Stepping on roses

Sumi Kitamura has a hard life; irresponsible older brother Eisuke is charming but useless, a compulsive gambler and ladies' man who abandons Sumi to deal with the consequences of his actions. Faced with the growing population of orphaned children Eisuke collects, the debts he runs up, and the angry husbands left in the wake of his romantic affairs, an increasingly desperate Sumi is nearly forced into prostitution before wealthy Soichiro Ashida intervenes; if Sumi will consent to marry him, Soichiro will pay her debts. Out of a sense of duty to those dependent on her, Sumi consents, only to discover her new husband is domineering, emotionally distant, and pursuing an agenda of his own. Ueda's art is competent, but the pace of the plot seems designed to stretch the story out over as many installments as possible. Many of the characters remain enigmas, in particular Soichiro's friend Nozumo, who helped Sumi early in the story and who may or may not be the person who brought Sumi to the desperate Soichiro's attention. Like Ueda's earlier Tail of the Moon, this is a historical romance, this one set in the Meija period of the early 20th century. (May) (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved

Gr 10 Up-Sumi Kitamura dreams of rice and roses. But then she must wake up to her real life. When her irresponsible brother disappears once again, she must come up with 2000 yen to pay off his debt and feed the orphans whom he keeps bringing home. She is left with no choice but to consider prostitution. Enter Soichiro, a handsome and temperamental man who willingly offers to buy her for the exorbitant amount that she needs. But the money comes at a much higher price than Sumi anticipated. She must marry Soichiro and become a lady of high society in a matter of days. He warns that she must never love him and that he will never love her. But her heart already belongs to someone else. Set in 1892 during the Meiji Era in Japan, this manga is reminiscent of My Fair Lady meets the ever-popular love-triangle story. Sumi is a wonderfully written character-the Eliza Doolittle darling of the manga set. All of the characters are delightfully expressive, and Ueda cleverly uses action words to convey sound effects. A helpful glossary puts some of the terms mentioned in the story into context. A wonderfully enthralling love story.-Kimberly Castle, Medina County District Library, OH (c) Copyright 2010. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.