Make Love and Peace

Wow, I really liked the last Luvluv release, but this one was also good.  I’m so happy the last few volumes have been so enjoyable, because I would really like for this line to be successful.  I’m not sure if the recent news about the Luvluv titles showing up on Netcomics is good news or not, though.  In general, I think it’s always a good thing when more publishers get on board with Netcomics, even though I don’t read the stories online myself.  I really ought to break down and read some of the more retro-looking series Netcomics has been publishing online lately, though (the first chapter of The Hunter is really awesome, for instance).  The only bad thing I can see about Luvluv showing up over there would be if they decided to switch to online-only or some books online-only, because that would really just wreck my day.

Anyway, this book was great because it was much more positive than any of the other ones.  The couple is established right away, and instead of being a drama-tastic romance, this is more about the two of them busting criminals chapter by chapter.  Normally this involves the girl getting herself caught by the criminals and the guy busting in to save the day, which is fine.  The guy is a cop, so he’s normally tracking down the criminals as part of his job anyway, and the girl’s reason for meddling is sometimes along the lines of “well, if this criminal is caught, he can spend more time with me!”  It’s simple, but it works pretty well.

You may think that the lack of drama-tastic romance would make this cleaner than the other Luvluv books, but that’s not the case at all.  In fact, I think there’s more sex in this book than any of the others, which is pretty amazing.  There seems to be 2-3 sex scenes per chapter, but sometimes they get stopped halfway because the guy is called away for his job.  They’re a pretty happy couple though, and the sex seems like a healthy part of their relationship instead of any sort of… catalyst or whatever it may be in the past Luvluv books.

The last two stories deal more with the characters and their relationship.  One of the stories is about the guy’s brother coming into town and going out on a date with the girl, and for something different, this is not taken the wrong way by a single person.  Another story deals with the guy comptemplating a possible career change so that he can spend more time with the girl and be in less danger doing his job.  Both of these do a good job of adding drama without breaking up the couple.

What a great book!  I’m not sure if I liked it as much as Pretty Poison (they’re sort of not comparable), but it was still a really fun read.  I’m so happy to see that a follow-up volume with the same characters is coming out in January.