Teito Renka by Hinase Mizuki

I bought and read a bunch of BL novels, most of them being simply okay. I kind of bought a bunch because I was drawn to their illustrations, so I'm not too surprised. I did read two REALLY GOOD books I plan on talking about in detail, but for now I scanned in some pretty pictures from 帝都恋華 (reading is possibly: Teito Renka), written by Hinase Mizuki and illustrated by Jissohji Yukariko.

Set in the Taisho period, Izumi Kanaya, son of a nouveau riche businessman, is to marry into a noble family which needs his father's money to survive. Upset at the arranged marriage he does not want, he gets drunk on the eve of his wedding. Emerging from his balcony, is a tall dark handsome man offers him escape. He (foolishly) takes his hand...and ends up at the man's villa. Kuze Ryouichiro tells Kanaya that he actually wants to take his revenge against Kanaya's father, who had done his family wrong and was also involved in shady practices. Kanaya does not believe Kuze, so he is taken to one of his father's establishments...dressed as a woman. His disappearance before his wedding is big news and people would recognize him if he walked around dressed as normal. He finds at the establishment a hidden half made up of gambling, lewd dancing and prostitution. He is told of how his father had destroyed the Kuze family (and had their noble taken away from them) and even made Kuze's sister into his mistress.

Upon their return Kanaya and Kuze run into Kuze's mother, who had lost her mind after their family's misfortunes. Kuze introduces Kanaya as his betrothed who had come to live at the villa. He then takes his revenge a step further by forcing himself on Kanaya. Kanaya spends his days with Kuze's mother, dressed a woman and pretending to be Kuze's betrothed. He spends his nights being fucked by Kuze.

( Summary of the rest of the novel, obviously containing spoilers )

( Selected illustrations )

( Omake manga )

The publisher has an excerpt of the novel on their webpage, as well as a short side story basically featuring sex, set early on in Kanaya's stay at Kuze's villa when he swears that his heart and mind will remain his even as his body is taken by Kuze.

This wasn't a particularly good book, but it was entertaining and I really liked the art. Especially the ones with Kanaya cross-dressing (thus most of the illustrations I scanned in were of him dressed as a woman). XD