Violet is the a princess of the royal family, who is arranged to marry a wealthy businessman, Winter Blooming, as compensation for him settling the kingdom's debts.
But at the wedding ceremony the crown prince announces that the royal family are renouncing their titles, which means the groom will not be receiving the noble title he was promised.
Feeling utterly tricked, he leaves the wedding party early and henceforth treats his wife coldly.
He ignores her, refuses to go to parties with her and does not listen to her.
In return, the servants don't respect her, her parents-in-law harass her and other nobles look down on and mock her.
As time passes, she feels more and more isolated, lonely and brokenhearted and one day she's finally had enough.
She swallows a bottle of pills and lies down to wait for her death - but it doesn't come.
Instead she wakes up in her husband's body and he in hers.
From here on, the couple switch bodies a few times - each time triggered by Violet attempting suicide - and being in his wife's body, finally makes Winter realize a little about the pain she has suffered. Just not enough.
A false pregnancy, staged by her parents-in-law who knows the couple can't have children, is the final straw that makes the relationship crumble.
Winter thinks Violet cheated on him and the accusations coupled with the news that she is not pregnant (thinking her symptoms were psychological, and not provoked by medicine) finally makes Violet break it off with her husband.
She's been neglected and abused for too long, while her husband refused to help or listen to her, and she can't even take her own life to stop it. So she knows the only way escape misery is to leave Winter.
Winter is initially against it, but finally caves in when Violet reveals to him how they were able to switch bodies in the first place.
However, he's not done after all.
A year passes after their separation, when Violet suddenly wakes up in his body. Certain that Winter would never commit suicide, she believes he's found another way to switch, and the two meet up again.
Winter proposes that the two of them stay together for 3 months as a couple, and if Violet still wants to leave then, he'll grant her the divorce.
And so the two of them get entangled again...
This is a FRUSTRATING read.
Winter is an AWFUL person and I honestly cannot feel any sympathy for him whatsoever.
He treated his wife like crap through their entire marriage. She literally did not ask for anything more that him spending a bit of time with her every now and again. But he wouldn't even do that.
He didn't spend time with her, didn't listen to her even when she pleaded, cut her off and treated her like a she was a nuisance. Yet he still claimed to love her.
Only when she had attempted suicide MULTIPLE TIMES and he had experienced the abuse she went through on his (her) own body, did he begin to show empathy for her.
But only as long as her needs don't conflict with his, because to Winter no one matters more to him than himself - even if he tries to convince himself otherwise.
Even his suicide attempts, after Violet leaves, seem self-absorbed and pathetic. He couldn't get what he wanted, so now he'll end it all. But not before he's had the chance to insert himself into Violet's life once more, so she'll the maximum amount of pain when he dies.
(He never states that explicitly, but come on. Why else would he do this?)
I don't know how he plan to kill himself, when they usually just end up switching instead. But I wish he'd just figure it out and go through with it, instead of dragging Violet into it.
Winter is trash and he doesn't deserve her.
Even when they've finally reunited, he's still awful. He's still only thinking about himself, keeps secrets and tries to manipulate Violet, to get what he wants.
The only thing he's learned from the break up and the time apart, is that she mattered to him. He hasn't learned to respect her, to care for her, to communicate or to not put his needs above everyone else's.
I liked the beginning of the story, because I'm a sucker for the angst. But the story doesn't want to be a tragic love story, neither does it want to be fluffy romance. It exists in a weird limbo in-between, where the drama feels hollow and the characters become caricatures or dolls with no personality.
So, yeah, 60 chapters in I think I can conclude this is not getting any better and that it's not for me...
What It Means to be You