From an early age, Kiara has been plagued with dreams of another world—dreams in which a girl she doesn’t recognize plays a strategy RPG called “Farzia: Kingdom at War.” Farzia is, in fact, the same kingdom where Kiara currently lives. Oh, and one other thing: there’s an enemy character who’s also named Kiara, though her name is Kiara Credias. Naturally, as with any other RPG villain, this enemy is slain by the heroes. So when her adoptive father, Count Patriciél, orders her to marry Viscount Credias, Kiara comes to a horrifying realization: perhaps those “dreams” were visions of things to come! She hatches a plan to get the hell out of Dodge and create a new future for herself—one where she STAYS ALIVE, thank you very much!
This is one of the licenses I heard about but didn’t know much about until I read it.
This is definitely a slow burn. In fact, I kept reading at first because I wanted to review it (and justify my J Novel Club membership fee) but once it gets going, it gets going.
General Spoiler-free Summary
This is another isekai reincarnation novel, which means our heroine originates from our world and ends up in the fantasy world with full memories of her past intact. This one changes things up a bit– the lead, Kiara, did like the game she ended up in, but she was a gamer who played for gameplay, not story, so she doesn’t remember much of the game’s story. What she does know is that she’s a villain spellcaster and the prince, Reggie, dies in the prologue of the game.
Reggie is our resident Love Interest (and scheming hottie) so Kiara naturally wants to prevent his death!
This novel’s storyline runs through Kiara preventing the prologue from occurring.
All in all, I enjoyed this novel! I am looking forward to volume 2!
Spoiler Territory
The key to hooking me wasn’t the action (though the action is particularly well-paced) but the distrust Alan maintains through the story. After reading a lot of villainess isekai that resolve the conflict by making the side characters love them, this felt like a breath of fresh air. Yes, a lot of characters get along with Kiara, but several still distrust her and her motives.
It is also a big problem keeping secrets when you’re trying to prevent entire armies from invading, so Kiara having to balance what she knows, how she knows, and the consequences from speaking thus created a lot of intrigues that I enjoyed. The only thing I didn’t enjoy from this arc of the novel was that the issue with two characters felt like it was resolved too quickly.
There are several action setpieces in this novel, after all, she is reincarnated into a video game. The action pieces are well-paced, detailed just enough, and had a lot of variety. My only complaint is I wish she would have incorporated more of the strategy into the battles because the game itself is a Strategy Role-playing Game and so I expected her to be able to pull more of that experience into the battles. But, in the end, she is not a genius, just an average girl, so I do appreciate that.
The ending is abrupt and I wanted more out of it, at least showing the aftermath of the encounter. Starting a book off after it feels like a poor beginning. Kiara’s behavior in the final battle may frustrate some readers, but considering it is the first time in her life she participated in a large-scale battle without formal training, she did as good as could be expected of her. That said, I do hope she doesn’t become a constant damsel at key moments.
The Romance
The romance in this light novel is, err, light. We do have several moments between Reggie and Kiara but the romance takes a backseat to the actual plot.
Reggie is a great love interest. He’s assertive, reasonable, and supportive. He doesn’t blindly trust Kiara and I appreciate that. Kiara has to work for his trust. He also has a teasing streak that makes for some good moments.
The ending has a side story featuring the two that is not related to the main story arc. It’s super adorable and not to be missed!
Side Characters
I have no complaints about any of the side characters. I liked them all. None are annoying and none overstay their welcome. It’s a well-rounded cast and so far I enjoy that they all seem to have their own motives and goals outside of Kiara’s story.
Favorite Moments
The side story has so many moments in it I have to basically say ALL OF THAT–
and my other favorite moment comes when she’s in the castle and has a special moment with Reggie for the first time. I’ll leave the details for you to discover!
Heart Rating
Holding it back from 4 hearts are a slow beginning and minimal true romance scenes. So, a true 3 hearts, if you read the blurb and think you’ll like it, you probably will!
My heart scale is defined as follows – 5 hearts = a story everyone will fall in love with, regardless of preferences; 4 hearts = a well-done story that people who love the concept will adore, and people who don’t may end up liking it; 3 hearts = if you like this type of story or this type of hero, then you will enjoy this, but those who do not like either of those things will probably not; 2 hearts = it had potential, it squandered it; 1 heart = just a waste of time from the get-go; 0 hearts = why was this made?
Purchase
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J Novel Club (read the first chapter now or the entire thing by becoming a member!)