Pittosporum by Shino Mikami
Sep. 9th, 2025 07:10 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
reviews_and_ramblings
Hisaya Yano has trouble with his roommate, Sono Odajima, at the boarding school. He breaks curfew and brings female students into the boy's dormitories. Sono is having intimate relations when Hisaya walks in and is left confused and aroused. Sono forcefully helps him deal with his erection. Made fun of for being "a serious model student", but in fact he finds himself in a jumble of romantic feelings that he can't tell anyone about, combined with his emotional trauma.
My Rate: 8 (www.ebookrenta.com/renta/sc/frm/item/146205/)
I have a little bit of mixed feeling about this one. I understand the attitude towards sex of Sono is a way to react to his juvenile trauma, but I really didn't like how he used his female friends as substitute of Yano. True, he was never claiming it was something more than sex, and on the other hand, he was always very attentive towards Yano, almost protective, so he wasn't a complete negative characters. Yano instead was really naive, maybe a little too much to be able to understand Sono's trauma and help him fix his trouble. But well, they are teenagers, and apparently their love is sincere. Sono wants also to be open and honest with Yano, so the future for them seems nice. Overall it was a good one.
Ask And You Will Receive by Niyama
Sep. 9th, 2025 03:11 pmreviews_and_ramblings
Who will win when a bad boy player and a princely narcissist go head-to-head in bed?!
Unassuming office worker by day, seductive playboy by night—Shinobu Urakawa is living his best double life until the stuck-up prince of sales Hikaru Omoteya invades Shinobu’s after-hours sanctuary. Shinobu keeps hoping the straight Hikaru will get tired of crashing a gay bar, but he keeps coming back! When Shinobu notices the looks Hikaru keeps sending his way, he decides to play dirty to reclaim his nightly refuge.
It doesn’t take much to get Hikaru into bed. He’s surprisingly responsive to Shinobu’s every touch, and Shinobu’s plan of loving and leaving hits a setback when he can’t get enough of his prissy coworker. As one night turns into many, Shinobu starts to wonder if this is still revenge or if now he’s getting into something much sweeter…
My Rate: 8 (amzn.to/46cyhDw)
I really like this one. Sure, it's quite hard to believe that with just a pair of glasses and bangs over your eyes, people will not regnize someone, but all in all it was a nice comedy, and well played too. Both Shinobu and Hiraku enters the relationship with all the wrong reasons, but it's clear that they are both really nice guys, unable to be mean. And therefore what started with a one night stands, it goes on into a real relationship, especially since Shinobu realizes that Hiraku's feelings are sincere. He arrives even to want to protect him, like a real knight in shining armour. The graphic was nice, the side characters of the twin twinks are a blast, so funny. There was no drama, just pure romantic comedy, between two men who are perfect together.
My Noons and Midnights Are for You by Luria
Sep. 8th, 2025 05:53 pmreviews_and_ramblings
While his V-tuber persona, Mahiru, is bright and cheerful on screen, the real Mayo is gloomy and unconfident. Adored by his audience as Mahiru, he wishes he were confident enough to be seen and loved as his real self. Even his manager, Ogino, seems to see him more as Mahiru than Mayo sometimes... and when Ogino takes their relationship to a new level, Mayo worries that it's only because Ogino values "Mahiru" and wants him to continue on as his character.
Over the course of their sexual relationship, Mayo doubts Ogino's sincerity, but Ogino finally admits that he's always admired Mayo for who he really is. A sexy, sado-maso kink romance, incorporating the complexity of online persona and identity.
A 2025 Chill Chill Award winner!
My Rate: 7 (amzn.to/4ge6irm)
My Noons and Midnights Are for You was sexy but not vulgar. I really like the sweet and sexy Mayo, who is completely unaware he is a deadly weapon for Ogino's heart. Without wanting, Mayo completely conquers Ogino, and Ogino becomes everything for Mayo, manager, partner, caretaker... it's a highly mutual dependency relationship, but in no way this is sick, on the contrary it's a way for Mayo to balance is real persona, with his online imagine. Really nice graphic, I quite enjoyed also the sexy scene, cause they were explicit but not al all vulgar.
You Should Be the One to Come Kiss Me by Yamayade
Sep. 8th, 2025 05:28 pmreviews_and_ramblings
The cool and capable Kou from Accounting, and Eito, the company's upbeat top salesman, star in a heart-throbbing story of mutual unrequited love!
Kou, who's really serious about his job and a bit feared by his colleagues, and Eito, who's being eyed for the next managerial position, are total opposites at first glance.
However, unbeknownst to their colleagues, the two are actually close buddies, and Eito stays over at Kou's place all the time.
Even though he's already come out as gay, Kou starts to feel restless as their relationship grows more intimate and vulnerable with each passing day.
Eito, on the other hand, feels conflicted since Kou's already told him that he's not his type, and that nothing could ever happen between them.
A slow-burn romance between two hardworking friends who both yearn for something more!
My Rate: 8 (www.ebookrenta.com/renta/sc/frm/item/147828/)
I really loved this one, the romance was nice and slow-burn, leading to an apex that was passionate without being explicit. I can see Eito and Kou's future life, a peaceful and comforting relationship, where both partners respect and support each other. I also liked that Kou's homosexuality, while not enphatized at work, it was dealt with a very natural way, so much that Kou is able to discuss it with his co-workers, and even realizing there are other gay men too in the office. It's what you are expecting in contemporary society, you don't have to do a huge coming out, but simply discuss it, like someone would discuss about their marriage or family. The graphic is nice too, but most of all, it's the sweetness of Eito that has conquered me.
Noumi-senpai no Benmei by Koala Oomugi
Sep. 8th, 2025 04:33 pmreviews_and_ramblings
"I'm searching for the 'other half of my soul'."
Masataka, who enjoys a self-indulgent university life, is invited by his professor to a reading circle where he meets his junior in the same philosophy program, Eito. Eito's known in their department for his good looks and how insanely serious he is, plus he's gay but doesn't care what other people think of him. Masataka approaches him out of curiosity, but then...?!
My Rate: 7
I really like the story between Masataka and Eito, they are both very interesting characters. I like the coolness of Eito, whose harsh words are completely the opposite of the tenderness he displays with his gestures. And I like how Masataka is endearing himself to Eito without even really trying. The setting is probably not original, but the best of the story is all in the characters. And of course the graphic is really good too.
The Proper Way to Write Love (2025)
Sep. 2nd, 2025 05:41 pmreviews_and_ramblings
Code deploy happening shortly
Aug. 31st, 2025 07:37 pm![[staff profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user_staff.png){kind=small}
mark posting in ![[site community profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/comm_staff.png){kind=small}
dw_maintenancePer the dw_news post regarding the MS/TN blocks, we are doing a small code push shortly in order to get the code live. As per usual, please let us know if you see anything wonky.
There is some code cleanup we've been doing that is going out with this push but I don't think there is any new/reworked functionality, so it should be pretty invisible if all goes well.
Mississippi site block, plus a small restriction on Tennessee new accounts
Aug. 31st, 2025 12:28 pmdenise posting in dw_newsA reminder to everyone that starting tomorrow, we are being forced to block access to any IP address that geolocates to the state of Mississippi for legal reasons while we and Netchoice continue fighting the law in court. People whose IP addresses geolocate to Mississippi will only be able to access a page that explains the issue and lets them know that we'll be back to offer them service as soon as the legal risk to us is less existential.
The block page will include the apology but I'll repeat it here: we don't do geolocation ourselves, so we're limited to the geolocation ability of our network provider. Our anti-spam geolocation blocks have shown us that their geolocation database has a number of mistakes in it. If one of your friends who doesn't live in Mississippi gets the block message, there is nothing we can do on our end to adjust the block, because we don't control it. The only way to fix a mistaken block is to change your IP address to one that doesn't register as being in Mississippi, either by disconnecting your internet connection and reconnecting it (if you don't have a static IP address) or using a VPN.
In related news, the judge in our challenge to Tennessee's social media age verification, parental consent, and parental surveillance law (which we are also part of the fight against!) ruled last month that we had not met the threshold for a temporary injunction preventing the state from enforcing the law while the court case proceeds.
The Tennesee law is less onerous than the Mississippi law and the fines for violating it are slightly less ruinous (slightly), but it's still a risk to us. While the fight goes on, we've decided to prevent any new account signups from anyone under 18 in Tennessee to protect ourselves against risk. We do not need to block access from the whole state: this only applies to new account creation.
Because we don't do any geolocation on our users and our network provider's geolocation services only apply to blocking access to the site entirely, the way we're implementing this is a new mandatory question on the account creation form asking if you live in Tennessee. If you do, you'll be unable to register an account if you're under 18, not just the under 13 restriction mandated by COPPA. Like the restrictions on the state of Mississippi, we absolutely hate having to do this, we're sorry, and we hope we'll be able to undo it as soon as possible.
Finally, I'd like to thank every one of you who's commented with a message of support for this fight or who's bought paid time to help keep us running. The fact we're entirely user-supported and you all genuinely understand why this fight is so important for everyone is a huge part of why we can continue to do this work. I've also sent a lot of your comments to the lawyers who are fighting the actual battles in court, and they find your wholehearted support just as encouraging and motivating as I do. Thank you all once again for being the best users any social media site could ever hope for. You make me proud and even more determined to yell at state attorneys general on your behalf.
