Cha Siyeon was brought home by her father to a household filled with cold, indifferent half-brothers. Despite her late mother having nothing to do with the death of their mother (at least according to the MTL), they still held her responsible. Even the household staff treated her like trash, viewing both Siyeon and her mom as homewreckers. College was her ticket out—finally free, she moved out and juggled three part-time jobs while studying. Somewhere in between, she still found time to play an otome game.
The game had two modes:
Normal mode followed the heroine, Yvonne.
Hard mode followed the villainess, Penelope.
In normal mode, Yvonne began with a 30% favorability rating from each of the five male leads:
Crown Prince Callisto
Marquis Vinter
Young Duke Derrick
Duke’s second son Reynold
Knight Eclise
In hard mode, as Penelope, the favorability was either zero or negative. And the plot? Straight out of the "villainess gets doomed" playbook:
Yvonne goes missing as a child
The Duke adopts Penelope because she resembles Yvonne
Derrick and Reynold resent Penelope for taking Yvonne’s place
On Penelope’s 18th birthday, Vinter returns with the real Yvonne
Eclise, a former slave purchased by the Duke, is appointed Yvonne’s escort
Yvonne meets Callisto → they fall in love
Penelope, as the villainess, is ultimately killed by Callisto
After dying countless times in hard mode, Cha Siyeon rage-quits the game… only to wake up inside it—as Penelope. Now, she must reach 100% favorability with one male lead and receive a love confession before the coming-of-age ceremony to return home.
The novel spans five volumes with:
231 main chapters
40 side stories
8 special chapters
The translation? Pretty much raw MTL—definitely a "hard mode" read in more ways than one. But it was popular enough to get a manhwa adaptation.
My thoughts: I gave this 4 stars, but only because of the side stories. Why? Because it felt like the author suddenly realized, “Oops, I forgot to wrap things up properly.” So we get 40 more chapters to finally give Penelope her closure.
Then—surprise!—the author again realizes Cha Siyeon didn’t get hers. Cue another 8 special chapters to fix that.
It honestly felt like James Cameron waking up one morning and deciding, “You know what? Jack Dawson survived the Titanic. Let’s give him a new arc where he moves on because Rose already got her happy ending.” And then writing yet another side story where we watch Rose living her best life with her family, just so she can finally let go of the past.
So, was it a tragedy? Not really. The “tragedy” tag is basically false advertising at this point.
everything about this book is brilliant, phenomenal, perfect, mind-blowing, incredible and all the epithets on the list. did I get everything I've been so desperately looking for in books for the last year, I guess?? I was fascinated by the main character, who did not rush because of the first good word, or because the brothers "changed their minds." I screamed out loud from the lines of callisto, who is not really a psychopath, but the main comedian of the empire. well, look at this sweetheart. the sweetest boy is ready to go to the ends of the earth for the sake of his love, allows her to deal with problems and simply trusts her infinitely. and the ending? I was crying. I knew what she would choose, and yet it was too sad.
ЖЧТО ЗНАЧИТ КОНЕЦ ИГРЫ??!! А КАК ЖЕ 5 ЧАСТЬ НОВЕЛЛЫ, О ЧЕМ ОНА БУДЕТ???
нет я конечно рада такому финалу, я почти разрыдалась в конце но столько вопросов, и так мало ответов Выжил ли Дерек хотя бы??? Ну помолюсь чтобы в 5 части объяснили Хотя вроде как новелла типа закончилась
Господи ну за что!! Почему я опять должна ждать и терзаться мыслями!
by the way, это охуенно Я не ожидала что будет такой кипиш
Upd ржу что Каллисто в ру прозвали калиткой
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
Ну мне правда понравилось. Четвертая часть очень хорошая, да и вся серия ровно хорошая. Правда не совсем понятно, что будет дальше, так как в целом уже тут концовка достаточно полная! Надеюсь, пятая часть не разочарует, потому что пока точно лайк! Хотя… для меня слишком много снова рассуждений о жестокой судьбе героини, для меня странновато ее тотальное недоверие к людям, хотя как я уже писала, это понимаемо сюжетно.
Hubo muchísimas cosas que me parecieron re wtf de lo loco y descabellado pero me gusto, llore una banda y fueron muchos momentos de daddy issues en donde la pasé mal pero valió la pena leer esta historia
Read on Tapas; this volume contains the End of Hard Mode to the end of the main story.
The main story is over! I feel like I say this every volume, but... so much has happened in this volume!!
With hard mode over, Penny despairs. Maybe not in so many words; our girl is not the most emotive--years of holding everything in as you deal with neglect and abuse will do that to you--but she did voluntarily drink poison, hoping that death would release her from this ridiculous game. So, you know. All in all, it was probably a good decision--not because it granted her freedom, but because it forced (most) of the male leads to confront the notion of a world without her. And that definitely played in her favor as the demoness known as the heroine tried to have her way.
Callisto continues to be the stand-out character. We get so many stand-out moments of him and his relationship with Penelope, and they're such a great couple. The story was worth it for them alone, lol. The man never once doubts Penny. He enables her to fly rather than trying to clip her wings, and he is honest with his feelings. All other ML need to take note!
Especially Eckles. To me, this man is vile. I get that Ivonne has manipulated him to some degree, but she herself confesses that she can't fully reach him. The things he has done--he has done for himself, to satisfy his own selfish desires, without any regard for anyone else - not for the women he claims to love and certainly not for his kingdom. He is a selfish and obsessed man who only knows how to manipulate and force others to do his bidding. This man has no idea what "love" means.
Another stand-out character? the duke! I keep saying this, but I REALLY love him. He is so clumsy with his feelings and parenting, but he trusts Penny and wants the best for her.
One downside to this novel? the final final showdown. It was over so quickly--I thought an immortal demonic-like creature would be a little harder to kill...
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
Esse 4º livro termina a saga de Penélope, ele tem o objetivo de explicar as coisas e encerrar os arcos, acho que em alguns arcos, como a Penélope falando as verdades e se impondo para alguns dos personagens masculinos foi muito bom, a parte de relacionamento entre os personagens eu gostei, seja a Penélope encerrando os vínculos e jogando duras verdades aos personagens masculinos que a trataram mal, ou ela construindo um relacionamento verdadeiro com o príncipe herdeiro (sendo essa a melhor parte de livro).
Mas o livro deixa a desejar na parte de encerramento da história no que diz respeito ao embate entre Penélope e Ivonne/Leila, a guerra e a batalha final é um tanto quando confusão, senti que as coisas fora sendo jogadas e não tinham um bom alinhamento, o enredo conduz Penélope a missões desnecessárias só pra encher linguiça, pois no final só queria explicar à mitologia/origem daquele mundo, mas poderia ter sido feito de forma mais objetiva, porque a Penélope vai atrás do espelho ? Isso acaba não tendo impacto nenhum na luta final. O arco do Eckles é um saco, só atrapalha o embate de Ivonne com a protagonista e enche linguiça, pq é um lenga lenga esse chato do Eckles, e ainda assim vc não sente que realmente foi resolvido.
A batalha final é uma confusão, mal desenvolvida, a gente tem o chato do Eckles e os rebeldes de Delman tentando dar um golpe, a imperatriz e seus parentes tbm tentando dar um golpe, Leila querendo ascender ao trono (golpe) e ainda por cima um dragão que saiu do nada e foi para lugar nenhum nessa história, a única parte boa desse bagunça toda é a interação da Penélope com Callisto. Toda a batalha é muito mal desenvolvida e confusa, o embata de Leila e Penélope é tão anticlímax, vai construindo como se Leila fosse super poderosa e imortal, ao mesmo tempo que a gente espera que Penélope esteja poderosa por conta da magia antiga dela, mas no final Leila é derrotada com certa facilidade e o potencial desse embate é totalmente desperdiçado, não sei pra que ficou nessa saga toda do espelho da verdade quando no final ele nem teve tanta relevância assim pro embate das duas rivais, enfim deixou a desejar.
Em compensação as interação de Penélope e Callisto, bem como o desenvolvimento do relacionamento deles é a onde o livro brilha e te prende na história, e que faz valer a pena a leitura.
Em um universo que Penelope foi puxada, enfrentou diversos perigos chegou o momento de encontrar a verdadeira vilã do jogo, a nossa querida protagonista encontra diante de seu inimigo, Ivonne a filha verdadeira do duque.
Em uma luta pelo coração dos personagens em jogo, só um certo homem conseguiu estar ao lado de Penelope para enfrentar a terrível Ivonne, com sacrifícios e a rota verdadeira chegando descobrimos que a Penelope está numa linha temporal para salvar aqueles que desprezaram a Penelope original.
Agora diante da luta, a vitória será decidida em cada página da novel levando a final verdadeiro do jogo, Penelope escolhera bem nesse final do jogo pois escolheu uma difícil lição que levou a permanecer no jogo e aos braços do homem que roubou seu coração.
Diante do fim, realmente me senti emocionada de ler essa obra incrível, estou realmente cativada por esse volume 4, estou mega feliz que Penelope decidiu escolher Calisto no final dessa obra, pois ele é um homem digno para seu coração, espero que eles sejam felizes nessa obra.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
(2.5 stars) The main story ends with a lot of battles against monsters, magic, people, and the past. Events are a bit too chaotic making the flow of action or identifying speakers in a dialogue a bit more difficult (amped by translation issues). Readers don't really have enough information to predict everything, but it is nice to see some items or seeded details return. The narrative focuses on the main couple and tries (poorly) to redeem some of our side characters. While I think the levels of betrayal and pain are not really forgivable, the unfinished conflicts and harsh resolutions are true to life.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
Pues, he devorado esta serie de novelas y he de decir que estoy decepcionada. Había tanto que desarrollar en personajes, en poderes y en relaciones que pfff, no sé, me dejó un sabor semi amargo el final y tirando más para amargo la verdad. Sé que hay un quinto libro pero es un extra por lo que he visto, aunque igual lo leeré jajaja. Si les llama la atención esta novela léanla, pero no se esperen LA NOVELA. Eso sí me dió varios momentos de fangirleo y risas.
This is the book where the story ends. But for an unknown reason i am holding in my hands book 5... Anyway, it was a good story, 1 bcz i love transmigration and rebirth stories and 2 bcz it is just a well written story. I read 4 books in 2 days with breaks for sleep and work and put them down only when was utterly exhausted. I did not give them more than 3 stars cz realistically speaking it is not a masterpiece of the world literature. But it is a good story which i greatly enjoyed reading.
3.5/5 ⭐️ Final de la historia principal 🥹 No es una historia de escritura compleja, pero es de muchos capítulos (como son por lo general las novelas de este tipo), así que es fácil de leer, a pesar de lo extenso.
Me encanto este arco, redención del padre y el hermano bueno, momentos de Callisto y Penelope, entre otras cosas ❤️🩹
Espero con emoción que el manhwa llegue a este punto🤭
Я н Ещё не читала но на другом сайте честно говоря хрен зарегестрируетесь но здесь я потому что у нас ещё нет перевода и так интересно что случится но как вы живёте с этими регистрациями пока зарегистрируюсь вся жизнь пролетит перед глазами Эти регистрации дерьмо как говорится Дерьмо и в Африке дерьмо
Me hizo llorar los ultimos capitulos, tengo sentimientos encontrados por Eclipse. Estoy esperando leer la vida de Penny y Callisto juntos, Callisto es muy lindo, no puede ser más hermoso y la manera en que trata a Penny, el realmente sin preguntar ya sabia lo que pensaba y confiaba en ella. Despues voy a releer porque siento que no aprecie muy bien los momentos romanticos de Callisto
Ha sido una montaña rusa de emociones, pero enserio que este va siendo mi libro favorito de la saga y cada vez que Callisto aparecía gritaba pero de emoción, el inicio comenzó tan triste y el final ❤️🩹 lo mejor me encantó