Tomomi Yamashita

As with many manga series, it's hard to tell how good the overall story will be from just one volume. The characters were pleasant enough, although without much depth (again, maybe there's more to come in future volumes). The politics, government, and culture, though, stretched my suspension of disbelief to the snapping point. The king does his own espionage missions? The princess, who has survived multiple assassination attempts, can ride freely around town without guards? Slavery is legal, show more except that Argent seems to have been the only slave—uh, yeah. The art is attractive enough, and clear. So anyway, if more volumes fell into my hands, I'd read them, but I'm not going to any effort to track more of them down. show less

Argent is a former slave, once the poison tester for the royal family. Over the years, he has developed an immunity to poisons, and has trained to become a master chemist able to cure any illness. Unfortunately, his very skin has become toxic, making it impossible for others to touch him. Which is quite sad actually, for Princess Primula, who’s life has been threatened once again by assassins, resulting in Argent’s recall to the kingdom to protect her.

There’s lots of story to spin out show more into further volumes, and it will be interesting to follow these two characters in a larger story arc. Argent is reclusive for several reasons, and his caution in the royal palace may be well warranted. Primula is a head-strong, courageous, though somewhat impulsive princess, who has yet to use her strength developed in training in the real world.

The drawing is good, very character based though, without the richly detailed backgrounds of other series. And there’s a bit of a mismatch in the dialogue, an unsuccessful attempt to mix romanticized medieval speech styles with contemporary language. But overall, it’s a manga full of potential, worth following up on future volumes. show less

Jessica and Loukas have a past. They would have been happy together until one day Loukas disappears from her life. Jessica's career as a tennis star comes to a halt but being a brand ambassador for a timepiece brand helps pay the bills. Then one day suddenly Loukas is back in her life and he is very different from the person she used to know. Sparks fly as anger and grudges come to the surface. But soon secrets are revealed to the both of them that will change their lives forever. The art is show more very well done.

Advance Review Copy provided for voluntary review consideration show less