)
March 21, 2011
It was a little slow-moving at first and ended just when it was getting good (wink, wink), but overall, it was sweet.
June 24, 2012
(For my personal records) - Real novel based on Yaoi GN stuff.
September 1, 2012
It was not bad except ther was a bit of incest even though it happened b4 the mcs met up.. Though they were half brothers but still.. But it was a nice read i admit that...
June 24, 2015
Story was simple, writing was a little typical but otherwise not a bad read :)
July 22, 2015
Sweet !
Displaying 1 - 17 of 17 reviews