Full disclosure, I read this every year at least 2x. It's year 3. This is what I measure every Korean European ambiance webnovel against. This is does enemies to lovers so perfectly. It conquers the reincarnation trope. It is absolutely brilliant with the green flag husband and red flag wife. I cannot stress how much this novel has changed me as a person. The hold this has on me. It's so good. ITS SO GOOD. If I could breathe this novel 24/7 I would. It's a comfort novel for me.
This is such a cute and really in-depth manhwa, but god you need to be soooo smart for this. It does crazy good callbacks from multiple chapters back, even seasons and has a super complicated plot. The main characters grow well and have a wonderful relationship, and I love how girl power the entire book pretty much is. The only negative I have to say is I feel like if I read this as a book, and didn’t have comments from other people- I would’ve lost track on what’s happening insanely fast 🥲
Hmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm Read like 40%, and the last chapters just in case.
So! It didn't capture me. The beginning was so good! Our protagonist Artizea knew how to subtly change the path and showed how awake she was. It was enjoyable. However, as time went by there were only obstacle after obstacle, which is normal, but it made the story predictable. The more interesting challenges were the less concerning in the long run. I said I read the last chapters to see if there was the possibility of me being confused and wonder how that scenario came to be, but that did not happen. Foreseeable. Exasperating even! Characters had not really grown. Plus, you get to realize that, again, the most flawed one were gone, the rest were just molds. The loyal army, the loving maid, the evil maybe not tooooo evil king, people who want the protagonists to themselves. The basics only. There was no range whatsoever in this story. I better leave it, and keep on reading something else., something new.
Finally, after a year I was able to finish this story. This has a good revenge story despite the pacing being slow. The creator and artist did their best to convey the story as it was so complex because it was political. Tia is one of the female characters that are written perfectly. You will see that she has no remorse for whatever she plans or decides. If she thinks that it will benefit her and Cedric greatly, she will go for it even if that means that she will hurt other people. I liked what happened to the Emperor and Laurence. Emperor slowly died because of his illness while Laurence died in the hands of the person he loves or is obsessed with. Overall, the story is great and people who are into complex stories will like this story.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
I got into this Korean web novel from the Manhwa adaptation. It was astonishingly impressive for what is normally a very trope-filled genre of “misunderstood antagonist noble lady turns back time and gets her second chance at creating a better life.” Game of Thrones-level of intrigue and political machinations, and Artesia (the FL) makes moves in earlier chapters that trigger events happening a hundred chapters on. It’s refreshing to see someone who’s said to be smart actually do things that are smart, and not just in a “well, the plot calls for things working out, so this works out” way.
I come across a lot of these stories that I treat basically just like junk food, so I don’t end up putting them on GoodReads… but this was truly a worthwhile piece of low fantasy literature.