#punichan

Story:

Genre: Reincarnated-as-a-villainess, Otome Game Isekai, Romance, light novels for ladies

Tiararose regained her memories of her past life and realises that she has reincarnated as the villainess of an otome game that she played in her previous life. This happens the day before the graduation party, where she will meet her doom, so there’s no time to change things around so she resolves herself to her fate. However, when her fiancee, Hartknights, is breaking things off with her in front of everyone, the prince of a neighbouring country, Aquasteed, comes to her rescue and proposes to her. Aquasteed was a romantic option in the continuation for the game that Tiararose was unable to play before her death and it turns out that he’s had a crush on her for a long time. Her father leaves the decision up to Tiararose on whether to accept the proposal or not and it’s time for her to decide her fate for herself.

This volume doesn’t really have much to offer aside from the romance that the volume focuses on and I think whether you like this volume or not will depend on whether the romance works for you or not. It mostly worked for me because I just wanted Tiararose to be happy so I was rooting for their romance but I do think that it’s a bit quick and could have been developed better, especially on Aquasteed’s side of things. Aquasteed likes Tiararose because he often visited the academy’s library and, outside of the window, he could see Tiararose as she ate sweets and read books and was enamoured by how her expression could change so much while reading a book. So, yeah, they’re romance is very cute and fluffy and I don’t recall Aquasteed ever doing anything with Tiararose without her consent (it’s a low bar, I know) but I don’t think that the volume does anything to really make it stand out from other romance series or otome game isekai series and the climax of the volume feels quite rushed and weak.

I wouldn’t rate it above 3 stars because of those issues and because I’m not really much of a romance fan so, while I did find the volume enjoyable to read because it was so fluffy, I still couldn’t really get interested in the story.

Character:

Tiararose is someone who puts a high value on the rules of the society that she lives in. Her alleged “bullying” towards Akari, the heroine, comes from Akari’s lack of regard for societal rules as Tiararose warns her against acting too familiar with men who are already engaged and reprimands her for acting inappropriate towards the prince who is of a much higher status of her. Even after she regains her memories, she’s still very respectful of the rules in the way that she acts, especially when it comes to Aquasteed so the revelation that she was isekai’d doesn’t change her personality much. She also has a massive sweet tooth and, because Hartknights was a dick, she’s inexperienced in romance so her reactions to Aquasteed’s advances is very cute. I felt affection towards Tiararose pretty much instantly and it was easy for me to root for happiness and her romance with Aquasteed as a result. While her relationship with Akari is more enemies/eventual rivals, she does have a cute female friendship with her maid, Fillyn that somewhat makes up for it.

I got to be honest, I have trust issues and Aquasteed seemed too perfect to be true so I kept on waiting for him to do something dickish and he never did. He’s just a genuinely nice guy who I unfortunately don’t care much about as a character but I’ll admit that he is a good romantic interest for Tiararose and I think readers who are more into romance than I am are going to swoon over him a lot.

Akari is alright. Like her name implies, she also came from Japan and she is pretty selfish because she is the position of “heroine” and thus believes that she should be able to take whatever she wants, including Aquasteed. I found her entertaining but she doesn’t have much depth here. Hartknights is one of the worst characters I have ever read about and I hate him so much. He’s just a very annoying character and he gets way too much screen time that he really does not need.

I do want to give a special mention to the king and Tiararose’s dad because they both are very supportive of her and recognise that she is way too good for Hartknights and are like “get it, girl!” about her romance with Aquasteed so they’re great. Tiararose’s servants, especially Fillyn, are very supportive of her and are adorable.

Adaptation Notes:

The manga adaptation features art by Hoshina and is ongoing with 6 volumes currently released. I definitely do prefer the manga to the light novel so far. It doesn’t change much from the light novel but a few scenes are rearranged, I think one scene is cut and there’s less narration. I’d recommend it over the light novel because the art is very cute so it works really well and ends up being more enjoyable to read as a result.

Recommended for:

I recommend this to anyone who wants to read a sweet and fluffy romance in an otome game isekai setting.