Title: Nothing But Loving You Volume(s): 1 Creator(s): Erica Sakurazawa Format: Unflipped; Right-to-Left Publisher: Tokyopop MSRP: $9.95 Genre(s): Romance Rated: Mature (18+)

Ever since I read my first Erica Sakurazawa book (which admittedly hasn't been that long ago), I've had a love/hate relationship with her books. I loved "Angel” (which was the first book of hers I read); however, the second book of hers I read was "Between The Sheets," and I wasn't quite as impressed with that book! They say third time’s the charm, though, so I picked up "Nothing But Loving You" as my third book of hers to read, hoping that the quality of the writing would at least be good enough to convince me to continue reading the rest of her books. Unlike "Between The Sheets," which featured a muddled story, hopelessly lost narrative, and unlikable characters, "Nothing But Loving You" happens to be a romance story that takes interesting ideas and interesting characters and does something... well, interesting with them.

The story revolves around a self-centered supermodel named Nanako, who is considered to be one of the prettiest models working in the fashion industry, and always makes even the lowest of magazines a gazillion dollars with her on the cover, yet she always finds herself in and out of work on a daily basis. The reason she can never seem to keep a job is because despite making all her employers rich beyond their wildest dreams, she is an incredibly difficult person to deal with, as she has a big attitude and is always late to every shoot (among other things). So most magazines end up taking the extra money (and new readers) that Nanako makes them, and then they toss her out in hopes that they can maintain a good amount of sales without her on board. Nanako's best friend Mahko (who happens to be gay) suggests to her that she tone down her attitude (so that maybe she can keep a job), but Nanako says that she doesn't need to be polite to her employers when she's got numbers and beauty on her side. And considering that it doesn't take long for one of Nanako's other gay friends to hire her for a modeling job, it looks like Nanako really doesn't have much to worry about.
It's at this job that Nanako lays her eyes on pretty boy Etsushi, and she immediately falls in love with him.

Problem is, he's bisexual (which in itself isn't a problem), and he currently has a boyfriend that he's been living with for two years with no problems in their relationship up to this point (this is a problem in itself, though). Of course, considering that all of Nanako's friends happen to be gay men, this doesn't surprise her too much, but she is still determined to make Etsushi hers. Luckily for Nanako, Etsushi is the one to make the first move. After he sees Nanako punch out a model she used to work for, he suddenly starts to get attracted to her, and wants to know more about her. And so the two begin their relationship (which starts out very rocky and bumpy). Aside from the occasional kiss they share, they talk about the opposite sex, what it feels like to be in love with someone the same sex as you, and they even stop and question how they came to be who they are. What both of them realize is that they ultimately don't know how they came to where they are in life, and they even realize that they have never given too much thought about their futures. Nanako also has a sex buddy named Mitsuhiko, who just shows up every now and then so that they can both get it on. At first, Nanako doesn't think much about this as she feels that they are both just using each other to have friendly sex every now and then, but as time goes on, she questions what the point of them using each other to have sex really is. Along with Nanako's confusion over what her relationship with Mitsuhiko is, Etsushi's boyfriend Shin catches on to Etsushi's affair with another woman, and even tells him that he has to choose one or the other eventually.

But can either of these two people really change the lifestyles they are so used to? This is actually what makes this (admittedly strange) story much better than it sounds. Every relationship in this book feels like it should be easy to work out, but certain lifestyles, situations, and other things keep everything from being as simple as they sound. In this book, we spend more time inside these characters’ heads than we spend in their real lives, but that makes things all the more interesting. And so as you read this book, you read it and you look at these people's thoughts and how they act, react, and think about things. But as you watch things keep happening, these things aren't happening in the real world; they are happening in these characters’ heads. This is one of those books that can be a real test for a reviewer to review, because there's so much happening in this book, yet everything is happening in a way that is very hard to describe and explain. Since I can't really explain anything else about the story, I'll knock on the art in this book. While the art in this book is definitely better than in the previous books I read, it's still far from what I would consider good. The characters are still drawn a little squiggly, the character designs aren't that attractive or good (they don't even look all that unique, to be completely honest), and the backgrounds in this book are practically non-existent. In other words, I'm still not impressed with Ms. Sakurazawa's artwork.

However, where this book lacks in artwork, it excels in story, and this is definitely a smart, mature, and intelligent story that is worth checking out. If I had one major complaint (aside from the artwork, of course) it would be the ending. The ending was a little anticlimatic in my opinion, and I didn't fully understand it until I reread the whole book a second time through. I now understand that the ending was supposed to be more realistic than it was supposed to be satisfying, and I applaud Erica for taking a different route with the ending rather than deciding to take the easy way out, but I still had trouble figuring out where the conclusion came from until I looked into the ending a little bit deeper.

But aside from the confusing ending and the mutated artwork, "Nothing But Loving You" is worth looking into. I don't think this is Erica Sakurazawa's best work yet (that honor still goes to "Angel"), but it is a moving, deep, and complicated drama that is worth checking out, and the book is definitely worthy of a recommendation.

- -Review By Kevin T. Rodriguez- -