Light Novel: Can Someone Please Explain What's Going On?! Volume 1 Review

Oof that title is a mouthful!

Let’s hit it with the blurb:

If you thought regular marriages were insane, wait until you see the contract Viola signed! Our heroine, the daughter of an earl, signed herself away in a marriage contract to an aloof duke, Cersis, in order to save her family from a lifetime of poverty. All of a sudden, Viola’s life is turned upside down when she moves into the Fisaris family’s manor and is left to negotiate her new life as a “show wife” in a world she had only ever caught glimpses of before. How will she shake things up at the Fisaris estate?

Arranged marriages are my kryptonite (really, it’s a “we are forced to be together for x reason and fall in love as a side effect) and thus this novel really spoke to my ahem desires.

Spoiler-free

This concept got me, the first half of the book got me, the parts where it came down to the actual romance happening lost me.

I do not like Cercis.

I do adore Viola.

The conflict around the third party was not resolved in a typical shoujo fashion and I applaud it. In fact, I wish it had ended a little differently, just a small tweak to it.

So in short, heroine is amazing, hero is trash, and the antagonist is decent. I’m not sure if I want to continue this series. Unlike some of the other j-novel club joints, I didn’t keep up with this weekly and binged the parts I missed (starting from part six to ending) because it wasn’t a great read I looked forward to.

3 Hearts

Spoilers

The Heroine

Viola, or Vi, is such a great protagonist. She’s honest, down-to-earth, and savvy. She accepts the contract to help her family, who are low-ranked nobles. Because they care so much about their people, after a famine, her family lost most of their accumulated wealth ensuring everyone survived. Thus, Viola grew up in a frugal household that knows the struggle.

Because of her upbringing, her newly acquired life of riches unnerves her. She doesn’t want a mountain of fancy dresses or jewels, she likes to keep things simple and reuse, she prefers small meals that aren’t elaborate or rich.

She’s also naturally kind and generous to everyone and even does servant work willingly. What a gal.

The Hero

Cercis is….

Okay.

I do not like him.

His archetype is supposed to be the sheltered boy who doesn’t know the world and his ignorance is the explanation for all the wrongdoings he causes.

So, yes, in the beginning, he is in a relationship with Calendula (more on her later) and proposes this contract solely to continue his relationship on a secret property on his estate. Because he is the hero, he is going to notice and come to prefer Viola.

But Viola deserves better.

We spend most of the beginning of the book away from Cercis and enjoying Viola cultivate relationships with the servants, sort of forming a “new family” with them. When Cercis begins to desire Viola, he naturally wants to spend more time at the main manor everyone, including Viola, is horrified because life is better/smoother without that lump on a log mucking things up.

What qualities does he have that really draw me to him? Nothing. He has money, I guess, but that’s inherited. He seems like he can learn to be better, I guess?

I think the number one thing that irks me about him is after becoming enraptured with Viola, he amends their starting contract of marriage. In the original, if Viola preferred, and remained discreet, she could claim another suitor on the side. In the revised, she loses this.

Oh, heehee, he loves her now, so he changes it! How cute! — NOT.

I would have preferred the contract left as it was so at least there’s a chance a decent guy can show Cercis how he is supposed to treat a fantastic girl like Viola, even if she chooses Cercis in the end of it all.

Supporting Cast

The servants are a joy. Viola gets to know each of them on a personal basis and they end up feeling like a family of misfits. Their chemistry is so good that I disliked when Cercis entered the scene again.

Calendula is the girlfriend of Cercis when the story starts. And, you know, I like her. She is only spoken of in a negative light by the servants, but I feel like she’s an outsider in their society and world, so of course, she will be spoken of in a bad light. Calendula is independent and a strong woman. Before meeting Cercis, she was a dancer who went around the world. She had her share of suitors, but she only stayed with those who she deemed interesting enough to be around. When Viola suggests the cooks start making their regional dishes to discover more about where they came from, Calendula also enjoys the change because it reminds her of the places she went to before the book started.

Calendula and Cercis seemed like the sort of couple that wanted to make things work, and in the initial place they met and were enamored, they probably had the perfect relationship. But their worlds are too dissimilar and in the end they would have grown apart.

The servants were always going to be on Viola’s side, so they speak ill of her. But based on how she handled the breakup — with absolute boss-bitch attitude– I see her more as a woman who was drawn to the innocence of Cercis but in the end they could not maintain a relationship in the society Cercis is entrenched in, while Viola fills that slot perfectly.

Overall

I wanted to like this more than I did. According to some people who have read spoilers, Cercis does not win Viola over easily and it takes a while for her to fall in love with him. Yay, I guess? My first impression of Cercis is that he’s trash so I really wish the book ended with Viola saying “I’m with her”, leaving with Calendula, and letting Cercis cry about why he lost two fantastic women alone in his huge manor.

The only thing Cercis has going for him is money and status in a medieval society. Big woo. Ah, that reminds me of something, in the translation (I’m not sure if it is like that in the original too) there is a lot of anachronistic language. Viola will use slang and other terms not in line with the time period. The one that’s more recent on my mind is “The servants looked at him like “Why you be lying!?”, referencing this meme. IDK. I don’t really get bothered by it. The only way I get through classic lit is summarizing in my notes like “Zeus wanted his dick wet” so….

I feel like the likelihood of future shoujo releases depend on the performance of these first licenses so I will support the release for the promise of future licenses I will enjoy more. But I did not enjoy this as much as it looked like on paper.

And there are no “moments” in this novel at all, sadly.

Heart Rating

I wavered between two and three for this. In the end, I chose three because it does seem to be a popular series and it might get better as it goes on. The strength of this series is Viola, no doubt.

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?