Novel Review | Ang Ang : Hard-Boiled Love by Gwendolyn

Title: Ang Ang : Hard-Boiled Love


Kim Gyuwon has seen all manner of horrors, having worked as a mercenary for most of his adult life. He’s big and buff and has a cool and calm demeanor. Add on the scars on his face, and he’s feared by most people who come into contact with him. What people don’t know, though, is that contrary to his external appearance, Gyuwon is soft and submissive inside. He also longs to be in a gay, dominant/submissive relationship with someone. Specifically, he wants to be a sub. But Gyuwon knows that the odds of finding a man who wants to dominate someone who looks like him are slim. So, as a last-ditch effort to find happiness in his personal life, he quits his job and takes a job as a bodyguard for the infamous Yoon family in hopes that he will be able to save up money, get plastic surgery, and finally seek out a dom for himself.

Gyuwon’s charge is the youngest son of the Yoon family, Yoon Hwayoung. Hwayoung, as his name suggests, is gorgeous, and he is beyond beloved by his family. Though Gyuwon knows he’d be underserving of having such a partner, romantic or otherwise, he can’t help finding himself attracted to him. The two get along just fine for a time until Hwayoung makes Gyuwon swear to him that Hwayoung’s personal life is private and shouldn’t be reported to his family. Gyuwon was only hired to protect him, so he agrees. What Gyuwon doesn’t realize is that they are about to take a trip to a place called Dungeon, and it is none other than an underground gay club.

Gyuwon is simultaneously stunned and excited. Never has he seen something like this, much less from someone like Hwayoung. He once again hopes to find a dom like Hwayoung, but little does Gyuwon know that Hwayoung is acutely aware of Gyuwon’s preferences. Furthermore, just as Hwayoung is Gyuwon’s type, Gyuwon is exactly the kind of person Hwayoung wants to dominate. Hwayoung fully intends to make Gyuwon’s dreams a painful and pleasurable reality.

Read More

Manhwa Review | Stage of the Dark Souls by Guacamole

Title: Stage of the Dark Souls



Mihael is a devil that lives among humans. Though he shouldn’t, he ends up falling in love with a particular human, a man named Adonel Schravant. He is particularly in love with his stunning soul, which Mihael desperately wants for himself. Unfortunately, no matter how hard he tries, Adonel is always being swept away by other humans. Unwilling to share Adonel anymore, Mihael goes to the clergy and tells them that Adonel’s family is practicing pagan worship, which leads to their execution. Alone and desperate, Adonel is ripe for the picking, so Mihael makes him an offer he knows Adonel can’t refuse: Mihael will tie himself to the Schravant line, granting them all of his powers. In exchange, once the Schravant has fallen in love with Mihael and willingly given his soul, Mihael will take it, and they will be bound for eternity.

So Mihael lives in Adonel’s shadow, helping rebuild the fallen Schravant name. All the while, Adonel has a child, despite Mihael’s hate over it, and grows to a ripe old age. Finally, at the end of Adonel’s life, Mihael broaches the subject of Adonel handing over his soul. Only then does Adonel reveal that he never loved Mihael and would not give up his soul, meaning Mihael would remain tied to the Schravant bloodline until he can convince another descendent to fall in love with him and willingly give their soul to him. Mihael is devastated but far from willing to give up.

Three hundred years later, after the death of the head of the Schravant conglomerate, Mihael finds his two sons: the firstborn, Evan, and the second, Victor. Mihael has been watching over the family all this time, biding his time and waiting for the ideal soul. Finally, after all this time, Mihael has found it. Two of them, in fact, and he isn’t willing to give either of them up. One way or another, he will make them fall for him and then take their souls, but not until he destroys them from the inside out.

Read More

Manhwa Review | Hold Me Safe by Mocho

Title: Hold Me Safe



Han Jaehwa is a prolific and crime novelist. He’s so prolific that his work is being adapted into live-. Unfortunately, while he is a beloved novelist, those who know him in person aren’t as big of a fan of him. He’s prickly, never mincing words, no matter how harsh they may be. This leads to a lot of gossip, including rumors about him being gay (which he is) and having sex to get what he wants (which he doesn’t). Jaehwa couldn’t care less about what people have to say about him, just happy to live the way he wants without appeasing anyone.

Life is all good until Jaehwa comes home to find things moved around. Someone has been in his house. Fearing for his safety, Jaehwa hires a bodyguard, Seong Taekyung. As it happens, the bodyguard is exactly Jaehwa’s type, and after some heated moments between the two, they shift their professional relationship into an intimate situationship. The two are having fun together, and Jaehwa feels much safer, so everything is set to return to normal.

That is until a fan letter, full of razor blades comes in through the mail. The stalker has clearly not been deterred by Taekyung’s presence, and it seems their moves will only get more violent. Can Taekyung catch the stalker before he becomes someone worse? And can Jaehwa keep his relationship with Taekyung casual, or will he inevitably fall in love with his protector and the only person he can trust right now?

Read More

Manhwa Review | Intense by Kyungha Yi

Title: Intense



Jiwoon Kang is nothing more than collateral. After his father, in debt to a large criminal organization, kills himself, the boss, Yoonshik, takes Jiwoon on as collateral. The boss trains him up so Jiwoon can someday work off the debt. In the meantime, Jiwoon learns to kill and becomes Yoonshik’s right-hand man. In an open secret, Jiwoon also plays the cooperative, though the unenthusiastic role of Yoonshik’s lover. When Yoonshik is sent to prison, Jiwoon is hidden in the redlight district, where he protects the working girls. There, he meets Soohan Lee.

Soohan Lee is mute. He just happened upon the redlight district years ago and, ever since, has taken up residence there, doing odd jobs for a little bit of cash and a roof over his head. His life is rather mundane, even in the bustling streets, that is, until he meets Jiwoon. After getting beaten up while defending a working girl from a customer, Jiwoon comes upon Soohan bloodied up on the ground. Despite their odd circumstances, Jiwoon is compelled to kiss Soohan, which he does. This sends them down a dangerous path fraught with jealousy, violence, crime, and more.

But in the end, will it be worth the struggle?

Read More

Novel Review | Beast Blood by Sato Fumino

Title: Beast Blood



Euphemia Ashencourt is a pretty girl… and that’s all anyone sees in her, which only puts her that much deeper in her half-sister’s shadow. Her elder sister is none other than the mayor of Gothic City – a corrupt city overrun with Nightz addicts, gangs, and Beast Blood-hating groups murdering them whenever possible. But Euphemia’s sister is slowly working on turning things around. Naturally, Euphemia wants nothing more than to help her sister make the city better and prove that she is more than just a pretty face. So, using her sister’s connections, Euphemia gets a job at a research facility to find a way to naturally destroy the Night Bloom – the flower used to create Nightz.

Euphemia never thought that trying to help her sister destroy some flowers would ever lead her to danger. However, one evening, after seeing the Night Blooms bloom, she is captured by some gang members on her way home. They take her out to the Wilds with the intent to assault her before feeding her to a Muta – a monstrous and blood-thirsty creature. Before the men can touch her, she resolves to take her own life and control her death. But in the middle of her attempt, a man with glowing silver eyes appears.

His name is Zelaide, and he isn’t just any man. He is Beast Blood, a species that looks human but is much more than that. He’s stronger, he’s faster, and he’s more beast than man, and he’s a Hunter – a contractor that does all the violent, dirty work that most humans can’t or won’t. He takes out the men, defeats the Muta, and saves Euphemia. That would typically be the end of Zelaide’s involvement with a human woman, but the moment Euphemia laid eyes on him, she wanted him and wasn’t going to let this beast of a man get away.

Read More