By Kooriame and Nami Hidaka. Released in Japan as “Lady Rose wa Heimin ni Naritai” by Kadokawa Beans Bunko. Released in North America by J-Novel Heart. Translated by Caroline W.
We have had numerous books where I have observed that the protagonist and/or the antagonist tends to be a bit too quick to see the world they’ve been reincarnated in as the actual otome game they remember, rather than as a world with living, breathing humans with real feelings. That said, I don’t think I’ve ever seen a series lean quite so hard into the concept as Lady Rose, in which Lady Rose has to be handed a lot of the answers to the mystery she’s trying to solve as she is SO ingrained into the mindset that everyone is like the characters she remembers that she not only can’t see the forest for the trees, but can’t even see the tree. And when you add in the fact that, like so many other shoujo light novels, she is utterly unable to see her own value, calling everything she does “acting”, and you end up with a book that is less of a mystery and more of a psychological horror story.
We pick up immediately after the cliffhanger from Book One, as Felicia and Seth confront her adopted younger brother and try to figure out why he’s kidnapped Liliana… though this ends up being more an exercise in making Felicia face reality, something that proves to be… very difficult, frankly. Things are not helped by the fact that Liliana is now actively trying to kill herself, and Felicia has to figure out why that’s happening. And oh yes, Evan was also in on the kidnapping. This means that both Shade and Evan are going to be executed, unless… Rose goes back to the castle, and pleads with the King for clemency. Something which is unlikely to have any impact, unless of course she goes ahead and marries Nika, who she at least finally admits she loves. Will she be forced to give up on everything she’s fought for?
I’m gonna be spoiling a bit of the climax of the book here, but I just have to talk about how delighted I was by the ending, which until the last page I thought was going to be reversed. Hell, so did everyone else in the cast, and they’re very surprised at the final outcome. Because this is not “Lady Rose Learns How Important She Is”, or “Lady Rose Makes Sacrifices But Finds True Love”, it’s “Lady Rose Wants to Be a Commoner”, and it’s absolutely committing to that bit. Now, she and Nika are still being cute and blushy at the end, but notably: she’s a commoner, he’s a prince, and they aren’t married. She not only defies fate but defies the narrative, and I love that. (I also love the fakeout opening of Chapter 6, which gave me a brief heart attack till I laughed).
The series ends here… except it doesn’t, as there is a third and final volume, from the perspective of Liliana, the “saint”. Honestly, any perspective that isn’t Felicia’s will be welcome at this point – she’s too unreliable a narrator. Very much enjoying this.
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