The Reincarnated Villainess Won’t Seek Revenge Volume 1

Reincarnated Villainess Does Not Want Revenge (Novel) #1

by akako, Hazuki Futaba (Illustrator), JCT (Translator)

A Second Chance At Peace…Or Revenge?!

After being hanged for a crime she didn’t commit, Rosemary entered the annals of history as a villainess. So when she reincarnates as Mary with her memories intact, all she desires is a peaceful existence. And yet she’s forced back into the world of politics against her wishes!

“Now then, dear sister, how would you like to punish those who killed you?”

Mary’s brother—who she loved so much in her past life—has undergone a terrible transformation. Now, he seeks revenge on her behalf.

“Tell me what you desire, my lady.”

Likewise, the knight who swore allegiance to Mary in her past life makes the same vow in the present. Despite all this, Mary doesn’t want vengeance against those who killed her. But will the people surrounding her allow for peace?

Genres: Light Novel, Fantasy, Manga

232 pages, Kindle Edition

First published October 10, 2020

Reviews

[Jen · Rating 2 out of 5]

Ugh, the siscon is real. DNF at 58%. I can’t go any further and it’s kinda boring.

2, I didn’t hate it but it’s squicky, stars.

[Mk · Rating 2 out of 5]

1) the time skipping back and forth is annoying instead of useful
2) almost nothing happens in this book; the pacing is WILD
3) HER BROTHER WANTS TO MARRY HER

not reading any sequels, this one's messed up, fam

[Johnny SkullTek · Rating 2 out of 5]

There were some neat ideas in play - particularly the idea of the MC being reincarnated only a short time after her death, and in the general vicinity of where everything happened.

A decent number of the scenes were interesting enough, but the author handwaves a lot of pretty big details in pursuit of getting to those scenes more quickly. As a result, it sometimes feels like 'the stiches are showing' - but not egregiously so. I kept reading to see what the author would do with the ideas (spoiler: not too much, unfortunately).

At times, I was pulled out of the story by bits where I felt like things were happening for the sake of demonstrating a checklist of character traits the author wanted us to know about. There was more than one bit that made me feel like it could have been a post that'd be mocked on reddit's /r/EveryoneClapped

Towards the end, it sometimes felt like characters might have been doing things less because it made sense for what we knew of their characters, and more about setting up dynamics for the sequel volume.

I would have rounded up to a '3', but I took points off for the 'bonus story' (epilogue) at the end where the older male leads were getting *way* too creepy-weird for me about whether or not the MC had ever kissed anyone before in either of her lifetimes.

The resolution to that epilogue was *just* enough to earn a light grimace, and a firm feeling that I wasn't going to be interested in a sequel about these guys trying to win the MC's hand now that the main revenge plot (and its largely handwaved aftermath) is more-or-less done with.

[Katy · Rating 3 out of 5]

Interesting storyline

The storyline is really good, but the rapid changes in pov can be very confusing. I do enjoy different povs, but at times, the changes of pov are very abrupt. Towards the 2nd half of the book, there was a lot of retelling of the same things from different povs and that was very repetitive. But the story is good.

[Levi · Rating 3 out of 5]

It was OK, the random perspective changes throughout were a bit offputting though.

Also out of the three 'love interests', one being her previous brother who had turned into basically a yandere and her guard who was tbh only one step behind...the son of the people who killed her was honestly the best, and he even gave up on her out of respect for her wishes!

[Jennifer · Rating 1 out of 5]

DNF.

Lately I feel like a broken record, complaining about crappy light novels. Why do I even keep reading them, you might ask? Sometimes I don’t even know myself. Maybe it’s for the occasional gems that - even if they aren’t the best writing - are entertaining enough that I can overlook any issues. I just don’t understand why this is the quality of book that gets deemed worth releasing officially. I suppose it doesn’t cost a lot since this is digital and clearly people are reading and enjoying it, but IMO it lowers the overall view of light novels. I also cringe that so many young readers grow up on books like these, that are so poorly written and have such bad logic.

I got about halfway before I decided not to waste any more time on it. Grey was possibly the stupidest prince of the usual prince-fiancée-denounces-FL—to-marry-someone-else trope. What happened to Rosemary wasn’t even his plan, and he never reasoned any of it out. Literally he has a thought process of:

*fall in love with Tia, handmaiden appointed by her father, who happens to be a political enemy of my fiancé’s father
*Tia claims that Rosemary tried to kill her
*Tia’s dad has investigated, and says he totally found evidence - by the way, also found evidence against Rosemary’s dad! I can get rid of two thorns in my side!
*Hmm. Rosemary is being sentenced to execution?? I had no idea she did anything that bad, but Tia’s dad said she totally did.
*My dad (the king) warned me that the investigation is going too fast and maybe a neutral party should be involved. But since he said that, a neutral party obviously did investigate, even if Tia’s dad is the only one that ever brought up any of the charges.
*Watching Rosemary die is a little sad, but I have to cuddle Tia since she saw such a horrible image. Still surprised her crimes were serious enough for execution, but gosh that just means she must have been more horrible than I thought.
*Rosemary’s dad is deposed and Tia’s dad is taking over all the old positions held by the former faction. My dad says that’s a problem I should pay attention to, but why? It’s just one person replacing another. Oh look, no factions exist except his. No problem there.
*oh, I’m a puppet king now. That sucks. My wife immediately turned cold on me after our marriage. Turns out she’s cheating, that bitch! I’ll cheat on her too!

You’d think he might wonder if Tia was that deceptive, that maybe Rosemary wasn’t as guilty as he’d always thought, but that thought didn’t cross his mind.

I was speechless by this. How is the prince supposed to be this stupid?? And if the king saw there was a problem, why didn’t he - as you know, the KING - step in and override things? Instead somehow everyone just believed rumors that Rosemary was promiscuous, mean, and attempted to murder someone, with zero evidence. Before Tia’s dad took over, the other factions would have fought against this, you’d think. But no, authors of this kind of light novels seem to be incapable of applying logic and real world concepts, opting to present a very one dimensional world where they focus on how the royal family is so corrupt without actually giving you steps to show how or why this happened. Grey’s father didn’t seem that bad. And Grey himself isn’t corrupt, he’s just stupid and useless. It’s like they’ve completely forgotten that as the king, he could have the queen executed for infidelity and such. Instead he just…screws around because she does?

The current prince (yes, son of the pair that were responsible for her execution) falls in love with her after she gives the most asinine advice I’ve ever heard. Seriously, she interrupts his conversation with the knight commander to say “But a discerning young man such as yourself should have no trouble considering the consequences of his actions. For the sake of your people, please choose a good fiancée.” That’s it. Like it was earthshaking advice.

Her bro was planning all those years to get revenge, but TBH it didn’t feel all that effective. I just couldn’t deal with it anymore.

[Felix The Pirate Cat · Rating 3 out of 5]

Mein Frauchen und mich hat der Titel angesprochen, weil er so selbstlos klang, obwohl anscheinend vielmehr dahintersteckt, als man auf den ersten Blick zu ahnen scheint. Während mein Frauchen wirklich mit sich haderte an manchen Stellen, war mir jedoch klar, dass es hier mehr oder weniger ein relativ zufriedenstellendes Ende für einen ersten Band geben könnte.

Und ich hatte recht. Obwohl mein Frauchen da wohl anderer Meinung ist. Sie findet es doof, dass es in Sachen Liebe hier noch keine abschließende Entscheidung gab… und dass nur der idiotische Teil bestraft wurde, nicht der intrigante.

Mein Frauchen mochte Rosemary/Mary wirklich als Protagonistin und konnte gut mir ihr mitfühlen und verstand, warum sie keine „verbitterte Kuh“ (die Worte meines Frauchens) sein wollte und stattdessen lieber in Frieden leben wollte. Ich als Piratenkater teile die Meinung meines Frauchens nicht. Am liebsten hätte ich es gesehen, dass die Protagonistin ebenfalls einfach mal Gefühl zeigt. Nicht nur das ständige Heulen, sondern auch durch andere Taten. Sie liebte zwar ihren ehemaligen Kindheitsfreund und ihren jüngeren Bruder als auch ihre neue Familie, dennoch zeigte sie niemals was wirklich in ihr vorging. Sie war in diesem recht zweidimensional charakterisiert worden, was mich nervte. An ihrer Stelle hätte ich sicherlich all den Menschen mal mit meinen Krallen gern das Gesicht verschönert. Rose/Mary waren beide viel zu nett…

Sir Albert McClain ist ein Ritter und ein ehemaliger Jugendfreund von Rosemary. Ihr Tod hat ihn sehr verletzt und mitgenommen, aber noch viel mehr seine damalige Inkompetenz nichts an ihrer Situation geändert haben zu können. Er liebte sie und jetzt, da ihre Reinkarnation vor ihm steht, kann er da die Gefühle, die Liebe und die Gelüste nach Rache wirklich einfach so aufgeben?

Herzog Reynaldo Rose ist der jüngere Bruder von Rosemary. Er musste ihre Exekution, die auf falschen Anschuldigen beruhten, mit ansehen. Seither wuchs stetig in ihm der Wunsch nach Rache an der Monarchie und all den Beteiligten. Doch wie wird er sich entscheiden, wenn er erkennt, was der wahre Wunsch seiner wiedergeborenen Schwester ist?

Doch gleichzeitig passiert in diesem Zusammenhang noch viel mehr. Intrigen und der Sturz des Königshauses könnten die Folgen sein. Doch wie weit wird die Rache der beiden Männer gehen und wird Rose/Mary sich dazu hinreißen lassen, sich ebenfalls ihren Rachegefühlen anzuschließen?

Das Charaktersetting ist wirklich sehr unterschiedlich gestaltet und jeder Charakter hat gewisse Grundzüge, die ihn ausweisen und eine bestimmte Rolle einnehmen lassen. Sei es als unterstützender Charakter oder als führender Charakter mit besonderen Plänen, jeder hat hier sein eigenes Süppchen zu brauen und hinter so manch einem Nebencharakter steckt mehr als man im ersten Moment wirklich erwarten könnte.

Jedoch fehlte mir trotz all der indirekten Ankündigungen doch die Aktion. Die kam mir hier wirklich viel zu kurz. Ich hätte wenigstens mit ein zwei spannenden Konfrontationen oder Kämpfen gerechnet. Aber das? Das war in meinen Augen wirklich schwach und dann diese Strafe für diese eine Person… Echt jetzt? Hätte die nicht etwas härter ausfallen können…? Boah, das war mir dann doch echt zu seicht.

Das Konzept der Geschichte an sich ist nicht schlecht. Aber hier und da hätte man durchaus mehr Aktion und Charakterentwicklung einbauen können. So manch ein Charakter hat sich über die Zeitdauer der Story nicht ein klein bisschen verändert/entwickelt. Was echt tragisch ist. Da hatte ich mehr erwartet, aber wenig geliefert bekommen. Ob das im zweiten Band ebenfalls der Fall sein wird? Keine Ahnung. Und das werden mein Frauchen und ich wohl vorerst nicht feststellen können. Denn wir haben uns für dieses Jahr ein Ziel gesetzt: erst einmal hauptsächlich Bücher zu lesen, die bereits auf unserem SUB sind.

Daher wird es wohl noch eine Weile dauern, bis wir ggf. die Fortsetzung und anscheinend auch den Abschluss dieser Reihe lesen werden.

[Riri · Rating 3 out of 5]

Not awful, but not good either.

The premise is interesting. In a typical villainess story fashion, Rosemary got executed for crimes she didn't commit at the age of sixteen. Two years later she reincarnated as Mary, a baron's daughter living in the countryside, who has reached the fine age of eighteen by the time this story takes place. That means twenty years have passed since Rosemary's death, so the key people related to Rosemary are still alive. Her former fiancé, who has since become the king. The current queen, formerly a handmaid who stole her fiancé and framed her for murder attempt. Her younger half-brother. Her childhood friend and personal knight. They're all still alive, just much older than the current her.

So obviously, if age gap romance isn't your thing and you find it creepy, you should drop this book right now and go pick something else. Because due to how the story is set up, we have a pair of men in their thirties getting all sparkly-eyed over an eighteen year old girl. Another potential love interest is the current crown prince, so the son of the very couple who got Rosemary executed. I personally think he'd be the best match for Mary, because unlike the other two, he actually does see her as her current self instead of chasing Rosemary's shadow. Alas, it's super clear from the beginning that it's just not meant to be.

The writing, for the most part, is introspective. Lots and lots of highlight on the internal feelings of multiple characters, with plenty of perspective-switching between the past and the present. The problem is that the pacing is absolutely wack, and together with the ample focus on FEELS, they make up a very bizarre reading experience. One minute you're reading about the melancholic yearnings of Rosemary's half-brother, then you blink and suddenly he's on his way to commit high treason. There's no build-up, no change in tension, nothing. As a reader, I find it very difficult to mentally catch up with what was happening in the book.

Oh, and I liked Albert, the knight childhood friend who I think is Mary's main love interest. Since Mary doesn't have an abundance of responsibilities weighing upon her like Rosemary did, I think the process of her realizing her feelings for him was done really nicely. Sadly, it ends super fast because he becomes absolutely whipped and enters puppy mode the moment he learns about her past life. Now I'm not sure how to feel about him. Or the romance, for that matter.

Still will be picking up the next book to see how it ends.

[Mariána K · Rating 3 out of 5]

It was ok

The story was good with little to really write home about. I found the flashbacks excessive though, too many and often long and repetitive.a lot of screen time dedicated to retelling the same anecdotes from multiple perspectives. There was a lot of hand waving away inconvenient details as well. Setting was not well defined and left a lot of odd questions.

[Dharia Scarab · Rating 1 out of 5]

This was not for me. I didn’t like the skipping back and forth both between characters and time line.

[Diana · Rating 2 out of 5]

I skipped a lot to reach the end. I won’t read the second one.

[Andyyy · Rating 3 out of 5]

it was a nice read

[RustyNail · Rating 4 out of 5]

was a fun read!

[Laura · Rating 5 out of 5]

Sweet, like a pillow mint. This story is a little sad, but ends pretty sweetly. I would say in finishing it, I feel refreshed and mostly satisfied (but I probably will return for more) cough, the sequel.