The Trials and Tribulations of My Next Life As a Noblewoman: A Ray of Hope, Part 1

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By Kamihara and Shiro46. Released in Japan as “Tensei Reijo to Sūki na Jinsei o” by Hayakawa Shobo. Released in North America by J-Novel Heart. Translated by Hengtee Lim.

The one thing that I think has surprised me most about this series is its dedication to the “My Next Life” part of the title. Let’s face it, in a LOT of these types of series with, if not a villainess, at least a villainess shape, the actual reincarnated from Japan part sometimes gets forgotten. Deliberately so, in many cases – like the male counterparts, a lot of writers write villainess books because people will read that. Trials and Tribulations, though, has quietly continued to point out Karen and Ern’s isekai life, even when it already has a ton of other plot that it could more simply focus on. Last time we saw that Ern was bringing modern guns and gunpowder into a world not ready for it, and the genie really isn’t going back into that bottle. This time, we see there was a country of reincarnators. It even talks about how the original soul “dies” and is replaced with the otherworld one. This series remains a LOT.

As you’d expect, Karen is not doing well after the events of the last book, and ends up in her bedroom basically falling deeper and deeper into depression. Fortunately, she has an angry but kind-hearted tsundere to drag her out and force her to deal with life again. And she also has Reinald, who is not angry or tsundere but is still quietly very interested in her, though she does come far behind his ultimate goal. Karen, though, has far TOO much to deal with. Ern’s parents are being banished for being the parents of a traitor, and while they understandably are a bit pissed at Karen, they also give her a secret message. This allows Karen to discover Ern’s legacy, which can be seen on the cover art but which we’re not quite sure what’s it’s for yet. Six definitely seems to think it’s for him, though. Oh yes, and she’s getting honored by the Emperor for blowing her best friend’s brains out. As one does.

This book is filled with my favorite thing in the series, which is Karen’s matter of fact narration about herself and everything else, followed by someone asking if she could possibly have reactions like a real person. They’d love to see the part early on when she finally gets a delivery of rice, and she’s so overjoyed when she eats she starts to cry. Again, this series has not forgotten its isekai beats. As for Karen and Reinald, I do still think the series is working its way towards them being, if not married, at least engaged by the end. But wow, it’s making me work for that, as that’s quite a Napoleonic goal Reinald has. And it’s so very, very Karen for her advice to him being “why stop there?”. These two absolutely deserve each other. And that’s terrible.

The main flaw of this book is that it is, of course, only half a book. Presumably the subtitle will make more sense after the second part. Still great, though.

The Tiny Witch from the Deep Woods, Vol. 3

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By Yanagi and Yoh Hihara. Released in Japan as “Mori no Hashikko no Chibi Majo-san” by TO Books. Released in North America by J-Novel Club. Translated by Nathan Macklem.

There’s a famous early episode of M*A*S*H where Hawkeye tries to save a patient but fails, and is despondent about it. Henry Blake, in a rare serious turn, says that the first thing he learned in the war was two rules. Rule #1: Young men die. Rule #2: Doctors can’t change Rule #1. This third volume of Tiny Witch is very much about teaching Misha that lesson, as she goes through all the worst things a doctor – sorry, apothecary – can go through. There’s a pandemic that she finds near impossible to solve, people blame her for it and even attack her at one point, and even once she helps to find an answer, some people still die from it and her relationship with the survivors will never be the same. Being an apothecary is not just handing out magic medicine that makes everyone better. Sometimes people die. Misha does learn this lesson, but there are a lot of tears and breakdowns afoot here.

Misha is having a lot of fun at the Kingdom of Redford. She’s helped the princess regain some of her health, she’s made friends with the local children, and she even gets to walk around a town festival. Unfortunately, then those same kids come to tell her that one of them is sick. Along with her grandmother. And the sickness turns out to be very familiar – it’s the plague that almost destroyed the kingdom a generation ago. Now she has to try to solve what others couldn’t before, and without any other help… or so she thinks, but fortunately, some allies arrive to remind her that while the elves (cough) sorry, People of the Forest are loners who tend not to get involved in other people’s business, they will actually help her if she needs help. Even more fortunately, friends she made along the way in the first book turn out to be more valuable than she thought.

This is very much both a “Misha grows up” volume and also a reminder that Misha is not grown up yet, and also has had a lot of trauma in the past. As it turns out, and I’m sure this won’t become relevant in a later book, the woman who set up the death of Misha’s mother, who was confined to an asylum, has escaped. Her friend tries to ask if it’s OK to tell her the information, but the mere reminder of the incident sends Misha into a panic attack. Because she’s good at remaining outwardly nice and friendly, it’s hard to tell sometimes how she’s barely holding it together, and the plague absolutely does not help. By the end of the book, she’s the definition of sadder but wiser, especially with the children she made friends with, who now see her and can’t help but think “she promised to save my granny but did not”. Misha, think of those you did save as well.

The end of this book suggests that we will spend the next several books stuck in the People of the Forest’s closed-off village, and I am 100% sure that’s not going to happen, so it will be interesting to see how that gets derailed. Till then, this is a very solid fantasy.

The Villainess Speaks Not: The Awoken Genius and the Once-Lost Pawn

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By Kei Yose and Ruria Miyuki. Released in Japan as “Akuyaku Reijou wa Shaberimasen” by Overlap Bunko. Released in North America by J-Novel Club. Translated by Adam.

I always find it very interesting when J-Novel Club puts a villainess title in their “main” imprint rather than in the romance-oriented J-Novel Heart line. The implication is that the romance is not the point in this series, and that’s certainly true in this first volume, where our pre-teen villainess does her best to try to avoid becoming the official fiancee to the crown prince. But more to the point, this is one of those villainess series that runs entirely on politics and intrigue, and that places it squarely in the main line of books. Liliana has assassins try to kill her over and over again in this book, and she’s only six years old for most of it. The kingdom is being torn apart and a coup may be imminent. There’s an aggressive mage running around simply starting chaos on behalf of someone unseen. Then again, give the sheer OP capabilities of Liliana, maybe everyone is right to worry.

I need you to bear with me while I write the next sentence, because I promise this book was really good. Liliana Clarke wakes up from a week-long fever to find that she now remembers her past life from Japan, and also that this is the world of an otome game where she is the villainess. (You can’t be too surprised, given the title and the genre.) She also finds that she can’t speak anymore, due to the illness… or due to a curse. This is not good news, because magic here requires spoken incantations. She can’t even call for help in case assassins attack her. Which, given that her dad is one of the biggest power brokers in the country, is a problem. Fortunately Liliana already knows that most magic is not “ironclad rules” put “power of imagination” Which means she has no need for speaking. Also, she can do literally almost anything.

It’s a rare villainess book that has almost no humor at all. What’s more, while her life is truly terrible, Liliana does have allies in her corner (including the crown prince – she may want to break off their engagement, but not if he has anything to say about it). This is important, because danger lurks around every corner here. Possibly the most chilling moment in the book is when, after a monster stampede that destroyed a town and killed dozens, which she managed to stop but passed out from mana loss, her father happens to be passing my in the aftermath and murmurs “what, still alive?”. Fortunately, Liliana really is OP, and her allies are fun, especially mage Petra (who may treat Liliana too casually but knows her stuff) and mercenaries Gildo and Olga (whho marvel at the fact that she’s not like those other nobles). By the end of the book she’s regained her voice but decides to hide it to fool her enemies. It’s a good plan, especially as the apple-eating bad guy who doesn’t have a name but certainly has a mission to wipe her out continues to hang around.

The webnovel has finished for this, and there are five volumes so far in Japan, so we’ve barely gotten started. What’s more, this was 380 pages, so it’s a beefy book. I felt rewarded, though. Thrilling stuff.