La Esperanca, Volume 1 (Yaoi) Book

Premise: sorry for possibile mistakes, I happen to be Italian! Review of the whole series here.

I read 1-5 volumes up to now. I didnt use to be a big fan of Shounen-Ai / Yaoi series, but as others have stated, this story is actually about the charachters finding out who they are, which involves that none of them is aware they are not straight at the beginning of the series: they simply discover their feelings for the other person as the story moves on. Its like the love story comes to be the natural consequence of their process of discovery, and not just an excuse to write down cute lovey-dovey scenes between boys. The story is there, and it gives sense to everything.
There are mysteries that come to be lightened up to the very end of the series, or as the series moves on, there are people struggling with their feelings and their sense of guilt, there are beautifully constructed sequences, there are well built secondary charachters. I recommend this to anyone who likes good stories that dwelve into people's emotions. I am not very into Shounen-Ai (I already said that?) but when a story is oh-so-good, its Just Good. The charachters being two boys adds even more to the story and its kinda necessary to the plot because of the *spoiler* about Robert's past. So, not the usual Shounen-Ai.

UPDATE: I finished the series. Volumes 6-7 were extremely good, actually the best of all: the author became more and more confident, the drawing gets better, but most of all charachter development is fabolous, especially Georges' (but really, all of them). And of of the scenes in the Finale... the one in which Robert's mum is involved... OH THAT SCENE was incredible. Chigusa Kawai was really incredible there.

Note: it's a bit funny the fact that the "spoiler"that the author had made at the end of the first volume, with the scenes-to-be from the volumes yet to read, is completely changed: it has nothing to do with the way the series actually ends. I think that's because she changed her mind on her way. But that's not a problem, its just a bit funny, and its like having read two versions of the same story (cute ^*).