Maddies Manga

A young girl wakes up in the body of a character of the infamously difficult otome game, Daughter of the Duke’s Super Love Project. While this could have been an opportunity to have fun, she quickly realizes that she’s possessed the body of the villainess, not the heroine. Will she be able to use her knowledge of the game and evade death?

Author

This series is written by Gwon Gyeoeul. X

Genre & Tropes

Reincarnation, reverse harem, romance.

Info about this volume (ongoing)

There are currently two volumes of the light novel released in English. Volume three is set to be released in May.

TL;DR rating

This is my current favourite Korean light novel! Everything from the character introductions to the way the affection meters were introduced was just wonderful.

Official synopsis:

The original novel behind the hit fantasy romance comic!

When a college student with a tragic past picks up the video game Daughter of the Duke’s Super Love Project, she immediately sees herself in one of the characters. Not the adored heroine of easy mode, Ivonne, but the protagonist of hard mode, misunderstood villain Penelope. Little did she know that she’d fall asleep playing the story…and wake up in Penelope’s body! The only way to escape the game world? Charm one of the love interests and unlock a good ending. But with affection meters starting in the negatives and the inability to speak without choosing from pre-selected dialogue, it quickly becomes clear that a single wrong move means her demise― and this villain might just be destined to die!

You can pick up volume one here!

My thoughts on this volume (Spoilers!)

As I was already a big fan of the manhwa, I had a feeling that I would enjoy the novel. I ended up winning this particular volume in an Instagram raffle, which I will admit made me a little biased toward it—there’s nothing like the feeling of winning something.

Penelope is one of my favourite protagonists in recent media—she’s strong, beautiful, and is very situationally aware. She is quick to understand her situation, and instantly takes action to ensure her survival. She didn’t spend much time moping around about her unfortunate situation, she springs into action right at the very start. This is less because of a choice and more because she’s forced to, but I still respect it nevertheless. I also have to applaud the author for how she wrote basically the entirety of the first chapter, as it really shows just how fast and dangerous this world can be.

As this is a rather dark story—the character our protagonist is possessing can die at the drop of a hat in the game—we follow her as she has to directly navigate her new reality. As she’s an incredibly clever girl, she is quickly able to turn things ever-so-slightly in her favour. That isn’t to say that this is an easy story by any means, as this world is clearly very much against her. As she entered the “hard mode” version of the game, at first she is forbidden from speaking, being forced to choose one of three dialogue options. These options almost always seem to contain at least one that will end in her immediate death. It’s through her hard work that she’s able to find a way out of this system—something that was very invigorating to watch. Watching Penelope navigate her way out of deadly situations is my favourite part of this volume!

We can see just how much the world is against her in the form of the romantic candidates—as this is an otome game, there must be romantic candidates, after all! We’re first introduced to two together—her step-brothers. Both brothers are absolutely terrible people, with one being a bit worse than the other. It really is shocking just how quickly and frequently the potential for them to kill Penelope comes up. Even after our protagonist takes over her body and begins maneuvering more skillfully, it’s truly shocking how quick they are to turn on her.

We meet some other romantic candidates in this volume: the magician, the crown prince, and of course, Eckles. Each of whom has their own affection meter clearly visible over their heads to Penelope. I found the way the author decided to include the affection ratings to be very interesting, and I’m glad it was similar to the manhwa! As a lot of the men’s affection seems to change at seemingly random actions, reminding readers of their affection levels really shows just how fickles these men can be.

After finishing this volume, I think I can safely say I enjoyed this even more than the manhwa!