This one will give you whiplash if you're not careful. It starts out with a dark, degrading tone, into farce, back to dark, into farce again, and ends up as a weird buddy comedy. By the end, the two boys who started out abusive end up as goofy pals, and then they embark on a group adventure. What?! Still, when the story hits, it works well. There are some lines of dialog the show markedly stronger writing than most other manga. The art is great, with subtle cues and nods to character tropes. The hero looks determinedly decent and heroic, sexy, and boyish all at once. The villains look like stereotypical villains, but with enough nuance and humor to show satire. The heroine is gorgeous, even when she dresses down, and plays some disparate roles without losing herself. It's a mixed bag. The tone is odd at times, but I am glad I pushed through.

Poor to middling iteration of the princess and beast trope. The collection is vignettes of the same couple, all poorly written and repetitive. The male lead is depicted as having loved and protected his princess since childhood: she's a vessel of purity he won't dirty with his touch (which frustrates her immensely). So his course of action is...to set her up to be sexually assaulted by his pals. While he watches. Clearly, he's just struggling to communicate his love. The art is about the only positive I could find here. While the female lead is laughably every visual trope of pretty pretty princess, the male lead is distinctive and a pleasure to behold. This artist can create visual impact, but the story telling skills are just atrocious.

There are a few stories in this one, but they don't really break new ground. The female main characters tend to be insipid and inept, and the males just run through stock roles. That being said, a few of the stories are kind of cute and there are a variety of situations that could appeal to different tastes. All the stories here seem rushed and short. The title story, for example, went from tender back story to writhing on the table testing toys within the first few pages. Pacing like this just kills stories for me. If I can't connect with the characters, I won't care about them. The art is bright and clean, but the male characters seem to have the same face across all the (unrelated) stories. In all, it's not a bad collection but it's not great. I'd say the collection went for quantity over quality, but if you've got the cash and want a few quick stories, you could do worse.

To be honest, I was leery of buying this one because the title and cover art gave a confinement feel and that's not my thing. The adage about judging a book by its cover was true in this case, though, as these stories are about different paths to love. Instead, we see heroines coming to terms with, and acting upon, their feelings. The women here are vastly different, but their growth comes from coming to terms with taking hold of their own romantic destinies. The stories are all charming, and it's great to see the way these women assert themselves and grab onto love. A delightful surprise that shows us that romance is there for all of us, and that not being passive can lead to the best outcomes.

This is a set of stories, interconnected by the secretary character. In the first (title) story, the secretary is more of an incidental character, but he's the male lead in the last two, which is one story in two chapters. Both stories are fairly standard, virgin girl meets experienced guy with some hang-ups. The relationship starts with physical connection but whaddaya know, they end up in love. The first story is less salacious than it sounds, but it's pretty much an exercise in dubious consent and crossed wires. The second story starts out with the female character making the (drunken) choice to get involved with the hot guy seated at the bar next to her. She's still pretty passive, but at least she started things for herself. The art is adequate, though the full body images look a bit awkward and clunky. The sex seems more perfunctory than steamy, despite the title. In all, it was meh for me.

This story is something of a mixed bag. The female lead in this story is perhaps the neediest and most immature character I've come across in manga. She has no identity or self worth unless she's with a man, and genuinely thinks that a man who turns down her offer of sex must hate her. The male lead, on the other hand, is mature, considerate, patient, and focuses on his goals in life. Mystifying attraction of complete opposites. Still, theres a measured response to relationships and the story shows the female lead realizing she makes the same bad choices over and over, with the same bad result. There's not a ton of steam to this story, but the art is well done, with the male lead looking particularly gorgeous. Also, his name is Taiyo - I've known two Taiyos in my life and they're as golden as the name suggests. Extra points for Taiyo!!

I'm somewhere between 2 and 3 stars on this one. The storyline had promise, but it just ripped through at top speed and it was just hard to really care about anything. There are a few steamy scenes between the "siblings" but they were more action oriented, and without context the whole idea of taboo relationship seemed more like an inconvenience than something naughty. The characters weren't fleshed out much, and I found them somewhat unlikeable. Really, the only thing that had any feel of taboo and/or heat was the threesome though I did find that mighty steamy. The art is quite nice overall, though it was disconcerting at times. In some panels, faces and body proportions looked childlike, which I found disturbing. Summary: If you dig threesomes, you might start at the last chapter and assess whether you want to read the rest. Otherwise, meh.

I really wanted to like this one, but it was a mess. While the premise is good, the execution is very...strange. It's slapstick with a dash of thriller, touch of soap opera, bit of "questionable" naked activity (being generous: some was clearly assault), and a hint of romance. The story was incredibly disjointed, and the pace was so breakneck that it seemed like the entire story took place within the first week or two, which made characters incredibly shallow. The art was rough, so much so that I had to flip back to figure out who was who based on their clothing details. The sex in the story seemed added in to create an adult version of a very poorly written shoujo comedy-romance and happened at ridiculously inopportune moments, often without being either consensual or sensual. Disappointed. I think I'd have really like the protagonist, had the story taken the time to flesh her out.

I got this for the implied threesome in the blurb, and it did not disappoint in that regard. I'm still fanning myself. The art is OK, though it isn't as clean looking as I'd like. Most of the stories are all right, though a bit rushed and fairly standard. The title story was really the biggest let down. The female lead gets mad for a totally legitimate reason but ends up apologizing because her partner was being secretly thoughtful. You know, secretly thoughtful is all well and good but being an inconsiderate jerk every day to make one grand gesture is pretty crappy, in my opinion. As I noted before, the threesome stories are hot if you're into that. I'd spend good money for a collection of stories all about those three.

Some of the art is a little rough, but so are some of the ladies in this collection of stories. The shy, inexperienced virgins aren't out in full force this time (with one notable exception), and that makes it a fun read. When I say some of the ladies here are rough, I mean they don't follow the smooth polished lines of the ideal Japanese woman, nor the cloying sweetness of the kawaii girl. Instead, they're moody, lusty, and all around fun. There's one couple in here that upends the usually standard sadistic experienced guy with the submissive little girl dynamic. So refreshing!