The Villainess Is Dead! Long Live the Empress! Redoing the Story After a Poisonous End, Vol. 1

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By Iota Aiue and Tsukasa Kuga. Released in Japan as “Shokeisareta Akujo wa, Taikoku de Kouhi no Za wo Tsukamu” by DRE Novels. Released in North America by J-Novel Heart. Translated by Mac B. Gill.

I would not be reviewing 80 billion of these villainess books if I was not a big fan of the genre. As such, I can usually forgive it if it’s a bit on the nose. There are a lot fewer surprises in this first book than is perhaps required, although you might call the end of the book a surprise, as I sense that making this a series rather than a standalone book was a last-minute decision borne out by the rushed non-ending. It does, however, have a terrific romantic couple as our leads. The villainess is honorable, noble, tricky, stubborn, etc. in equal measure. The prince (technically that is a spoiler, but come on, it’s revealed almost immediately and is not a surprise even then) is handsome, self-assured without being smug, and they realistically realize the truth about each other very fast. Also, there’s a handsome woman knight, who is such a great character I will ignore our heroine buying her as a slave (it’s fixed almost immediately).

We open with Westalia, our heroine, being executed after being framed for an attempted murder by her supposed best friend. (I did say this was a typical villainess book.) But it’s OK. She’s taken an antidote, and rises from the dead when her grave is being robbed. Fleeing across borders, she ends up in the Archadies Empire, where the Empress is chosen by a country-wide search. Though, given the literacy rate is pretty low, the finalists do tend to be rich nobles. Westalia came here on purpose. After spending her life trying to learn to be a good queen only to be betrayed, she’ll be damned if she’s going to thrown away trying to help people and do good. So she’s going to become Empress by hook or by crook. Fortunately, the only real competition she has seems very familiar, as if every villainess needs an idiot heroine…

I talked about being a fan of villainess stories, which means I’ve met my share of bratty younger sisters, evil heroines, etc. We get two varieties for the price of one here. Both are presented as “mostly sort of evil”, which is to say they’re evil until the point where the author allows them a bit of depth. Lily has always hated Westalia, and was too busy pretending to be her best friend to realize that her dilemma of being married off to a creepy middle-aged man might have been something solvable with Westalia’s help. (She’s merely disgraced, so we may see her again.) Meanwhile, Elizabeth is using her money and connections to buy the contest, so is very upset when that still isn’t enough. She seems to at least have a bit of self-awareness. She’s definitely coming back, because they rewrote the cliffhanger to assure it.

If you are a villainess fan, this is really good. If you can take or leave it, you probably won’t like it. I’ll definitely read more, though I suspect it might have been better as a one-shot.

Lady Bumpkin and Her Lord Villain, Vol. 3

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By Ageha Sakura and Kurodeko. Released in Japan as “Imokusa Reijou desu ga Akuyaku Reisoku wo Tasuketara Kiniiraremashita” by Overlap Novels f. Released in North America by J-Novel Heart. Translated by Vasileios Mousikidis.

In the first volume, we saw how Agnes was physically, mentally and emotionally abused by her family, and it was pretty terrible (the abuse, that is, not the book). In the second volume, we hear how actually a number of young noble ladies have this problem, and many of them are cracking under the strain and falling for handsome guys with vague mind control powers. And now, in the third volume, we’re told that it’s pretty rare to find a teenage noble girl in Desnim who is NOT abused by their family in some way. Heck, even when we get the classic setup in this volume – abused, Cinderella-esque older sister, arrogant and spoiled younger sister – it rapidly becomes clear that the younger sister is not actually LOVED by her family or anything, and that if they lose their scapegoat they’re perfectly happy to offer up scapegoat number two. Oh, yes, and other noble girls are raped by priests until they’re driven mad. Meanwhile, Agnes and her husband flirt shamelessly and plan an official wedding ceremony.

It’s been a year since Agnes arrived in Sutrena, and she’s is happily married to Lord Nazel (who is very happy to perform his husbandly duties all the time now that Agnes is mostly over her shyness). Nazel wants to have the big wedding ceremony they never had when they were married, and cajoles Agnes into it. This will require a priest sent from the capital, who is rather downtrodden and overworked, so quite happy to end up in a domain where people appreciate him. They also need a silver ring from a different domain, and meet the pleasant lord, his wife, and their two children. One of whom looks like she’s about to fall over dead from overwork at any moment, and the other of whom looks like she was born to hold her hand in front of her mouth and Ohohohohohoho. So yeah, family abuse. Sadly, things then get worse. For both daughters.

We’ve seen “good older sister, spoiled brat younger sister” endless times now in light novels, to the point where I was ready to roll my eyes. It’s a credit to the writing, though, that I rapidly realized that Furla was not going to end up with a fate worse than death, nor was she going to be arrested with her parents (whose crime is treating their child like crap, really). No, this is about getting an incredibly selfish young woman who, deep DEEP down, realizes that she’s nothing special to understand that all her safety and security is now gone and that she can’t simply simper at someone and get her own way. Technically things don’t end well for her – she’s another of Agnes’ endless parade of former nobles who are now maids, and the guy she’s fallen for is in love with this series’ equivalent of Superwoman. But frankly, compared with where she could have ended up… Furla does OK. She’s even learning laundry.

I will once again be annoyed at the author for yet another “I don’t swing that way” joke, which is tedious. Other than that, the fact that this series pinballs between dark abusive tragedy happening right off screen and Agnes and Nazel being flirty and happy and adorable is both the series’ greatest strength and its greatest weakness. Also, still don’t know why there’s a chibi-Agnes on each cover.

Fluffy-Eared Realm Restoration: Taking It Slow with My Cool Big Brother, Vol. 1

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By Iota Aiue and Tsukasa Kuga. Released in Japan as “Tensei Mofumofu Reijou no Mattari Ryouchi Kaikakuki: Cool na Onii-sama to Amaama Slow Life wo Tanoshindeimasu” by DRE Novels. Released in North America by J-Novel Heart. Translated by Raenoire.

This is one of those series that I was on the fence about till I saw that I had read the author before. They’ve done a very series over here, mostly for Cross Infinite World, and I’d enjoyed their previous series, Third Loop. Though honestly, I may have enjoyed this new one more if I had not read Third Loop, as it’s clearly trying to hit the same sort of themes and cuteness as that one. The author seems to dabble in popular genres, and clearly this one is dabbling in both the “I go back in time to fix things” stories as well as “fluffy things are wonderful and cute girls are cute” stories, which has gotten popular lately. This book does have a few interesting things that held by attention, but unfortunately it is also very by the book, with almost no actual surprises. It’s a “would you like that fastball right down the plate?” book.

We open with Lune Renard, the crown princess, about to get guillotined by a revolutionary mob, along with her adopted brother and father, who don’t seem to like her any more than the mob. She’s tried to help her family and their holdings, but has only made things worse, and now she’s being executed. She prays to the fox god who supposedly rules this domain… and he answers, sending her back in time to just before she was found in the temple as an orphan by her family. Can she make things right this time, and ensure she is NOT married off to a royal? Sure she can. After all, she now can not only speak to spirits, but she also has adorable fox ears and a tail. She never had the power of cute in her past life!

I did like a couple of things about this book. We’ve sometimes seen prisoners abused by the kingdom in previous books, but we’ve never really gotten a low-security prison for political criminals like we get here, complete with the “funny” eccentric doctor. (YMMV.) And I appreciated that it acknowledged the difference in status and how they’re treated with the commoner “hard labor” criminals. Also, while the crown prince showing up was as bratty and awful as you’d expect, he was actually more layered than I expected. He becomes a different type of awful once he realizes that Lune is valuable and can talk to spirits, but he still sees her as an object rather than a person, and thinks she should be grateful to be his concubine. (They’re both eight, by the way.) That said, when presented with evidence that he cannot really weasel his way out of, he manages to actually not be evil, even if this means, um, throwing allies under the bus. That said, most of this book is Lune being adorable, talking to her snarky god, and fixing things relatively easily as these sorts of books go.

And, as I noted, I’d read this once before, when it was called Third Loop. If you like fluff or defeating roundworm through the power of yoga, this is okay.