Comics: Harlequin Manga – Linda Howard

My brain was starting to have a meltdown during a dull bout of work when I decided to see if there would be anything by Linda Howard under Harlequin Manga.

There are.

Some titles amused me so much that I decided to inflict these on you all.

And here’s a list of translations!

Please note, my translation skills are still a bit dodgy. I wanted to ask a colleague, my dad or one of my siblings to translate them, but I’m still not that easy breezy open about my romance reading.

I put the list out as an image because this blog can’t publish original titles without producing a few series of question marks as replacements. I have no idea how to configure wordpress to correct this problem. So, please bear with this solution for the time being.

Most of these titles seem to be based on the first scene of a story, don’t they?

Tears of the Renegade opens with a dance scene if I remember right. I’m not too sure as I read this only once years, years ago. Open Season / Party Girl, I think, has heroine’s mother suggesting she should have a make-over and go out to have fun?

I don’t remember anything about Almost Forever / The Beautiful Target so I have no idea if the alternate title is a WTF or not. I think this is a corporate romance? I vaguely remember it’s linked to either Duncan’s Woman or Sarah’s Child somehow. I never finished Almost Forever. I can’t remember why. I’m certain that it’s to do with the hero, who probably pissed me off so much that I stopped reading it. I’m quite curious about Sarah’s Child / Wishing For a Shooting Star because it suggests Sarah is wishing for something  unattainable.

It has a similar vibe to After the Night / Searching For That Day, which suggests a certain day has such an impact that the person’s still emotionally affected by it. There is a problem with it, though. It happened at night, didn’t it? The night she got thrown out along with her family. I tried to think of a day-time event that has a similar impact, but couldn’t think of any.

As for my old favourite Midnight Rainbow / Costa Rica’s Flame… WTF?

All right, the story does take place in the jungles of Costa Rica and the cover does live up to my idea of Jane and Grant (my favourite couple), but still…? I think they could come up with a better title than that. Huh, I’d be happy to live with Midnight Sun (mayonaka taiyou), which has to be one of most popular (and most irritating) titles in Japanese literature, music and film. I suppose ‘flame’ or ‘fire’ could refer to the steamy factor of their relationship, but I still don’t like it. As if you haven’t figured it out by now.

I had fun doing this. I think I might do the same for other Harlequin Manga titles. Or some Harlequin category romances? I don’t know, but I’ll have a try later on either way.

Anyhow if you spot an error, please do let me know with your correction in comments or wherever works best for you. Thanks.

Also, see this cover of After the Night? It amuses me so much.

At least the artist got Faith’s hair colour right. That’s the main thing.