What do you think?
Rate this book
The Reincarnator and the Goblin Maiden’s Happily Ever After #1
The Reincarnator and the Goblin Maiden’s Happily Ever After: Using a Past Life to Keep a Joyful Wife Volume 1
Ginorious Adolni has but one goal after reincarnating into a new world—find and marry someone he can grow old with. After living for close to a century without ever having a single relationship due to his hideous appearance, Ginorious wishes for companionship from the depths of his heart. The opportunity presents itself one day when he receives an offer to marry the daughter of the premier duke. It’s a shocking proposal for the son of a simple viscount, until he learns that all their attempts to arrange courtships with higher nobles have already failed, and for one simple the daughter’s appearance, which has earned her the epithet of the Goblin Maiden. But Ginorious sees his past self in her, and soon learns that she has a genuinely beautiful soul. Ginorious resolves to use everything at his disposal, including knowledge from his past life, to make her happy.
315 pages, Kindle Edition
Published October 21, 2024
8 people are currently reading
28 people want to read
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 7 of 7 reviews
October 23, 2024
A bit of an odd story to me. At its core it is a sugary sweet romance with both the main character and love interest being fairly insecure about themselves, the MC due to events in his past life and the love interest due to her appearance.
The romance and characters are all fairly typical for the genre, and nothing sets it apart for me. The world on the other hand is somewhat intriguing. At a first glance it is fairly typical, semi-medieval Europe, with nobility, a bit of class conflict, and an academy. Under the surface though there is the fact that the MC is not from RL Japan, but from an alternate Earth were magic is real (and such part of the technology) and the end of the volume comes with its own small twist. I am not sure whether this is different enough to keep me hooked, especially since I am not entirely sure the author will do anything fundamental with it. The focus of the story is after all on the romance.
All in all, not a bad romance perse, but just a bit too generic for me without something that keeps it fresh for me.
The romance and characters are all fairly typical for the genre, and nothing sets it apart for me. The world on the other hand is somewhat intriguing. At a first glance it is fairly typical, semi-medieval Europe, with nobility, a bit of class conflict, and an academy. Under the surface though there is the fact that the MC is not from RL Japan, but from an alternate Earth were magic is real (and such part of the technology) and the end of the volume comes with its own small twist. I am not sure whether this is different enough to keep me hooked, especially since I am not entirely sure the author will do anything fundamental with it. The focus of the story is after all on the romance.
All in all, not a bad romance perse, but just a bit too generic for me without something that keeps it fresh for me.
November 8, 2024
I couldn’t wait until the novel is fully translated so I jumped to the WN. It’s so much heartwarming to read and will make you shed tears of happiness and joy
December 31, 2024
The world-building so in-depth that it's really believable as a world. The magic system (and sometimes lack thereof), the history, the relics. I adore it all. I even adore the couple together, and romance is not generally what I look for in books. I'm eagerly awaiting the next in the series.
November 16, 2024
A cute light novel with a lovely couple. I really enjoyed being able to read both Gino’s and Ana’s perspective, both on each other and the situations they faced together. It was very sweet to see how they really started to honestly care for each other and wanted to grow to be better for the sake of each other. I look forward to reading more in the series, especially with all the little hints of mystery around the setting of this world.
September 24, 2024
Written by Shinten-Shinchi and illustrated by Tokima, J-Novel Club’s latest title, The Reincarnator and the Goblin Maiden’s Happily Ever After, is a romantic fantasy that aims to look beyond physical appearance.
Following Ginorious, a lower noble and reincarnator, the story tells of his rather unusual engagement to the daughter of a duke, Anastasia. Not usually the type of marriage a dukedom would normally stoop to; they’ve had to look among the lower nobility for marriage candidates as a result of Anastasia’s infamous moniker, the Goblin Maiden. Her horrifying appearance has led to rejection after rejection, that is, until Ginorious. Having been despised in his previous life thanks to his own ugly appearance, Ginorious has learnt to look beyond physical beauty to see what’s within. What he sees in Anastasia is a kind and intelligent young woman, one that he’d face any adversity to make happy.
Ginorious and Anastasia’s relationship is central to the story, making or breaking the series. From the very beginning, the author has a clear idea of the foundations with which they intend to develop their relationship. These foundations find the first sparks between them to be awkward yet endearing. Despite the inability to properly communicate with one another, it’s clear from both of their points of view that they are besotted with one another.
As the relationship and story develop, however, these early superficial feelings move towards something more mature and complex.
On the romantic side, the story features several fun and enjoyable-to-read dates that aim to deepen their knowledge of one another. Their lakeside date, for example, features a wonderful reminiscence about Ana and her maid during childhood.
On the side of personal growth, the relationship between the two often becomes a source of strength. In this volume, Ana, in particular, benefits from this newfound strength. This becomes key during the volume’s main conflict. Suffering intense bullying and forcing herself to act demurely to avoid attracting attention, knowing that Ginorious is in her corner, allows Ana a new sense of freedom. As a result, she’s able to break out of her shell and finally stand up to some of her tormentors.
While the central romance of the story gives the series strong foundations, what elevates it to the next level comes from its world-building. The best of this world-building comes from a side plot revolving around curses and how to lift Ana’s goblin curse. Through this, we gleam the differences between this fantasy world and the one that Ginorious originally came from, the technological black hole facing the world, and, more importantly, the underlying cause for Ana’s illness and the difficulty with its treatment.
Overall, The Goblin Maiden’s Happily Ever After’s first instalment lays strong foundations for the rest of the series. Featuring a cute yet mature central romance, there’s a lot to get behind and root for between Ginorious and Anastasia. Moreover, utilising a side plot to focus on world-building truly elevates this series from other examples in the genre.
Following Ginorious, a lower noble and reincarnator, the story tells of his rather unusual engagement to the daughter of a duke, Anastasia. Not usually the type of marriage a dukedom would normally stoop to; they’ve had to look among the lower nobility for marriage candidates as a result of Anastasia’s infamous moniker, the Goblin Maiden. Her horrifying appearance has led to rejection after rejection, that is, until Ginorious. Having been despised in his previous life thanks to his own ugly appearance, Ginorious has learnt to look beyond physical beauty to see what’s within. What he sees in Anastasia is a kind and intelligent young woman, one that he’d face any adversity to make happy.
Ginorious and Anastasia’s relationship is central to the story, making or breaking the series. From the very beginning, the author has a clear idea of the foundations with which they intend to develop their relationship. These foundations find the first sparks between them to be awkward yet endearing. Despite the inability to properly communicate with one another, it’s clear from both of their points of view that they are besotted with one another.
As the relationship and story develop, however, these early superficial feelings move towards something more mature and complex.
On the romantic side, the story features several fun and enjoyable-to-read dates that aim to deepen their knowledge of one another. Their lakeside date, for example, features a wonderful reminiscence about Ana and her maid during childhood.
On the side of personal growth, the relationship between the two often becomes a source of strength. In this volume, Ana, in particular, benefits from this newfound strength. This becomes key during the volume’s main conflict. Suffering intense bullying and forcing herself to act demurely to avoid attracting attention, knowing that Ginorious is in her corner, allows Ana a new sense of freedom. As a result, she’s able to break out of her shell and finally stand up to some of her tormentors.
While the central romance of the story gives the series strong foundations, what elevates it to the next level comes from its world-building. The best of this world-building comes from a side plot revolving around curses and how to lift Ana’s goblin curse. Through this, we gleam the differences between this fantasy world and the one that Ginorious originally came from, the technological black hole facing the world, and, more importantly, the underlying cause for Ana’s illness and the difficulty with its treatment.
Overall, The Goblin Maiden’s Happily Ever After’s first instalment lays strong foundations for the rest of the series. Featuring a cute yet mature central romance, there’s a lot to get behind and root for between Ginorious and Anastasia. Moreover, utilising a side plot to focus on world-building truly elevates this series from other examples in the genre.
December 29, 2024
Gino died old and alone in his first life, and he's determined not to repeat that experience. So when he receives a marriage offer for a duke's daughter, he's soon enamored of her beautiful soul. He doesn't even notice the features that gave her the nickname of Goblin Maiden. For her part, Ana isn't sure she can take this new paramour seriously, when all her previous interactions with others focused so heavily on her looks.
This had some strong points (even if Gino's emphasis on not wanting to die alone tended to veer into preachy territory at times). I was hoping for a Beauty and the Beast retelling, and to some extent it is. Ana's looks are inhumanly ugly, but Gino is far more interested in who a person is than how she looks, and he honestly can't comprehend why Ana is so unpopular. She's a sweet, thoughtful girl, and that makes her everything he ever wanted in a wife.
And then it dumps a school arc into the plot. And suddenly we're back in the typical magic academy plotline, where Ana has to deal with more commonplace school bullies, and Gino is . . . working to get Ana credit during group projects. To be fair, this arc isn't terrible, but it basically killed my interest in the book. There are other oddities, like Gino's past life not being quite what it was initially presented as, but I'm tired of school arcs showing up to take over stories.
Overall this was a decent read, just one that ended up a lot more "high school" flavored than I wanted. I rate this story Neutral.
This had some strong points (even if Gino's emphasis on not wanting to die alone tended to veer into preachy territory at times). I was hoping for a Beauty and the Beast retelling, and to some extent it is. Ana's looks are inhumanly ugly, but Gino is far more interested in who a person is than how she looks, and he honestly can't comprehend why Ana is so unpopular. She's a sweet, thoughtful girl, and that makes her everything he ever wanted in a wife.
And then it dumps a school arc into the plot. And suddenly we're back in the typical magic academy plotline, where Ana has to deal with more commonplace school bullies, and Gino is . . . working to get Ana credit during group projects. To be fair, this arc isn't terrible, but it basically killed my interest in the book. There are other oddities, like Gino's past life not being quite what it was initially presented as, but I'm tired of school arcs showing up to take over stories.
Overall this was a decent read, just one that ended up a lot more "high school" flavored than I wanted. I rate this story Neutral.
December 19, 2025
Overall, a sweet romance story without too much nonsensical drama. Almost to a point where there is basically no drama. It is a pretty comfy story to read, and there were a few moments that were touching to me.
One of my main pain points is that the heroine is too perfect. Her flaw is supposed to be within her looks, and her true beauty comes out through her personality. However, the negatives of her looks rarely seeps into her personality, and because of her status as a ducal daughter, it gets ignored by many of the characters in the story. The author designed the protagonist and heroine to have a perfectly compatible relationship, and as a result they never have any conflict with each other which is so unrealistic for a relationship.
Note: I have read the second volume, and it builds on the first volume in a much better way so would overall recommend.
One of my main pain points is that the heroine is too perfect. Her flaw is supposed to be within her looks, and her true beauty comes out through her personality. However, the negatives of her looks rarely seeps into her personality, and because of her status as a ducal daughter, it gets ignored by many of the characters in the story. The author designed the protagonist and heroine to have a perfectly compatible relationship, and as a result they never have any conflict with each other which is so unrealistic for a relationship.
Note: I have read the second volume, and it builds on the first volume in a much better way so would overall recommend.
Displaying 1 - 7 of 7 reviews