When I was away in conference land recently, my second Manga arrived! Now after my first one, a Manga version of The Spaniard’s Blackmailed Bride, I knew exactly what to expect – a doe eyed heroine, dashing pointy chinned hero and a puppy with floppy ears so cute you automatically went, awwwwwww.

Here’s the front and back covers…

Gorgeous, aren’t they! And so romantic. So I really was expecting the same kind of treatment when my second lobbed in, the Manga version of The Greek’s Virgin.  Boy, was I in for a shock! I guess I should have had a clue merely by the cover treatment…

This one is flagged Passion in top left corner, rather than Romance on the first, and straight away this one is more intense, that hero is dripping with angst! And as the back cover treatment, where are the flowers, the smiles? And she’s almost, oh boy, naked! It’s from the opening scene, where Saskia, our heroine, is flung from Alexander’s bed when she makes the huge mistake of admitting she loves him. She is left devastated and totally humiliated and no wonder it’s such a dark dark scene.

Then I opened up the book and WOW.  Now I understand why they also call Manga graphic novels, because this one is, um, graphic! I’d show a couple of the inside pages, but this is a family blog, and I’m sure you get the idea. Needless to say, my mother’s eyes bulged and my girls were shocked! (It’s always satisfying to shock your teenage children, don’t you think? Makes such a pleasant change:-))

So I learned something in all this. Whereas my stories have a similar level of sensuality, not all Mangas are the same.  And don’t show your mother or your teenage children until you know which is which:-))