For the first story, I feel really bad for Mari because he was so manipulated by both Sa’ud and even his boss. Sa’ud is so scary but smoking hot at the same time. What’s his reason of wasting Mari’s time? I still haven’t found that out. After being thrown out by his boss, Mari realized that he was doing himself a job for nothing and lost almost all of his hope, but wants Sa’ud at the end despite initially despising him. But I love the sex scenes, and the extra stories regarding Mari being useless are so good and hilarious.
The second story is not by far the best because I felt like Shahir intentionally kidnapped Ali to rape him for revenge. Though I do feel sorry for him because he’s been suffering the consequences he faced against his will, he’s still using Aki’s body to comfort himself. After looking at the family tree, I’m shocked that he’s the uncle of three princes from previous stories even though he’s younger than them. How old were his parents when he was born?!
The other stories seem ok.

... Last updated on March 3rd, 2020, 9:24am

I'm addicted to yaoi, and I can deal with most sub-genres and story elements, but this one was just too... rapey-- just as the other reviewers have said. In some pairings, it was totally ridiculous how quickly the ukes fell for their rapists (one of them was treated extremely horribly and almost immediately felt compassion for his rapist and fell in love with him! What the..!?)! I think this type of yaoi manga are the ones that give yaoi a bad name in the manga community. I can't say I can recommend it, sadly. The only good thing about this manga was the art. Even the pacing was terrible. 3/10

...If there is an argument that time and experience can give one a different take of a type of fiction, I will use this as the solid proof.

This type of plot has been there since God knows when, and this particular universe was pretty much built across a long time. And judging within that context, it's.....basically a product of its time-- Garasu no Suna and Honoo no Suna was there since the early 2000s?--

The elements and tropes used was also something that's very.....THAT age. Rape = love, Stockholm Syndrome, etc, etc. These recent years, with a lot of improvements in terms of sexual awareness but sadly also outrageously problematic cases of rape and sexual assaults across the world..... that context and understanding made the comic much less sexier, and more EWWWWW.

Which is not the mangaka's fault, I think; again, more awareness begets a change in enjoying fiction.

I do like BL manga with tanned skins-- and in the smut/romance aspect, I feel the mangaka is doing her job well. Great art, sexy smut scenes, intense romance vibe. People who got their rocks off of these type of fictions would essentially love this manga, not unlike her previous Arabian-set mangas.

But the surrounding aspects were definitely the minuses.

What I would give negative points for would be the exoticizing of Arabian cultures (in particular, the royalties). At best the presentation is boring, lacking variety, and uninspired (seriously, all the semes look and act pretty much the same)-- at worst it's stereotypical and offensive (yes, yes, all Arabian nobility were possessive rapey alpha bastards with a wounded heart).

The mangaka...doesn't exactl stray off the stereotype, which can be a good or bad thing. Here, because the stereotype was based on racially offensive ideas about Arabian culture and its people...I feel it's sort of bad, in terms of storytelling and worldbuilding.

Out of all the princes in Tamaquis' little Arabic fantasy world, Sa'ud is the best looking in my opinion. They're all squarely in the "sexy Arabian prince takes unwilling lover away" stereotype, but what do you expect.

The story is just like all the others, "rape=love", with the justification that Mari is "doing it for his boss" whom he loves. The boss clearly doesn't love him back if he's sending him into the belly of the beast. Though Mari is getting a better deal than Haine or Aki, in that he's not being branded or practically ripped open.