A Bride's Story, Vol. 7

I have very few opportunities to enjoy luxuries. Books are sometimes an exception. Herewith a MAJOR luxury experience via a book. Manga artist Kaoru Mori does gorgeous drawing, and to the resulting beauty she adds stories that emphasize kindness and life's pleasures. In this seventh volume of her "Bride's Story", set in a 19th Century Muslim world, she absolutely hits a peak of beauty combined with sweetness.

The tale of Anis and Sherine, combined with the sweet short story of Karluk’s parents, is a tale guaranteed to tug your heartstrings. Beautiful art, heart melting stories, and a bit of intrigue into Mr. Smith’s life... everything you could want from Kaoru Mori and more!

Do not be put off my this volume. This has been an absolutely amazing series thus far and remains so and the Author/illustrator does explain her slight deviation in art style in the afterword. As such, this is certainly not one of those manga's you can really jump around in the volume order with. This volume continues its engrossing story line illustrating middle eastern traditional cultural norms surrounding various women's weddings and family stories, as observed by a story collecting, traveling Englishman. This issue is much simpler in design then the previous 6 volumes but certainly does not lack in the on going story of Family, Friends and Tradition. I cant recommend this series enough if you are just now coming upon it.

Featuring bath houses in the place of detailed clothing and patterns, this is a wonderful addition to this series as it moves to another country and another group of women with their own places in the culture and their special relationships.

Kaoru Mori's intricate line work continues with her latest volume of A Bride's Story. The setting this time however requires much less detail and pattern on clothes but that's fine, they still look great. Also this volume's story focuses heavily on public baths so the characters are pretty much not wearing clothes for a large portion of the pages. If you wanted an example of a manga that could have so much bathing scenes but remain classy, this has got to be it.

There is something odd about this series. There is nothing particularly amazing, nor unique, about it but I find myself very much glued to it and wanting more. When there are nothing but grim, dark and gritty on the shelfs a story as simple and rather bright as this one is such welcome change from the constant brooding. Simple and rather human stories like these sometimes are more impactful than something grand and complex. I recommend this series to anyone and if there was a Spanish publication I'd ask my family to read it, too.

I love the world, the culture, stories and the artwork itself. A beautifully rendered historical manga whether or not it's authentic it still draws you.

the whole series is a fun read. I had first sent them to my niece. Her praise of the collection inspired me to read them.