reviews_and_ramblings | Kaji Sukoshi and The Shining One by Connie Bailey

Sitting down to write this review what is whirling in my mind is that the novel was not at all what I was expecting and that it surprised me in more point than one... and that, in a way, it was also a teasing book.

The story is told in first point of view by Benjamin Blume, a former rock and roll groupie London boy of the late '80, who now, 20 years later, is become a rock band manager in Tokyo. He is the manager of Hayate, a young boys band which is struggling to emerge, but they have potential and Ben believes in them. He is also very protective, like a mother hen, especially for Kaji, Little Fire, the lead singer. Barely legal, Kaji as a past of troubled teenager and for what I understood, Ben took him from the street. Ben and the four boys are now living in a former garage turned in both studio than living apartment. Having seen all in his years, Ben is trying to smooth the path for "his" boys.

Then Ben receives a proposal: an idol of Japanese pop music, Kazuki, The Shining One, is searching for a pretty boy to pose as his lover. Saro, Kazuki's manager and brother, wants to profit of Kazuki's androgynous imagine, and of the gossip around his sexuality, to raise interest on him. The two boys haven't to do anything special, just appear on some official occasion and being a little more intimate that two friends would be. There will be no official statement, the media will buzz around and do their suggestions, and they will not confirm them. Ben, after consulting with his protege, accepts, knowing that this will help his band to obtain a contract with Kazuki's production company. But he doesn't know that Kaji has a teenager crush on Kazuki, and that for his "little" boy it will not be only a posing.

Kaji ends with a broken heart, and Ben would like for him to forget everything about Kazuki, but Kaji can't; Ben is not able to understand the relationship between Kaji and Kazuki, above all since he finds Kazuki to be cold and aloof, but Kaji is always ready to justify and support his lover. It's very interesting to see the clashing of culture between Ben's point of view and Kaji, above all since Ben had a similar experience in the past: when he was less than 20 he was in love with Rune, a wanna-be singer; he thought to the man as a God, and he behaved like his welcome carpet... Obviously the relationship was doomed and Ben went away with a broken heart and bitter regrets. Now, at the same time when the story is repeating between Kaji and Kazuki, Rune reappears in Ben's life, claiming his forever love for Ben and wanting to start again. And to add trouble to trouble, Ben is also starting to feel something for Yoshi, Kazuki's lawyer, a man who is the symbol of all it's Japanese: gentle, caring, understanding. Yoshi also pushes Ben to analyze his lasting feelings for Rune, and to not rush the things between them if Ben is not sure that he is not still in love with Rune.

When I said that the novel was not what I was expecting, I mean that it's way more deep and serious than the sex, drugs and rock and roll type of story I was ready to read. Plus, I was also very ready to have the usual "lightness" of a yaoi novels, with uke, seme, blushing cheeks, big blurry eyes, and so on... Not at all. The story has more the feeling of Ben's reaction to this world, like a detached glance: Kaji and Kazuki's relationship is seen from the outside, the only sexual contacts we read are witnessed through Ben's eyes, as he himself is witnessing them. And so there is almost no sex for more than 200 of the 260 pages of the book. It was strange, I started the book expecting to find it sexy and explicit, not only for the yaoi factor, but also since Connie Bailey, in her last two long novels I read by her, has used me to be so; at first the lack of sex was frustrating, I was turning every page expecting that that would have been THE page. More I turned pages, less sex I found, and more I was involved in the story. The sex was no more important, I was more enthralled by the story, I was inside Ben and I was eager like him to see that "his" Kaji was not armed. I became the mother hen. And when finally the sex arrived (and not between Kaji and Kazuki, remember, I was Ben in that moment), it was a nice surprise, an added bonus, but not more the main focus of the story. In the course of the book, the author manages to change my mind, and making me close the book fully satisfied.

Closing note: wonderful Anne Cain's cover (again), that few lucky buyer will have the chance to buy as signed print from Dreamspinner Press website.

http://www.dreamspinnerpress.com/currenttitles/kaji/kajibuynow.htm

Amazon Kindle: Kaji Sukoshi & The Shining One

Amazon: Kaji Sukoshi and The Shining One

Reading List:

http://www.librarything.com/catalog_bottom.php?tag=reading list&view=elisa.rolle