Pearl Pink, Volume 1 Book

Sometimes, I question my penchant for reading so broadly. I picked up the first few volumes of this shojo manga series, published by the defunct and recently resurrected Tokyopop, at a used bookstore. They've been in a stack, awaiting judgment of "keeper" status for too long, so I dove in.

I think I've read enough of these series at this point to recognize this is pretty much middle of the road genre fare. The premise is somewhat formulaic, the art is standard cute, the romance contrived. Basically, the story is about a young girl who as a toddler was told by a slightly older boy that he would marry her if she became brave and strong. He just said it to get her to stop crying. Now she's a preteen(?) and through some plot manipulations is living with him. See, her mother is a famous actress and no one knows she had a child when young. She's the star client of his father, an agent. She's been raised by her grandmother, but moves to Tokyo to be with her mother, but since no one can know of their relationship, she lives with her mother's agent, and his teen son who she still thinks and openly proclaims is her fiancé, and a random rising pop star boy who shows up out of nowhere. The boy is exceedingly kind to her, putting up with her antics like a patient big brother. The girl acts like a monkey, swinging from trees, climbing on furniture, and riding on her beloved piggyback-style. Because, why not? And she has a little pet monkey that seems to be alive, but behaves more like a living stuffed animal. It's...weird, but not gloriously weird. Just rather, huh, that odd, but whatever.
I have, I think, two more volumes, and it's not so bad that I won't take a few minutes to at least read some of the next one before they go in my book donate/trade box. It's the author's first full length series, so I should probably be kinder. Again, it's not bad, it's just excessively engineered for preteen girls.