Love of Kill, Vol. 1

Love of Kill #1

by FE

Ryang-Ha Song is an infamous master assassin who never fails to eliminate his targets. More than twenty organizations have taken out bounties on his head, yet no one can even approach him. But when he sets his sights on fellow assassin Chateau Dankworth, it's not to kill her—it's to seduce her! She may want nothing to do with him, but as he starts killing her targets for her, she's left with no choice but to play along with his games...

Genres: Manga, Romance, Action, Thriller, Graphic Novels, Josei, Crime

164 pages, Paperback

First published March 26, 2016

About the author

Books, food, blog, manga, anime, and music. Love walking alone in the morning and afternoon in a small town. Writing random story about all.

Author of E for Eleanor.

Fe is F.E.

Reviews

[Delirious Disquisitions · Rating 4 out of 5]

This series is basically a Roy Mustang × Riza Hawkeye au fic and by GOD do I ship this!!!

[Jessi ❤️ H. Vojsk [if villain, why hot?] · Rating 5 out of 5]

I love this story and the art so much!
Can’t wait to watch the anime 👌🏻

[Laura A. Grace · Rating 4 out of 5]

4.5 stars

Oooo this was a good one!!

I had been super curious about this after seeing so much mixed feedback, but the cover is epic and I've been really wanting to read something with spies (or at least along those lines). Throw in what looks to be an enemies-to-lovers romance and I'm sold!

This first volume definitely did not disappoint! Some of the blood scenes were a little on the border of almost rated R for me, but I would say overall it was PG-13. It wasn't quite as graphic as I had anticipated, and for that I am thankful. (I can only handle so much.)

I REALLY loved the two main characters! I'm totally digging having a more extroverted, friendly "bad guy" and a quiet but slightly grumpy "good guy." Definitely an epic dynamics forming and really want more after reading to the end!

Overall, I really enjoyed this volume! I'm excited and wanting volume two and eagerly looking forward to it's release!

[⊹ Gabriela | Asternyx ⊹ · Rating 4 out of 5]

⤏ What to expect:
∘ Manga
∘ Thriller/Mystery
∘ Action
∘ Romance
∘ Suspense
∘ Assassin x Bounty Hunter
⤏ Tropes:
∘ Enemies to Lovers
∘ Slowburn
∘ Man falls in love first
⤏ Trigger Warnings: blood, crime scenes, violence

⤏ Summary
Ryang-Ha Song is an assassin with a bounty on his head. He sets his eyes on Chateau Dankworth, who's a bounty hunter. However, he doesn't want to kill her but to seduce her.
She's constantly refusing him because she doesn't want anything to do with him, but then he starts killing her targets ...

⤏ Main Characters
Both characters are badass. Ryang-Ha is a chatty, unhinged, cold blooded killer, while Chateau is a quiet, calculating and mysterious woman. Ryang-Ha is pretty set on winning this woman over. I mean ... he contacts her offering to "send over a victim's body as a gift" — LMAO

⤏ Conclusion
This is an action-packed manga and ends in a cliffhanger — I'm definitely picking up the next volumes!

[Rebecca · Rating 3 out of 5]

Dude, she's just not that into you, and she has the weaponry to back that up.

[Mark · Rating 3 out of 5]

Chateau is a bounty hunter. Ryang-ha is an assassin. He’s got a poor sense of romance, she has no sense of romance. He’s less ‘say it with flowers’ and more ‘say it with corpses’ and while he’s certainly making Chateau’s professional life a breeze, he’s driving her crazy off the clock.

This book is saved by its art. The art swoops in and shows fluid, delightful action in scene after scene and it really buoys up an undercooked story of “romance”. This is not what we would call a flawless story.

My major problem is with Chateau, and not just because of her name, which implies she should be a French doctor addicted to Vicodin. She is undercut at every turn by Ryang-ha, from first scene to the end, and it really does her character wrong.

If she was more his equal then this would be a lot more fun than it is, instead she’s just good enough for just long enough, then something goes wrong. I’m hoping they rectify this later - the author even acknowledges that he’s really bad at putting his female characters through the wringer.

Ryang-ha isn’t a bad character - he has a perpetual ‘not bothered’ attitude and a grin plastered to his face. I’d normally find him really annoying, but his ineptitude at romance contrasted with his job skills make him more tolerable. I’m glad he’s not forcing himself on Chateau beyond using his abilities to coerce her into dates (in terms of exchange for services rendered), but he’s a lot less forceful than he could be. Small mercies.

This series might not have it in the romance department (Chateau barely talks as well, to anybody, which leaves her more of a cipher than I’d like), but it is on fire with the action, as I mentioned.

The back half of this book has an incredibly drawn car chase that’s almost the equal of some of the better ones in Gunsmith Cats (and this book is about 1000x less problematic than that series is). Even the gunfights are nice and clean (well, mostly) and easy to follow.

When Ryung is tracking down Chateau for actual noble reasons, he employs some clever tricks that make him seem actually smart at his job rather than simply unnaturally good at by narrative fiat and I appreciated that. Leaning into this part of the story over the romance works for now, though I would like that part to catch up a bit.

3 stars. It’s an okay book; it has some stuff I don’t like (no means no, kids, even if you’re being nice about it) and some stuff I dug. It’s a lighter-weight action series, for sure, but I’ll take a second volume to see what it gets up to.

[Karina · Rating 4 out of 5]

― Rating: 4 Stars ★★★★
Love Of Kill is a perfect blend of action, tension, following a slowburn ENEMIES TO LOVERS romance between a bounty hunter x assassin!

I went into this manga knowing absolutely NOTHING about it other than the tension and cat-and-mouse game between Chateau and Ryang-Ha, which carries a lot of the story.

From the first page your intrigued at their initial interaction and Ryang-Ha's unpredictable, unhinged and causing lots of trouble for Chateau because he's interested in her. But, when he starts killing her targets for her, she's forced to get involved.

Their dynamic is literally what propels you to keep on reading. While it feels like the other characters like Euripides, among others were just introduced to add different layers to the intrigue of Ryang-ha and Chateau's work, there's just not a lot established about them to make me care too much. I think that our assassin duo is truly the brilliance of the story here.

Ryang-ha becomes obsessed with Chateau and is left with no choice but to follow him. I like the dynamic that Fe is setting up between them, but there wasn't much to Chateau's stoic personality that made me absolutely love her, so I'm hoping future volumes delve more into her backstory and expand on the layers to her as character. But the question remains: Where will Ryang and Chateau's relationship lead next? I simply must know!

There's also an anime coming in 2022 and it looks so good, glad I could get on the hype early.

- Will probably change my rating due to some notes the mangaka puts in about certain characters, which makes for questionable rep with certain non-white characters upon from my inital read & rereading. (Just from my interpretation)

[Megan · Rating 5 out of 5]

5/5 stars

I saw "assassin romance" and knew I had to give this a shot! While not a lot happened in this volume, I got into the story and am looking forward to reading future volumes!

I wouldn't necessarily say that the romance is the "grumpy x sunshine" trope, but it does remind me of that! So far, the story is cute, and I will definitely be reading volume 2 (which I luckily have on hand, considering it ended with a cliffhanger!)

Content: I don't recall any language, and the romance is clean. The only issue would be the violence as it was more graphic than one might expect from a romance story.

[Keiko, the manga enthusiast ♒︎ · Rating 4 out of 5]

What is this?! What exactly are you doing to me?! I love it! I love it so damn much! Gah, I'm so lucky tripped in this series today! Just the balance I want of fluff, action, and comedy! Seriously, this is a gem!

Quiet female lead? Yes!
Badass female lead? Yes!
Confident male lead? Yes!
Badass male lead? Yes!
Smitten badass confident male lead with badass quiet female lead who doesn't care? YES!!! AUGH!!!
THAT IS SO MY JAM!

I can't wait to see the next volumes! I'm totally going to binge, hork, devour, consume, absorb all of it right now!!!

[Crystal · Rating 3 out of 5]

So i heard this was enemies to lovers but was disappointed. It was just mehh for me I dont know what i expected but it wasnt this. Also the woman character barely talked so like i would just hear the guy ranting off and he sounded a bit unhinged i dont know maybe i just dont know enough about the comic. Also imo its kinda racist to call a side character Indian guy and the creator just gave the explanation of not knowing what name to give them and thats it. Yeahh not going to cut it for me its still offensive. So three stars because the ending was like maybe something interesting can happen but not holding my breath.

[Silke · Rating 3 out of 5]

It was a bit boring but entertaining enough.
I love how this guy goes from being super wholesome to killing people I’m like 2 frames 😂
I’m kinda disappointed that the girl almost said nothing in the entire book.

[Adibah Atiqa (persephtiyareads) · Rating 3 out of 5]

[Chapter 1-6]

It is all still confusing but the characters are intriguing.

So, we’ll see what’s up on next volumes 👀

[Ink & Ivy · Rating 3 out of 5]

It’s sort of like if “Yakuza Fiancé” and “Spy x Family” had a child. Ryang-Ha Song is an infamous assassin who’s set on taking out fellow assassin Chateau Dankworth. Not in the way you might think! (Or… maybe it is.) He wants to take her out on a date! She, however, wants nothing to do with him but he always seems to be waiting around the next corner.

I’m a little iffy about this first volume. While it’s a fun, casual read overall, there’s a couple things that bug me. The main one is that Ryang-Ha gives off some red-flag energy. He can be pretty pushy with Chateau. That said, I do like his weird mix of cheerful and murdery. Maybe I’m reading their dynamic wrong? I think I’d be more okay with it if Chateau had a bit more of an opportunity to show off her own skills.

The other thing that bothered me was the use of “Indian Guy” to refer to one of the characters. It feels a little wrong and out of place. The author does make a note that they just never found the right time to give him a proper name in the original version of this story on Pixiv.

Still, I’m curious to see where the story goes next, especially after that cliffhanger at the end. Plus, I already have volumes 2 and 3 waiting on my shelf.

[Chantaal · Rating 2 out of 5]

Usually this scenario would totally be my jam, but she is SO NOT into him and his pursuit is just kinda gross to build a romance out of, even for two assassins. Plus, it felt very…hollow. Like I had no real concept of time or space in the art. I think one volume was enough to decide this isn’t for me.

[Nataha · Rating 4 out of 5]

Overall całość przeczytałam w 7h co uznaje za duży sukces. Imo zajebiste tylko byłoby jeszcze lepiej GDYBY UDAŁO MI SIĘ PRZECZYTAĆ SEQUEL ALE GO NIGDZIE NIE MA 😭😭 (proszę dajcie mi więcej kontentu i szczęśliwego zakończenia)

[cassidy_blake · Rating 5 out of 5]

Мангата ми хвана окото на второто изречение от анотацията и е имало за какво

[Mathilde Paulsen · Rating 4 out of 5]

Okay why do I kinda ship them already??? This was fun, I'm excited to read more!

[symphonyinthestreets · Rating 5 out of 5]

Two assassins who also have a hint of chemistry? Sign me up pls

[lenaa · Rating 5 out of 5]

Un tueur à gage obsessed avec une tueuse à gage qui s’en fou de lui bien badass et qui le malmène ?!? TROP MA CAME 💕💕

[Sue Moro · Rating 4 out of 5]

This reminded me of the movie, Mr. and Mrs. Smith, starring Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie. Two rival Hittmen, who fall in love. The artwork was really good, especially the action scenes. I’m hoping the characters will be more fleshed out in the coming volumes. I’m looking forward to volume two.

[Winter · Rating 5 out of 5]

Bruh.

[Angela R. Watts · Rating 3 out of 5]

- pretty art
- not as dramatic as I expected
- sort of boring?
- the two MCs have a lot of potential and I love the trop of killers in love but... she doesn't seem all that much of a killer
- digging the psycho who ruined his bike though

[Amanda · Rating 3 out of 5]

Felt like a few things were missing from the first chapters, but by chapter 4 the kinks seemed worked out and I'm excited to continue.

Really enjoy the glossy, full color pages at the beginning of the volume.

[Marilyn · Rating 5 out of 5]

I love love love this manga. This will be another one I'll be collecting the whole series.

[Josh · Rating 3 out of 5]

Cool premise and engaging delivery, but the lead guy is kind of a creep who doesn't understand the word "no." It's got potential, but depends on how things develop.

[Vanessa · Rating 5 out of 5]

Could not put it down!! Loved it!! Will be reading the rest of the series! <3

[Amanda Peterson · Rating 3 out of 5]

Very interesting read about dark characters, though characterization of the side characters might need to be worked on more.

[Unabridged Bibliophile · Rating 3 out of 5]

Meh, it was ok. Wasn't exactly what I was looking for. Might continue with it down the road.

[dovesnook · Rating 2 out of 5]

Not that interesting even though the premise comes with a lot of potential, I might read the next volume before deciding whether to drop it or not.

[Hamda Hammad · Rating 4 out of 5]

I will admit that I was a bit confused at first over his sudden and very dedicated interest in her when they didn't know eachother before and also over the fact that she was quietly tolerating it. But it got explained further on in the story so it was good.