I just finished reading the main story but couldnt wait to comment after reading side stories. I highly recommend reading this novel. If you re familiar with the writers work you know what to expect. A lot of angst. To be clear there are some disturbing things in the novel, if you re really sensitive about that maybe this ist your cup of tea.

Howewer I sould say that I am very suprised by the people who have been saying that bastian is the worst ML of solche. Not only I... more>> think this is not true but I think he is the best written one. I didnt read this novel for a long time because matthias and björn was cruel and heartless for the majority of their novels, I thougt bastian being worst I would not enjoy reading this novel.

To be honest he is cruel dont get me wrong, but he loves her, most importantly he is aware of the fact that he loves her. He just dont know the reason why he is doing these cruel things to her was because she didnt love him back and betrayed him. I dont know if am able to tell how much this novel broke my heart. Bastian was so hurt by her betrayal, the only person he loved. His actions maybe inreedemable for some people iknow. But if you are just able to read untill the end you see how his character changes and it doesnt seem unnatural. The writer does an incredible job on this character. Best one out of the three, he is human, he has emotions, he is in love and hurt. Matthias was like a robot in emotion range in my opinion and I just couldnt understand how the hell layla was able to forgive him in a short amount of time like that. He didnt even had a decent redemption arc. And björn doesnt care anything untill the end that doesnt feel good as a reader in my opinion. But with bastian you feel everything, even when you get angry at him you pity him in a way. I think he is one of the best writriten male leads. I enjoyed his character development.

Spoiler

And the way he let her go...

[collapse]

It was an emotional climax moment for me.

Spoiler

They part their ways loving each other without the other one knowing this fact and they are Okay with this, they forgive each other and it does seem real, not pushed, you understand their reasoning. They both did somethings wrong.

[collapse]

For the FL, I will say that she is like the ML, my favorite among all three. At the beginning of the novel you see a prideful princess in a miserable condition. No matter what happens you see that she doesnt let go of her pride and not show how she really feels. Bastian hates that I think when he tries to break that and make her show how she really feels. She is strong in many ways. Even at her lowest she still is trying to live. And she has a compassinate heart, she gives that to every member of her family even though they dont deserve and reciprocate that. She just doesnt give that heart to bastian and it is a natural outcome because she just thinks this is an ending contract and at the end bastian will marry someonelse. I sometimes thoght if they were to be honest to themselves and each other how would the story go? But it is not in their characters at that moment so not dweel on it :).

She breaks the ML in a way she doesnt even understand the effects by betraying him. And in return he breaks her. She is broken by the only person that loves her and with that, while reading, you pity her. She never gets her love reciprocated by her family, they are just tr*shes. I loved her character development as well.

Spoiler

She heals herself and let go of the guilt she feels for the ML and forgives him. After all that is gone out of the way she realises that she loves him and let him go...

[collapse]

Just a beautiful love story.

They both have redemption arcs in my opinion. They both heal and forgive each other. They have literally no one else in their life to love and to be loved besides each other and this fact is valid even in the early stages of their relationship, they just dont know that. As a reader, just we know that fact.

This novel made me feel so many things.

I reccomend it. <<less

It's a pretty cliche novel, not that there's anything wrong with liking cliche, but the best thing this novel can offer is probably the very pretty cover. Mild spoiler warning.

The plot is typical and goes the way you think it will (and it probably will in the future), but slower-paced. At 106 chapters, I'm pretty sure it is not going to end anytime soon which is unfortunate because it does not offer very many interesting plots and our leads' relationship is only going 2 steps backwards after 1 step forward.

The... more>> ML is unsurprisingly an archetypal stoic character who only cares about practicality and profit. He does not care or respect the FL much, sees her as a servant (his words not mine) and remembers to drop little disparaging remarks every now and then to put her in her place. Honestly, if I were FL, I would at the very least roll my eyes at his bullsh*t but too bad our poor little FL is too obedient and docile and says 'yes', 'I'm sorry', 'we'll do as you like' every chance she gets. That being said, yes he's kinda of an ass, but definitely not the worst there is out there (the bar is subterranean).

Meanwhile, the FL is characterized by her apparent calmness and dignity by pretending that everything is fine (or so she tries) but falters when she gets into scathing situations and ends up being somewhat walked all over anyway. One thing bothersome thing though is the robotic apathy she has to everything; never wanting joy or a better life or a will of her own, not a single display of reasonable dissatisfaction in reaction to the unpleasant ways ML treats her, like when he says some sh*t or sexually assaults her. Other than those, she's a pretty boring person but I won't hold that out of all things too hard against her.

From the synopsis, I was expecting a lot of anguish and drama but I didn't really get all that surprisingly (so far). The main (?) conflict was kinda weak and could have been easily solved if FL had a better head on her shoulders. Unfortunately, minimal character development for the leads even after this many chapters (actually it was just starting to tick for the ML... god dammit).

As a side note, I noticed something off with the translation on woopread. Either I'm reading the wrong raws (probably not?) or the translator is making things up... Take that as you will and read what you want. Personally, I didn't want to read something much too adorned of the translator's imagination that it becomes unfaithful and inaccurate to the original writing. By the way, the original writing is quite fine (good enough for a web novel) so why the need to add frills?

Overall, it's not terrible... I'm kinda curious about how it'll go but it's too slow and stunted for my liking and the characters are barely tolerable so I'd probably be better off reading something better. <<less

"Han" is a Korean word that has no English translation, and is described as an internalized feeling of deep sorrow, resentment, grief, regret and anger.
Source: Eunice Kim

*Please don't read if you don't like long reviews and bunch of spoilers and forgive me... *

Anyway, the word "han" is basically the perfect description of the novel Bastian. Actually, all of the novels of the Korean author Solche are "han" like that, with highly toxic relationships.

I have mixed feelings about this novel. So I encourage people to read and decide for themselves.

But beware...

It can be considered a good novel in the way that can arouse strong feelings in the readers, either revolt for the behavior of male lead or hope for a happy ending.

Solche's novels always follows the same pattern:

I loved and laughed really hard about the comment of the other reviewer xuexxi, explaining that Bastian "wasn't the worst male lead that there is out there because her bar is subterranean." Her bar is really deep...

Anyway, this can be hypocritical of my part but this and all the other novels that have heroines being r*ped and ended up getting together with the "hero" rapist (and I saw a lot of them) always makes me wonder...

*Would I be able to tolerate and read this kind of novel if I suffered r*pe?

*Or would the author would write something like that if she/he suffered r*pe?

*Would I be able to forgive the rapist and love him/her?

*Are the authors influencing a r*pe culture, making younger people believe that it's ok to r*pe if in the end there's love?

*In the end what are the messages the authors are trying to convey? The fake idealized romance that women should support everything and that is noble to sacrifice everything in the name of love and that that love is capable of overcoming everything and suddenly and completely change a bad person? 🤔Probably I'm thinking too much, after all it's only a novel...

Warning ⛔️! You don't need to read, because there is a lot, but a lot of spoilers... 🫥

I completed the novel through mtl (machine translation)

This novel is too similar to Problematic prince... but here I just found the ML awful, I have skept the first chapters and are reading the last parts; Bastian is becoming different and the way he tries to redeem himself if touching, even though he is a narcissic pe*vert and a total jerk.

But I do agree with the review that the story somewhat encourages toxic relationships and female acceptance... which is dangerous.

Moreover, I really do think that as an author, the plot should be changed, otherwise, it looks like more... more>> a way to cure oneself rather than improving the writing (though writing could be seen as a cure but not only).

Spoiler

Like in Problematic prince, it's a cinderella story with a control-freak ML and a innocent FL and again a despicable father. There are misundestandings, and again, a miscarriage and finally Odette found finally peace in living alone in the countryside. The ML tries to see her again and feels really sorry for what he has done...

[collapse]

I really like Odette, the way she take care of her family, her courage... but my, so many chapters to torture her and without any real support except the dog. I would like to know how it ended but really, it's painful and I won't recommend this book. <<less

I usually didn't like angsty novel but I accidentally read the manhua version of this novel and was curious about what happened next. Then I got very dumbfounded by how toxic the relationship between MC and ML became.

They married because of contract but since the beginning it's an unequal contract because ML had an upper hand in it. ML actually honored the contract before MC betrayed her. After that, he fell into a rap*ng spree which was quite disturbing to read.

As for who's in the right or who's in the... more>> wrong, I think both of them was equally wrong. ML was cold and indifferent. He never told MC about his feeling and never bother to explain anything when there was any misunderstanding. Moreover, he also had an ambiguous relationship with other woman. No wonder MC felt insecure and couldn't trust ML. Meanwhile, MC was too prideful to ask about anything and she always thought the worst of ML. And she betrayed ML when she already knew that he had a bad relationship with his step-mom. No matter the reason, betrayal is a big no. Moreover, Tira, the one she betrayed ML for, wasn't even worth it. She should know that the conflict between ML and his step-mom wasn't actually her business to begin with so she should just told ML truthfully from the beginning.

However, MC's betrayal didn't warrant ML to se*ually abuse her. I know he was hurting but who told him to never tell MC anything and made MC felt that she was always on edge?

After realizing that he couldn't live without MC, ML actually became a perfect lover, something that could actually be done since earlier. And MC also began to reciprocate, not letting her pride clouded her judgement on ML. Side stories decribed their life after getting back together which was so sweet and enough to soothe my wounded heart caused by a series of tragedy in this story. <<less

Loved this novel. Even though there's a lot of suffering and drama while going through the story, the payoff is so good at the end.

It has some of the usual elements in a Solche story so I recommend reading only if you like pain before a happy ending like I do. Not recommended for the faint of heart and be sure to read all the tags if you're not sure whether you can handle the story.

Also note that many of the valid criticisms stem from the belief that the novel... more>> promotes toxic relationships. That's fair to say (I myself have complaints about the writer's common trope of the abusive male lead) and I wouldn't discount that possibility but I think that most people reading a story would know to draw the line between fiction and reality. I think it's slightly insulting to the average reader's intelligence to assume that they cannot discern this for themselves. At the end of the day, you are responsible for your own media consumption.

Overall, I enjoyed the frustration, the sadness, the anger, the happiness that the FL experienced and I enjoyed the experience of reading the whole story too. <<less