Private Tutor to the Duke’s Daughter: Volume 1

Private Tutor to the Duke’s Daughter (Light Novel) #1

by Riku Nanano, cura (Illustrator), William Varteresian (Translator)

After failing the final exam for his dream job at the royal court, promising young sorcerer Allen wants nothing more than to retreat to a simple life in the countryside. Unfortunately for him, he can’t even afford the train fare! His only solution is to get a job, but his one lead is anything but modest—Duke Howard, one of the kingdom’s most powerful nobles, needs a private tutor for his daughter Tina.

Despite her academic brilliance, Tina is incapable of casting even a single spell. To make matters worse, entrance exams for the prestigious Royal Academy are fast approaching, and magical aptitude is mandatory! Can Allen use his unique brand of spellcasting to help Tina overcome her magical impairment, a mystery that not even the kingdom’s finest sorcerers have been able to solve? And does her father, the duke, even want him to?

Genres: Light Novel, Fantasy, School, Magic

238 pages, Kindle Edition

Published December 9, 2021

Reviews

[Dantegideon]

The book revolves around the premise that the guy is just amazingly great and everybody loves him, but he's so bland that if my grandmother were alive, she'd be serving him up with a side of boiled potatoes for Sunday dinner. And it comes off uncomfortably like he's grooming his students, who are 13 and 14. Really not much to recommend, although the translation is polished.

[Rebecca]

This is so middle-of-the-road that I'm having a hard time thinking of something to say about it.

[Iroha Miyumi]

アレンはとても優秀の人です。彼の成績や運動能力や魔法の知識は抜群です。当然、アレンは魔導士試験を受けました。けど、不思議にこの試験を不合格しました。そのせいで、アレンは他の仕事を探します。教授に頼みって、アレンさんは新しい仕事を見つけました。家庭教師の仕事です。選択がないので、アレンは受け取りました。だが、この生徒は公女殿下のティナです。更に、不思議的にティナ殿下は魔法をできないです。しかし、ティナ殿下は魔導学園に入りたいです。この状況に、元優等生・不合格者のアレンさんは教えること出来事ますか。

家庭教師の小説は珍しいじゃないだが、この設定はとても素晴らしいです。魔法環境やキャラの過去やとても面白かったです。更に、戦いのシーンは激しくてかっこいいです。このエベントの中に、色々な楽しい展開が多いです。そしたらビッタリと、この小説のメーンテーマは努力です。ティナ殿下は無理矢理に魔法を習いたいです。結果として、素敵のストーリーになりました。是非興味方はチェエクシね！

Allen is a very outstanding person. His grades, athletic abilities, and magical knowledge are great. So, naturally, he takes the Mage Exam. However, mysteriously, he fails it. Because of that, he tries to find other work. Relying on his professor, he finds a new job: it's tutoring. Having no other choices, he accepts this job, but his student is Tina, a princess. Furthermore, she mysteriously can't use magic. However, despite that, she wants to enroll in the Magic Academy. So, can the former honor student and the reject, Allen teach in this situation?

Tutor novels aren't uncommon, but this setting is wonderfully done. The magical environment and the characters are exciting. Furthermore, the fight scenes are fierce and cool. In these events, there are a lot of fun developments. Then fittingly, the main theme of this novel is hard work. The princess, Tina, forcibly tries to learn magic. As a result, it becomes a great story. For those interested, please check it out!

[Pieter]

At its core it feels like a potential interesting story. A recent graduate who failed the court sorcerer exam is going to teach a young teenager magic in preparation for her entrance exam into the Royal Academy only to learn she cannot finish spells for some unknown reason. Setting the stage for something of a long term mystery while trying to get her (and her personal maid) accepted in the academy. So while not a particularly original world, especially the fairly typical characters, it is different enough to keep me interested.

The issue is two-fold though. The kind of harem shenanigans that come with the series worsened through the MC's inner thoughts is not my thing. The MC constantly belittling himself to the point of misrepresenting on why he failed the court exam until almost the end of the volume are just cringe. It doesn't help that beyond his inner thoughts and words to those around him, his actions don't really show somebody with a lack of confidence. Neither of these sets of tropes are uncommon in the genre, so people seem to like them, just not me.

Still, if you like or don't mind these two for me negatives it is not a bad read. It is just not really something for me, although tbf I might read the next volumes out of curiosity about the mysteries of the world (even if I am not really expecting something unique).

[Ron]

Allen had just failed the court sorcerer's exam due to no fault of his own. His professor set him up with job - tutoring Duke Howard's youngest daughter for 3 months to prepare her for the Royal Academy magical entrance exam. The problem, Tina has never been able to do any elemental magic. So Allen has a challenge, but not a totally new one. After all he had got another Duke's daughter into the Royal Academy before. But Tiara and her maid Ellie are competing in more than magical learning and Allen has his hands full keeping everything aboveboard. After all he already has one duke's daughter gunning for him, no need to add to his woes, right? An interesting setup that will be fun to follow and see what develops!

[Jennine S.]

I'm torn on this one...

I absolutely love the main character and the other characters are interesting. I love the way the author sets up the long term investigations that may drive the plot, and those are questions I am interested enough in to keep reading, HOWEVER, I absolutely HATE the repetitious, annoying and nonsensical descriptions of the main character's interactions with his students. I literally started skipping all those scenes when it became obvious there was nothing in them to move the plot forward at all. I am therefore undecided as to whether I will continue with this series.

[Mr Paul J Clancy]

the main character is meant to be charming... I find him creepy and much of his hassles are not helped by his attitude and behavior.
The Bulter and Bulter's wife and the duke are unlikeable unstable parent tropes.
The 'mistress' is another violent possessive trope.
the senpai is shifty.
the pupils are less annoying but still are another pair of tropes I'm not keen on, especially given their ages.
Battles have way too much dialogue to be believable, it's almost turn-based combat.
There are attempts at humor, but it falls flat.

[Maria]

It was...

It wasn't necessarily a bad book.

But I found it tiring how strongly the girls came on... And I dislike it when the mc is a pushover... And I found it annoying how certain characters blamed the mc for situations where he clearly wasn't at fault...
I wouldn't have minded so much if there were just a few cases, but there were a lot of cases like that...

So not necessarily a bad book, but not my cup of tea.

[Cody Enos]

2.5

I was interested in reading a full on fantasy story without game mechanics, but honestly this was fairly disappointing. It’s charm is adorableness and love blindness, so if you’re into that woot for you; however, the amount of time dedicated to that I felt took away from the characters really coming into their own.

Not much happens. It was a strong voice, but it feels more like an extended prologue chapter than an actual story right now.

[Secre]

This isn’t my first time reading this book, and I’ve also listened to the audiobook in another language.

I really like this series because it’s relaxing, with a hint of silliness. While I know many readers are probably tired of harem elements, this series doesn’t lean too heavily into that aspect.

There are, unfortunately, some people who claim the book features a character with a Lolita complex, but that isn’t the case at all.

[Bernard]

It was okay. The plot was solid. The characters weren't anything brilliant, but I've read worse.

This was a fairly generic story. The characters didn't have anything truly interesting happening. The main character does not understand young ladies, and that does help the story along a bit.

The story is forgettable. The story was bad, it just wasn't anything special.

[Elizabeth]

I had mixed feelings about this particular novel. The premise was genuinely interesting. What I didn't like much about this is how this is another harem story where girls inevitably flock around the male protagonist. I will give Allen some credit that he does have good qualities, but it's a little weird how many girls are interested in him all within the first volume.

[Javier]

Story would have worked better if the two girls weren't so infantilized and the MC so damn clueless. Otherwise the story was fine, the characters mean well and it is a great set up. Will continue reading. (Some of the art was unnecessary, but otherwise things were in better taste than I would have assumed considering the medium)

[Jesus]

Amazing

I bought this books because of the anime. The book is so good. The flow is smooth and no unnecessary context. I hope to read about the connections between Allen and Lydia. Can't wait to see where this story goes.

[Jack]

Great series. Looking forward to the anime version in season Summer 2025.

[Adam]

I think this was a well-done introduction to the series. It had a relatively self-contained plot of helping the duke's daughter prepare for her entrance exams while slowly introducing the reader to the rest of the world and to the protagonist and his history. It feels like a natural move at the end of the book to what I assume will be the primary setting and story for the rest of the series in the capital.

The whole thing where any girl the protagonist's age or younger instantly falls for him was more than a bit overdone even if it was amusing at first.

[Michael]

Cute read, but when I was done I assumed this was a single volume read. Then I realized there are more volumes yet to be translated, and I'm intrigued where they could even take this. I'll definitely check out another volume or two to see how this goes.