By Selena Pigoni and Minori Aritani. Released in North America by J-Novel Club.
Another of the J-Novel Club contest winners, this one feels the most like a standard light novel, in both good and bad ways. If I hadn’t been told it was a contest entry, there are only a few places where I might guess that it’s not translated from the Japanese. This is a shoujo light novel in the “escaping my horrible fiance and hooking up with a much better guy” genre, which usually intersects with the villainess or Cinderella genres but here doesn’t really have aspects of either of those. That said, this has something most of the Japanese versions lack. Japan’s wish fantasy books tend to have the ex-fiance/boyfriend by rather pathetic, shouty but completely ineffectual and easily humiliated. We do not remotely get that here. Brodrick is terrifying, and it is clear from Page 1 why Rhiannon wants to be as far away from him as possible and it’s clear on page 194 that he’s gotten even worse. I spent the entire book worrying he would show up again. He does, indeed, show up again. Still, there is a sweet romance at the core of the book.
Princess Rhiannon is not having a great birthday party, mostly as she’s horrified to find that she’s been engaged to her childhood “friend” Brodrick, who has carefully made sure no one else gets close to her, driven off almost all servants who support her, and is also casually screwing a lot of other maidens around the palace. Clearly it’s time to run away, which she does by the skin of her teeth, but Brodrick finds out and is in hot pursuit. She does have a plan, though. Her father the king made a promise to a witch that she would be engaged to a dragon when she came of age, and she fears what will happen if that promise is broken. So, with the help of a passing handsome, clever, and charismatic bard, she sets off on a journey to go and meet the dragon and escape a horribly marriage.
If you’re familiar with this genre, there are no prizes for guessing who the bard really is. The relationship between him and Rhiannon is the highlight of the book, as she falls for him relatively quickly, while he’s reluctant for some reason we don’t find out till much later. Everyone who meets them on the journey assumes they’re already married, of course. Unfortunately, as I said before, Brodrick keeps showing up looking for Rhiannon, and once he works out that she’s with her promised dragon, he demands her back in exchange for murdering him. This tension between terror and sweet romance is what makes the book work, but can be exhausting. The book also ends very abruptly, as if it were being written to a page count. As with most books in the contest, it could be stand alone but could also have another volume if there is an audience.
If you like fantastic romances but wish the ex were less of a cardboard villain, this is a solid option.
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