I simply adore these Harlequin Manga comics. It doesn't even matter what the story is, I tend to love them all. The beautiful illustrations bring the stories to life for me and while they are short and an abbreviated version of the story, I find them satisfying nonetheless because I love seeing the illustrated depictions of the scenes and the characters. This one is another winner. And I apologise in advance that a few of my reviews are similar but really, I just love them all.

Book Review
Title: When Falcone's World Stops Turning
Author: Shion Hanyu
Genre: Manga
Rating: *****
Review: In When Falcone’s World Stops Turning we are introduced to Rafaele Falcone who has two half-brothers all from his mother’s three marriages and he is very wary of women and doesn’t allow himself to get close to them. So when he meets Samantha, a flame from the past, he is confused about his feelings towards her. However, what he doesn’t know is Samantha feel pregnant before he dumped her, and she never got the chance to tell him about the child. Four years later circumstance brings them back together, but Samantha is worried about how he will react if he finds out the child is his.
Samantha is worried when Rafaele threatens to take Milo from her and he needs an heir for his company but not even Rafaele is that heartless and he finds a way around this issue. The first thing he does is buys Samantha’s company and moves into her house so that he can be close to his son, but there is definitely more to this. However, Samantha is having all her old feelings about Rafaele being dragged to the surface and he seems to love exploiting them, but I felt this is because he feels the same way and just can’t voice his emotions because of his mother and the relationships she had and the way she treated people he loved and love in general.
As we cross into the second half of the story, Samantha and Rafaele are now living together with Milo and Sam’s housekeeper. Soon after it is clear to see that the couple still love each other but they have serious communication issues but Milo acts as a barrier between the pair. The scene where Milo calls Rafaele his dad was so beautiful it brought tears to my eyes and this didn’t get any better when Milo, Sam and Rafaele go to Milan to visit Milo’s grandfather and Rafaele finally learns to process and deal with his emotions in a healthy way. A way completely different from what his mother taught him.
The ending of When Falcone’s World Stops Turning was beautiful, and wonderful. However, throughout the story we get to know one of the other brothers well and this ending leaves an opening for his journey and I can’t wait to read more from Shion Hanyu soon.

Thank you, NetGalley for the preview of this graphic novel.

This Graphic Novel was a perfect escape from reality. Harlequin books always have that effect on you. The artist did a wonderful job.

This is an intriguing romance between a super rich guy and a modestly off woman. A trope common in Korean dramas. Although, this one had an added twist, a love child!

Like all manga, this story was consumed all too quickly. Due to the rapid consumption of the manga, the plot moving rapidly makes the male character kind of creepy, had it been paced better, it probably would have come off more endearing.

Overall this story was interesting and the illustrations were beautiful.

This was an interesting read. Artwork was perfect. Story was well written and beautiful. I enjoyed Rafaele and Sam. They were great characters.

The heroine is a researcher for a university who goes to the party of an old boyfriend who just happens to be the CEO of the major car company she used to work for. You would think she'd know to stay away, considering she's trying to hide their love child who the father (CEO) doesn't know about.
Of course, once the child's existence is known, the father takes the liberty of moving in, threatens to take custody of the child and forces himself on the mom. In the end, turns out he did all of it because he 'loves' her.
I didn't really like it. It's a standard romance manga, but I didn't like how powerless the mother acted. Not to mention how stupid she was for attending the father's party in the first place.
I give it 2 stars only because the art is good.

This was a surprising choice for a manga adaptation considering the title has mixed reviews for its original 2014 Harlequin Presents source. But it is part of a series on four brothers so I imagine the rest of the books might be a bit more interesting. There's nothing new here - hidden baby, parent complexes, misunderstandings, etc. The art is fresh and modern in manga terms, so readers can enjoy that aspect.

Story: Samantha had a fling with an executive - but found out fairly soon that he wasn't interested in getting serious. Unfortunately, Sam had already become pregnant by than and felt it best to raise her son without an unwilling father. Cue several years later when Sam's job as a research assistant brings her back into the executive's circle - and back into her life. Once he finds out he has a son, he is unwilling to give him up to Sam. Or give Sam up again.

As mentioned, the usual tropes are abundant but that's what Harlequin readers enjoy about the books - they are the McDonalds of romance: comforting in their familiarity and conformity. Sam doesn't have much to do here but be pushed around by various parties like a leaf in a river current, so it is hard to say whether she is 'gutsy' as the promised in the book blurb. Falcone is the usual alpha male damaged goods that has to get over his mother's casual infidelities in order to trust Sam.

The art is the more modern style of manga and quite beautiful. Less twinkling huge eyes and flowers in the hair and more moody and broody with our heroine in a business suit for most of the book. The story is very easy to follow and looks to have kept enough of the spirit of the original novel to be worth reading. Reviewed from an advance reader copy provided by the publisher.

Ok this is more of a 3.5, but gosh I loved the art here so it got an extra half star.

Another hidden baby romance (is that like super common or something in real life?), however this made a bit more sense. Well Harlequin Romance sense.

Still an interesting trend of "heroine is super competent at her job!" with no actual evidence. She seemed more level headed though, with far less emotional love you/hate you going on (she was pretty firmly "I don't trust your motives here" throughout).

Rafaele was a bit more cold then I'm used to, but there was minimum dramstic fuss on his side. Honestly if my mom had done what his mom did to his dad I may have felt the same way. (Wait.)

I do wanna know what's up with the SUDDEN ELDER BROTHER appearance that sent a shockwave in the beginning. Guess I'll go find out...

This story was a good one with nice characters a twist at the beginning and nice line of the drawing. I hope other graphic novels in that series will get better as this one was put in the "ok" category as it had not given me any stronger feelings just like another story.
Nothing particularly good, nor bad.

This story was good enough, even if I do not like the reason why they got together again, but still it was enjoyable and now I am left to wonder about the other brothers....

Questo manga é stato abbastanza piacevole da leggere anche se non sono una grande amante della ragione per cui i protagonisti sono tornati assieme, detto questo ora sono curiosa rispetto alle storie degli altri fratelli.

THANKS NETGALLEY FOR THE PREVIEW!

I really enjoyed the art and the story for this manga. Now I might need to go and read the actual story and compare the two.

Three uterine brothers are sceptic about love after experiencing how their own mother twisted men around her little finger only to dump them when they were no longer useful. Falcone, the eldest, has built his own company but has sacrificed a genuine love years ago, a woman who has born his child without letting him know after he left her. When she is back in his life by chance, he finds out about their son and the old passion is rekindled. Will that be enough to overcome his fears about love? Good plot and excellent art, recommended.

Oh my word! This is such a lovely romantic story. And the best part is that apart from the handsome billionaire man and his love interest of the past that he bumps into, there is a cute kid!

The story is lovely. It is the story of a couple (Rafaele and Samantha) who were dating and then broke up, but unfortunately Samantha was pregnant when they broke up. Instead of telling Rafaele about his child she decides to bring the child up on her own. She does well as a single parent. She has a good job at the University and she is keeping a roof over their heads but all goes to pot when she bumps into Rafaele at an industry party. Rafaele pressurises her to get her to work for him again and eventually discovers that she has a child and the child is his.

And then it is on! Because Rafaele wants Samantha back and he also wants to be a dad. They both have to get over the hurt and disappointments from the past but of course there is a happy ending.

The best thing about this story is that this is the manga version of the story, so of course all of the emotions are conveyed to us through manga art. I really enjoyed this and I particularly liked the fact that there is a child involved in the story because the artwork for the child is just so expressive and cute.

Sigh

If you like romance and manga, and a storyline with a cute child, then this is definitely one for you!

Copy provided by Harlequin/SB Creative Corps via Netgalley in exchange for an unbiased review.