Est. Read Time: 37min
This Month's Font: Mali
Well then. Nothing like publishing my mid-month reading update the day before I'm "supposed" to publish an update about my writing. I'm so good at this "keep to your own self-set deadlines" thing, huh?
With the struggles of trying to recover from walking pneumonia, I had a suspicion that this month's LycoRogue's Reading Corner would be a bit delayed. I did not, however, take into consideration any added chaos and projects popping up at work - or being away for a weekend for my cousin's wedding reception - also delaying things. Even with working on this update periodically throughout the whole month, I'm still half-a-month late in publishing!
Man, I'm glad I did think to chip away at this slowly, because I can't imagine how much FURTHER belated this update would have been otherwise! (probably start of November...)
Anyhoo, let's get into it, shall we?
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Let's start off with a recap of what I was reading as of last month:
- Daily Reads:
- Catching up on The Mafia Nanny
- Sunday:
- Monday:
- Tuesday:
- Wednesday:
- nothing
- Thursday:
- Friday:
- Saturday:
So weird that Tuesdays went from "holy hecken, I have a lot to read" to "I just have this one story?" Especially because Lock Me Up, Duke! has kinda lost its charm for me. It feels like it lost the plot.
What I loved about the story was the premise of this woman (A-Min) playing through this unique dating sim game with 50+ different endings, most of which are "bad endings" where the character either dies or lives miserably for the rest of her life. And then A-Min gets transmigrated into that game as the female playable character Jayna. She's aiming for the "locked away in her room" ending because she figured she'd be pampered that way. And as she interacts with the world she gets a pop-up menu that only she can see which offers her the same interaction prompts she'd get as a player. Nothing advances in the world until she picks one of the options. She has to struggle to decide which option to choose, or accidentally choose one that works counter to her goal but is more true to who she was before getting isekai'd.
It was a cool premise.
And then Jayna stumbled upon what appeared to be a haetae cub; a Korean mythological creature believed to be a guardian of justice. Based on pictures of statues I found online, haetae tend to be depicted as scaled goat-like creatures that also sometimes look like muscular lion-like creatures with horns. An English translation of 'haetae' is even 'unicorn lion'. Regardless of how they are depicted in Korea, the one Jayna comes across looks like a lion cub with a squirrel-like tail as long as the rest of her body, a thick mane, and two little goat horns above her temples.
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| Panel from Episode 39
of Lock Me Up, Duke! |
The little haetae cub is instantly tamed and basically domesticates itself in order to stay with Jayna. These beasts typically require intense binding magic to even barely control them. These are the style of monsters that Jayna's husband Theo was sent to the north to defend against, and Jayna can just... tame one... accidentally.
She then does the same thing with a saius wolf (basically a pony-sized dire wolf).
And that's more-or-less where the story fully derails. Jayna no longer acts as if she's in a video game. The interaction prompts no longer pop up for her to advance her relationship with Theo. Jayna's no longer using the original game plot as a sort of calendar of what should happen next in her new life. She has all but forgotten her goal to get Theo so obsessively possessive of her that she gets the "locked up" ending.
Ya know... the TITLE OF THE SERIES.
Instead, the story is focused on how Jayna has this effortless magic that she had no clue she even possessed. Magic that makes her basically a Beast Master who can call any monster to heel. She's on a training arc to learn how to master this power. All while trying to hide her magic, for fear that the royals/nobles will want to use her as a general of monster troops in perpetuity if they ever find out. Except! Uh oh! Theo's half-brother, the crown prince Perus, HAS discovered Jayna's secret! And HE'S the one who has become obsessively possessive of Jayna to the point of wanting to cause her and Theo to divorce so Perus can marry her instead. He's also using his knowledge of Jayna's powers to blackmail her into visiting him on command.
It's a whole thing. I'm still reading because I'm curious as to where they're going with this story, but... it's definitely not the same story I signed up to read.
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I also just finished Not Your Typical Reincarnation Story! I still can't grasp that! This story has been a fixture of my Monday nights since early April 2024! Nearly 20 months of my life. It will be hard to let this one go. I'm glad that it got wrapped up so nicely though.
As much as I enjoyed The Duke's Cursed Charm, the ending of that story felt rushed. At least, the manhwa adaptation of the story did. I also loved The Age of Arrogance, and the "quick retelling of the story but with the roles reversed" epilogue was fun, but also felt unneeded? A bit random? And the main story had an odd time jump. The main crisis was concluded. Carlisle was able to put things right. Pervaz was in good hands with full restoration of the land on track. Asha finally believed herself worthy to be Carlisle's wife. And then a hop about 8yrs into the future where we get to meet Asha and Carlisle's son (and, apparently, they also had a daughter in the webnovel, but the adaptation edited that part out). We get this cute little scene of Carlisle and his son loving on Asha. Very sweet, but also a bit random? Definitely a better ending than Cursed Charm, but still had room for improvement.
Then I got to the conclusion of the Lemon Frog story I was most invested in, and, THANKFULLY, NYTRS did not disappoint. My favorite ending of any manhwa I've read thus far. It nicely wrapped up the main conflict with Edith and her in-laws and The System restricting the fictional world and The Author being the true villain. Then the epilogue was slow and thoughtful. Allowing you to really take in and enjoy the conclusion of the subplots throughout the story. We have a couple of episodes where we learn about Edith and Killian's lives after the conclusion of the main story. We meet their kids and learn what they are like as parents and governing nobility. We see the romance between two side characters blossom and the fruits of that romance. Then we get a second epilogue plot that gives a conclusion to the princess's romance subplot. We get to see Edith and Killian working together more as supportive spouses, as well as parents, and friends to the imperial family. We get to see Princess Katrin come into her own, and we're introduced - last minute - to yet another badass, strong female character. Then, we get the conclusions I was really looking for: what DID happen to the Author after Edith beat The System? Where did Cliff disappear to? What became of the original Edith and Rhyse? Were the previous incarnations of Edith able to finally find peace?
We got the answers to all of those questions. Everything was wrapped up in a nice bow. I am contented, and Not Your Typical Reincarnation Story remains one of my favorite Webtoons stories that I've completed (along with Marry My Husband, The Age of Arrogance, FLOAT, and I Abdicate My Title of Empress). Even better is that, while things are tied up in nice, neat little bows, there's also enough wiggle room to make way for spin-off series. We learn enough about the kids of the main characters that there could be a spin-off focused on them after they've aged up a little. There could be a spin-off dealing with the original Edith and Rhyse. There could be a spin-off focused on one of the former Edith incarnations getting her revenge on Cliff and The Author, all while Cliff and The Author try to redeem themselves.
If we never get those spin-off stories, that's fine. Suna Choi's story as Edith has concluded in a very satisfying manner, and her friends and allies have also found their own Happily Ever Afters. We have hints of what life is probably going to be like for Cliff and The Author. There is this moment of hope and nod to what's next for the original Edith and Rhyse. We know that most of the previous Edith incarnations have found peace and moved on, and we have a hint of what will become of the final lost soul. There's enough there for at least fanfic fodder, should members of the fandom want to know more, even if we never get an official continuation. Otherwise, there's enough that the fans can infer from, and it feels concluded. Everything feels complete.
It is so hard to let this story go, and I will have to purchase coins to buy this series once it locks behind the paywall. But at least it gave a satisfying farewell.
It gives me hope for another adaptation of Lemon Frog's webnovels that I'm creeping ever closer to the conclusion of: What the Evil Dragon Lives For. It is wild to me that, by November's close, I'll have concluded my read of that series as well.
While not as rushed as The Duke's Cursed Charm, WtEDLF does feel like the pacing really kicked it up a gear. We are SPRINTING to the finish line. However, it's clear that Lemon Frog improved between writing Cursed Charm and Evil Dragon because, even with the random quickening of narrative pace, LF has made sure storylines are wrapped up in a satisfactory manner. They don't feel unearned or out of nowhere. (With the exception of the climactic battle with the Big Bad... that seemed.... over super quick....) Even within the chaos of the final battle, Evil Dragon had enough breathing room to still find time to focus on character growth and connections. So, I am again cautiously optimistic to the conclusion of this story. I mean, I already feel like the conclusion won't be as satisfying as NYTRS, but I'm hoping for something on-par with Age of Arrogance at least. Fingers crossed!
Speaking of story conclusions, Webtoon had been doing these promotions this past month where it will gift you free coins (that expire a day or two later) if you read some of the newer stories that the app was trying to promote. Lucky for me, some of the stories being promoted this way were ones I was already reading - such as the return of yet another Lemon Frog adaptation: Duchess in Ruins. I'll talk about that story's return in a moment, but my point right now is that I was able to earn enough coins this way to FINALLY unlock the concluding 3 episodes of Divorcing My Tyrant Husband! Out of the 103 episodes this series has, the first 100 you can unlock by watching an ad if you don't want to spend the money on coins. The episode will then relock x-days later if you only use an ad to unlock it, but at least you can read the series (mostly) for free. If you recall, this is how I had originally read this story. In fact, it used to be one of my daily reads, back when Webtoon allowed you to unlock one episode per day for free - no ad-watch needed.
Well, the rest of the series has obviously relocked since I got to those final three episodes I needed coins for, but now I had free coins! I unlocked those final episodes, and now I can binge the whole series, as long as I don't mind sitting through 97 ads (the first 3 episodes are never locked).
I felt like I remembered the main plot beats of the story well enough, so I went ahead and read those final three episodes this past week. Even without rereading the rest of the series to refresh my memory. I don't know if Emperor Alexandros truly redeemed himself, and Robellia does admit she feels the same way. She tells Alexandros that there may be things that she will never be able to forgive him for. However, he is putting in the effort to make up for how he treated her in the past. He has confessed his guilt. He has accepted that he may not be forgiven.
The conclusion of this story - complete with the INSANELY CONVOLUTED way of explaining why Lim Jeongah got transmigrated into Robellia in the first place - is nowhere near as clean or satisfying as NYTRS, or even any of the Lemon Frog story adaptations. It's closer to the convoluted - but still MOSTLY satisfying - conclusions of Leveling Up My Husband to the Max, My Husband Changes Every Night, I Will Live the Life of a Villainess, or Answer Me, My Prince.
Wow. A lot of the transmigration stories I read seem to not know how to wrap up their plots without throwing in convoluted time-travel/alternate-dimension shenanigans, huh? Makes the conclusion to NYTRS all the more unique and rewarding because of how clean it all was!
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Getting back to my reading list, my use of The Mafia Nanny as a daily read quickly came to a close as I smacked right into that weekly release wall before even the conclusion of September. On the plus side, Mafia Nanny updates on Mondays, so I'll at least have something to read with Seabird and the Wolf now that I've finished NYTRS. On the other hand, however, that does mean that I, once again, needed a story I could binge daily. And so, I finally turned to probably one of the more popular romantasy stories on Webtoon.
Just about every romantasy I've read on this app has had fans equating the story's "seemingly innocent but truly a master manipulator" villainess to "Trashta".
The crown prince's mistress Rosetta in I Will Live the Life of a Villainess? "Trashta"
The "love rival" Rhyse from Not Your Typical Reincarnation Story? "Trashta"
The emperor's mistress Diane from I Abdicate My Title of Empress? "Trashta"
The emperor's consort Aisha from Divorcing My Tyrant Husband? "Trashta"
I think even the main character's former best friend Sumin from Marry My Husband was referred to in the comments as "Trashta". And that's not even a romantasy! That's a modern-day romance story.
So... who the heck is "Trashta"!?
For that, we have to go to a story that started way back in 2020, and is still on-going!
Navier Ellie Trovi was an empress perfect in every way -- intelligent, courageous, and socially adept. She was kind to her subjects and devoted to her husband. Navier was perfectly content to live the rest of her days as the wise empress of the Eastern Empire. That is, until her husband brought home a mistress and demanded a divorce. “I accept this divorce… And I request an approval of my remarriage.” In a shocking twist, Navier remarries another emperor and retains her title and childhood dream as empress. But just how did everything unfold?
- Official Webtoon Summary
Sweet Baby Ray! The male love interest of this story may rival Lionel from I Abdicate..., Tyler from Love 4 a Walk, and Noah from I Am the Villain for the most love-stricken, wholesome, nerd of a boy ever! I am obsessed with Heinrey.
But I'm getting ahead of myself.
The mistress that the emperor brought home? Rashta. A woman so manipulative that the fans quickly turned her name to "Trashta". And now, any other female antag/love-rival who fits the trope of "weaponizes innocence to hide her manipulation" also gets called "Trashta".
Rosetta from ...Life of a Villainess even has a similar introduction of "silver-haired commoner somehow gets injured during the royal hunting trip, and the royal falls for her beauty as her injuries are being treated. He quickly takes her as his lover, where she begins to manipulate him in order to garner more power for herself." The similarities seem to end there, however. Plus, as I mentioned last LRRC when I talked about Zen's story The Price of Flowers in the West, similarities don't mean the story is bad or not unique. The author of IWLtLoaV clearly knew the Rashta trope and used it as a jumping point for Rosetta.
Likewise, Diane from I Abdicate... is also light-haired (in this case, a platinum blonde) and is power hungry, trying to wrestle said power away from the empress despite Diane being a mere mistress. In her case, she was already the emperor's lover before he married, but still. Diane is also the cause of the emperor and empress getting a divorce - like Rashta - and it seems to be all for the better for the empress in question: Adelheid.
Much like the lead in The Remarried Empress - Navier - Adelheid was raised basically since birth to be an empress. She is calm, collected, competent in governing a nation, and has no misconceptions that her husband-of-convenience would ever have romantic feelings for her (or vice versa). Despite Emperor Karl having a mistress - and constantly humiliating Adel by overtly showcasing his preference for Diane - he warns Adel against taking Lionel as her lover; as if he has any say in the matter! Which is very reminiscent to what Emperor Sovieshu - the emperor from The Remarried Empress - did to Navier. Namely, advise Navier against taking another empire's crown prince - Heinrey - as her lover (and even accuses Navier of flirting with another foreign diplomat). As if Sovieshu should have ANY say in the matter after constantly humiliating Navier via his overt preference for Rashta.
I do feel like Rashta was written with a bit more complexity and sympathy than the copycat villainesses such as Diane or Rosetta, but I do also understand why so many readers despise Rashta and why she is the standard against which all other vile, manipulative villainesses are measured.
There's currently 231 episodes for me to binge (plus 4 special recap episodes). Yeah! Over 200! And, as I mentioned, it's STILL ON-GOING! Insane, right!? It's also apparently adapted from a webnovel by the author Alphatart. I can't even imagine how hardy of an epic the webnovel must be. Either way, I'm up to the season 3 finale; episode 178 (plus those 4 special episodes). YEAH! I'm catching up to that weekly-release wall QUICK for a story with over 200 free episodes backlogged, huh? I'm telling you, this story is addicting! I struggle to read it in fewer than 5-episode chunks (sometimes 10-episode chunks....)
But back to the characters! As I mentioned above, the romantic interest Heinrey is such a cinnamon roll. A precious boy. At least, when it comes to Navier (he does have a bit of a vicious streak when he believes he's protecting that which he cherishes....). Heinrey's so insanely in love with Navier, but respectfully keeps his feelings to himself (for the most part) while Navier is still married. That said, he DOES confess to her that he wants to whisk her away to be HIS queen instead when it's obvious that the emperor is not only neglecting Navier but is also straight up traumatizing her.
Problem is, Navier literally grew up with her first husband Sovieshu. She was selected to be his bride when they were both young children. That way, they could hopefully form a bond as they grew up as companions, which would make their joint rule stronger. It seemingly worked for a while. Navier and Sovieshu, while not in love with each other, did seem to be best friends, at least.
And then Sovieshu met Rashta and threw his relationship with Navier completely out the window.
Between growing up never experiencing romantic love, then being in a loveless marriage for approximately five years*, and, finally, having her closest companion humiliate and demoralize her!? Poor Navier is traumatized.
*the actual time frame is never mentioned in the manhwa, but they do state - quite frequently - that Navier and Sovieshu have been married for A WHILE. Some comments on the series imply that the novel says they were married 5 years... However, the context of the manhwa itself seems to imply that Navier is closer to being in her late-20s, and therefore it reads more like she and Sovieshu might have been married for nearly a decade. Either way, it's been a bit.
Speaking further on Navier's trauma and Sovieshu's torture in his attempt to control her, part of how Navier and Heinrey became friends in the first place was by being pen pals via messenger birds (it's a bit more complicated than that, but I don't want to give away too many spoilers). Sovieshu became so jealous that Navier could POSSIBLY have affection for someone other than him (ignoring his blatant affection for someone other than Navier) that he threatened to have archers shoot down the next messenger bird that flew to Navier's room. He then followed through with his threat! Not only that, but he then sent a cooked bird with the shot-down messenger bird's feathers decorating the plate to Navier as her dinner!!!!
I will spoil here that Sovieshu couldn't find the shot-down bird (which was rescued without his knowledge) so he served Navier a simple chicken instead. However, he KNEW what he was implying by having the plate decorated with the messenger bird's feathers (that had fallen off when the poor guy was shot)!
Sooooo yeah! That's the kind of "affectionate" relationship that Navier was dealing with before the divorce. No wonder the madly-in-love Heinrey wanted so desperately to whisk Navier away!
Anyhoo, as I was saying, Navier was clearly traumatized. Her whole life, she never once expected to be romantically loved. Add in that someone who used to at least be affectionate towards her, even platonically - Sovieshu - has since decided to torture her instead before completely discarding her. So, it's completely understandable that she has locked down her heart and refused to let herself fall in love with Heinrey (despite her heart apparently disagreeing with her on that point). It hurts though, seeing Heinrey pour out his heart to Navier, and her thinking it's all a ploy or that he's just naive since he's younger than her or that she's misreading the situation and he can't possibly be as sincere as he seems to be.
Like, GIRL! I get it. You're traumatized. But let the boy love you, dammit!
She even admits to herself that she always feels more relaxed around Heinrey. That he's on her side without ever asking for a favor in return. He goes out of his way to do things to help her or to make her smile. Her worries and burdens always feel so much lighter after talking to Heinrey about them. He is her TRUE companion, but she's so used to the relationship she had with Sovieshu that having someone truly care for her seems so foreign, and that's so heartbreaking!
Also, despite Navier originally being a monarch of a different (and rival) country, Heinrey quickly takes up the habit of referring to Navier not as "empress" or "your majesty". Nope. He calls her "my queen". And, especially after they marry, Heinrey EMBODIES that phrase. Navier is not the "empress consort" (a step below the emperor). She is not just his wife (although, he does routinely - and passionately - refer to her as his wife). She is not even his equal. Navier is HIS QUEEN. She is above him, as far as he is concerned. She can lead him around the palace by his nose if that were her desire. He fully submits to her rule (good thing she's not the type to abuse that privilege).
And yet, Navier is still waiting for the other shoe to drop. She thought she knew Sovieshu, and that they would be contently married until their dying days. To be tossed aside like nothing? Navier knows that she could easily fall for Heinrey in a way she never could with Sovieshu, but she also knows how it would utterly destroy her if she allowed herself to love him so completely only for him to discard her the way Sovieshu did. She just cannot imagine that Heinrey could truly be madly in love with his wife. As far as she's concerned, his overt affections are just because they're newlyweds and he's young or showing off. He'll learn to grow bored of her, clearly. All she does is work and quietly sit by herself to read. She is a boring person. How can Heinrey NOT become bored with her? She HAS to keep her guard up, no matter how effortlessly charming Heinrey may be when around her. She is just awaiting the day when he isolates himself from her the way Sovieshu did.
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OOOOF! It hurts so much! Navier! Just let the man love you!!!!!!
Dagger to the heart, I swear.
Speaking of, my other binge-read option (of which I already caught up to the paywall and have to wait for weekly updates) is a modern romance that equally twists the knife quite a few times: How Far Can We Go?
The Song family's true biological daughter appears, shaking Juha's world. Seeking an escape from an unwelcoming home, Juha embarks on a series of blind dates until she meets Sahyeon, who boldly suggests setting a wedding date within minutes of their first date. Just as Juha starts to develop feelings for him, her cunning younger sister—who has already taken everything else from her—declares her intention to marry him instead.
- Official Webtoon Summary
Honestly, that summary only covers, like, the first 11 episodes of this 70+ episode series. So, how about a bit more context?
Mun-gil Song and his wife (who remains unnamed) spent years looking for their biological daughter that went missing while Mun-gil was at an outdoor market. They finally discovered the orphanage their daughter ended up in, and went to retrieve her. At least, that's what the Song family thought when they adopted Juha.
Roughly FOURTEEN YEARS after that fateful day, a woman named Hanna showed up with paperwork showing that SHE is actually Mun-gil's biological daughter. Hanna and Juha were somehow switched at the orphanage when the Songs came to collect their lost daughter.
Mun-gil already blamed Juha for the death of his wife (I'll leave the specifics of that a mystery for people that wish to read the series). He now blamed Juha for Hanna's troubled life: being abused at the orphanage she was mistakenly left behind in, not getting the same education opportunities, having to live with criminals to avoid being homeless, etc. Mun-gil sees it as "if I didn't adopt you, thinking you were my biological daughter, I would have kept looking for Hanna and she would have been rescued."
Suddenly, Juha's family is ripped from her as Mun-gil forces her to basically hand over everything she received as his daughter to Hanna, the "rightful heir". "All of this should have been hers all along anyway."
Like! Seriously!?
Her father also runs a middling hotel chain - K-Hotel - which is a small franchise of authentic Korean architecture hotels. It's struggling within the current economy, and so Juha is basically forced to find a marriage of convenience (an arranged marriage, by another name) so that the Song family can get a financial boost from Juha's future in-laws. She goes on a parade of pathetic blind dates with men who clearly have no interest in her. Each time she comes home from these demoralizing dates, and is berated by her father and grandmother about not putting in enough effort to help the family and pay them back for everything they gave her when they adopted her.
SERIOUSLY!?
Finally, she ends up on a date with the handsome, kind, and charming Sahyeon. Minor spoiler, but it's revealed in the second episode, so I'll go ahead here: turns out Sahyeon was assaulted in high school, causing a brain injury that resulted in him contracting prosopagnosia. Or, in layman's terms, face blindness. This is visually depicted by everyone Sahyeon interacts with wearing blank full-face masks whenever we see them through his POV.
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| Panel from Episode 2 of How Far Can We Go? |
Poor Sahyeon even has face blindness for HIS OWN FACE! He has no clue what even HE looks like! The exception to his prosopagnosia? Juha! (There's a reason, but I won't give away that spoiler)
Much like Juha, Sahyeon was strongarmed by his family to find a good marriage match for the betterment of the family. This is real Regency-era style match making. So funny how this apparently still happens, but, instead of nobility, it's business moguls.
Anyhoo, Sahyeon goes on his blind date with Juha, just expecting the same old, same old. However, when she greets him as his date and he can actually SEE HER FACE! he instantly knows he can't let her out of his life. He pretty much instantly proposes. After about an hour or so of talking, Sahyeon convinces Juha to agree to the proposal. And not just agree to marry him, but agree to do so IN JUST FOUR MONTHS!
They kind of speed-run their relationship, going on as many dates as possible to get to learn about each other. Sahyeon is instantly smitten. And the more he learns about Juha the harder he falls for her. He sees how kind and hard-working she is. Her smile is like a lighthouse leading him home (his words). She's gorgeous, but she's also spunky and bright and fun to be around. To Sahyeon, Juha is the whole package and he's itching to actually call her his wife.
Meanwhile, Sahyeon continues to be compassionate and charming and considerate. He's also very physically affectionate (kind of like Heinrey!), which is a little much for Juha (much like with Navier), but Sahyeon guzzles his Respect Women Juice, so he agrees to turn down the PDA (with some minor exceptions he was able to negotiate). He is SOOOO affectionate and attentive. All Juha wants in life is for someone to be on her side without any ulterior motives. Without some sort of quid pro quo. They want nothing out of it beyond Juha's happiness. They are just unquestioningly on her side. And Sahyeon proves time and time again to be that person for Juha.
It's suuuuuper quick to see that these two are a perfect match and deserve to be with each other.
Except... uh oh, seems Sahyeon used to volunteer at the orphanage that Juha and Hanna were raised in (a fact that Juha did not remember and Sahyeon didn't think was worth mentioning). Despite Hanna being 12 at the time, she had a HUUUUUGE crush on high schooler Sahyeon when he used to come to the orphanage to help out with art lessons. When Hanna gets introduced to her sister's fiancé she INSTANTLY recognizes her first love, and, yet again, she wants what was Juha's, claiming it's what she's owed.
If this is a marriage of convenience between the Song family's K-Hotel chain and Sahyeon's much more successful Baek family hotel chain, then shouldn't the Song's "rightful heir" be the one to have the match?
Mun-gil has a meeting with Sahyeon's eldest brother - the acting head of the family - to try to negotiate Sahyeon switching his fiancée to Hanna instead of Juha! Like, what is WRONG with these people!? Especially when Sahyeon's brother AGREES and tells him to change his bride!
Thankfully, the already-in-love Sahyeon refuses, and comes up with a multi-stage plan to deter these business negotiations. His engagement to Juha now secured, poor Juha still has to deal with Hanna and her FATHER trying to sabotage the relationship in order to stop the wedding. It is INSANE the depths those two stoop to try to take yet another good thing from Juha.
The story also has a bunch of intrigue as the mystery of Sahyeon's assault in high school is revealed and we learn what actually went down that night. There's a BUNCH of mistaken identity going on throughout the story. Including the reveal of how Juha was mistaken as the Songs' biological daughter originally.
Which.... I will say... is the only part of this series that annoys me.
Juha has brunette hair. Hanna has strawberry-blonde hair. Unless Mun-gil somehow lost his INFANT DAUGHTER at the market, before her permanent hair color settled in (because a lot of babies are born blonde and become brunettes or vice versa; my husband and sister-in-law are great examples), how does this man and his wife NOT question that their daughter's hair color is different than they remember? You'd think they'd be staring at her picture pretty much daily as they spent YEARS looking for her!
Also... Juha and Hanna used those names while at the orphanage. If the Songs thought that Juha was their daughter Hanna, wouldn't they have renamed her Hanna? Wouldn't 12yo Juha be able to tell this lovely couple, "I'm actually Juha, but I know a Hanna"? Juha didn't know that there was an identity swap. She had no clue that she WASN'T their biological daughter until Hanna showed up over a decade later. HOW!?!
Maybe it's like the movie Anastasia, where the orphaned girl has amnesia and couldn't remember her life prior to arriving at the orphanage? So they just renamed her, and the Songs were like, "OK. You've gone by Juha for years now, so we'll allow you to keep that name instead of calling you the name on your birth certificate."
Maybe this is a cultural thing, and it makes more sense if you're raised Korean instead of American?
I dunno. We haven't gotten enough of Juha's backstory yet to find out how she ended up in the orphanage in the first place.
Getting back to the plot, between being abandoned to the abusive orphanage, and then abandoned by her adopted family as soon as Hanna showed up, poor Juha has MAJOR abandonment issues. Which does originally put a strain on her relationship with Sahyeon, because she fears that he'll also abandon her as soon as she opens her heart to him (yup. Yet ANOTHER parallel to The Remarried Empress). Thankfully, Sahyeon knows enough of Juha's background to understand her baggage, and so he's super patient with her and tries to prove to her as often as possible that he has no intention of ever abandoning her. ESPECIALLY after seeing his brother emotionally abandon his wife.
Personally, as sad as it would be, I am hoping for a reveal that Juha was never intentionally abandoned to the orphanage. She was always deeply loved, but a tragedy took her parents from her. That way she could at least get THAT comfort.
We'll see where this story goes. Out of the 73 episodes currently out, I was able to binge to episode 52 before hitting the dreaded coins paywall. And I got stopped at a spicy cliffhanger too! Unfair! (I have since read 3 more episodes since I was stopped from my daily binge 3 weeks ago)
Oh, well. I guess that's at least one benefit of being sick for so long. While I holed up in bed to try to get my rest in, I was able to binge those first 52 episodes in pretty much one sitting. Plus all of the episodes of The Remarried Empress that I've been able to tear through. Which, since I brought it up, was AGAIN referenced as I read How Far Can We Go? Naturally, Hanna was equated to "Trashta".
I did NOT realize how popular The Remarried Empress truly was, but, daaaang, does Rashta/Trashta get referenced a LOT in most of the other romance manhwas I read! She truly is her own villainess archetype....
The third new story I've started reading is BRAND new (only 16 episodes total thus far; 6 available to read for free). It started October 7th with a triple upload, and then I've continued reading for the past 3 weeks. This modern romance - Falling For It - is another college romance story (and the other promoted story I earned coins from for reading). Honestly, I'm on the fence with this story thus far.
Sujeong writes romance novels but has never lived one. A proud homebody and a self-proclaimed loner, she's content on her own—until the sly and irresistible Seunghyeon crashes into her life and turns it upside down. His charm feels dangerous, yet impossible to resist. Now Sujeong must find out: is he the love that she's been waiting for... or the heartbreak she never saw coming?
- Official Webtoon Summary
As the summary mentions, Sujeong is a self-proclaimed introvert who prefers to isolate herself. She also claims that she doesn't connect well with people, only having one true friend. Finally, there are MULTIPLE times where Sujeong pictures HERSELF as a robot attempting to mimic human interactions. So, clearly, intentionally or not, Sujeong feels very autistic-coded. Which, in and of itself, isn't bad. I like stumbling into media where a character feels autistic-coded, such as Mincheol from Maybe Meant to Be. The problem I have is, much like Sheldon from The Big Bang Theory, Sujeong's autistic-like quirks are presented as her being "broken" as a human being and that she needs to be "fixed" by being shaken out of that comfort zone. In other words, forcing her to essentially mask more, but presenting it as "coming into her own" in a way akin to "nerdy girls with glasses actually being pretty once they go through a make-over" was presented in the early 00s high school romcoms.
The other major flaw of this story - one that MOST of the comments on episode 5 called out - is the author glorified AI chatbots.
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So, being a bit socially inept, Sujeong has no clue what to make of Seunghyeon. Does he like her? Does he want to be her friend? Does he just like picking on her and bullying her? IS he bullying her? Or is she misinterpreting his teasing? Is he ALWAYS around because he WANTS to be around her? Or is he ALWAYS around because he knows it annoys her (despite her not ever telling him so) and he enjoys getting on her nerves?
Sujeong is at her wit's end, and needs an outside opinion to sort it all out. Except, she doesn't think her only friend - Hyeri - could be impartial. She assumed that Hyeri would playfully tease that CLEARLY Sujeong and Seunghyeon hang out so much because they're romantically interested in each other. No. Sujeong needed an impartial and practical voice on the matter. So... time to turn to "[Her] friend who could talk with pure logic with no messy feelings!"
The manhwa's version of ChatGPT... ChatCPT.
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Sujeong even thinks to herself, "AI's the only thing that really gets me" as she tells ChatCPT about her situation with Seunghyeon. The chatbot is seemingly sympathetic. Writing things such as "That situation must feel really uncomfortable and upsetting," and "That can be really upsetting and stressful. But remember, their reaction doesn't define you or your work," and "If someone doesn't respect your space or feelings, maybe that's not someone worth keeping close." (That last bit of advice was tagged with "Truth Bomb" along the dialogue box....)
ChatCPT also noted that Seunghyeon could legitimately be attempting to help Sujeong out without realizing how unwanted the offer is or how uncomfortable it's making her. Or that he just enjoys engaging in socializing and small talk and was simply trying to keep conversations going to avoid being lonely when around her (or he's curious as to what her reaction would be). Or Seunghyeon's teasing is his ill-conceived attempt to show romantic interest. ChatCPT then clarifies that even if Seunghyeon was trying to be helpful or to signal his interest, he's coming across rude and should be more aware of that.
Soooooo, valid advice for the situation. HATE that it was given from the in-universe version of a chatbot; legitimizing people going to AI for advice like this. And boy did the comments section second my disdain for this messaging. A bunch of people posted that they "noped" out of the episode - not even finishing the read - as soon as she turned to AI. Others said they were never reading another episode of the comic. I was tempted to die on that hill as well.
But, dammit! I'm hooked.
It truly is hard to know what Seunghyeon's intentions are. Especially when the opening panels of the series is in medias res of him asking Sujeong, "I wanted to go out with you? When did I ever say that?" before rewinding to their meeting "a few weeks ago". And yet, all of his teasing Sujeong is clearly him flirting with her. Maybe not the heart-pounding, "prince charming" style of flirting that Heinrey or Sahyeon or Mincheol or Killian or Tyler, etc do. His is more teasing flirting. Constantly making Sujeong feel a little off-kilter by being a bit TOO close to her. Routinely taping her shoe with the tip of his. Leaning in close to whisper in her ear while pretending he's only doing so because it's so loud around them (or he's trying to keep a secret). Offering her an ice cream so she wouldn't leave to get one herself, but playing it off as he already had one that was melting, so she might as well take it. Using a shaky bus ride as an excuse to "accidentally" tap her leg with his knee or bump shoulders. Offering to be her stand-in if she wanted to do couple-y things like leaning her head on his shoulder while at a concert or sitting on his lap to deter creepy guys from hitting on her. As Sujeong herself notes, "He knows exactly where the line is, poking at it just enough to force a reaction out of me. But never deliberately crossing it."
Most of the commentors on the series seem to be wary of Seunghyeon. I get that. But I'm assuming he genuinely does like her. Perhaps, at first it was simply refreshing and fun to get unique reactions from her compared to the girls that throw themselves at him. Which is why he wanted to spend so much time with her. Then, the more he got to actually learn about her the more he legitimately started to crush on her.
Kind of like Chanu with Ihyeon in Rules for Dating Trash. Actually, with the "cool guy who could get any girl he wants potentially crushing on the awkward and reserved loner-girl" vibes, Falling For It and Rules for Dating Trash have a lot of parallels.
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As I alluded to above, along with those three new stories - The Remarried Empress, How Far Can We Go?, and Falling For It - two more series that I adore are back from hiatus! Duchess in Ruins recently kicked off its 2nd season this month, and Love 4 a Walk returned this past week! Now, for I Am The Villain to finally come back (and Retired Demon King - it's been nearly a year!)
It's still early into the new season of Duchess in Ruins, but they're setting up that poor Count Laslo - now that his sister strongarmed him into getting a make-over - is finally ready to join high society. Which means potential marriage requests, both for his sister and for Laslo himself! The emperor - who clearly ships his buddy Laslo with the titular former duchess Edele - even probes as to when Laslo wishes to take a wife. When Laslo tells the emperor that he'll marry when the emperor orders him to, the sorrowful monarch notes that he'll never ORDER Laslo to marry. While nobles MAY marry out of convenience in order to make pacts and alliances, the emperor is a romantic (clearly) and believes in marrying for love. After saying so, as if to punctuate his point, the emperor leaves to have dinner with his wife.
Laslo contemplates the idea of marrying for love. He thinks it's silly. "When it comes to marriage, necessity precedes love... and it is nothing more than hypocrisy itself, riddled with lies and betrayal." But then he reflects on his childhood when his parents were still alive, and then with the older couple that took him and his sister Lynnia in. There was so much love in those times. Maybe he could let himself believe in love - "if true love really exists..." - in which case....
And then there's just a full-panel image of Edele smiling sweetly while serving tea.
Makes my heart flutter each time. He is so in love with her and desperate for it to be alright to chose her as his bride.
But she was a duchess. Far above him in standing and already betrothed to another. Then she was married to a traitor, and people wondered if she was a traitor as well. Now she is forced into slavery as his servant; his sister's personal attendant turned Head Housekeeper turned Butler. Either way, she is his subordinate; far below hiss standing now. No matter the timing, Edele is always so beyond his reach. If Laslo were to marry for convenience - or if Edele were to remarry for convenience, for that matter - there was no way the two of them would make sense.
If it was a marriage founded on LOVE, however? Maybe there's hope? But Laslo would need to know that true love were real and that he was allowed to have it.
UUUUUGH! It hurts so good!
Especially with Edele also realizing - as the emperor did - that Laslo is likely to receive marriage proposals soon. She reflects on all the subtle bits she recently discovered about Laslo that makes him uniquely handsome:
- "His Lordship's lashes are longer and darker than they appear."
- "He has a small scar on his lower left cheek."
- "He feels warmer than most people."
- "And up close, his eyes glisten in this beautiful way."
Edele realizes that Laslo's eventual bride will one day discover those things about him as well. The idea causes her heart to race and her face to flush. Why? Is she picturing HERSELF as his bride? Is she jealous of someone that does not yet exist (Laslo's future bride)? Hmmmmm???
Man! I am so excited to see this romance between Laslo and Edele blossom! I know it's going to be one hell of a slow burn though. But I'm always down for painfully slow slow-burns.
Now, while I HAVE been neglecting Dracula Daily again - I just needed romance to perk me up when I was sick, I could not with the death and gloom of Dracula this month - I have instead slotted in some new fanfics to read when I'm trying to ration my daily intake of The Remarried Empress.
Zenmisery is at it again with a new on-going story (which I will squeal about until the cows come home) and a one-shot (something unique for her). I love how much she's been writing lately! I love cheering her on! I love how excited she seems to be about her stories and how much that means I get to greedily consume.
First, her one-shot: New With Plagg
OFFICIAL SUMMARY:
It was an accident. He hadn’t meant to. But it happened, and he’s gonna make it right! He just needs a designer to help him make his cover up into reality.
Such a funny little one-shot. It's not explained as to what is going on, but Adrien and Plagg have a little bit of a tiff. (It's presented as Plagg being cranky about Adrien dissing Camembert cheese, but it FEELS like there's more to it.) Things get out of hand. The two of them accidentally get caught by a crowd of people, and Adrien has to explain away Plagg (and why he won't show up in anyone's pictures). Adrien then quickly shoots over to Marinette's to see if she could help him cover up his lie (without admitting to her that he was lying). Marinette sniffs him out though, and some fluffy interrogation ensues.
I can't really say more than that without giving everything away. It's a short little fic (2,451 words). I think my comment on it was longer than the fic itself. I... may get a LOT of feels that I need to express whenever I read Zen's stuff....
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Speaking of Zen's stories that make me feel a lot of feels... the one I REALLY want to gush about is her latest on-going story: The Quiet Game
OFFICIAL SUMMARY:
Marinette has been trying to move past her feelings for years now. If something was going to happen with Adrien, it would have happened already - not to mention the fact that he won’t even speak to her. Moving out of her parents’ bakery isn’t going to make any difference, she’s just ready to be independent and have fun living with friends… maybe even allow herself to meet someone new!
Hooooooo boy! This story! This story makes me scream at my laptop in the best way. I have rambled on for hours about this story to my husband. I have hopped into Zen's DMs on Discord just so I can (lovingly) scream at her.
Marinette wants to still interact with Adrien. She still loves him. She misses her friend. He seems friendly enough with her; smiling and waving at her whenever they are near each other. But, for a reason she cannot fathom, Adrien just.... won't say anything if Marinette' visibly within earshot. So, she stopped trying to interact with him as well.
And yet... Chat Noir not only seems eager to interact with Marinette, he straight up flirts with her while silently ACHING for her.
WHAT GIVES!? If Adrien is so head-over-heels in love with Marinette, WHY has he stopped talking to her? FOR OVER TWO YEARS!?!?!
AND! He apparently knows that Marinette has romantic feelings for him too!? And he wants to be with her! But NOT talking to each other for TWO! YEARS! is a GOOD thing???? And proof that they like each other???? MAKE IT MAKE SENSE, ADRIEN!
Thankfully, Zen does eventually make it make sense. We FINALLY see where Adrien is coming from and what his logic is.
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Turns out Adrienette miscommunication at its finest is the cause of this two-year silent treatment.
Meanwhile, poor Marinette, thinking it's finally time to move on from Adrien, has opened her heart to Chat Noir instead.... Whoops!
The whole thing is just a soap opera in the best way and I've been DEVOURING this story like a glutton! Criminally, I don't think this story is getting nearly enough attention. It was first published October 6th, and the 8th chapter was just published on the 25th. However, it only has 567 hits (77 of which are me...), 25 kudos, and 8 bookmarks.
If you enjoy mistaken identity, miscommunication, ill-conceived fluffy romance, and generic Love Square shenanigans, this story should really scratch that itch. Check it out and then come scream about it with me in the comments section of the story!
Finally, while Ichi_Tan has been working throughout the month on their latest chapter of 404: Jester Not Found, they haven't updated their draft to the point of needing me to beta read. They do seem excitedly close to done, however. So I may have a chapter to beta read soon! I do miss 404 and I'm hyped for more content to read!
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OK! So, that's what I've been reading throughout the back half of September and most of October. Do any of you have any suggestions for me? Especially on Webtoon? My reading list is looking kiiiiinda skimpy.
My reading list for this month:
- Daily Reads:
- Catching up on The Remarried Empress
- Sunday:
- You Can't Kill Me: The Secret Bride of the Black Wolf
- A Savage Proposal
- Duchess in Ruins
- Monday:
- Seabird and the Wolf
- The Mafia Nanny
- I just concluded Not Your Typical Reincarnation Story this week T^T
- Tuesday:
- Lock Me Up, Duke!
- How Far Can We Go?
- Falling For It
- Wednesday:
- Still no weekly stories... how have I not found one yet??
- Thursday:
- Maybe Meant to Be
- Rules for Dating Trash
- Love 4 a Walk is back!!!!
- Friday:
- My Child Will Have a Different Father
- Saturday:
- Obsidian Bride
- What the Evil Dragon Lives For (not for much longer T^T)
We'll see what other stories Webtoon will sucker me into starting up. Or what other fanfics I'll rotate in. Maybe I'm finally healthy enough to binge Dracula and at least finish the story FINALLY, even if it isn't within the intended Dracula Daily format.
In the meantime, Happy Halloween to everyone!
And if you're American, don't forget to vote on the 4th! General elections are just as important as presidential ones!
Catch you all next time for my writing update (which, to be honest, isn't much... so maybe I skip that one again and jump straight into November's LRRC????)
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