Genre: Fantasy

Review – The Wife Comes First, vol 3

Posted September 24, 2026 by Nicky in Reviews / 0 Comments

Review – The Wife Comes First, vol 3

The Wife Comes First

by Lv Ye Qian He

Genres: Fantasy, Light Novels, Romance
Pages: 417
Series: The Wife Comes First #3
Rating: four-stars
Synopsis:

“OVER TWO LIFETIMES, I HAVE ONLY EVER LOVED YOU.”

Welcomed back to the capital with unbelievable rewards, Jing Shao and his princely consort Mu Hanzhang fall into a new routine at home and at court—involving challenging but satisfying duties that Mu Hanzhang takes on with pleasure.

While the two men contend with scheming princes, unexpected visitors, and volatile in-laws, new trouble is brewing. The earlier revenge taken on Mu Hanzhang’s behalf set off a chain reaction that now threatens his father’s clan and his mother’s life. And when a death unearths secrets from the past, Jing Shao may have to use all that he’s gained just to survive the machinations threatening him.

But with his brothers—both blood and sworn—at his side and his wife in his arms, Jing Shao vows that this time, no matter the danger, he’ll find happiness with Mu Hanzhang.

Volume three of Lv Ye Qian He’s The Wife Comes First wraps up the series, bringing Mu Hanzhang and Jing Shao back to the capital and back into the thick of the political plotting. Compared to how slowly the first two books moved, this feels like there are a few time jumps, to give time for all the manoeuvring: it’s not a bad thing, but if you don’t keep track of the weeks/months slipping by in the story, some things seem very sudden!

Mostly, it’s an excellent ending for them, almost tipping into a reprise of Jing Shao’s first attempt… and then, at the last, it’s averted. There are a couple of surprises and twists, one of which (I think all in the extras) I guessed in advance from certain scenes. I can’t really say much about all this since it would be very spoilery at this point.

There are actually a couple of extras, which skewed my perception of how much time was left in the story and made the pacing feel confusing. In themselves, they don’t add a ton (and one is just a silly short from Lil Sunbeam’s point of view), but there’s some cute stuff there.

Sadly, the Right Guardian and Left Guardian don’t follow up on Mu Hanzhang’s veiled hints(?), as far as I can tell…

Anyway, I don’t think this series is super well written, and there are plenty of quibbles with it and needlessly evil concubines, etc, etc (there are some positive female characters, like Ge Ruoyi and Mu Hanzhang’s mother). But I was won over by Jing Shao being a big stupid puppy, and Mu Hanzhang being a clever schemer — for his loved ones’ sake. Definitely one I’m rating on enjoyment more than technical skill, which is worth taking into account.

Rating: 4/5 (“really liked it”)

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Review – The Poet Empress

Posted September 19, 2026 by Nicky in Reviews / 4 Comments

Review – The Poet Empress

The Poet Empress

by Shen Tao

Genres: Fantasy
Pages: 388
Rating: five-stars
Synopsis:

In the waning years of the Azalea Dynasty, the emperor is dying, the land consumed by famine, and poetry magic lost to all except the powerful.

Wei Yin is desperate. After the fifth death of a sibling, with her family and village on the brink of starvation, she will do anything to save those she loves.

Even offer herself as concubine to the cruel heir of the beautiful and brutal Azalea House.

But in a twist of fate, the palace stands on the knife-edge of civil war with Wei trapped in its center...at the side of a violent prince.

To survive, Wei must harden her heart, rely on her wit, and become dangerous herself. Even if it means becoming a poet in a world where women are forbidden to read—and composing the most powerful spell of all. A ballad of death... and love.

I was a bit wary going into Shen Tao’s The Poet Empress because I’d heard all about how heavy the story was — abuse, violence, sexual assault of a child, torture, more violence… and it’s true, that’s a huge part of this story. I would say that it’s never gratuitous: even when the characters are indulging in gratuitous violence, the details and information we get about it are for a purpose, giving us insights into characters… and sometimes, leading us astray.

Besides that, despite the heaviness of the topic, the chapter length and narration kept things rolling for me pretty briskly, and there was pretty much no point at which I got “stuck” not wanting to proceed because things were too awful.

The thing with this story is that you think it’s going in a certain direction, and it… sort of does, but it also doesn’t, and I don’t want to spoiler too much about that. The way it builds the characters and slowly reveals their history, misdirecting and remisdirecting — I thought it was really well done, because even the ending didn’t quite fall out the way I’d found myself kind of expecting.

I guess that the thing I really found myself wanting to know partway through, that might’ve made the difference to continuing reading, is whether it was going to turn out to be a story in which the female protagonist gets swept off her feet by a violent, awful protagonist, and then it turns out he’s actually a sweet little cinnamon roll. The answer — look away if you don’t want it and want to find out for yourself — is “only kind of”. There are reasons people are the way they are, but it doesn’t excuse their actions, to the reader or to the other participants in the story.

Overall, it ended up more subtle than I’d expected, and also way more readable. I can understand people who don’t stick with it, because wow, some scenes are a lot, and pretty much none of the prominent characters are great people. And some reviewers scare me with their apologism for the actions of a particular character: trauma is not an excuse, folks! It really isn’t!

Rating: 5/5 (“loved it”)

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Review – Omniscient Reader’s Viewpoint (manhwa), vol 2

Posted September 17, 2026 by Nicky in Reviews / 0 Comments

Review – Omniscient Reader’s Viewpoint (manhwa), vol 2

Omniscient Reader's Viewpoint

by Sleepy-C, singNsong, Umi

Genres: Fantasy, Manga
Pages: 240
Series: Omniscient Reader's Viewpoint (manhwa) #2
Rating: four-stars
Synopsis:

Three Ways to Survive the Apocalypse is Dokja's favorite novel. Or it was...until it became reality. He barely survived the chaotic first moments of the new world thanks to his knowledge of the story, but the cruel Scenarios give him no time for rest. Isolated from his group and surrounded by horrific creatures, things look grim for Dokja...until an extraordinary presence approaches. It's time for the only reader of TWSA to meet its protagonist-the Regressor Junghyeok Yu!

The second volume of the Omniscient Reader’s Viewpoint manhwa (adapted from singNsong’s novel by UMI and illustrated by Sleepy-C) introduces us to a bit more of the world, with Dokja meeting Junghyeok, making a deal with the goblin Bihyeong and meeting the next party member, Huiwon. It’s still very introductory steps into the world of ORV, but I’d say by the end of this volume, you’d definitely have a strong grasp on the shape of the story and background of the world.

I really enjoy the way Dokja remembers what he’s read and comes up with (or remembers) creative ways around the difficulties. I feel like this was a bit less well-explained in the manhwa here, but on the other hand, some of the other background stuff has seemed clearer (maybe because it’s a bit simplified/differently translated).

Love the art, looking forward to more, especially while awaiting more of the light novel! Not that the story in vol 2 has caught up to the end of vol 2 of the light novel, so I’ve got quite a bit more of the manhwa to go before I get onto new-to-me stories.

[NB: this post is going up long after I read more of the manhwa and indeed more of the light novel. I just have a long backlog of pre-written reviews that I space out so’s not to spam people.]

Rating: 4/5 (“really liked it”)

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Review – Brimstone Slipstream

Posted September 14, 2026 by Nicky in Reviews / 2 Comments

Review – Brimstone Slipstream

Brimstone Slipstream

by Matt Weber

Genres: Fantasy
Pages: 65
Rating: three-stars
Synopsis:

It's the eve of the biggest dragon race in the city of Yemareir. Zaya Shearwater and her wife, Kiriki, have spent the year shooting up the rankings, and now they're favored to win. But how did a team of women from Yemareir's roughest precincts become the favorites in a sport where most winners buy their victories?

Doctor of Journalism Shenireen Agama wants to know. Through interviews with Zaya, Kiriki, and the ground crew that's become their family, she begins to weave a story. Its threads are love, desperation, biology, and magic – all bound together with the early history of Yemareir, where Zaya and Kiriki's ancestors fled centuries ago to escape the pogroms of a mad king, and where the colonists resettling the ruins of an ancient city have just discovered that it is home to dragons…

Matt Weber’s Brimstone Slipstream is a short story which sets the scene for a full length novel (or possibly a series), but offers in itself quite a lot of world and character building, giving us a picture of one family of racers in a world of semi-illegal underground dragon racing that’s rife with racism and people who try to pay to win.

The format is basically that of a magazine article by a journalist digging into the scene and following a pair of upstart riders who are working together to use a trait normally considered intrinsic to their people, “empathy” (which is sort of… telepathy-ish communication with animals) to give them an advantage at dragon racing. We get the journalist’s-eye view of the subjects of the article, with all their evasions, prickly edges, and the things they won’t say.

I wouldn’t say no to reading more in this world, but it’s also a fairly satisfying story just for its own sake, despite the relatively low page count, with quite a bit of world-building and a good sense of a wider world around the story. You can kinda sense the ending coming (the note “after publication” of the article), because the foreboding is wound through it: they’re doing a dangerous job.

Rating: 3/5 (“liked it”)

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Review – The Wife Comes First, vol 2

Posted September 8, 2026 by Nicky in Reviews / 0 Comments

Review – The Wife Comes First, vol 2

The Wife Comes First

by Lv Ye Qian He

Genres: Fantasy, Light Novels, Romance
Pages: 323
Series: The Wife Comes First #2
Rating: four-stars
Synopsis:

On the brink of death, Prince Cheng is stunned to find the one person still by his side: his long-neglected princely consort, Mu Hanzhang. While Prince Cheng pursued power and countless lovers, Mu Hanzhang never wavered in his dedication as his wife, despite the future he lost. Prince Cheng knows he never deserved such loyalty.

But fate isn’t finished with him yet. When he awakens in the past—on the morning after their disastrous wedding night, with all his memories intact—Prince Cheng seizes the chance to set things right. This time, he’ll treasure Mu Hanzhang. This time, the wife will come first, the state second, and the husband last.

Yet winning Mu Hanzhang’s trust is only the first battle. Court conspiracies still run deep, and if they’re not careful, history may repeat itself…starting with a knife in the back.

Volume two of Lv Ye Qian He’s The Wife Comes First picks up directly from the previous volume, and mostly concerns Jing Shao and Mu Hanzhang going to war. Junqing spends a chunk of the story pretending to be just a ‘strategist’, since it usually isn’t permitted for generals to take their wives with them to war, but Jing Shao (great big puppy that he is) wheedles and begs his way into Junqing’s tent, and soon eveeeryone knows who he must be.

There are some really sweet moments between the two of them as they really solidify their relationship and speak honestly to one another about their feelings. I loved it; it’d be easy to introduce drama and a third act breakup, and I think in “Western” fiction that’d happen — but instead we just get to watch the two of them being ridiculously devoted to each other and an absolute power couple.

Also, Junqing gets a baby tiger cub.

There’s a fair bit of politicking and so on, so the plot also advances, hopefully carrying Jing Shao and Junqing past the difficulties that plagued Jing Shao’s past life. I’m kinda eh on the white lie about the previous attempt being a dream that Jing Shao had, but at least he’s found a way to explain some of his foreknowledge to Junqing, instead of leaving him out.

The problematic elements of consent and the treatment of women mostly aren’t carried through in this book, in part because I think only two named female characters show up in the whole thing (Ge Ruoyi and Hao Dadao’s wife). As mentioned, it’s really not the best-written, and I think that can also add to the problem, making the characterisation of a lot of characters flat. I’m here for Jing Shao and Mu Hanzhang (and their tiger cub), so your mileage may vary on how much it bothers you. My rating is definitely reflecting personal enjoyment and the way I raced through the book, not a considered critical response! Possibly if I went with my gut now, I’d lower it to 3/5… but I really had fun while reading it.

Rating: 4/5 (“really liked it”)

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Review – Omniscient Reader’s Viewpoint (manhwa), vol 1

Posted September 8, 2026 by Nicky in Reviews / 0 Comments

Review – Omniscient Reader’s Viewpoint (manhwa), vol 1

Omniscient Reader's Viewpoint

by Sleepy-C, Umi, singNsong

Genres: Fantasy, Manga
Pages: 248
Series: Omniscient Reader's Viewpoint (manhwa) #1
Rating: four-stars
Synopsis:

AT THAT MOMENT, MY LIFE TOOK ON A DIFFERENT GENRE.

As a struggling office worker, Dokja Kim's sole joy in life is an online novel so obscure that he's its only reader. Then one day the story comes to an end…and so does the world. People all around the globe suddenly find themselves being massacred by horrific monsters or pitted against each other in sadistic scenarios straight out of the novel. However, only Dokja is aware that this is merely the first chapter of what is to come. Knowing that devastating plot twists are on the horizon, he can no longer afford to sit back as a reader—it's time for Dokja to step up and write his own destiny!

Having read the first two volumes of the Omniscient Reader’s Viewpoint light novel, there’s nothing new in this first volume (adapted by UMI with art by Sleepy-C). It’s really fun though to get a look at the characters: some of them are exactly how I imagined them, to the extent that I do any kind of visual imagining (basically, I found them instantly recognisable), while others I had to warm up to a bit, but now I can’t imagine them looking any other way.

If you’re new to ORV, then this volume is very introductory, covering only the first hours in the new world that Dokja Kim enters when his favourite novel becomes “paid content” and starts becoming true. There’s only really a glimpse here of how things work, but it’s probably enough to figure out if ORV is totally not your thing from the get-go and whether you’re curious enough to want more (of either format, though I think I’d go with the novel for a better intro to how things work).

There are a couple of slightly different translation things, compared to the light novel, but it’s all pretty intercompatible.

Rating: 4/5 (“really liked it”)

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Review – The Voyages of Cinrak the Dapper

Posted September 5, 2026 by Nicky in Reviews / 0 Comments

Review – The Voyages of Cinrak the Dapper

The Voyages of Cinrak the Dapper

by A.J. Fitzwater

Genres: Fantasy, Short Stories
Pages: 145
Rating: two-stars
Synopsis:

Cinrak the Dapper is a keeper of secrets, a righter of wrongs, the saltiest capybara on the sea and a rider of both falling stars and a great glass whale. Join her, her beloveds, the rat Queen Orvilia and the marmot diva Loquolchi, lead soprano of the Theatre Rat-oyal, her loyal cabin kit, Benj the chinchilla, and Agnes, last of the great krakens, as they hunt for treasures of all kinds and find adventures beyond their wildest dreams. Let Sir Julius Vogel Award-winning storyteller A.J. Fitzwater take you on a glorious journey about finding yourself, discovering true love and exploring the greatest secrets of the deep. Also, dapperness.

I read this ages ago and realised I’d never posted the review! So I dug it out for you now…

I’d heard about this book quite frequently, but only picked it up recently, for some reason. I love the idea of a dapper, polyamorous, lesbian pirate capybara, and the introduction to the book states something really vital: queer joy is important. Yes, we still have fighting to do, to ban conversion therapy and reverse the recent erosion of trans rights… but to do that we need to nourish ourselves. Our joy is needed too. Plus, a happy queer person is one in the eye for the haters.

So… I wanted to love this book, and I definitely did enjoy the diverse cast, the inclusiveness of Cinrak’s crew and world.

But it feels a little like a collection of stories based on an existing world that the reader should already be familiar with. Things aren’t explained, they just happen. Oh, Cinrak has salt magic — okay, but what does that mean? What are the bounds on it? I initially got the impression it was all sea-related, then it can also sense danger, then it can bust open other magic to save the day… Cinrak and crew always suddenly had the resources/capabilities needed in any given situation.

There were a lot of gaps, and they weren’t the kind that are just part of figuring out the world; I like worldbuilding that makes you do the work, but this wasn’t that.

This collection is enjoyable — and hey, a dapper polyamorous lesbian pirate capybara is a glorious concept and one I’m glad to have met — just didn’t quite work out for me.

Rating: 2/5 (“it was okay”)

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Review – Mistakenly Saving the Villain, vol 3

Posted September 1, 2026 by Nicky in Reviews / 0 Comments

Review – Mistakenly Saving the Villain, vol 3

Mistakenly Saving the Villain

by Feng Yu Nie

Genres: Fantasy, Light Novels, Romance
Pages: 308
Series: Mistakenly Saving the Villain #3
Rating: four-stars
Synopsis:

SOME MISTAKES ARE DESTINY

After a dramatic confrontation with An Long, Song Qingshi and Yue Wuhuan finally begin to speak openly about their feelings. Their relationship deepens—an oasis of tenderness in a world that has offered them little peace.

But shadows remain. Even with treatment, Yue Wuhuan’s illness still festers, and Song Qingshi faces his own sickness: the slow collapse of his cultivation. Worse yet, the system—the mysterious voice that first bound him to this story—is far from satisfied with his failure to save the “right” person.

As the truth behind Song Qingshi’s biggest mistake unravels, so does reality itself. Perhaps he and Yue Wuhuan are nothing more than puppets of fate, destined to be twisted and broken by the heavens. Is anything in the world strong enough to break that cycle?

Volume three of Mistakenly Saving the Villain opens on that horrible cliffhanger, and predictably the two of them solve it in the most stupid possible way, by not talking about it properly and just sort of sliding into a relationship anyway. I say this as someone who basically did that in my own relationship with my now-wife, to be clear: I am affectionately talking about it as the most stupid possible thing.

I love that Song Qingshi is not actually as ignorant of what Yue Wuhuan is thinking and feeling as he sometimes seems, and that he works out what Yue Wuhuan is doing, coaxes him to act on his feelings, and starts helping him distinguish between what is real and what is his trauma/illness. So far it hasn’t much stopped Yue Wuhuan getting worse, because Song Qingshi doesn’t do a good job of boundaries, but… Yue Wuhuan’s unhinged devotion to Qingshi is what we’re here for, right?!

This volume then… goes places. It’s quite the ride, and I have no idea how this is all going to wrap up: the system has reasserted itself (sort of), and we get a glimpse of the bigger picture, a whole bigger tangle that Yue Wuhuan (or whatever he’d like to be called now) and Song Qingshi are part of, which I assume will round things off.

I’m trying not to say too much because a) I’m not sure I’m fully following everything yet and b) I don’t want to spoiler the wild ride for anyone else. But I’m enjoying it a lot and very eager for the last volume in October.

Rating: 4/5 (“really liked it”)

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Review – The Other World’s Books Depend on the Bean Counter (manga), vol 6

Posted August 28, 2026 by Nicky in Reviews / 0 Comments

Review – The Other World’s Books Depend on the Bean Counter (manga), vol 6

The Other World's Books Depend on the Bean Counter

by Kazuki Irodori, Yatsuki Wakutsu

Genres: Fantasy, Manga, Romance
Pages: 176
Series: The Other World's Books Depend on the Bean Counter (manga) #6
Rating: four-stars
Synopsis:

It was just a normal day when a workaholic office worker was dragged through a portal to another world. Of course, the first thing he requested was a job—which is how Kondou’s career in the Royal Accounting Department began. Now, as Vice Director, Kondou finds himself out of his depth, embroiled in a plot involving the church’s finances and state secrets, all the while missing his dashing knight captain. But when Aresh returns from a successful expedition only to mysteriously collapse, it might be up to our intrepid bean counter to save the day…

Volume six of Kazuki Irodori’s manga adaptation of The Other World’s Books Depend on the Bean Counter contains some really really sweet moments, as Seiichirou discovers that Aresh’s absence makes his own feelings very clear. The fact that Aresh is a big romantic is no surprise, and Seiichirou will always be a pragmatist above all… but the imbalance in their feelings is starting to even out, and there are some super cute scenes.

The plot also continues apace, of course, with Seiichirou targeted by someone from within the church, and Seiichirou’s investigation beginning to reveal that something’s off about all of that.

It’s still apparent that Aresh thinks they’re in a romance novel (not even realising that the attack on Seiichirou is targeted until it comes up as a matter of course in conversation) while Seiichirou is in a fantasy novel with political intrigue, which is also kind of funny. I’ve forgotten exactly how the situation plays out in the church and how it leads into Aresh’s dramatic next actions, from the light novel, but I look forward to getting there in the manga too.

(Still, in the meantime… maybe a little reread.)

Rating: 4/5 (“really liked it”)

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Review – Wooing the Witch Queen

Posted August 24, 2026 by Nicky in Reviews / 8 Comments

Review – Wooing the Witch Queen

Wooing the Witch Queen

by Stephanie Burgis

Genres: Fantasy, Romance
Pages: 294
Series: Queens of Villainy #1
Rating: three-stars
Synopsis:

Queen Saskia is the wicked sorceress everyone fears. After successfully wrestling the throne from her evil uncle, she only wants one thing: to keep her people safe from the empire next door. For that, she needs to spend more time in her laboratory experimenting with her spells. She definitely doesn’t have time to bring order to her chaotic library of magic.

When a mysterious dark wizard arrives at her castle, Saskia hires him as her new librarian on the spot. “Fabian” is sweet and a little nerdy, and his requests seem a little strange – what in the name of Divine Elva is a fountain pen? – but he’s getting the job done. And if he writes her flirtatious poetry and his innocent touch makes her skin singe, well…

Little does Saskia know that the "wizard" she’s falling for is actually an Imperial archduke in disguise, with no magical training whatsoever. On the run, with perilous secrets on his trail and a fast growing yearning for the wicked sorceress, he's in danger from her enemies and her newfound allies, too. When his identity is finally revealed, will their love save or doom each other?

I’ve been meaning to try Stephanie Burgis’ Wooing the Witch Queen since forever, seeing other people’s enthusiasm about the series — and there is indeed a lot to love! The introduction is a little heavy, with Felix fleeing his kingdom due to being essentially a puppet ruler, manipulated and outright abused by the man who actually controls the kingdom… and Saskia’s back story is also a tragic one, with betrayal and the murder of her parents by her uncle behind her before she managed to take her own throne. Despite all that setup, the story has a relatively light touch.

The misunderstanding/mistaken identity thing at the beginning didn’t entirely work for me in that I just wanted Felix to come clean already and avoid the horrible third act breakup I could see coming from a mile off… but ultimately, Burgis subverted my expectations there somewhat. She does have to have Saskia wilfully insist on ignorance on more than one occasion in order to play things out the way she wants to, but it mostly works, and I was relieved that the relationship didn’t have the breakup I’d expected.

I did find the insta-attraction a little bit much, but over time the connection between the two did grow on me, as well, particularly when Felix time after time just supported Saskia and her needs, her right to make decisions and make a different world than her First Minister thinks she should, her right to be a queen.

The warmth felt by Saskia for her staff and they for her is lovely, too. The way that the “evil queen”‘s castle is essentially a big family (or at least a well-run and employee-friendly company) is pretty sweet; I do feel that the fact that they insist on Felix eating and sleeping and having company, things a person needs, isn’t played for as much as it’s worth (though that decision does avoid things getting too heavy). Given his trauma, it’s a hell of a gift to be somewhere that his needs are met in that way.

I’m definitely interested enough to read more, even if I didn’t love Lorelei from what I’ve seen so far; I expect she’ll grow on me when we get to understand her backstory more.

Rating: 3/5 (“liked it”)

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