- #1
I read through 179 chapters of this, first out of sheer spite and then because I was curious about the politics, but with where it is now, it's giving me a major headache. Maybe I'll pick this up again in the future, but for now I just can't anymore with Alicia (and Duke's entire existence. I get that the author wants her MC to end up with the prince, but he couldn't have been not creepy? Come on).Gilles, Henry, Uncle Will, and Rebecca are the only characters who deserve rights, tbh.edit september 2024: at the time I wrote this review, I gave it three stars, but I'm dropping it down to one (edit 2: novel updates isn't letting me do this but know it's a one in my heart) because this novel has consistently haunted my nightmares over the past 2 years. The internal logic is horrific, no decision ever made makes any kind of sense, but if the romance is good, I am willing to overlook a lot of flaws in other places. The romance in this, however, is not good, unless you're into an 18 year old acting r*pey as hell towards a 13 year old at every single interaction (of which they barely have any, how am I supposed to root for a couple if they're never in the same place????). However, worst of all:yall. If your 9 year old "sidekick" and your 15 year old brother have more romantic chemistry than your main couple, you've messed up. In hindsight, I think it was mostly just because they were the only characters who had anything close to 1) brains, 2) character development, and 3) actual personalities, but I genuinely read as much of this novel as I did for them. Waving my gilhenry flag in the air and hoping that they ditch alicia + the entire kingdom of idiots and run off elsewhere to get married when they're adults and no longer children with a creepy age gap (i can't believe this is getting an anime. Like i'll admit the concept is really promising and the manga art is super pretty but it goes downhill so fast 😠good luck to all the anime watchers who come here in hopes of finding a good novel, I guess)