I think I say the same thing about all the Harlequin manga comics. I love how the illustrations bring the stories to life. The stories on their own are fantastic and some of them I've read in the book version, some I haven't. For the ones I haven't, the manga comic version always makes me want to go back and read them again to get more depth and detail, however, that does not take away from my enjoyment of the manga comic version. I love the illustrations. Some of them are utterly gorgeous.

This is a manga adaptation of a Harlequin Presents novel from 1997, so I went in expecting some vintage category craziness and was not disappointed. With that being said, it’s a pretty decent second chance romance, and the illustrated style certainly made it much more enjoyable.

Jamie and Beth were friends as children at her family’s ranch outside Sydney. When they parted as teens, he promised that once he was rich, he’d come back for her. Fifteen years after that promise, Jamie is now one of the most eligible bachelors, at least according to the tabloids. At an art gallery preview, a woman dressed in yellow stands out from all the other little-black-dress-clad women. Beth is disappointed when he doesn’t recognize her, and quickly realizes that this suave pickup artist is no longer the Jamie she knew and loved. After an (interestingly illustrated) night, Jamie’s shocked to realize he wants more with this mystery woman, while she, broken hearted, insists on it being a one-night-stand, and that she has to leave because she has somewhere else she needs to be. Finally, she admits who she is, and, angry that she didn’t tell him who she was before they had sex, he tracks her down at the auction of Beth’s family home, which they lost 15 years ago as a result of debts. Jamie outbids Beth and a stranger to win the house. After another round of picnic sex, Jamie offers her the house. He thinks that she seduced him in order to get something from him – the money to buy the farm. Beth is furious at him for mischaracterizing her feelings so badly, and throws his offer back in his face. With so many misunderstandings between them, can they finally find their second chance at love?

While I’m generally a pretty big fan of second chance romances, the boatload of the drama in this book came from misunderstandings, from Jamie not recognizing Beth (seriously?!?!) to Beth believing he’d chosen to not come back for her. In reality, neither has the full story, but all of it could be resolved with a five minute conversation (and was). I thought, though, that the depth of their affection when they were younger was shown very well, and I found it quite believable that Jamie would harden himself to relationships as a result of the betrayal he thought he suffered. There was more purple prose than I’d like – the reconciliation scene was especially cheesy – but, for the most part, I think this made the translation to manga quite well. While I’ve read quite a few graphic novels and manga, I usually tend towards the more fantasy or scifi inspired ones, not the contemporary shoujo type, so I’m probably missing some of the conventions of the genre. I thought the art was lovely and expressed the characters’ feelings very well, and I especially loved how the illustrator chose to show the differences between young Jamie and Beth and the grown-up versions. I will say that I’m not a fan of the cover, though. I wish it would’ve been a full-color illustration of one of the panels actually in the book rather than having half of it covered in red.

Overall, while I don’t think the story itself is anything special, I really enjoyed the adaptation of it into a manga. I will definitely be picking up more of this series!

I received this book for free from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. This does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review.

I enjoyed this one the plot was spaced nicely. The characters had flaws that were I guess justified in flashbacks. The art was very embellished like a lot of romance manga.

This book was provided by the publisher through Netgalley in exchange for an honest review. Thank you Harlequin and Netgalley!

Craving Jamie follows the story of Beth and Jamie. It started when they were kids, but they got separated. Now that they’re older, Beth found Jamie again but he’s a different person now…

Craving Jamie is the first manga I’ve read published by Harlequin and I really liked it. I like that this manga was short and fast paced. I loved that family was really important in this book and I really liked the story in general.

I also want to mention that the sex scenes were amazing. I think it’s kind of hard to create sex scenes that aren’t too explicit, but the illustrator did an amazing job! I also really liked the way this manga was drawn and I cannot wait to read the other Harlequin manga!

I really both liked Jamie and Beth as characters and this was one manga romance I didn't completely hate it. This was probably my favourite one I've read. The story progression was okay and it wasn't completely blah.

It was my first time reading a novel in the form of manga and it was pretty cool, enjoyable in a new way.
The story was simple enough, a second chance romance with maybe too much drama and miscommunication between the characters, in that way the illustrations helped made it more light.

Loved this second chance romance between Beth and Jamie. It was a bit crazy but it was well thought out.

This manga was so over done that it wasn't even funny. Best friends when they were young make a promise to each other to find the other and love them for the rest of their lives. But of course, things don't go that way. I was once again underused by this manga. The story was one so overused just with differences. And part of it went to fast, once again just add a few pages more to the story.

Book Review

Title: Craving Jamie

Author: Keiko Okamoto (Illustrator) & Emma Darcy

Genre: Manga

Rating: **

Review: In the opening of Craving Jamie we are introduced to Beth and Jamie who are best friends growing up and when Beth moves away Jamie promises to become successful and find her when he can. However, we jump forward, and Jamie is a successful businessman which has made him very rich when he meets a young girl at an art gallery, unknown to him this girl is Beth.


Jamie thinks Beth is just another gold digger and takes her home where she confesses the next morning who she is angering Jamie. We begin to realise that not everything is right with this relationship but when Jamie buys her family’s farm and tries to strike a bargain with her I honestly felt the relationship was going to collapse before it started.

Soon we learn that Beth believes Jamie forgot all about her which he did as he didn’t recognise her, but we also learn that Jamie thought the same thing when he didn’t receive Beth’s letter which was intercepted. He also believed that Beth was married and had a child which turned to be her younger brother who tragically died a few years before.

In the end, they work through their issues and the deceptions which caused them to drift apart and we see the beginning of a beautiful relationship. Overall, I didn’t like Craving Jamie while the story was good and interesting, the scene where Jamie takes Beth home comes across as rape rather than as a consenting sexual encounter which really put me off the whole story.

Probably a 2.5 stars. Well this is my first Manga, so took the plunge with my favorite genre- romance. I've enjoyed some of Emma Darcy's other stories, so felt this was a good first attempt. First off, the artwork was very nice, and I was able to read this quite quickly, about an hour. I did find it hard to know when it was a thought or speech. The story itself was miscommunication and drama, and some scenes had questionable consent, that maybe an issue for some readers. For me the over the top drama was more amusing than emotion evoking. I'm not sure if my rating is more influenced by the base story or the manga format. Low down, I didn't feel much of a connection to the characters and never felt the story, so I have to rate it so. Overall, a disappointing book. *I received an ARC of this book from NetGalley and this is my voluntary and honest review.

I should have stoped with the first Harlequin Manga.

But no. I read this one too.
The writing in Craving Jamie is MUCH better than Playing the Dutiful Wife, but the story isn't as crazy. It's more realistic (if a billionaire buying an old farm for his childhood sweetheart is realistic) and the relationship between the two characters has depth (shock!). But for a Harlequin Manga I was expecting crazy. I wanted something that I could show someone else and say, "Look at how crazy this is! You've got to read it!" But, alas, no.

I thought this would be risque being harlequin. As much story and illustrations as any shojo manga.

I find the manga version of some old Harlequin old romance novel, the best way to go back in time a remember my adolescence when I thought that love was what they were talking about :)

Penso che queste versioni manga dei vecchi romanzi d'amore Harmony, siamo il modo perfetto per tornare indietro nel tempo alla mia adolescenza, quando pensavo davvero che l'amore fosse quello.

THANKS NETGALLEY FOR THE PREVIEW!

As with all Harlequin Romance mangas this story is beautifully drawn and the story as it is portrayed has a dream like quality. It is a story about young loves that find each other as children and then recover that love as adults.

But not without lots of miscommunication and misunderstanding.

Jamie had a really difficult childhood and he only survived this due to the love and care of Beth's family. His childhood was saved and he survived and made friends with Beth but Beth eventually moves away leaving Jamie promising to find her when they got older.

Many years later Beth is a beautiful young woman. She decides to seek Jamie out. He has now become successful and when he eventually meets Beth again he doesn't recognise her, but takes her to bed anyway thinking that she is just a gold digger. Beth sees how much he has changed but she doesn't disclose who she is. That is the start of the miscommunication and drama.

Beth is actually in the same town as Jamie because she wants to buy back her family land and house. At the auction she fails to buy back her family home only to find out that the house has been bought by Jamie. Then there is a long road to explanation and reconciliation, of course driven by the love each of them has for the other.

I like the art but the story was only so so. I don't like misunderstanding tropes and I felt that all the difficulties could have been avoided if Beth had told Jamie who she was in the first place. It was ok to read as a comic but I doubt I would have really liked the prose version of this book.

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

Brilliant I loved this was a new to me author it was intriguing and did make me cry and laugh I enjoyed it and recommend reading it

A boy and a girl meet when they are just children and form an everlasting bond… or do they? Jamie and Beth separate when they are teenagers and when some time later Jamie sees Beth carrying an infant in her arms he thinks he's lost her for good. Years later Jamie, now Jim, one of the most sought after bachelors in town, meets a beautiful stranger during an art exhibition and they a one night stand. The morning after she reveals she is Beth and he is appaled she did not disclose her identity before having sex with her. Will this initial deception destroy their second chance at love? Grab this book and find out yourself!

Review to come to all sources mentioned in my profile on Sunday.

I received this manga from Netgalley in exchange of an honest review.

The second of 5 new Harlequin manga that were up on Netgalley. I had a bit of a laugh at the title, but still couldn't resist clicking the request button when I saw this one.

Beth and Jamie, two people who had grown inseparable when they were younger (kids and later teens), Beth had to leave and they promised that they would meet again. Jamie promised he would be successful and make Beth a happy woman. Cue back to 15 years later, and it seems that only one of the two has remembered the promise to meet up, the promise to be together.

I felt sorry for Beth, it seems she has been looking for Jamie all over, finally meeting him, and the dickwad doesn't remember her. I so didn't like Jamie. He was cocky, icky, and come on, not every woman interested in you is going to be your sexual conquest. Sadly, and I really didn't like that Beth did it, though I guess I can understand why, she goes with him and just proves once again that Jamie can do anything he wants and will get whatever he wants.

Unlike the other book the sex scene is a bit more graphic, plus I liked it even less than the previous manga's sex scene. It was just not something of love.

Throughout the story we see flashbacks to how Jamie and Beth met each other, how Jamie got to live in the same village as Beth, and how they grew closer and closer. I am glad the author added this, as really, if we would only see the now parts, I would probably just want to kick Jamie in the nuts.

I am sure that it was meant dramatically, but sorry, I just laughed so much about that morning after they had sex. Dramarama, so much drama. *snorts* Eat that Jamie, and really, maybe you should just have asked her name instead of being a drama queen (which also continues later on)?

Of course it doesn't end there, oh heavens no, we still got 60 pages left. :P The drama will intensify and let's not forget to add another sex scene (which I at first didn't like).

And really, all that dumb shit could have been prevented, but heaven forbid if people for once talked about things. Oh no, let's assume, let's fucking assume. *rolls her eyes* Dear Lord.

But the ending was sure sweet, and I am very happy for everyone in this story.

The art was just wonderful, it really fitted the story well, and I just adore how well drawn Jamie and Beth were.

So all in all, I did enjoy this book, even though it was silly and dramarama, it still had some good moments, and a sweet ending.