My local library, after the storm approval from the tweens and teens for "Vampire Knight" rained on their heads, got the first three volumes of "Captive Hearts."

The premise is very interesting, but shallowly executed. Two ancient families are bound together by a curse, one as a servant, the other as a master.

When the young daughter of the "master" family is supposedly dead on a trip to China, the son of the "servant" family has no reason to obey any of the strange urges to prostrate himself before the "master family." That is...drumroll... until his cute opposite from the "master" family shows up! Woah, no one was expecting that.

Okay, sounds good, right? It's good up until this point.

She gets out of the car and servant boy just loses it. I mean, really: he loses it. All that power from constant non-exposure comes over him and he is filled with the immediate desire to obey this girl's every whim. It's supposed to be comical, but it feels forced and, in its own way, lewd.

The half-star is for the idea. I could list all the reasons for the missing 4.5 stars, but that would take too long.

All in all, this is not something I would recommend to anyone, but especially not to A) those who are interested in picking up manga as a hobby and B) those who are looking for a decent love story. ( )