Orange Moon (Child'sPrey, #1)

by Barbara Sheridan (Goodreads Author), Anne Cain

book data

32 ratings, 3.53 average rating, 7 reviews (more data...)

rating	frequency	%
5		25%
4		28%
3		31%
2		6%
1		9%

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published

February 27th 2007 by Loose Id (first published 2007)

details

ebook

url

http://www.barbarasheridan.com/OrangeMoo...

isbn13

9781596324145

description

Japanese pop idol Hideki Sakae struggles to fine tune the tracks on his first solo album. But setbacks with his manager and session musicians are keep…more

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Mar 24, 2009

Elisa added it

Read in February, 2007

A very interesting insight of the japanese pop culture (and I hope reality is not so bad for gay lovers)

Toru is an almost thirty years old bassist of a famous band, ChildPreys. He meets and soon falls in love of Hideki, a pop singer at the beginning of his success.

Toru is not so old by age, but is old of life: he has seen everything and made everything and the first time he meets Hideki his first thought is to have another enjoyble affair. But Hideki is only 21 years ol...more

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Oct 15, 2009

Beth rated it:

Read in October, 2009

Way too much drama for me. It was one long roller coaster that ended feeling very forced and unrealistic.

I liked the characters but wished their story was written in a more inviting way. By the time the Honolulu incident was said to be a dream and all that horrible crap happened to Hideki I was so frustrated from reading that the end was torture to read. Not pleasant. I just wanted to get it over with as quickly as possible.

It felt, at some points, that the authors just...more

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Aug 15, 2009

Kassa rated it:

In this angst filled drama, Hideki and Toru go through quite a bit on their path to a happy ever after ending. From their initial miscommunication all the way to the dramatic scene at the end, the angst and problems between these two never seem to end. While the characters are enjoyable and the authors have a deft hand at keeping the drama moving for the most part, the ending was almost a story killer for me. That said, for the majority of the book the characters and their rocky path to love was...more In this angst filled drama, Hideki and Toru go through quite a bit on their path to a happy ever after ending. From their initial miscommunication all the way to the dramatic scene at the end, the angst and problems between these two never seem to end. While the characters are enjoyable and the authors have a deft hand at keeping the drama moving for the most part, the ending was almost a story killer for me. That said, for the majority of the book the characters and their rocky path to love was absorbing and heart felt adding emotion and depth to the typical boy band setting. While heavy on the angst and melodrama, the writing was tight, concise and created a fluid easy read.

The background setting of the boy bands was interesting if not terribly unique. I especially liked the variation between the bands and the subtle implication that the older man, Toru, and his band ChildsPrey were not as famous as Hideki’s boy band success. The Japanese environment was particularly harsh on Hideki and any hint of homosexuality yet the detail provided added a layer of authenticity that added to the story’s appeal. However, the secondary characters developed around the Japanese music executives and particularly Ayumi were too stereotyped and cliché without any real interest. Luckily Hideki and Toru held the main focus of the story.

Hideki is very young at twenty one, often manipulated and easily confused. He suffers from a case of hero worship early on with Toru, although it’s likely that Hideki is actually the bigger star in Japan. He has a multitude of confidence and self-esteem problems, easily believing everything he’s told and rarely looks for deeper meaning. He shows hints of a stronger personality and maturity while standing up for himself and his choices, yet loses that confidence with Toru’s repeated attempts to do what’s best for him. Hideki clearly needs a strong support system with someone he can trust to guide him and protect him. While this typically would make a weak and uninteresting character, for most of the story it worked for Hideki due to the yaoi setting. The authors unfortunately tacked on an unnecessary ending that backtracked on all the progress Hideki had made with his own maturity, leaving him as a weak boy, but up until that point his character was engaging and sympathetic.

Toru is drawn as an aging rock star at twenty-nine. Apparently that’s enough to be an over the hill musician and a has-been. While that’s slightly debatable it does help clarify the reasons for Toru’s almost obsessive behavior towards Hideki. Toru falls in love with the younger man almost immediately and although they have the typical miscommunication fall out, Toru simply can’t help wanting to be near Hideki anyway possible. Toru deceives Hideki in numerous ways throughout the course of their story, always falling back on his love for the younger man and his own depression as the reasons why. This may wear thin for some readers, but fits with the strong emotional themes of the character and story. Toru flirts between wanting and needing Hideki desperately and sacrificing their happiness for delusional ideals of what is best for the younger musician. Most of their problems could be worked out by simply having an actual conversation without lying or prevaricating but these two clearly have some work to do on their relationship and their problems make for an understandable, if emotional, story.

The additional characters of the band members and friends from both Hide and Toru were a welcome addition. Although these characters ranged from supportive to detrimental, they each showed an honest viewpoint and much needed change from the intensity of Hide and Toru’s connection. The bickering dynamics of the band added a layer of genuine emotion and even if these men can’t seem to stop fighting or fucking, at least they work well together professionally. The enticing hint at the end regarding a large change for the band certainly sets up future sequels.

The authors played heavily on repeated themes of miscommunication and the self martyr to do what’s best for the other person, in spite of them selves. Due to the length of this story, these themes ran old especially during the last thirty pages or so. Here the authors decided yet again to bump up the level of angst and drama in a wholly unnecessary ending before Hideki and Toru can finally get together without sabotaging themselves once more. Up until this point the levels of depression, drama, and emotional sulking were pretty high but kept moving with a deft and easy hand. The final ending resolution was over the top and for me particularly, simply too much angst on a pretty full story. However, the writing was tight and easy with fully dimensional characters and an interesting setting. For those that enjoy highly emotional dramatic tales with yaoi flavoring will probably like this novel. It’s definitely an enjoyable fast read with an endearing story with a much deserved happy ending.(less)

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Oct 21, 2008

Jen rated it:

bookshelves: glbt

Read in October, 2008

Wow! What a gorgeous little book. This is about two Japanese pop stars in love. It's adorable and incredibly clever. The writing is airtight and doesn't have that loose, lumpy feel of so many e-books these days. The entire time I was reading it I felt like I was watching a sexy boylove anime in my head. The characters are so alive I could actually visualize them, which is very unusual for me. Most book characters are completely faceless to me, but the writing in Orange Moon made me see vivid pic...more

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Jun 13, 2009

Kenjii ~*~Black Kat~**~ rated it:

bookshelves: e-books, manga-yaoi-graphic-novel-comics, readers-challenge-complete

Read in June, 2009

recommends it for: fans of yaoi themed romance>music romance

3.5 of 5 really

I liked the story/setting, characters, theme/genre, writing style/author and overall the novel was appealing.

The story of Toru and Hideki (both in Japanese music bands) was interesting because the mental images from the cultural references (real or not) was fun to read about. The characters were young and acted appropriately. The more I read yaoi themed romance the more I like it.

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Jan 12, 2010

Teresa rated it:

Read in January, 2009

Loved the story

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Jun 22, 2008

Cedony rated it:

bookshelves: 2008--from-april-24-, asian, books-i-gave-up-on, contemporary-fiction, gay, reviewed

Read in June, 2008

It didn't hold my attention. It wasn't bad and it's better than some of the original slash fics that you find online, but it wasn't awesome either.

I thought I would really like it, since I love visual kei and J-pop, but the book lost me at the beginning with Toru's ridiculous plot to try and endear himself to Hideki (who, by the way, struck me as being one of the whiny uke types)

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