By Sankaku Mikaduki and riritto. Released in Japan as “Bishuu Abekobe Isekai de Busaiku Outaishi to Kekkonshitai!” by DRE Novels. Released in North America by J-Novel Heart. Translated by Olivia Plowman.

Sometimes all it takes is one hook. I was reading the second volume of this series, and it was… good. I wasn’t bored or anything, but I joked online that DRE Novels had told the author “you know how we give everyone three books? You get two.” This is indeed the final volume, as the cover no doubt gives away, but it’s also the second volume of a series that started with nobles as children, so we are obliged to do nobles at the academy. And while it’s using villainess tropes and time loop tropes, the only one with memories from Japan is Cocolette, our heroine. So when Pia Abbott arrived, like Cocolette I was puzzled, then vaguely irritated. What was up with her? WAS she one of those “I’m in an otome game!” sort of girls? And then we got a scene from her POV giving her backstory and motivation and, like Cocolette with her pretty boys, I started to stan. Pia, NOW you have my attention.

As noted above, the main cast are going to school, with all that this entails. Cocolette, though she’s smart enough, is not joining the advanced course with the others, but the Ladies’ Course, so that she can make connections with other nobles and gain education in how to be a queen for when she inevitably marries Raph. Unfortunately, others don’t buy that it’s inevitable. The current queen wants Coco to be a concubine, and for Lunamaria to be Raph’s wife… though she doesn’t seem to actually like Lunamaria at all. Prince Ork is still pining for Coco, so she’s still technically a potential fiancee to both princes. And there’s a foreign prince at the academy, this one with a face like a goblin. Naturally everyone loves his ethereal beauty except Coco. And yes, there’s Pia, who seems to be behaving just like the heroine in an otome game… though it’s not really working, much to her frustration. Can Coco navigate all this and get her happy ending?

As I said, the moment it was revealed that Pia was not an idiotic evil heroine with no sense, but a cynical yandere spy who by 2/3 of the way through the book just wants to get away from everyone at the school, I wanted to stand up and cheer. I love a good bitter bitch, which is exactly what she turns back into after she’s arrested. I also liked how her mysterious charm power really is a mystery, because for once this kingdom mostly is without magic, much to their chagrin. It also made it acceptable that in the end she essentially gets off scot-free, as they need her as a lab rat to study, and Coco knows that her obsessive love means she won’t just run away. The rest of the book is more normal, mostly driven by Cocolette’s desire to be surrounded by bishonen contrasting with everyone thinking she’s the greatest thing since sliced bread for hanging around them all. It’s funny, but not as funny as the author thinks.

Fortunately, they all live happily ever after, except maybe for the goblin prince. Decent enough.

By Sankaku Mikaduki and riritto. Released in Japan as “Bishuu Abekobe Isekai de Busaiku Outaishi to Kekkonshitai!” by DRE Novels. Released in North America by J-Novel Heart. Translated by Olivia Plowman.

(I spoil a plot point in this review at the end of the summary, but the plot point comes up fairly early in the book. But I will still warn folks.)

Generally speaking I usually try all the titles J-Novel Club sticks in their Heart imprint, but I will admit I was a bit wary about this one based on the plot description. That wariness only increased when I started to read the book, which at times reads like the author was given the backstory of the world on a dare. The afterword suggests that “a world where ugly is handsome and handsome is ugly” is a genre, which came as a surprise to me, and the fact that it only applies to men made me roll my eyes until they hurt. Despite all that, the writing is breezy and fun, the heroine is goofy yet also likeable, and the mashup of about five different types of light novel plot ends up helping a lot more than it hurts, as it turns out that our protagonist may be the only one here with memories from Japan, but she’s not the only one trying to figure out this new world.

Cocolette Blossom wakes after suffering from a terrible illness and almost dying, with memories of her past life in Japan. She finds that she’s an absolutely gorgeous child! And that she’s in some vaguely European fantasy world, just like Japanese light novels and games! Since she was an otaku with no real life romance before, her goal in this new world is to marry a hottie bishonen. Then comes the bad news. In this world, apparently, men who are considered handsome have orc-like faces with thick eyebrows, which those with bishonen looks are considered so ugly that women literally pass out in horror when they meet them. But that’s not going to stop her! She’s going to meet the Crown Prince, who is considered one of the ugliest in this world, and romance him and get her bishie! Just one problem – this is not the crown prince’s first go round through this timeline.

Yes, that’s right, while our heroine is doing a reincarnation fantasy, her romantic partner Raphael is trapped in a Villainess time-loop fantasy. As it turns out, both of these plot points coming together is what actually saves the day – we learn about the first timeline in flashbacks from Raphael’s viewpoint, and it is a bit ridiculous how everyone that he comes into contact with ends up either unhappy or dead. But with the addition of Cocolette, suddenly almost everything is well again! I say almost everything as this is a still a man who has been called ugly and horrible through TWO lives, and getting him to accept someone loves him is a hard road to hoe. As for the “handsome men are ugly” plotline, there is an actual plot-related reason for this, but I still can’t help but feel that it’s not really doing everything it could with “standards reversed”.

The second volume of this has a wedding on the cover, so I’m not sure if it will even make it to DRE Novels’s three-volume cut-off, but I’ll try it. Good writing and characters help get past an iffy central plot.