Oh my God, this book. This freaking book. I never thought a shounen-ai could get my heart pounding like a schoolgirl talking to her crush. Yes a shounen-ai, as in no explicit sex - that's a feat for someone who has spent enough time in the dark corners of the internet to have careful instructions to trusted people to destroy my hard drive upon death. And it takes a special kind of sexless BL story to get a 9 out of me, in fact I think this is the first 9 I have given any BL on here (I don't dare rate anything a perfect10, what's the fun in that). I rarely read anything under an M as I found it hard to regress once you get far enough in the sin bin. Then again, there is lots of M-rated BL that simply slaps together a lame and unsatisfying sex scene just to reel in your eyeballs with that "explicit content" box, and they are the worst offenders in my opinion - if a book claims to be rated M, it better damn well better be. With 16+ stories, at least I know what I'm getting (or rather, not getting) - you can't be upset about no sugar in your cornflakes if the box says there isn't any.

Interestingly, the reason I got this book was because it was beautiful, the pages are thick and lush, more so than my other oversized June books. I think my thought process at the bookstore was something like, "hmm, no explicit sex but the pages are super nice." Logic I guess?

I absolutely love Natsume's art. Her boys are not too feminine but not too masculine - cute but athletic teens. They're funny and cheeky (the second story was aptly named), and are full of personality and character - I love the cute sideways smiles she draws. Make no mistake though, this book isn't about stupidly handsome boys with stupid problems (His Arrogance, anyone?), and there are some rather serious emotional undercurrents at play in both stories, which was one reason I became emotionally invested in all four of the main characters in a way I never do with a shounen-ai. I am tempted to google doujinshi of them to see if an artist unraveled the end of that proverbial rope, but I think I'd be disappointed - part of the charm and beauty of this story was what you didn't see, but it was that I was ok with this that surprised me - at least in the first story, Natsume dangles just enough bait to stoke your imagination, and I was delighted by it. In contrast, Our Everlasting tried this for what seemed like the entire book, but the effect was more annoying than anything, because - coincidentally! - see the end of paragraph 1.

Dash is easily my favorite shounen-ai that I have read so far. It was funny, endearing, and fluffy without being cloying. Highly recommended.