Real Love

(aka Ai Darou, Love I Guess)
by Mitsuki Oda

Synopsis(from the back of the book)
Can happiness be found in the delicate balance between passion and love? Twins Shun and Shu have had no luck in love. However, a chance encounter reunites former lovers Shu and Naomichi after their breakup of three years ago. While the two had a budding relationship in the past, things fell apart and they went their separate ways. Now, fate brings them back together once again. Could it be that a relationship like the one they shared in the past is what they have been looking for all along? Can they both find the meaning of real love?


Review
More mature material, just FYI.

First off, this has two stories in it. The first, Real Love, is very weird. Shun and Shu are opposite gender fraternal twins, but still look alike. This is important to remember. Apparently Shu and Naomichi used to be a couple, but now they're not. They start to get back together in this story, but it had a lot of elements that turned me off. I guess the fact that the story was difficult to follow was a major flaw. I couldn't keep track of people or events. Naomichi isn't a very nice character, and I have no idea why Shu likes him, or keeps having sex with him. It's not even hot or erotic, since she doesn't seem to want to be there. Blah. Then her brother is extremely rude to her every time he sees her, but it's revealed that he has is own issues. I'm not sure what the point of this story is. I guess they get back together in the end. Yay. Why did I even read that? I sure couldn't follow it.

The next stories, Baby and Love Star, is about a runaway who makes her living as a busker. She gets discovered by an acquaintance, who really works for a record company. The story is about their ups and downs, and what it means to write a song with feeling, and so forth.

This story was better than the first, and easier to follow. It's not enough to recommend the book for, though. All in all, I'm pretty disappointed with this book. It's like sex for sex's sake isn't enough to keep me interested. There has to be more, but these stories don't want to offer it. Is this the best josei there is to offer? I'm having real doubts about this LuvLuv line.

Final thought: I'm sorry I bought the book.