Harlequin Ginger Blossom

The Look at Harlequin's Attempt at Romance Manga Continues

Sep 27, 2008

Famous for those romance novels with the lusty covers, Harlequin gives producing manga the good old college try with mixed results.

We've already tackled an example of a good story from Harlequin's Ginger Blossom line of romantic manga in the article Harlequin Ginger Blossom, so let's examine a story that's not quite so deserving of praise.

As weak as A Prince Needs a Princess is strong, Jinxed is a truly horrible story. Kit Mallory, a clumsy, stuttering toy tester is all elbows and knees when her boss, Steven Sinclair is around. Obviously, he’s gorgeous, but he’s also very cold to everyone he comes into contact with, gaining the nickname ‘the ice monster’ because of his chilly, no-nonsense disposition.

Their relationship gets off on the wrong foot when Steven accuses Kit of sabotage. Lucky for her, though, his mother, the company’s head honcho, steps in and makes sure she doesn’t get fired. After several more mishaps that make him blow his top, Steven inexplicably asks Kit to dinner out of the blue. Things progress, eventually leading Steven to pose as Kit’s significant other so that her meddlesome, matchmaking mother and sister-in-law will get off her back.

During the course of this deception, they fall madly in love with each other, but since Kit thinks her career should come first and Steven thinks family should, they part ways. This separation, unfortunately, doesn’t last and the lovers are reunited, Steven revealing a deep, dark secret that explains away his emotional distance in two nice, neat pages. It’s a desperate attempt to give the character some depth and it falls painfully flat.

What’s saddest about Jinxed is that the dynamic between Kit and her colleague, Todd, is more interesting than the one she has with Steven. In fact, readers may actually feel that Kit and Todd should be together rather than she and Steven. It would have made for a much more compelling read.

Certainly, the book isn’t without its fun, breezy moments, but it’s very cliché. A very feeble plot and bland characters give Jinxed a literary death sentence. One of Jinxed merits lies in its humor--some of the dialogue is rather sharp--and the art is beautiful, giving the book a few points in the ‘good’ column, but neither of these facets make up for its deficiencies.

Ginger Blossom: The Final Verdict

One of the things that grates on the nerves about Ginger Blossom is more to do with style than story. The books were printed in ‘flirty pink ink’, which is very hard on the eyes and takes away from the reading experience. Not enough to force the reader to drop the books but definitely enough to irritate them.

Judging the whole package, though, Ginger Blossom was a noble experiment and had it continued, Harlequin probably would have found the right balance for the stories the imprint produced. The good books they put out definitely outnumber the bad, but not by a very wide margin. Still, if you’re hungry for romance but don’t want to sift through prose novels, Ginger Blossom is a fresh alternative and definitely worth tracking down.

Titles in the Ginger Blossom Imprint:

The copyright of the article Harlequin Ginger Blossom in Manga is owned by Lydia Ballard. Permission to republish Harlequin Ginger Blossom in print or online must be granted by the author in writing.