A young woman wakes up in the body of a character in a book she had been reading—the villainous wife, Iruza. Though she tries to atone for the sins her body’s previous owner has done, her duke husband isn’t exactly the forgiving type. Is there anything she can do to avoid a bad ending!?
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Author
This series is written by Mika Sakurano (X) and Kotoko (X).
Kotoko has written other popular series such as In Another World, My Sister Stole My Name, and I Was Reincarnated as the Heroine on the Verge of a Bad Ending.
Genre & Tropes
Reincarnation into a book character, toxic romance, light fantasy. There is some dub-con, however there is nothing explicit.
Info about this series (ongoing)
There are currently two volumes of the manga published in Japanese.
TL;DR rating
I really enjoyed this one! It found ways to surprised me throughout the volume, so it always felt very fresh. I also was really not expecting that ending…
What is this series about?
Our female protagonist was minding her business, reading in her living room when all of a sudden she passed out. Upon waking, she was greeted by perhaps the most handsome man she had ever seen. He checked to see if she had any injuries, and then coldly asked her to leave him alone. This is our first introduction to the handsome yet cold, white-haired duke.
After getting over the initial shock of waking up in an unfamiliar room with a handsome stranger, our protagonist begins assessing her new situation. A maid escorts her to her room where she makes the startling discovery: she is no longer in her original body. She new has a cute, doll like face, and flowing pink hair. Her maid helps her further understand the situation, which is rather dire.
Our protagonist has entered the body of a character of a book she had been reading—the villainous wife of the duke, Iruza. In the novel, Iruza had done countless cruel things in order to secure her goal of obtaining the duke as her husband. Some of these acts include things like: promising to use her healing magic on his mother if he would marry her; and violently threatening any woman, be they maid or family, should they so much as approach the duke. The list goes on, and gets much, much worse.
Our protagonist, now in the body of Iruza, understands that she’s in a very bad situation. Having read the novel, her fate come the end is something she would like to avoid at all possible costs. However, as so many horrible things have already been done by the original owner of her new body, is there anything she can do to make up for it?
What is this series about?
I enjoyed this volume so much! I’m a sucker for white-haired, cold-hearted dukes, so perhaps I’m a little biased, however I would recommend this one. Especially if you enjoy toxic romances!
While this is a transmigration story, I found it to be a rather unique and refreshing one! That’s mainly thanks to the duke, as he has clearly gone slightly crazy due to his hatred for the original villainess. Whenever poor (new) Iruza attempts to atone for her past sins or tries to give the duke space, he just will not have it—he doesn’t want to give into what she wants, even if it would benefit him. All he can think about is his eventual revenge.
Even when the duke notices that she’s begun to change—because there’s literally a completely different soul in her body now—his obsession with her stays. Though I would say that the type of obsession begins to shift. While before he had a clear blind hatred for her that came off in an almost scarily calm way, he now is showing clear interest in her. Nevertheless, whatever he is feeling for her is still a very twisted emotion. Be it hatred or love, I wouldn’t want to be on the receiving end.
(New) Iruza is rather scared of the duke. She understands what he’s capable of from reading the novel, and is just an ordinary girl! She really doesn’t deserve to be put through any of this hardship. The duke senses her fear almost instantly somehow, and it’s almost as though it peaked his interest in her. Before, (original) Iruza would run after him no matter where he tried to go, shouting her affections for him. Now, (new) Iruza offers to stay away from him forever and looks like she’ll burst into tears if he stares at her for too long.
Because of these changes in Iruza, the duke now finds himself almost enjoying the time they spend together. Watching him really not understand his feelings for her was very entertaining, as it’s clear there’s something in him changing. Their relationship has clearly begun shifting from (original) Iruza being obsessed with him romantically, to him being obsessed with (new) Iruza romantically.
Poor Iruza just wants to be free from what would be her fate though, so she can’t spend much time at all worrying about his changing affections for her. She attempts to bring in a new character that could take her place as his wife—the original female lead. However, because (new) Iruza is not acting like the original, the emotions of not just the duke, but seemingly every character in the novel have shifted! So when she does eventually find the original female lead… well I just didn’t expect for that to happen.
What will happen to (new) Iruza, I wonder… I would like it if she and the original female lead of the novel could run away into the sunset together, leaving the duke in the dust.
Check out the series for yourself! (Japanese only)
Maddies Manga 
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