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Dinners with My Darling: How the Former Monster King Ate Her Way to Happiness Vol.1
“I’ll never love you.”
Unused to humans, Abigail panics when her new husband declares that he’ll never love her on the first night of their political marriage. Does that mean she’s not allowed to eat?!
A new twist on the food-based romance tale, starring an earl’s daughter who was the Monster King in her previous life! After years of neglect by her old family, Abigail will charm her sincere military husband and his household one bite at a time and find her happy ending!
Unused to humans, Abigail panics when her new husband declares that he’ll never love her on the first night of their political marriage. Does that mean she’s not allowed to eat?!
A new twist on the food-based romance tale, starring an earl’s daughter who was the Monster King in her previous life! After years of neglect by her old family, Abigail will charm her sincere military husband and his household one bite at a time and find her happy ending!
222 pages, Kindle Edition
Published January 31, 2025
28 people are currently reading
24 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 7 of 7 reviews
July 4, 2025
DNF at 88%. I don’t hate it, but it’s SQUICKY.
MC h is 16 at the start of this story, political marriage to a man of uncertain to me age, but I hope he’s early 20s.
She isn’t even naive, she’s just simple. Her prior life she was the Monster King and was sentient, but had no socialization and thought in a rudimentary and innocent fashion.
In this life, she was abused, neglected, malnourished and worked by her family, so no socialization there, until she was 16.
Now she’s with her husband and his family and servants and her innocence has captured their hearts. Yes, her husband loves her and wants to express that as husband and wife, but he’s not thus far because she so obviously has no concept of that.
She’s innocent, sheltered and unsocialized to the point of still being mentally a child when it comes to physical relations.
Until 88%, he never did more than let her snuggle with him, hug him and kiss her forehead. But then, he kissed her on the lips. Gently and sweetly, and it wasn’t scary to her, but SHE HAS NO CONCEPT OF WHAT IT MEANS. He did say he would go at her own pace and I guess she would have to be introduced to it at some point in time, but maybe show her having “The Talk” with her mother-in-law so the reader can see it’s not kinda suss and that they are trying to educate her about it?
It just felt weird and uncomfortable, so I’m pulling the plug here.
2, not horrible but not for me, stars.
MC h is 16 at the start of this story, political marriage to a man of uncertain to me age, but I hope he’s early 20s.
She isn’t even naive, she’s just simple. Her prior life she was the Monster King and was sentient, but had no socialization and thought in a rudimentary and innocent fashion.
In this life, she was abused, neglected, malnourished and worked by her family, so no socialization there, until she was 16.
Now she’s with her husband and his family and servants and her innocence has captured their hearts. Yes, her husband loves her and wants to express that as husband and wife, but he’s not thus far because she so obviously has no concept of that.
She’s innocent, sheltered and unsocialized to the point of still being mentally a child when it comes to physical relations.
Until 88%, he never did more than let her snuggle with him, hug him and kiss her forehead. But then, he kissed her on the lips. Gently and sweetly, and it wasn’t scary to her, but SHE HAS NO CONCEPT OF WHAT IT MEANS. He did say he would go at her own pace and I guess she would have to be introduced to it at some point in time, but maybe show her having “The Talk” with her mother-in-law so the reader can see it’s not kinda suss and that they are trying to educate her about it?
It just felt weird and uncomfortable, so I’m pulling the plug here.
2, not horrible but not for me, stars.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
January 1, 2026
I LOVED this way more than I expected to.
The premise alone is already hilarious and refreshing. The former Dark Lord reincarnated and stuck in an arranged marriage?? I know why you’re thinking, we’ve seen this before, but wait, there’s more! She doesn’t hide who she was, she doesn’t have plans for revenge. She doesn’t mind him telling her he won’t love her. She just cares about … food. Yup, food. What really sold me was how warm and cozy this manga is. It is fresh, charming, and genuinely different from a lot of other mangas I’ve read this year (and other years) and I’ve read a lot.
Abigail is an actual cinnamon roll. She’s sweet, earnest, a little socially awkward without even knowing that she’s socially awkward and this makes for some great comedic set ups. Her lack of social cues are somehow both funny and heartbreaking. Watching her experience simple human things (especially food!) after being a Dark Lord is adorable and weirdly touching. She deserves the world. (I’ll give it to her)
And the ML?? Total green flag. Calm, respectful, quietly caring, and just… lovely. No red flag nonsense, no forced drama, just a man who shows his affection through actions. Their dynamic is soft, wholesome, and honestly such a breath of fresh air.
Volume one does a great job setting the tone and characters, and by the end I was fully invested. It’s funny, comforting, and has that “one more chapter” feeling.
My only complaint is that it’s digital-only right now because I would LOVE to own physical copies of this. This is absolutely a shelf-worthy series.
One of my favorite manga reads this year. Cozy, funny, heartfelt, and genuinely special. Highly recommend!!
The premise alone is already hilarious and refreshing. The former Dark Lord reincarnated and stuck in an arranged marriage?? I know why you’re thinking, we’ve seen this before, but wait, there’s more! She doesn’t hide who she was, she doesn’t have plans for revenge. She doesn’t mind him telling her he won’t love her. She just cares about … food. Yup, food. What really sold me was how warm and cozy this manga is. It is fresh, charming, and genuinely different from a lot of other mangas I’ve read this year (and other years) and I’ve read a lot.
Abigail is an actual cinnamon roll. She’s sweet, earnest, a little socially awkward without even knowing that she’s socially awkward and this makes for some great comedic set ups. Her lack of social cues are somehow both funny and heartbreaking. Watching her experience simple human things (especially food!) after being a Dark Lord is adorable and weirdly touching. She deserves the world. (I’ll give it to her)
And the ML?? Total green flag. Calm, respectful, quietly caring, and just… lovely. No red flag nonsense, no forced drama, just a man who shows his affection through actions. Their dynamic is soft, wholesome, and honestly such a breath of fresh air.
Volume one does a great job setting the tone and characters, and by the end I was fully invested. It’s funny, comforting, and has that “one more chapter” feeling.
My only complaint is that it’s digital-only right now because I would LOVE to own physical copies of this. This is absolutely a shelf-worthy series.
One of my favorite manga reads this year. Cozy, funny, heartfelt, and genuinely special. Highly recommend!!
May 5, 2025
This was a lighthearted read that's just cute all around.
While the MC doesn't have common sense in the way she perceives things around her, it made sense within the context of the story. Whilst normally a clueless MC would annoy me, in this story it turned into something of a charming trait. On the reverse side, given how alien the MC's thought process was, it was the ML that fulfilled the role of the reader's surrogate, albeit minor.
No prolonged drama here, it didn't take long for the new family to figure out how MC was mistreated, and the retribution against the bio family was anticlimactic... almost like they just want to get it done and over with so they can go back to the MC describing the food she's eating. There's no world-ending crisis in this either, just the characters accepting the MC and the MC eating.
The romance was basically one-sided. ML spent no time to grow fond of the MC while the MC... was still, still far, far away from understanding what love even is. Just keep this in mind and set your expectations accordingly.
While the MC doesn't have common sense in the way she perceives things around her, it made sense within the context of the story. Whilst normally a clueless MC would annoy me, in this story it turned into something of a charming trait. On the reverse side, given how alien the MC's thought process was, it was the ML that fulfilled the role of the reader's surrogate, albeit minor.
No prolonged drama here, it didn't take long for the new family to figure out how MC was mistreated, and the retribution against the bio family was anticlimactic... almost like they just want to get it done and over with so they can go back to the MC describing the food she's eating. There's no world-ending crisis in this either, just the characters accepting the MC and the MC eating.
The romance was basically one-sided. ML spent no time to grow fond of the MC while the MC... was still, still far, far away from understanding what love even is. Just keep this in mind and set your expectations accordingly.
February 16, 2025
Cross Infinite World delivers another quality series.
Really enjoyed this one.
I expect there may be some who start off with a poor opinion (because Abigail is very much as a child who has not interacted with other humans much) and some readers are turned off by “dumb” characters.
She is actually smart in some ways, a lot of that going back to her knowledge from when she was a monster king. But as a human, she has been mostly mistreated by her family and given minimal education.
There are some conflicts in that representation by the author (she doesn’t understand humans all that well but her father — who is an Earl — has her managing the territory in some fashion because she knows how to deal with things that would otherwise be calamities).
Her step-mother and step-sister do not like her at all (and are responsible for most of the mistreatment), but it makes you wonder why the Earl would allow her to be married off if he actually had her doing this type of work. I can only imagine the step-sister either forced him to do that so Abigail would be out of their territory, or maybe she arranged most of it and the deal was done before the Earl could undo anything (none of that is mentioned/addressed at all in the story, so simple speculation from me).
Fortunately her new husband doesn’t entirely dismiss the strange things she says (part of this is that he has the Earl’s family and situation investigated once he realizes how Abigail was mistreated and some of the information he gets back deals with children’s tales and legends regarding a monster king). And so he recognizes the “Gift” she has (abilities carried over from her monster king existence) and is able to slowly reconcile the fact that she may indeed have had a past life as a monster.
It is interesting to see how he tries to shelter her (and the immense help he gets from his trusted servants, a few of whom have been with him since he was a child) as well as teaching her more about what it means to live as a human being (as opposed to the messed up existence she had with her previous family).
It is also interesting to learn more about Abigail’s abilities as the story moves forward — such as how she uses magic is different from humans and she doesn’t know how to temper that use with the limitations of her human body (the first time she uses magic to avoid a bad situation leaves her husband shocked and distraught when he sees the state she is in). And then later she begins to learn how humans use magic so she can learn to do so within the limitations of her body.
We are really only scratching the surface of Abigail by the end of this volume, so I am very much looking forward to how her story progresses.
Really enjoyed this one.
I expect there may be some who start off with a poor opinion (because Abigail is very much as a child who has not interacted with other humans much) and some readers are turned off by “dumb” characters.
She is actually smart in some ways, a lot of that going back to her knowledge from when she was a monster king. But as a human, she has been mostly mistreated by her family and given minimal education.
There are some conflicts in that representation by the author (she doesn’t understand humans all that well but her father — who is an Earl — has her managing the territory in some fashion because she knows how to deal with things that would otherwise be calamities).
Her step-mother and step-sister do not like her at all (and are responsible for most of the mistreatment), but it makes you wonder why the Earl would allow her to be married off if he actually had her doing this type of work. I can only imagine the step-sister either forced him to do that so Abigail would be out of their territory, or maybe she arranged most of it and the deal was done before the Earl could undo anything (none of that is mentioned/addressed at all in the story, so simple speculation from me).
Fortunately her new husband doesn’t entirely dismiss the strange things she says (part of this is that he has the Earl’s family and situation investigated once he realizes how Abigail was mistreated and some of the information he gets back deals with children’s tales and legends regarding a monster king). And so he recognizes the “Gift” she has (abilities carried over from her monster king existence) and is able to slowly reconcile the fact that she may indeed have had a past life as a monster.
It is interesting to see how he tries to shelter her (and the immense help he gets from his trusted servants, a few of whom have been with him since he was a child) as well as teaching her more about what it means to live as a human being (as opposed to the messed up existence she had with her previous family).
It is also interesting to learn more about Abigail’s abilities as the story moves forward — such as how she uses magic is different from humans and she doesn’t know how to temper that use with the limitations of her human body (the first time she uses magic to avoid a bad situation leaves her husband shocked and distraught when he sees the state she is in). And then later she begins to learn how humans use magic so she can learn to do so within the limitations of her body.
We are really only scratching the surface of Abigail by the end of this volume, so I am very much looking forward to how her story progresses.
February 24, 2025
This starts off a bit slow and can be difficult to follow with the childish way Abigail talks and thinks, though her actions are a mix of her current human life and her memories from being the Monster King. While her new husband originally had no desire for a true relationship with her, it's hard for anyone not to adore her when they learn of her harsh upbringing. Combine her original lacking health or care from her family with her childish joy and cheerfulness, and she quickly finds a place in her new home, though not without a few quirks along the way. Abigail is very easily pacified and motivated by food of all things, though she can't stomach very much when she first arrives. The "little chick" moniker might seem a little strange, but seems to work with her lord husband's childhood and fondness for Piyo that we learn about later (you can infer at least what Piyo was to start with, but this is much clearer in the side story at the end of the volume). Given in many ways Abigail is very much a child still when they marry, it will be interesting to see how she grows, and if she ever loses some of that childish innocence that has her blurting out some things that maybe she should really keep to herself.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
December 28, 2025
Ok, but not great. Honestly this one would probably be better served coming from the male lead's prospective, but instead we lurk with the female lead (who was the monster king in a previous life & has very little human sense). It is kinda fun to watch our boy go through it with his weird fiancé, but mostly its just a bit stale.
May 9, 2025
Toward the end, the naivety of the girl got a little annoying. I get it cause she was a monster, but I wanted her to mature more as a human rather than just imitating the humans.
Displaying 1 - 7 of 7 reviews