[SHOR REVIEWS] #23

离婚错撩后，被京圈太子爷娇宠了 by 星星请点灯

(mtl: After a divorce I was pampered by the Beijing's prince)

[BG] Completed. Summary: After 5 years of loveless marriage Wen Ruan finds that her husband is cheating on her. Being fed up with it she tries to leave him. *Qidian. I pinpoint that it came from Qidian and not JJ.

That's the basic premise that should have been included in official summary that paints them as strong men and women. This is like a false advertisement. I'm sorry, a strong woman you say? I dropped this because Wen Ruan is nothing but a man's appendage and she has no redeeming qualities of a strong woman, she is easily manipulated, has no stance for herself in the family and almost always goes with the flow.

I must say, I'm sick and tired of this damsel in distress type of story when a girl can't even show her spine. She can't leave her husband, because he conspired against her brother - her weak spot. Instead of going ballistic at him she complies with demands (a lot to go through just for getting her attend a few dinners, don't you think), although she could use some press or just go crazy, who cares, no we're meek and follow to show what? that we're a damsel in distress who needs saving. Sometimes there is strength in forebearing, but sometimes it's simply a trashy plot. I like trashy plots, but this is simply cheap melodrama for the sake of making it a soap opera.

ALSO the false ad of "pampering", ironically the ost problems come from this prince of Beijing who actually got into accident (why not) then he thought he's going to be bound to wheelchair and let her leave him, she did, then he was left with a limp, married another woman, who conspired against him and the guy who followed Wen Ruan, then we had many time skips when the kid is already like 6 years old and they again come into contact and get intangled again. While in general I think this ended up being such a fucked up situation overall.

Back to FMC. Her men can be presidents and successful, but she? She once had an education in incense-making, which sounds more like a hobby, but compared to her high-achieving men she is nothing. She also lost her chance because of course we need to add drama and she lost her chance to some easy-to-catch ploy, which only showed how naive she is. I mean I can understand people nowadays may not be super shrewed, but I believe the younger ones are not as dense. 

I read a bit then I just read few selected chapters and it's nothing more but drama for the sake of melodrama. It's full of breaking up and making up, conspiracies, wealthy family fighting, several kidnappings even mixed babies ffs etc. And what is surprising is that their time together can't compare to all the melodrama, they only had a good time when it was all over and it was described in few words in the final chapter (which was all rushed of course). And I must say Wen Ruan was led astray so many times it's baffling. Like her college scandal, sis not proceed to investigate or do something about it. Did not trust or love Pei Yue enough to stay with him, was deceived by the most trusted person.

I mean, any other over the top QINDIAN drama at least has a strong but single mother that doesn't bend, Wen Ruan went along with another man (even though he cospired with another woman to make many things happen and separate the two "fated" lovers). You're not that fated if you don't really fight for it and accept everything at face value. And what type of love if she was truly swayed by other men along the way. I don't mean it can't happen, but she is always like a helpless flower that needs a ground to grow.

I love my trashy novels, but this was kinda meh. Drama for the sake of drama, obviously. Overuse of all the tropes possible. The one who wrote this just stunned you with twists and other overused stuff not to let you a chance to breathe and think how lunatic this is.

Did I mention that this novel starts like any other - a one-night stand. Why they love it so much.

满级快穿，惹得禁欲反派宠妻上瘾 by 阴阳殿

(mtl: The max level boss makes the vilain addicted to pampering his wife) 

[BG] Completed. There is no summary for this one because it baffled me. *Qidian.

I took it upon myself reading this because although I think their previous novels including where FMC transmigrates with her dad was not the perfection, but it was fun and engaging. But this time I was so surprised. This reads more like a sketch but not a fully thought-through thing, the quality drop is so astonishing I did not put two and two together at first and asked myself - why I added this again? Then I was truly surprised.

The basic premise is Yan Can travels these worlds (three in total), why she does that? Unknown. Pitiful hint that she must complete the revenge of OG. The backstories not fully explained, she just arrives an we deal with it. Also she only has some sort of relevance in the first arc, for the next two I felt like her "husband" does the most work instead of her.

What is unsettling all the time is that the guy is always older and she is not of age. Not that they do something, but the way it goes him insta falling in love.. Not explained at all, you won't get an answer, but they fall in love as soon as they meet and then nothing really happens, because the plot is weird. Whenever she ended her mission she was transferred right away, so she never finished a life.

World 1. Obvious masochistic old-school bloody novel where OG is the little sister. ML is a guy who was in the car when someone related to OG was driving it and noticed her on teh road. This is where FMC showcases what is promised in the summary, she is ruthless, but since she had the reputation of beaten up kid no one believed her parents. She basically distanced herself from them. I tell you, no details on how she did things, they basically illogical quite a bit. And it also had a feeling like we're mulling over the same thing.

World 2. Fake/true daughter. FMC's golden finger is to let her chosen family hear her inner voice, thus they find out she is reborn and how she died, they see true face of the fake daughter and basically fall out soon enough. ML is her childhood sweetheart, she acts like she existed in this world all teh time and he never recognized the wrong person, weird. They also offed so many people.

World 3. Being entangled by a weirdo couple. The guy here may have been saved, but the girl is mental. ML again mostly did all the job.

The characters of those who "wronged" FMC are all the same and stereotypical.

This read as garbage, not my usual trashy but entertaining. It was incredibly shallow and I'm surprised.

封神回归！星际大佬马甲又被扒了

(mtl: The God of War returns! The vest of Interstellar Boss has slipped again)

[BG] Completed. Summary: Jiang Zhi died and was reborn in the body of a "waste" girl from a garbage planet. Sister of OG was taken away and she slowly planned how to help her. But a good thing that she was reborn with all of her specks surpassing the S category. And all of her achievements as a potion maker and a hacker are still there among other things. She now can continue what she worked on for years. *Qidian.

    Why I even bothered I have no idea, I think I had a wish to see how a random author will deal with Interstellar era. And I must say - if you have no idea about anything, don't write, like really.

The world-building of this is dull. If you put Interstellar there, it doesn't mean the reader automatically knows what's going on, even if you put Zergs in there too. Because the overall picture is illogical.

So here's the true premise, Jiang Zhi has a sister Jiang Si, they both were abandoned by their father after he re-married their mother's sister. This part of the plot is so floppy I can't even express it well. But iang Si is a natural person, that's how it's MTL'd, basically the person who can give birth naturally, so she was taken away to basically be a irthing machine for some high-class Admiral. Who acted like a character from old-school bloody novels who would say phrases like "You caught my attention woman". But her's my problem, if this is posed as a problem overall, they should have another technology, they're far in the future, but I read like 200 chapters then I skipped to the ending and I surely don't know if they have or no, but I'm sure no one mentioned it. 

So from one side they say their numbers are dwindling, but from other side we have the danger of Zergs (although they have described so many planets under "Federation" where Jiang Zhi landed that it doesn't make sense that they have so little of people).

But from another side, when Jiang Zhi decided to get out of the garbage planet and join a military academy, we find out that newbies are thrown into simulations right away for once. I could have dealt with it if this part of the plot hadn't taken half of the damn thing. And then right away they were sent to compete, but not anywhere else but close to the real defense line.

By that I mean, they sent freshmen who just arrived and who have no experience at all right into hell mode. Future mecha pilots, who should be a precious resource are treated as if they should all do it already. Em..what? 

What baffled me the most is the point-based system. So when they arrive they were told something about earning points. And because it is MTL it honestly sounded as if they should earn them, but spend it on stuff like a training room too. No shit. Even if they had to pay, I think that's fucked up. It's as if all these people have to beg to be pilots and not be provided resources to become the best pilots. Like where is the logic in this?

Back to Jiang Zhi, she was taken away by her biological father because her sister is now with a high-profile person. But Jiang Zhi has a recommendation letter to enter academy, so she has few months before she is of age and can do whatever she wants. The one who wrote the letter is herself - her other allias as a potion maker. I have no idea why she entered as a mecha driver, because eventually her goal changed. But it didn't really change half-way through, she was a potion-maker in previous life and spent an extensive amount of time on researching something that will help women restore their ability to give birth and will lessen the burden from her sister who is treated as commodity. This is my problem here, she was noticed because of her skills as a mecha pilot and so much of attention was on that. But then she says - I will be making potions, why not start making them from the get-go if that was your goal?

The ending is also baffling. They say that the S physique and mental strength are the pinnacle, but we know Jiang Zhi is stronger than that. But they are rare ppl who reach this, but she is sent to some place where all the SSS-type of people are gathered. Basically to promote. Me at that moment: So you mean to say you have such a danger like Zergs (they did appear in the plot, the real ones) and so many people are fighting who are quite below in skills, but those with higher skills are in that one place and do nothing? Ok. I didn't really get it. Was this place mentioned, but it felt like Jiang Zhi and the (supposed) ML talked about it only at the very end...

Logic just left the building to never return. And yeah I got bored and skipped the last 100ch because it wasn't getting anywhere. So who knows if she achieved her goal with potions. I don't really care. It felt like she didn't to me, her goal shifted to help her sister. Oh forgot to say, her sister had brain-eating worm, got it on that station where her nominal husband took her to as who knows what plan of honeymoon, and she got infected and it's fatal, I know she lived but it's because of medicine, for sure due to her genius sister. And while her sister is not completely cure she leaves to that place. Who knows maybe the motive was that she will evolve with those ppl and return even more awesome and finish it all, but honestly, where logic in that? Why all those ppl are in that place and left everyone to fend for themselves basically.

快穿之宿主她专业拆cp by 秦小酌

(mtl: Traverser who breaks up CPs)

[BG] Completed. Synopsys: Jiang Wei is the elite executioner in Transmigration Bureau, but she found herself being sent to the bodes of cannon fodder when she started dismantling official couples.

She also had to collect some of the fragments of that unreliable guy Qin. *Qidian

    I have a strong feeling that I've read it, but when and how is a mystery.

It's another cheap one which I wouldn't give more than 1 star, it's another Qidian "masterpiece", I wonder if the authors there are in some kind of circle that loves to write only old-school and bloody, very melodramatic, soap opera style type of stories that defy any logic and it's the first draft of a 15 yo.

Tbh Qidian most of the time reads as JJ fanfiction. I also ask myself why I'm wasting my time, but sometimes you need garbage, at least I do. Also when I reach out to stories I have no idea they'll end up so trash. I can switch on green tea girl and say that I have faith in those authors and there should be something that prevents them from delivering.

Anyway, this story is very inconsistent except the fact that Jiang Wei should complete her mission, but the entire plot and romance are so in the background. The guy named Qin may follow her in those worlds or no, we know they've been together for quite some time (made me think is there a 1st volume of this? maybe it's the second installment), we don't care about their romance, it's shallow. I have no desire to root for them.

The plots of these arcs are nothing new, but they again are more like a sketch than well-thought through plot. Like final "arc" is only few chapters long and it described in general how Jiang Wei comes to a girl in a soul state and in three sentences teaches her what to do in her true/adopted daughter situation. And then she wakes up, we have no idea why the guy in her Bureau sent her to some missions as a punishment, but she only sees the Qin guy says I love you and the end..lol wut.

The onlyreason I thought this felt familiar is due to 2 episodes. In one arc Jiang Wei is a clueless wife dying instead of the mistress, because the mistress got a monster after exploring a tomb, so she transferred the mosnter to her, but Jiang Wei later made an offer, so the two husband and mistress will share the burden and this is what exposed their feelings.

Another one was about a twin brother who made his sister marry to his lover just to give birth but in the OG plot pushed her down the cliff when OG Jiang Wei found out the truth and tried to escape.

Tbh I actually thought this might be plagiarism, but I have no proof, this might be the story I read or maybe not, I can't tell since I don't remember. But I'm biased since I saw plagiarism on Qidian.

    What is annoying with these stories is that the characters all talk the same, dialogues are convoluted same copy-paste version of itself, the character of "protags" are all the same, male protags who would say - you caught my attention woman and green tea bitches who pretend to be pitiful and talk the same. And everyone is brain-dead since they follow it. And there is no difference. 

oh yeah it must be MTL but OCTOPUS in a LAKE. It's from some apocalypse world, but they fought octopus who appeared in a lake okay? lol, how did it got there ffs?

被前男友骗婚以后 by 听原 

(After Being Tricked into Marriage by My Ex)

[BL] Completed. This can be found on NU where I left my review as well, but I wanted to mention it in passing because this comes from the author of "He's from 1945", which I reviewed in the past. It's one of their first works and it shows, but it's interesting to see that their style of doing things can be felt in this novel already. Taking most basic tropes and doing something special to them, giving author's voice to it. I liked that this story, which also begins from tropes actually has a bit of complexity to it and I was happy for it. *JJ

The basic premise of it is Cen Jing transmigrating into the body of infamous illegitimate son of the Cen family, who fell in love with He Cidong and pestered him, eventually because of schemes and turns (not fully explained imo) the two end up married, but Cidong according to others has a "white moonlight" and CJ like everyone else misinterprets this relationship, it's hard not to. Cidong is not a moralist or a good person, never presented himself as such, even if he was married he held no desire to stick to a fake facade, so he continued to help the person he considered himself responsible for - Yao Wenyu.

It's not hard to guess at how hard the novel hints then shows that Cidong and Wenyu are not in a romantic relationship, but the situation is more complex. Cidong thought Wenyu was the one who helped him in his childhood, this is why when they met again he felt responsible, especially seeing Wenyu changing (pure speculation, but to me he wanted to raise his status so he would return to the past self), but instead Wenyu was infatuated with him to the point of obsession and was mentally unwell. This is why he could even cause himself harm so Cidong will return to him and continue to care for him. Unless he does something extreme Wenyu knew this would work. So again the situation is not black and white and all responsibility lies in Cidong.

But because of their initial situation thanks to both parties the consequent troubles became their regrets.

Cidong could not help this magnetic pull, so he cared for CJ more and more, but all these feelings were too subtle at first. 

It's not a perfect work and I'm not a fan of how it was wrapped up. To me the novel lacked in depth that consequently created imbalance in the story, but if you sit with it a bit you will realize author's intention on some details. At least to me they make sense. This is why this book does not follow the copy-paste path that is abundant in such stories and most often sounds illogical and lacking.

替身男配只想赚钱 by 时今

(mtl: The supporting role stand-in just wants to make money)

[BL] Completed. Summary: Chen Bai transmigrates from a person who was deep in depth to someone who drowns in debt. Just add few more zeroes. But what can he do? He has to work hard. He can spend a dinner, but no overtime, he has to dash to another job. *JJ

I though initially that I will like it, but what a Waterloo, the first thing that put me off outside of the entire pacing is that gaming is included. And I find it the most boring, water-spilling type of story. It can be funny, because of the dialogues, but in essence it's boring (especially for non-gamers of those games mentioned). The pacing is basically like a galloping horse that feels like events develop so quickly. I didn't feel for the main character or the story. The good thing about him is his motivation. Maybe this is why ML is attracyed and also that he's not being treated as too special.

Didn't read too much to give anyone advice of reading it or not, maybe someone will find it madly entertaining who knows.

权力是女人最好的医美 by 大白牙牙牙

(mtl: Power is the best beauty treatment for women)

[BG] Completed. Summary: Everyone around Huo Ling promised her that when they reach the pinnacle of life she will be the most favored. Relatives, lover, children. Everyone may one day turn around and betray you for power though, this is why you don't support anyone, but yourself. *JJ

    The summary on JJ is more playful I'd say, although the tone of the novel itself is more serious. This is the author of Heng Yu series (the several quick transmigration novels that I reviewed before and I mentioned how I liked their non-mainstream approach). This story tells the alternative history inspired by the female Emperor. Huo Ling is not an awakened person or a transmigrator, but a genuine ancient person whose family fell from grace at one point and now for several generations it became an obsession and it became hers too.

You can expect that this story will be full of step by step journey of a woman who wants to save power for herself. She is the eldest daughter, born into a family that once held a military power. She is the oldest child, her mother died in birth, she has a stepmother and a brother, but it doesn't really feel like the usual way how women described in these novels.

Huo Ling proves to be intelligent from the first chapter, we start from their small family of four where she gives advice through her own observations. She has business left from her mother, her family treats her right, she could have chosen someone and live a life of leisure, but she doesn't want it to be her only choice. Girl has ambitions okay.

I'd recommend others to pick it up if they feel like reading this type of story. Currently and for some time I was simply not feeling it, I don't even like to read ancient plane normally. Oh, a funny thing I saw, it's a comment that did not directly influence my decision but it said something like - you said power is the best beauty nourishment for women, but where? she lived through so much betrayal and pain because of power. I'd say I expected something of this sort from this author. Fun fact, this should have been a world in her new QT series (she has one planned with similar title), but because the story was developed so much it became a separate story alltogether.

快穿之教你做人 by 南岛樱桃

(mtl: Teaching you how to be a human being)

[BG] Complete. Summary: Yu Xia transmigrates into different worlds, there is nothing critical going on actually, her character is not even secondary and she has no real threat to her well-being, but there may be some regret left from previous life and some disturbance in this one.

    I CAN'T STRESS ENOUGH THAT I WAS BORED OUT OF MY MIND. This was SO BORING.

Basically I haven't even finished the first arc how bored I was by the plotline which had NOTHING. And the official synopsis promises a "refreshing" story, my understanding of boredom has been refreshed tyvm.

I am looking through bookmarks (since there are several hundreds of them) and just elliminate everything I now think I won't read, while most online novels were added throughout years and they are still hanging there waiting for their moment to be read or deleted. This novel met the same fate. After all I love QT as a genre and always give those a chance, at least reading first few chapter to get to know what it has to offer. This novel has nothing to offer, it's just a basic sotry and nothing more.

The first arc covers a story about a country girl from 80's. She didn't have a bad life previously, but sh ehad to step down when her older sister refused to budge when their family was in trouble when both of them passed the exam, she decided to be filial and sacrificed her chance not knowing she could still go, schools provided subsidies. Her older sister is now reborn and eyes husband from previous life who turned to business just to prove he is worth of his beautiful wife. Yu Xia basically continues to study and gets admitted to med college. The chapter I was reading described how she arrived. 

No intrigue, no ups and downs, just the basic story that you heard 100 times before. And I'm not even sure I want to finish even the first arc to see what was the point. To me there was none. Empty story with no substance.

当霸总穿成万人嫌 by 混元三喜

(mtl: A big boss who traveled through a book became disliked by everyone)

[BL] Completed. Summary: Shi Hong started from nothing and eventually became a big boss in business, but instead of celebrating his success further he is suddenly transmigrated into a novel with character who is a cannon fodder with the same name as him. A story about a fake and true young master he is found when he was a teen, but his parents still treat him poorly and any attempt to get closer was seen as trying to curry favor and copying the fake young master. He is at the point where he created a scandal justo to divert attention from fake young master since the entire family asked for it and even the person whom he liked, was actually involved in the scandal too. *JJ

Well....speechless. The taste of this novel is so cheap.

The first chapter or so I thought the main character will be sassy and I'm all for it, but the next chapter he acts greasy and oily towards the ML. ML is named Shen Yan, person he involved in a scandal to divert attention, the dude obviously was pissed off. Shi Hong saw him without knowing his name and was attracted to Shen Yan and started a passionate pursuit, tbh he talked and acted like a licking dog but also he knows no boundries. The comments under first chapters are precious they all say MC is oily, few chapters later (I wonder if author was pissed off) MC asks why a pursuit nowadays is oily and why someone who is older is seen as greasy when they try to woo a person. But dude.. you kinda acting like you're harassing the other person, there is nothing good about it.

I was surprised their relationship developed so fast and Shen Yan actually took a note of this dude. Kinda was baffled how he is described as super successful when he can't talk normal days, but when describing him at events we don't hear how he talks only common phrases like - he amazed everyone by his blah-blah-blah.

Shen Yan almost agreed, but then visited the tree planted for his deceased mother and asked her if she agrees to this relationship and I think a persimmon fell from a tree and something else happened and the guy refused to relationship the next second (it was a sign to him).

And I decided that was it. And actually figured out I read something from this author previously and reviewed the novel here and gave it like 2 stars, so I see no point in continuing, I managed to hold on till ch22.

绿茶她真的不想洗白 by 竹外疏狂

(mtl: Green tea doesn't want to be whitewashed of her persona)

[BG] Completed. Summary: Lin Shao travels to a book and becomes a vicious female supporting role and must change her fate, but is also bound to a system. But there was a mistake at the Traversing Bureau, she got the "MANLY" system instead of a green tea. Lin Shao meets all the other important characters and under her prowess the script starts to change, no, it's just the butterfly effect of her changing. *JJ

Author of All Villains Show. Their other work I reviewed was Going with the three brothers on a variety show. This is their earlier work from 2021

Well, this is indeed immature but the style is there already. Not a perfect work. I am cleaning bookmarks and finding things that will stay or will be deleted. When I saw this and read few chapters I instanty knew - I read it before! But when it was I have no idea, I never left a review. Because I didn't want to re-read I basically skimmed through a bit. But as I said it's fun but not perfect.

I felt it was surprisingly long despite many places being treated perfunctory. The stoyr has a sort of open ending (considering MMC).

FMC Lin Shao travels to this world and has a goal set by the system, but because her is a manly and powerful she is kinda forced to be competitive even with most ridiculous smallest things.

She also has a situation of uncertain MMC, like there are several candidates, but no certain one.

The one who got the green tea system is Shi Qi, or secret true MMC of the story. Because he is like her a traverser who needs to win to get back and save someone (very thick hint it might be Lin Shao).

But to be honest to me this was more of an aimless story, thus I say it's still immature. Considering the number of chapters too. In short terms Lin Shao served as a fake gf to Fu Chaoyi, her boss. Now he wants to break up and she arrives at this very moment. Unlike OG Lin Shao she has no feelings for this man and she agrees. Bound system gives her super power and super appetite. She goes to different shows which slowly improves her reputation and even becomes friends with many of them. Especially Song Ranran the official heroine, whom she considers super cute. The story is more of a career line and interactions with other main cast, but I think comparing to consequent works this is more humor and nonsense. Even Lin Shao herself, her main goal is to return and it is inevitable, so all of this to me seemed pointless. In a sense such ending is kind and cruel. SPoileRs but everyone is bound to forget about her. So they don't remember who she was and what she meant in their lives. Lin Shao will remember them for sure but it's kinda bittersweet. To them it's the best choice too in a way, not to be sad about her. But again, what is the point of such travel then? Saying stuff but she grew up professionally sounds too soulless. But outside of everything it's really like an open ending. If we talk about the main text. I admit I like their development of consequent works that even if they are quite cliche when it comes to tropes, but they still manage to explore really great themes and create more profound stories. While this type of story is for having a good laugh and good time.

病弱女配和偏执反派he了 by 挠时光

(mtl: HE of a sickly supporting female character and the main villain)

[BG] Completed.

I won't even bother to put on pretence that I want to write my own summary, not for this one, because it managed to bore me out so much.

Someone in the reviews under said that it's a perfect choice when you don't want to make a wrong choice. I guess my standards are astronomical then. Because this is perfect if you want to snooze.

Song Tan was informed that she is a supporting female character, whose role was a stumbling block betweem main protags. She brought in so much benefits actually, bit no one appreciated it and thought she was in the way, to fix it she was bound by the system and sent to rehab and grow up into an apocalypse world (like why the fuck there? extreme max), three years later she returns before she makes her choice of husbands, and instead of Huo Yanlin the most favored grandson and maybe future head of the Huo family she chose the most inconscpicious Shen Yin, who is only half the Huo family and lived a marginal transparent life.

In this arranged marriage the leftovers of the Song family want to jump and join the Huo family for growth while Hup family eye magical prescriptions in the hands of Song Tan.

I shouldn't have even started when I read these, this sounds stupid. Only in novels people would care about a prescription as if it's a miracle. No details on what type of prescription and what it does.

The main one is the goal of old Mr Huo who has some "sickness" and needs this prescription that somehow saved him from almost dying. Love it how in these novels no one rushes to the hospital as if they have a portable hospital at home.

After striking a deal and marrying Song Tan indeed gave the prescription but there were more and this is why she and Shen Yin were still kept on the Huo family territory.

Okay, here are my several pet peeves. we know that Huo family probably has something to do with meds, but lazy writing does not go into details, so I have no idea about the scope of this family, so what happens to many members authors said a lot of people, but how many? No info, no details. Plus even a relatively wealthy family can act like they're some local tyrants.

This is why I had a problem with the next part - why they continued living with the Huo family? They could have moved early. It is such a dumb reason as if the Huo family will persecute them (again hard to tell without any scale) and chase after them or they will do something to Shen Yin's professor's job. The reason is the most basic - reputation and prescriptions. But reputation? Are you serious? No one cares about that. Look at all the companies and big names (especially those covered by the media), do you really think they care? Okay for the sake of reputation just say some nonsense and it will pass, no one cares. We can blackmail each other that the two will make too much noise, so they could have been left alone. So many options.

But the biggest problem to me was still one - boredom. Original male protag Huo Yanli at least five times said something about Song Tan in first like 15 chapters, maybe not the same words, but the same meaning for sure. I read just 20 chapters as if they were 40, they dragged and nothing happened, many unnecessary details or same stuff mentioned several times. Not to mention that the story simply drags its' feet. Instead of an upbeat short story with like 55ch in total I was surprised how dragged out it was and I decided to skip half of it, read the ending and be done with it. Boy, nothing was missed.

❧

폭군의 보좌관은 퇴사가 하고 싶다 by 김미카

The Tyrant’s Aide Wants To Resign

[BG] Completed. Summary: An ex-office worker now works as an aide for the most powerful mage in a world she transmigrated to.

Tbh, I was kinda not impressed by it from first few chapters. Maybe because Bianca acted like a silly goose in front of her patron and the guy obviously has feelings for her, but she was not only oblivious but very wary of it all. And otherwise I was not intrigued at all.

You know how the story gets you into a tight grip from the first chapter? The aftereffect of the online novels is that they don't really follow this line of writing, but mainly try to lure with popular tropes etc. Although trad published books also do the same nowadays, but tropes are not everything you know.

Also with tropification of novels (or how would you call it) the individuality started to disappear. For example, how many ex-office workers who has relationship with her boss stories have we seen so far? Countless. Even the transmigration type of stories had seen this development even more. Meaning the one thing you can grasp me as a reader is give me something unique, make me engaged from the first page / chapter. But I often read these novels as either "whatever" or "I'm going to irritate you". These stories are also unfortunately forgettable.

버린 쓰레기는 다시 줍지 않는다 by 배고픈

I Won’t Pick Up The Trash I Threw Away Again

[BG] Completed. Summary: After waiting for years her fiance returned with a woman in a tow who claimed to be pregnant with his child. So many years wasted on not letting the estate to fall apart she still feels like it's not truly her home, no matter how much time she spent on it.

FMC was basically sold by her family since she is a disgrace for them, she spent a decade with the ducal family, at first was brought up as a future wife-to-be, but after the tragic passing of fiance's parents she took on the role of the hostess, even if nothing truly belonged to her, this is why when the dude came back she had no place to go to. He promised her that she still will be the wife, but the girl, who is of enemy nation btw will stay since she bears his child (which spoilers happened to be fake).

Did not like it at all. I first read a bit and then simply went to spoilers and was not mad that I dnf'd this.

Although FMC has her own circumstances of why she can't leave at first (which is also kinda not smart, considering how he always treated her as nothing I wish she'd swindle this guy), but she makes some not really smart moves when the novel claims her to be intellignet. But overall FMC gave me wishy-washy feeling and I kinda wanted to skip on it. Like official ML gave her the chance to be a lady in the office, this is where she had to prove herself.

I don't know, when a novel tries to be serious etc. but it gives you a stupd feeling, this is how I felt.

These damn pretty covers! Misleading!