Sunstone vol. 7
They say the course of true love never runs smooth. Which is likely why the relationships showcased in this volume are certainly doomed, because they’re both going really well. Amateur BDSM enthusiasts Alan and Ally are having the time of their lives as they explore their respective fetishes in the most adorkable fashion. Even when stricter security measures at Alan’s men-only dorm mean that they have to find a new place to meet up, their unyielding horniness means that it’ll only be a matter of time until they do. As for Anne and Laura, they’ve got a bit more issues to work out. Like the latter’s controlling tendencies, and the former’s indecisiveness about what she wants to do with her life. The good news is that these issues actually turn out to be strengths in this phase of their relationship and the girls become even closer as a result.
Creator Stjepan Sejic writes in his afterword to this volume that there’s a joy to writing a relationship that’s chugging along. This is true and the best part is that the joy he’s talking about is infectious. It’s actually a lot of fun to read a romance comic that’s relatively drama-free and just shows its primary characters enjoying each other’s… company. It helps immensely that Sejic is one of the best artists in the business and it’s thoroughly enjoyable to watch his characters talk about themselves to each other. Or recognize certain sexual foibles like making sure panties are put on over the garter belt, and how using a shower nozzle as a sex toy only works in an apartment with sufficient water pressure.
All of this — oh, plus Laura’s case of foot-in-mouth disease (figuratively) whenever she’s around Anne’s father — provides a more than suitable distraction to the volume’s biggest issue. Which would be the fact that anyone who has already read the first five volumes knows what’s going to happen with these characters. That leaves the “Mercy” arc of “Sunstone” coming off as an exercise in telling us something we already know, only in exhaustive detail. Those details are quite entertaining, however, and there’s always the chance that Sejic has some surprises in store for when the drama ramps up into high gear in vol. 8.