Backstage Prince, Vol. 1
Ordinary girl Akari follows a belled cat into a kabuki theater in an  opening scene reminiscent of Alice's trip to Wonderland. High school hottie  Horiuchi, earlier hurt by Akari's accidental entry, turns out to have broken  ribs and a great talent for the stage. Akari becomes his assistant, even though  she knows nothing about kabuki, and he hates everyone. There's lots of internal  monologue as Akari ponders Horiuchi's attitudes and her feelings about him. He  tolerates her because she's the only one who keeps trying to spend time with  him regardless of his bad attitude. She falls almost instantly in love but  fears her feelings because she'll never fit in his world. Panels consist of the  traditional shojo manga focus on heads and facial expressions. The story is  similarly traditional, straight romance with the emotionally blocked male  needing female redemption to express love. (If this sounds familiar, it's been  the grounding for countless Harlequins.) This book provides the emotional drama  ofSensual Phrasewithout the sex, making it  suitable for a teen-and-up audience and anyone who loves the roller coaster of  feelings as two people meant for each other find each other.(Mar.)Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.