This had been sitting on my to-read shelf for a while, and CBR has been helping me to tackle some of these books that I’ve felt sort of meh about and either keep them or get them out the door. Light of My Life is one volume, so it has that going for it, and it’s a fast read. Aki, Minagi, and Sarara were all best friends in high school; Aki wanted to become a pro soccer player, Minagi wanted to be a doctor, and Sarara wanted to be some sort of model/actor. We then flash forwards to them as adults, and only Sarara has achieved what he wanted to and is happy. Aki is working for his grandfather’s hair salon and Minagi is working at a nearby host club. When Aki’s grandfather dies, Minagi shows up on his doorstep and asks for a place to stay temporarily. Aki is resistant at first but then allows it, and the two of them end up sleeping together, in a repeat of when this previously happened a few years prior. Aki is seemingly more tormented by this, as he has a serious and brooding personality and feels that Minagi is being very flippant about the sex they keep having and the fact that Minagi has mysteriously given up on his dream of being a doctor. The two of them being in such close quarters starts dredging up the past and the reason both of them are in a different place than they planned, and they both finally have to start working through their issues.
Overall, the art is solid and the plot moves along. I read this yesterday and I had to check a few times to jog my memory, so this didn’t hugely stick with me. I found the angst that both of them were going through dragged throughout the book, in that they were both endlessly pining and stressing and hiding their feelings. I thought the inclusion of Sarara was a relief in the narrative, because he could swing by and call them both out for being ridiculous occasionally. Aki in particular was so stressed out about Minagi not pursuing his high school goal and his desire for Minagi to have a “respectable dream” kept him from actually engaging with the present. Minagi was just as miserable about Aki not becoming a soccer player, that I thought it became ridiculous at times — most of us don’t end up doing what we planned to do in high school, stuff happens, and that’s fine! I kept wanting them to get to the point and then when they did it was okay, but it didn’t blow me away. A decent time, nothing too wild.
Warnings — There’s a lot of explicit sex portrayed and one character has an accident resulting in an injury.
