Hot Blooded Woman by Hwang Mi Ri

Title: Hot Blooded Woman
Mangaka: Hwang Mi Ri
Age Group: Older Teens
# of Pages: Approx. 150
# of Volumes: 24
My Rating: 5/5

Ha Ji Kang was once a gentle little girl who enjoyed knitting. Seeing that she was too soft, her older brothers decided to make her their slave so she could be "tamed". After growing up from being bullied by her brothers, she is now a fearless and gluttonous jjang (a gangster leader of a school)! Not to mention clueless too!

While she and her gang are speeding through the streets on their motorcycles, Ha Ji collides into an oncoming truck! Her soul is released and she meets a soul collector. Shortly her soul enters a body, but not of her own! She accidentally emerged into the body of the silent and rich beauty Aram, who is constantly bullied when she is disguised as a plain girl at school. The soul collector follows around Ha Ji who pretends to be her, fearing the body would be damaged before Aram's soul returns. But with Ha Ji's personality and Aram's appearance, it cause havocs of up and downs! Enter Sin Uoo, a handsome young man who Aram is madly in love with. He hates her with a passion and has a cold personality that is covered up with his "poker face". Ha Ji thinks he is a worthy opponent. Wanting to fight him to take the position of jjang, she continuously follows him around until he gives in. What will happen when the two fall in love and with danger lurking in every corner?

This series took me three to four days to complete. And like the artist's other manhwa, Cutie Boy, I loved it. I have to admit I picked it up about five times and kept putting it down (or more like exiting the window) because I didn't like how the first couple of pages started off. Once the motorcycle scene appeared about two chapters later, I was instantly hooked. It kept my attention 100% until volume 19 where everything started to slow down. At that point I rate it a 4/5. I kept on reading until I finished. The ending wasn't the best but it wasn't terrible either. I liked the surpise of what happened in the future for the core characters. I thought that the artist lost her touch near the end where all the suspense and violence was used up in the beginning and middle.

In my review for Cutie Boy, I mentioned that she twisted all stereotypes with her own touch. This time, no matter which character you hate, you will end up pitying them at one point. I find that it takes quite a skill for someone to make you feel sorry for a villain (since there are few throughout). My favourite character got to be Han Seo (main villian and Ha Ji's best friend). He is a psychopath who likes to hurt people when he is bored. But he is so darn awesome! He sticks out to be my favourite bad boy in manhwas because this guy is completely insane but is pretty good looking while he is at it.

The only plot hole I found is when Sin Uoo and Han Seo figured out that Ha Ji was Aram after she came back into her own body. Why didn't they question how it is possible for a person to be the same as another? They accepted without asking much and that bothered the heck out of me! And I also found that it should have been shorter to maybe 15 volumes instead. I would prefer it around ten max but other than that, I love Hot Blooded Woman.

I have to sadly report that none of Hwang Mi Ri's works have still not been licensed. She made so many other series and I'm sure some manga companies could benefit from her work. If you want to read this, please go www.mangafox.com. There's a lot of violence involved.