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The Reincarnated Villainess Won’t Seek Revenge, Vol. 1

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By Akako and Hazuki Futaba. Released in Japan as “Tensei Shita Akuyaku Reijō wa Fukushū o Nozomanai” by Mag Garden Novels. Released in North America by Cross Infinite World. Translated by JCT.

With the glut of villainess books we’ve seen in recent years, it can help to know which bucket to put them in, in order to help with expectations. One of the easiest is “how serious is the story being told?”. On the one side you have titles like My Next Life As a Villainess, or the initial parts of Young Lady Albert Is Courting Disaster, where we know that the villainess tropes are being used to have a rollicking good time. On the other side you get titles like I Swear I Won’t Bother You Again!, where the reality of what’s happened leads to trauma and severe mental strain. This new title, The Reincarnated Princess Won’t Seek Revenge, is not as dark as that, but it’s definitely more on the serious side of the scale. Mary just wants to life a happy, peaceful life in her new reincarnation, and not worry about her old life as Rosemary. Unfortunately, agency is an issue here. Others want the revenge she does not.

Rosemary Hubert, brought up to be engaged to the crown prince, is accused of terrible crimes she didn’t commit and hung at the gallows. Now the prince is married to Tia, the woman who brought this miscarriage of justice about. Eighteen years later, Mary Edigma suddenly regains her old memories of Rosemary – she was reincarnated as a rural baron’s daughter. She wants nothing more but to ignore court politics and live a new life… but the crown is calling in various noble daughters to serve as handmaids in the palace, in the hopes that one of them will prove to be a wife to Crown Prince Rizel, who has not really shown interest in anyone yet. Once there, she’s forced to interact with both Rosemary’s childhood friend Albert, now a knight, and her younger brother Reynaldo, now a duke. And both men are hellbent on at last getting the revenge for Rosemary’s death they’ve sought all these years.

There are some romance aspects to this book, of course. Prince Rizel falls deeply in love at first sight with Mary, mostly because she doesn’t fall all over him. Albert is still deeply in love with Rosemary, and transfers that to Mary quickly. And, in a creepier vein, Reynaldo is quite content to make Mary his, as “they’re no longer related” with her new reincarnation. But for the most part this volume is about the need for revenge, and who it’s really for. Mary insists that because she herself does not need revenge, the others should stop, but this ignores the suffering they’ve been through all these years. Likewise, both Reynaldo and Albert lie to Mary’s face a couple times about the revenge itself, because they will find it easier to apologize after the fact than to have her show up and stop them in media res. Which, of course, she does. That said, the bad guy got away, so it’s very easy to see how the 2nd volume will go.

This book can be a bit didactic at times, and Reynaldo pushes a few envelopes, but Mary is a strong heroine, and overall it’s a good read.

Lovestruck Prince! I’ll Fight the Heroine for my Villainous Fiancée!, Vol. 1

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By Shakushineko and Yukiko. Released in Japan as “Betabore no Kon’yakusha ga Akuyaku Reijō ni Saresō nanode Heroine gawa ni wa Sore Sōō no Mukui o Ukete Morau” by Mag Garden Novels. Released in North America by Cross Infinite World. Translated by Mittt Liu.

I am once again thinking about genre when I write these reviews. I am, as you are no doubt aware by now, very fond of the villainess genre as a whole. There are several reasons for this, but one of the main ones is simply that it gives us a female protagonist, something that was nearly unheard of in translated light novels before this point. It’s almost a reaction against the potato isekai guys. Of course, if that is the case, then this book has a big issue, which is that this is the series where it’s the prince, for once not inveigled by that sneaky heroine, who is determined to help his sweet-as-pie fiancée. He’s sort of goofy, and not a bad character, but the lack of Elizabeth in this book is a worry. That said, the other part of the premise is quite interesting: what if the “otome game” aspect was in the world itself?

Crown Prince Vincent really loves his fiancée, Elizabeth. Really, really loves her. It’s sort of sickening. Unfortunately, lately things have not been going well, because there’s a new book that everyone at school is reading, Star Maiden. A romance of the “otome game” variety, it features a hero that is clearly Vincent… and Elizabeth as a cruel villainess! What’s more, a new girl at school, Yulisse, is trying to get in close with the prince, just like the book. And events in the book start to magically happen, despite both Vincent and Elizabeth trying their hardest to avoid all contact with Yulisse. What’s really going on here? Will Vincent be forced to publicly denounce his fiancée and break off their engagement at a huge ball? After all, that’s the trope.

I did like the book premise, which, yes, does turn out to involve a reincarnation from Japan, but for once it’s not the villainess or heroine. There’s a lot of political wrangling here, which is mostly good. Harold, the long-suffering aide to Vincent, is also a great character. The trouble is that, in trying to protect Elizabeth, Vincent bars us from learning anything about Elizabeth, whose inner thoughts we are rarely privy to. (This seems to be a family thing, as it’s hinted that his mother is a complete loose cannon, but we get no evidence for this at all.) And there’s also Raphael, one of Vincent’s allies, who is, as the book notes, “a playboy and sadist”. Yulisse can’t stand him, and so while her fate at the end of the book is appropriate given what she was trying to do, it also gives me the creeps. It’s not meant to make the reader assume she’s being sexually abused, but the frisson is there.

So, overall, a mixed bag. And, once again, everything is wrapped up in this book, but there’s a second one due out in the summer. Let’s hope it has a bit more villainess in it.

A Royal Rebound: Forget My Ex-Fiancé, I’m Being Pampered by the Prince!, Vol. 1

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By Micoto Sakurai and Kuroyuki. Released in Japan as “Konyakusha ga Uwakiaite to Kakeochi Shimashita. Ōji Denka ni Dekiaisarete Shiawase nanode, Ima sara Modoritai to Iwarete mo Komarimasu” by DRE Novels. Released in North America by J-Novel Club. Translated by A. M. Cola.

Occasionally I have to remind myself not to criticize something for being what it is intending itself to be. You would not criticize a science-fiction book for having spaceships in it, or an isekai for having someone transported to another world. That’s what it IS. And this is a romance. What’s more, A Royal Rebound is definitely in the genre of “wish fulfillment” romance. The heroine is an adorable nerd who finds love with another adorable nerd (the prince). The other princes are all sweet as pie. Everyone is easily put into two buckets: those on her side, or villains. As such, it works fine. The book’s wish fulfillment is sweet, the bad fiancé gets what’s coming to him, and they all live happily ever after (well, at least until Vol. 2). My only real issue with the book is Amelia, the heroine, who is… a bit of a drip, to be honest.

Amelia Lenia is a count’s daughter in a farming domain specializing in grain. She’s a water mage, fairly common. She’s been engaged to Reese Thurma, from a neighboring domain, for some time and things have seemed fine. But when Reese goes off to school he suddenly stops visiting, or writing. And when Amelia joins him a year later she finds that everyone seems to hate her on sight. What exactly is going on here? Fortunately, she does meet one nice guy – an eccentric young man who wants to talk to her about ways to help their harvest in the increasingly cold weather they’ve been getting. Oh yes, and he’s also the Fourth Prince, and 2nd in line in the succession. Can Amelia figure out why Reese is shunning her AND negotiate Sarge’s royal family?

I might have liked this better if I hadn’t read it right after The Apothecary Witch Turned Divorce Agent, whose heroine, Carla, is almost the anti-Amelia. Amelia is nice, but is definitely in the “suffer quietly” camp, never my favorite. She does get a nice punch at the end of the book, but it’s a long wait. She works much better paired up with Sarge, as the book makes no bones about how the two are massive nerds who will happily talk about crops until they both pass out from exhaustion. Fortunately, everyone in the royal family adores Amelia on sight, mostly as she can keep up with Sarge’s thinking. Most of the book is not “when will they get together” so much as “when will Amelia realize that this is love?”, and the answer is “most of the book”. That said, again, this is a wish fulfillment romance, where a shy nerdy girl gets a hot guy and his hot family, and they go back to his place late at night for some hot equation solving. It does its job well.

The book wraps everything up nicely in one volume, but there is a 2nd on the way, which seems to involve the desert nation mentioned in this book. I’m hoping Amelia gains some confidence going forward.