Body Language by Tsubaki Enomoto

[reviews_and_ramblings]

Kanae’s heart was racing, the heavy drumming almost echoing in his ears. He prayed that Yuichi couldn’t hear it and continued on casually, as if it were nothing. “I’m just taking your lead. You said that anyone would do, so I thought it might as well be me.”

Kanae Hayakawa is pretty, popular, and sought after. What could possibly be wrong with his life? Everything. Though he’s known as the “Cool Beauty” of his college, the rumors couldn’t be farther from the truth! Socially awkward, shy, and a little bit tired of all the attention, Kanae doesn’t know how the entire school came to view him as seductive, easy, and willing to sleep with both men and women. Whispers behind his back, propositions for one-night stands, and fanciful rumors ensure that his life, unlike his supposed sex life, will never be easy.

But there is another boy who has become the talk of the entire college: Yuichi Nagao, notorious womanizer and general jerk. He’s famous too, and like Kanae, it’s for all the wrong reasons. He’s been with more women than he can remember, and it’s earned him a horrible reputation. Now that he’s dated the entire female population of the school and made bitter ex-girlfriends of them all, where is he to look for the occasional bout of casual sex?

As fate would have it, Yuichi and Kanae have become fast friends, and the entire school is talking. What in the world is the Cool Beauty doing with the school jerk? Yuichi and Kanae aren’t talking, not that words are necessary anyway—these boys speak the language of the body, so this rumor might not be false after all!

Aki Morimoto’s sultry novel follows the stories of Kanae and Yuichi, both social outsiders looking for someone to please them sexually as well as accept them for their true selves. As their relationship grows, will they remember to open up and understand one another? Or will words go unspoken in favor of the pursuit of bodily pleasure?

My Rate: 8 (amzn.to/49RbqgK)