somnia's manga / #Beautiful Art(48)

One of the better shoujo fantasy stories. But Tia is def a power fantasy kinda gal, if you want stakes and drama it isn't here. What I do give the story credit for is making an array of compelling characters and putting some much needed brain juice into the political world building which usually gets kinda bogged down and neglected in most shoujo stories. The politics/economics are essential here and play into the nobles' relationships, which you rarely see in historical shoujo manhwas ironically. It's not researched all that well but it works for the story. My main gripe here is FL herself. Tia for all the op knowledge she's bringing to the table is too innocent when it comes to romance imo. It just makes me cringe. Sure make her demure, but forcing her to be so stubborn about ML having to end up with that other brown girlie, not realizing this man is SO down bad for her... shit doesn't add up. Otherwise I find myself enjoying the story, I just expected so much more of it. It's nice that Tia was able to change some things from the way they were originally, but there could've been so much more depth to the conflicts. I was expecting the story to atleast dig into Ballsack's psyche a bit, make the mean guys more than just mean guys but nOpe. Annoying kid stays annoying and Angenas all bad. Okay. At least the characters stay consistent? It's just that no one in this story ever really changes either.

Meldenique is the villainess of a romance fantasy novel. She is the evil, cursed fiance of the ML who gets in the way of the FL's romance and success in life. Our MC is very uninterested in living that out, so she throws away her shitty family and title, and opens up her own small business... It's not really a stationary shop? More of a candy store lol. On the way she also picks up an OP hero spirit, named Dominic, who basically is her side kick and main crutch for now. Anywho, turns out these supposed good guy protags are total scum and get in her way in any way possible. Included in that pool is her fiance, who doesn't love her one bit, but is at the same time strangely obsessed with her. So, I really like this one despite heavily playing into the whole "I possessed the villainess, but changed to avoid fatality and oops they all love me now"-trope. It plays into it with taste, but also gives it a tiny twist. She doesn't have upper hand at all at the start, and is constantly being stepped on by various chunks of faeces who you'll hate more the longer you read (ofc not to the point of totally ruining her). The pacing so far is nice, it's mostly held up by said faeces constantly being bad guys. Good and bad is defined VERY clearly with this one, but for now their crimes don't feel too cartoony. It's cute how involved children are in the plot, though sometimes you really wonder why they have so much say as the little kids that they are. Ah, and ngl, Domenic's SSR class magic go brr abilities are a bit too much here and there. His abilities are a bit TOO convinient sometimes. You can overlook that though, since he's supposed to be this kind of powerful hero. I couldn't help but spoil myself to see where it's all headed, and man, it's gonna get good. Can't wait to see the stand-offs between Mel and the og FL. Not to mention our ML. Over all, a worthwhile read so far.

Camellia, the bastard daughter of a Marquis, is forced to take on the role of the younger bastard *son* by the marquess, the wife. She is basically live insurance to protect the family's stability until her brother can recover from his illess. You know the drill, the wife is bitter as hell- but at least Lia is able to grow up with care thanks to the Marquis, her brother and the servants being fond of her. Not to mention all these dudes with a high rank that lowkey thirst after what they think is a girly looking him, "Cammelius". Anyway, I really love the story so far. I really want Lia is come into her own and find her mom. But MAN, I don't like that Claude is the main lead. He was such an ass in the beginning, and lowkey I'm disgusted how Lia is blushing over him because he is nice to her here and there, when he's a cold stone slab to everyone and everything any other time. Have you seen how he treats his fiance?? He is just glaring down on her like a mad dog bc she tries to establish a good relationship with him. Maybe I'm being too realistic here but that's a red flag. It's just ASKING for another salty ex faince villainess scenario where she beats down on Lia for stealing her mans or whatever. When I saw that banquet scene it felt like I was looking into the future already. Please tell me I'm wrong, I hope I am.. Fr Claude isn't any different from the princes. None of them really seem to care about her as a person or what she is going through. Giving her candy bc she likes it is WEAK, sorry not sorry. I'm just here to see Lia get to a point in life where she can be happy, all these dudes can go back to their palaces for all I care.

You know the drill. A reincarnated girl possesses the body of the villainess in a BL novel, who is also said male lead's sister, as mentioned in the title lol. Instead of bullying him and making him an even edgier boy bound for heartbreak, she decides to be nice and change him so he can be happy with his future lover. Eh, yea. Starts off okay. And as you read more it's becoming very apparant how little the plot points actually matter. Only FL does. She doesn't do shit besides act cute with the Duke and ML in her childhood, nothing concerning their abuse and then it's just forgotten about after FL has her trauma moment. And from what I recall ML never got this acknowledged much unless it's from FL's commentary. Turns out she's a saint, color me impressed. I don't want to write another essay on this but let me just say this: what was author's reason for making the og story a BL? To fish for starved fujoshis? Sure, gay people exist and don't have to be tied to the yaoi genre but the implications of healing a broken gay character and making them fall in love with a straight woman is kinda questionable, you get what I mean? Nitpicking but still. I think that just shows what I meant when I say that only FL and her fish matter.

Plot in a nutshell: FL was abused by her family both in her first life and now in her 2nd life as a minor side villain of a fantasy "biography"/novel. She was killed by her own husband for poisoning his sister. But now she is set on gaining everyone's favor, or at least her hubby's, to hopefully not be framed for anything and get away from her abusive family for good. Kind of spoiler, literally just me ranting: I love this so much, but I lowkey hurt from the angst that we got going on sometimes. At first it felt random for Ruby to be yeeted away by monsters so randomly, but in hindsight it was needed stress-relief for the readers. It wasn't that out of no-where too, since Ruby seems to have some kinda connection to monsters. Gotta praise the author too, it would've been very easy to find Ruby's insecurities annoying were it not for the amazing writing. I never doubted Ruby and never will, I feel.

Inés has relived her life more than once by the time she chooses to become the fiance of the most handsome future playboy. She now knows to avoid the slimey, filth-ridden rag, that is the Crown Prince... and hops on the Carcel (the playboy) train, when she is reborn far enough into the past to change her fiance. That's one hell of a rough summary. The story so far is so nice. The whole time reverse thing isn't anything new, but the story makes it up with the characters and pace. It isn't anything world end heavy plot-wise, but the journey still feels important thanks to Inés' perspective. Honestly, her experiences made me cry multiple times, and this isn't even supposed to be a tragedy. Herself and her relationship with Carcel are the main driving point of the story imo. And yea, there is no actual smut in here. You barely get to witness them breaking the bed, it's vaguely shown and more so talked about by the characters. In a worse story I might've complained about lacking commitment, but here these scenes feel less like smut for the sake of smut, and more so to show the couple's development. Looking forward to future chapters for now.