100% Perfect Girl: Vol. 2

by Wann

Synopsis
Who can resist a king's proposal? Not even headstrong Jay Jin, try as she might. So after High School, it's off to the Kingdom of Roinne with her fiance, Jarte. But will she survive life as Queen-in-waiting? Can she persue her art studies or make friends from behind a wall of bodyguards? How will she deal with Jarte's tragic past, and the jealousy of every girl in the kingdom? And how long will Jarte wait for her love to bloom before he takes what he wants by force? Beware, Jay Jin, is that sudden flash from the camera of some reporter, or the pistol of an assassin?

Review
Well, I think this story gets more and more foolish as time goes on. I can forgive a lot of strange things, like how obsessive Jarte is, or how rude he is under the guise of caring about her safety. These kinds of things are typical for romance stories. But what really gets me -- and I should know better -- is that there is always some sort of contrived interruption in the characters' relationship. I mean, things are going along well enough, and then at the end, something awful has to happen (we actually find out what in the next volume). In this case, it's kidnapping. Not that I don't doubt it could happen, but geez, how cliche. Gotta find some reason to stop the relationship, because otherwise, they'll get close enough to have sex, and then we'll lose all the sexual tension! Oh no!

As far as other parts of it go, it's ok. Jay tries to figure out her life as royalty, and finds out how suffocating that can be. At least Jarte's reluctance to fall in love is explained (his mother was kidnapped and killed), and it seems pretty reasonable. Jay is still boring and uninteresting, so I still don't know what he sees in her. The two are getting closer to each other, and it's fun to watch. What's not fun is how Jay keeps pushing Jarte away physically. They joke and laugh about it, and play it down, but it doesn't seem realistic to me at all. Don't women have a sexual drive, too? She always seems to be able to keep a cool head, and not let him get too close. That only seems like it would be that easy if you had no sexual desire at all. Well, whatever, keep up the stereotype that men are animals, and women are frigid.

I don't know why I read the next volume. I guess blind hope that it would get better. Well, you'll see my opinion of that later.

Final thought: I read more, but I'd stop here if I knew what was good for me.