▪	RELEASED BY:		DARK HORSE
		▪	AUTHOR / ART:		GINA BIGGS
		▪	FORMAT:		ENGLISH / BW
		▪	PAGES:		200
		▪	RATING:		10+
		▪	RELEASE DATE:		01/30/2008
		▪	REVIEW DATE:		03/12/2008
		▪	REVIEWED BY:		SCOTT CAMPBELL

When first-year high school student Miharu Ogawa gets a call from her parents, telling her to come straight home from school, she prepares herself for the worst. After all, the last time her quirky restaurateur parents told her to come straight home she ended up as a contestant on a kiddy game show! But nothing she could ever have imagined could have prepared her for their "great news:" Miharu is getting married! How's a spirited and independent teenager who has never even kissed a boy supposed to deal with suddenly having a fiancé she's never even met? And how will her feelings change when she finds out that there are other boys out there vying for her affection, and other girls ready and willing to take away the man she's not even sure she's ready for? With her family, friends (and enemies!) to cope with, will Miharu even have the time to find out if the handsome, devoted Kazuo Fujiwara is really the man she is meant to be with, the man connected to her by the red string of destiny?

In volume two of Red String, drama heightens and the complicated gets more complicated. Romantic high school student Miharu Ogawa believes that red strings of destiny tie lovers together forever, but a few hardened hearts around her feel that such bonds can be easily broken. Still struggling with the news of the arranged marriage that her parents lined up for her, Miharu begins to doubt her first instincts about Kazuo Fujiwara. After a rainy afternoon brings them together, Miharu finds that she has more in common with the salacious Makoto Yosue than she thought. Karen begins to vie for the heart of a boy who's promised to another, as memories of a past love torture her. Collected for the first time ever in book format (Red String was originally a web comic), this second book presents chapters eight to fourteen of an ongoing journey of self-discovery.

The art continues to be consistent and enjoyable into volume two. The pacing of the story is great because it rarely slows down – the plot is always covering something important to the overall speed and delivery of the drama. The character designs are simplistic, but you always know which character is which because they all have something unique about them that set them apart. Something that seems to be getting better and more professional is the background art and designs. They were fine in the last book, but you can really see the artist getting better at it and using more detailed backgrounds as the story goes along.

IN SUMMARY: 
All in all, Red String is an involving romance/drama that really adds something to the original English language manga lineup that we are seeing more and more of these days. A good series for anyone who enjoys a tale of romantic destiny and self-discovery.