Manatsu No Mermaid
Mahou ga Toketa Asa ni
5 chaps (2*)- A rather typical BBV (Bed Before Vows) goes wrong with a pregnancy and a manipulating family trying to arrange a marriage with another woman. Sadly, the ML is just as manipulative as the family, and she's his pawn. Not sure i could forgive someone who used me without my consent like that. And explain to me again why she couldn't work at the university or wherever until her father's work was published? Did she not earn her own PhD by her own efforts? Why was her employment contingent on her father's work? That throughly confused me.
Wakasugita Hakushaku Fujin
ONE SHOT (3*)- Somewhat standard miscommunication story except the hero gets a couple year head start when he agrees to marry to protect his too young bride's assets and divorce her when she's 21, and then does nothing to build a relationship with her during the protective years so that she has no reason to even consider staying past 21. Even if I accept his excuse for not visiting in person, what stopped him from pursuing a long distance relationship? Remembering a girl's birthday, treating their anniversary like it was something special, sending her something "just because it made me think of you", would go a long way toward laying a foundation. But no. What was he planning? To just have fun fooling around until the time of the divorce and then show up and seduce her? Yeah. Probably. And then when her DID get serious, he was so ignorant. He thought he could treat her as superficially as he treated his doxies in the past and somehow this was supposed to become an intimate, lasting relationship? The whole story was designed to craft one misunderstanding on top of another, and it all centered around a supposedly experienced lady's man and businessman's stupidity and silence. You think a business man would understand the importance of communication *rolls eyes*.
Champagne Wa Koi No Biyaku