I love vintage Harlequin romance novels. I love how magnificently cheeseball they can be, with their lurid covers and hopelessly outdated sexual politics, and I admire how instantly entertaining they frequently are, with their parade of tried-and-true literary devices. I am particularly fond of vintage Harlequin romance novels written by Betty Neels, who wrote about fifty million virtually identical stories about prim, sensible English nurses in their late twenties who fall in love with barrel-chested Dutch doctors. Sample titles include Nurse in Holland (not to be confused Neels's Nurse Harriet Goes to Holland, obviously), Surgeon From Holland, and Sister Peters in Amsterdam.

I also love shojo manga, for much the same reasons. (Just replace Dutch doctors with icy-hearted, high-achieving high school boys.) And yesterday, on an innocent visit to the local comic book shop, I discover that my two loves have been COMBINED!

Behold!



That's right- in a stroke of pure marketing genius, somebody decided to combine vintage Harlequin romances with Darkhorse Comics-produced manga. I have no idea who that person might be, but we here at Wordcandy applaud their vision!

Labels: Harlequin, manga