This novel is what I would describe as okay. It doesn't excel in anything (except for maybe having more romance than a lot of others of this genre) and there are things to critique such as: many plotpoints being resolved very quickly without building up sufficient tension (although this sometimes felt relieving) , many important things happening but instead of letting the readers experience it, we get told of it in a few sentences, some characters not really being fleshed out / being very tropey etc. This novel does not focus on intrigue or politics as much as others on this list, romance is a focus and although the tags would imply differently, this is... more>> not really an erot*c novel; the scenes are kept very vague and short, if you read it for that, you will be disappointed.

There is an age gap, our MC is 15/16 and the ML is 20-22, not the worst I've seen and yes, I know it may be historically accurate, but still. In general the story was ok, there was drama, romance, schemes, family struggles, a little bit of everything, but nothing really stuck out to me. The ML is, while a few of his actions were questionable, generally good; loyal, attentive, etc.,  always prioritising and protecting our MC, except from himself.

I'd say, if you want a novel that's a little bland, but not straight up boring, with a focus on romance to maybe clean your palate without expecting a masterpiece, you could give this a try. I wouldn't read it again, but it was entertaining enough to read it once. Wouldn't exactly recommend it, but wouldn't say to not read it, if you've got nothing else to read, give it a try maybe.

jun 23 <<less

DROPPED... more>>

At first I liked the MC because she was refreshing: She is the matriarch of the household and fell in love with the ML first and helped him a lot etc. But she forces herself onto the ML often which felt uncomfortable at times.

She also disappointed me since she endangers her whole family just because she loves the ML and wants to help him which is just irresponsible as the matriarch and rubbed me the wrong way. Sure, the ML was robbed of the position she wants to help him reclaim and if she said it was out of righteousness or justice, maybe I could have accepted it but she tells her brother outright that it's simply because she loves him. Again, her helping him could literally get her whole family's 10 generations executed so this reason just irked me.

So, she's forceful, stubborn, manipulative (spoiler: she practically forces the ML to marry her and then gets sad when the ML and her brother, who worries about her and the family, get angry) and the ML is like a stone (since he was betrayed in the past, I actually understand his feelings and think his cold behaviour is appropriate), the romance starts at like chapter 50. I read some spoilers and decided to drop this since I felt I would not be satisfied with this novel. <<less

DROPPED... more>>

I found the premise to be unsettling. Her and the ML are not siblings since she was swapped at birth, but they only found out when she was 8, which is the moment MC transmigrates into the body of this girl. Her and the ML were considered siblings until then, although they did not interact since they have an age gap of 8 years or so and since he, as the successor, was busy and not home a lot. But my problem is that the first time she saw him she said he looks 80% similar to her brother in her previous life and even mistook the ML for him for a short time. In her previous life she had a deep bond with her brother, enabling them to feel each other's pain and feelings, the same is the case with the ML. All of this just gives me a weird feeling, coupled with the fact that their romance starts when they (especially the MC) are way too young. <<less

DROPPED... more>>

Since many reviews stated how realistic and good this novel was, I was originally really excited to read this and read the first few chapters. The chapters were long and it was really slow, but hey, it's slice of life so I knew this would be the case. But after reading a little bit and knowing it would take a long time for a ML to appear, with which I generally don't have a problem with since I don't read solely for romance, I wanted to know if it was worth it to read hundreds of chapters, since I didn't want to do so only for the ML to be tr*sh. And who would have thought that (spoiler warning) this would actually be the case. Listen, I do like realism but I am not reading to get angry, I am reading to enjoy. And I would not enjoy seeing 15 y/o Minglan being married off to a 30 y/o man who likes visiting brothels, has multiple wives, kids, treats Minglan like a sexdoll, does not support her in her late stages of pregnancy and treats her as a conquest  and a tool to organize his family matters. Maybe this means that I do not like realism that much, I much rather prefer an unrealistic healthy relationship with some flaws instead of this. I admit I did not read all of it but life is short and this novel is not so I am not willing to risk wasting my time only to get angry at the later developments <<less