Secret Moon - Volume One

Volume
One
Price
$9.99
Age Rating
18
Reviewer
Snow Wildsmith
Review

Vicount Akihiro Sanders Tomoe has lived a long life as a vampire-like man. His life span isn’t infinite, but his wealth is close. Even that cannot make him truly happy though. What he craves even more than blood is love. His quest seems in vain until he picks up a strange young man who has abnormal powers and eyes glowing like fire. Taichi Yamagami may be the perfect complement to Tomoe, if he can convince Taichi that his seemingly delicate body is stronger than it looks.

Gou’s novel is smut-filled, but awkwardly written, full of purple phrases like "You’re going to attack me? It’s like a dream come true." and "Even if it’s a lie, please tell me that you were overcome by me." As with all of the Juné novels I’ve read, I can never tell if the stilted dialogue is the fault of the translation or the original text. Whichever it is, it makes for a book that is hard to read without unintentionally snickering, especially when combined with Gou’s unique look at vampires and werewolves which is really rather silly in itself.

Taichi isn’t really any more of a werewolf than Tomoe is a vampire, though both men have elements of the mythical creatures. However they don’t really have any personality beyond their powers. Taichi is supposed to be a country boy who had been sheltered most of his life and Tomoe is supposed to be a rich gentleman, but we’re told that by Gou, rather than shown that through their actions and behaviors.

The author uses the yaoi convention of 'you raped me, but I’ll forgive you because you were overcome by emotion', but tries to make it less like rape by having Tomoe heal overnight. No damage left, so there was no rape! I found myself wishing she’d just avoided the cliché altogether, rather than resorting to such a brainless plot device.

What plot there is is forgettable. It basically revolves around Tomoe and Taichi trying to figure out where Taichi’s powers came from and how he could control them. This aspect of the plot is minor, with much of the focus being on Tomoe angsting about how to get Taichi’s love. I couldn’t figure out why he would want Taichi’s love though, mainly because Gou doesn’t really give readers an idea of who Taichi is and why someone would love him.

Readers desperate for paranormal romance might enjoy this, but there are so many other paranormal romance titles out there, even m/m ones. The only reason for picking this one up is because it is a translated yaoi novel, though that’s not a compelling enough reason to make this readable or interesting. I’d pass in favor of other, better written or better translated titles.