[Chinese BL novel] 我当了十年反派后穿回来了 by 梨蓝蓝 / I was a villain for ten years before coming back

Summary: Wen Linyu was the type of person who will say "It's okay" even if he was intentionally hurt. Then he was suddenly taken to a different world where he had to play a villain. After ten years he returned and now when someone wanted to hurt him he would say the same excuse as he used to hear "I'm sorry, I didn't mean to, but you will forgive me right?"

I'll say this right away, this is a 1-star novel for me. I've been messing around with BL tag today and looking for novels that might have been picked up, then saw this one and clicked to find out that instead f upcoming, this novel became completed. I mentioned this novel in the 'short reviews' post dated Nov 30, 2023, so it was quite a while ago.

The novel was completed in Nov of 2024. It was completed shortly, because it's just a 28 chapters long. And because of it, it became a big missed opportunity, a big miss, it fell so hard for me and did not meet my expectations at all.

It's one of those novels where the content of the summary does not correspond to the content of the novel itself.

So Linyu travels to another world, he grew up in a foster family who knew he's not biologica, his own parents threw him to this family for a reason he had no idea about, when he returned his life was no better, a marginal figure living a worse life than a gutter rat.

Then he travelled to another world and could not get rid of his cowardly and servile self. Ten years passed with a soul inside his body teaching him ways of cultivation. He got better and more sure about himsef, but then he suddenly returned and did not say goodbye, fearing his heart for the teacher.

The problem is, maybe he grew a bit, but he is not changed much, he is just more cruel to people who did harm to him and he paid it back, but usually he's still a good person. While the summary at JJ promised some fiery slap backs...

Now he realized that what his parents did was to steal his fortune / life. Which was done by an evil cultivator.

Because the novel is short it sounds like a sketch. There is no buuild-up, things go by very fast, he basically does few things to people who hurt him, including his parents.

The relationship part is a weird one. Gu Chi, the ML, makes the system send him to the world of Linyu where they meet. But now Linyu sees the face of Gu Chi (body he worse in the next world), who acts all close and clingy and creepy basically, but Gu Chi did not even mention that he's the teacher. He knows Linyu would want to see his teacher. Like they have a several chapter misunderstanding before Linyu catches up by himself... Anyway, the parents are backlashing like mad, the master behind them is found in one passage and sent topolice, everyone is happy.

It's such a waste. And then I saw the author and realized who they were and what they might have written before and realized that I initially did not hold much hope for this.. Better to say it was my last hope I think? Anyway, not recommend this author in general.

I really should have stuck with something else instead of wasting my evening on this.

RATE: 0/5. Like who is this saint who sacrificed art for the cover of this novel, I want to know them. I know that some covers can be used several times (not usually but it can happen, I saw it), but it's such a waste of good art on this.

[SHORT REVIEWS] #18

'Marriage first, love later' tag edition. It's going to be short. I was sitting and reading 'Assistant to the Villain' during this NY when my brain decided that I want to dive into the 'marriage first, love later' tag on JJ. I've already reviewed several novels before (more like a lot) that were more about a marriage agreement, marriage first love later is kinda similar thing, after all they marry first and love comes later, depending on the situation.

But after searching for a bit I picked up only four novels, one of them is on NU and I put my review here, I think at this moment my review is the only one lol. It is also the only novel out of four that I fully completed, it was short and it was nice, more on the mature side than some entertaining melodrama. I took a pick at other two, because I was intrigued because the premise of the FMC is pretty the same, adopted daughter, and it proved once again that JJ is very much copy-paste sometimes. The last one I just had a glimpse at the summary. I'm debating on continuing the Assistant series rn, because I found it trashy entertaining and while the first book is fresh in my head.

恃宠而婚 by 今婳

(mtl: Marrying for favor)

[BG] Completed. Summary: He Qingchi was asked what is her favorite type. She answered that they should be a sexy man with a six pack. But later her tastes changed, her criteria now is someone handsome, slender, always buttoned up and strict. ML is Wen Shuchen, a famous figure, a business tycoon.

This is the one I haven't started even, it got pretty high ranking and good rates, I'll see how it goes when I feel like it. The summary just mentioned Qingchi filming and I'm not feeling an entertainment article right now, I've read too many of them.

Note: I found this cover online. This novel on JJ has a default cover now, but I suppose it's the official cover of the mainland edition. I also found what should be the original JJ cover which is just white text on a pink watercolor blob background.

宜室宜婚 by 见星帘

(mtl: Suitable for marriage)

[BG] Completed. Summary: Song Yihe is an orphan adopted by the Song family. She is quiet and gentle. Except for the occasional care of the old man, almost no one takes her seriously. She is so transparent that she is incompatible with people in the circle.

She knows her duty very well - when she graduates from college, she will marry the young master of the He family.

But when she heard that the prospect marriage partner was changed to some douch, she took it upon herself to stop He Jingshi on a rainy night and offer the marriage.

I've read very little of it, the girl is sensible and gentle, the type I'm very quickly tired of, because they can be often be manipulated and this is what the situation is about, she is an adopted daughter and the Song family, the last son who stayed alive, wants to change her for resources. But honestly, girl, I understand the author might want to wrap it around filial piety, but what type of filial piety when the rest of your life is at stake. The rebellious thing she does is stop her previous fiance, He Jingshi, and she wants to get married. We start week after the events and they're already married. But honestly her meak reactions turned me down so much that I put it down and may not continue. He Jingshi might have been in love with her for a long time (of course, how else), but I don't want to stick around to find out.

京港回信 by 万莉塔

(mtl: Beijing-HongKong reply (?) Have no idea how this should be named, it's more like write back to a letter?)

[BG] Completed. Summary: Shi Hua(n) was fostered in the He family, and everyone knew that she grew up with He Heng as childhood sweethearts and they dated with a premise of getting married for several years, but when it came to engagement she already knew that He Heng was not fateful, but everyone around her made it sound like she is at fault for blocking a true love couple of He Heng and miss Xu.

Shi Huan turned her gaze upon the current ruler of the He family, He Yanting.

I have no idea if she is Huan or Hua, I don't want her to have a basic name of Hua, thus I left Huan, blame the MTL. 

It is an age gap romance, where FMC finds love with an older guy, plus the guy should have liked her for some years.. Anyway she is now a fresh graduate from a broadcasting major and landed a job at a TV station. I think she is a high-achieving student and person in general, it's pretty great what she achieved by herself. It's great that she basically threw out He Heng quite easily and actually used the presence of Yanting at the engagement party to make He Heng confess of his behavior. After all even if he's a part of the He family, ruining her reputation isn't that great.

i think this novel has a more melodramatic feel from the start, because we know pretty soon that He Heng still likes Shi Huan and he is with miss Xu only because of her illness, but we don't know if it's true or not. Later on he might think that she loves him and will wait for him.. yeah right. Shi Huan flash married Yanting.

But because she's a bit reserved and again the sensible type I'm a bit reserved too about continuing reading it atm.

[NOVEL] Assistant to the Villain by Hannah Nicole Maehrer

ASSISTANT WANTED: Notorious, high-ranking villain seeks loyal, levelheaded assistant for unspecified office duties, supporting staff for random mayhem, terror, and other Dark Things In General. Discretion a must. Excellent benefits.

With ailing family to support, Evie Sage's employment status isn't just important, it's vital. So when a mishap with Rennedawn’s most infamous Villain results in a job offer—naturally, she says yes. No job is perfect, of course, but even less so when you develop a teeny crush on your terrifying, temperamental, and undeniably hot boss. Don’t find evil so attractive, Evie.

But just when she’s getting used to severed heads suspended from the ceiling and the odd squish of an errant eyeball beneath her heel, Evie suspects this dungeon has a huge rat…and not just the literal kind. Because something rotten is growing in the kingdom of Rennedawn, and someone wants to take the Villain—and his entire nefarious empire—out.

Now Evie must not only resist drooling over her boss but also figure out exactly who is sabotaging his work…and ensure he makes them pay.

After all, a good job is hard to find.

Assistant to the Villain. Book 1

Note to myself after starting reading: Remind myself again to never trust review of others.

I really should listen to no one and do my own thing, this is my reaction.

Because I had fun.

I'm not unaware of its' flaws, which are huge, but it's simply fun. Let me share my opinion on it.

First of all, you should read it more like fantasy+comedy combo, if you are aware of some older fantasy comedy movies then you will know with what I associated it with. I don't compare it to any existing titles like the Goodreads summary mentioned that it's like having 'Once upon a time' plus 'The Office', while I haven't watched or read any of the two, I just barely know what they're about. Thus I have my own impression of it.

It's duo POV, but each POV is described from the third person perspective like a narrator, instead of first person (which I appreaciate).

The book is a fun fantasy story with a lot of humor, some unexpected characters, easy plot (the main point of the story is in the summary), twist that suited me just fine and just a book for having a good time.

I loved the humor, I honestly laughed a lot I think, sometimes at the stupidest things maybe. Even if it seemed like everyone from the characters is on the same page when it comes to the sense of humor, but actually who cares, the pokes at each other are fun, the sudden turns are fun when it comes to Evie's point of attention.

The book has a tone of being ridiculous and two main characters fit that role, after all it's a comedy and they're a bit like two silly geese, unaware of each other. But they're not insufferable, trust me, I've read enough of those to say what is a dumb damsel and what is an FMC with issues and Evie Sage is just that, you catch that she's not simple from the get-go. The Villain fits the role of an unserious male protag from old fantasy comedies, maybe he's a handsome guy, but not without a fun edge.

/SPOILERS/

Evangeline Sage. Evie is a specific type of person. As I said she is pretty unafraid of things that happened to her, the initial chase with the Villain and her recruitment as his Assistant. It's not like she's devoid of fear, but she is not afraid when it comes to him and his deeds. Maybe it's something intuitive, who knows.

Evie is smitten with her boss, she can't help but notice his handsome face and figure, but eventually the Villain did the things that others didn't, something that other might find awful, but she was grateful for even.

To some there was a lot of it in the text, but honestly I saw nothing bad with thinking your target is handsome. I mean I think I was too influenced by reading too many Chinese novels, where so much of the text is simply describing how someone is handsome or beautiful, so I saw nothing bad that Evie eyed her boss. If it was a cinema language which had no context but simply showed an attractive man, I'm pretty sure many female viewers would just gasp at it, then how are you better than Evie then? I just see no logic. It's only that she is afraid of voicing her feelings, but actually her motivation is that the Villain acts sometimes that she can't interpret, as if his feelings are polar opposite.

She is not an empty head, she does not idolizes him, she pokes her fun from time to time, her way of thinking is actually quite normal, it's just she voices her thoughts outloud. From personal experience I know that even at the moment when you should be sad you might get some unwelcomed and seemingly untimely thoughts. But no one indicated they can't visit your head. Because the book is not serious, her fits are quite appropriate to me. I even find them funny.

She has her own past, the moment I saw her actions I did not think she's dense or dumb, I saw my fair share of low IQ characters to say that she is not. She might be a klutz like a good cliche (reminds me of Evelyn from The Mummy (1999)). For her this employment actually became the best thing, since she's not really on good terms with others due to her own story, which is as following:

This world has magic, it's not fully explained, but some people are consumed by it if they are not guided appropriately, Evie's mother got her magic when she gave birth to her third child, daughter Lyssa. But then things went wrong. The out of control magic killed her firstborn child, son Gideon. And then she is said to disappear. What I took from it in the text is that she was gone, but not dead (my predition came true). From that point her father who was a retired Valiant Guard of the king settled down with two daughters, but eventually he fell ill with the Mystic Illness that plagues the kingdom, it's something that has no cure. Evie took it upon herself to take care of this family. Since long she dropped out of school to take care of the youngest girl and then she worked, so the burden was on her shoulders. It was a bit devastating to see that her ideallistic image was not what it was in real life.

The Villain, or Trystan. The Villain is described very cooly, but it is more cartoonish way I think? He is dark and handsome, always wears black and sometimes says funny things with a serious face. 

Deeply inside he likes Evie a lot and is afraid of it, he is afraid of what it may do to him and to her. He is ready to find his end underground, so he doesn't want to drag her down with him too.

For him Evie became the light.

Although he has enough of those similar reactions to Evie, but they have their own explanation too. Maybe some will find that he expresses his inner love left and right too many times and will not like it. Again, I see no trouble with that. Maybe you will find some situations to be inappropriate who knows.

In general his fascination with Evie lies in his past we find in the very last part. Due to his family and his father beaing always away as a healer and his mother not being the most loving mom in the world, Trystan lacked love. When his father made attempt to get closer he was already quite old. Then he was taken to the King to serve and King made him feel like he mattered, what he lacked all these years was said to the then naive Trystan, before he was betrayed. Now he became what others thought of him - The Villain. In that regard he existed for ten years before he met Evie, unlike others she did not react with fear, more like excitement and interest. And she made him feel like he mattered again. This time for real.

They both had the same side where they felt unwanted, unloved and that they don't matter, this united them. And this is why she became so important in his heart.

The Plot. Mainly revolves around the mystery of who has betrayed the Villain and infiltrated the Mansion. Some may find that there is not enough fantasy elements or they expected more action or some funny situations. But to me there was enough of those. The magic and fantasy were not the central piece but had enough space, the same goes for funny situations. The book is very easy in this regard.

I'm leaving the main spoiler of 'who did it' out, to at least leave some mystery behind. It's actually a nice twist to me, it's not like it can be traced, but it's not completely unexpected. It's a great turn for our FMC to grow and change.

I was actually waiting for some unexpected certain wow effect and I got it.

/-/

First of all, my advice to anyone, go into the story not reading any reviews or even a summary, go blind and with floor expectation. The lower your settings are, the better you can analyze things happening without any of that 'Oh, I thought it will have this or that'.

I say this because I heard people say that they were expecting more of actions, though the book has it. Like they expect more of evilness, though again the book has it. 

Certain lack of depth? But it's an easy-going book in general. And we do explore more into character eventually. They are not the pair of "IT girl" and she is so special that everyone goes after her like a heartthrob, she has her specialness though, and the hunk, who is invincible and devastatingly cool at all times. I think they're quite the opposite.

The plot itself may lack some complexity, but again what do you expect from a humorous story..

This just says how much different the interpretation can be and if you see someone not speaking in favor of something or on the contrary telling you something is a good book, you should take it with a laddle of salt. Simply because a person on YT is still a person, just the same reader as yourself and the number of subscribers does not make anyone's point of view more valid.

This what happened with 'Assistant to the Villain', I honestly was intrigued by it the moment I saw it, the title sounded fun and the overall premise sounded fun. But I had to put it off again and again, to the point where a second book managed to come out and I couldn't make myself pick it up, just because I saw few people being more or less just unimpressed to say the least. I was pretty afraid to be disappointed. 

Now I know that I'm not disappointed :) I had my fun. At least with the first book :D

Evil never dies.

RATE: 3,5 /5.

[MOVIE] How the Grinch Stole Christmas (2000)

On the outskirts of Whoville lives a green, revenge-seeking Grinch who plans to ruin Christmas for all of the citizens of the town.

It's interesting that for the New Year time it's the best to watch the old comedies or watch some old Christmas movies (though should not be even the same thing with NY conceptually).

I'm not sure I ever watched "How the Grinch stole Christmas", but I won't stress on that. It's sill a delight. Such a simple story and how ironic that maybe only a little girl Cindy Lou understands what Christmas is all about.

Jim Carrey can not be anything but brilliant. He is never afraid of those elaborate costumes and not-so-good characters. Like who can replace him?

Ngl I was having a blast with how they created this absolutely non-existent town and still left it with cartoonish style that could have easily be a thing of those years (and probably no one will risk it today?). It's fun, it's colorful. I'm sure the costume designers were having so much fun.

And I had my fun too.

This should be included in the category of movies you should watch at least once during this time (or multiple times if it's one of your favorites).

[NOVEL] A Good Girl's Guide to Murder by Holly Jackson

Everyone in Little Kilton knows the story.

Pretty and popular high school senior Andie Bell was murdered by her boyfriend, Sal Singh, who then killed himself. It was all anyone could talk about. And five years later, Pip sees how the tragedy still haunts her town.

But she can't shake the feeling that there was more to what happened that day. She knew Sal when she was a child, and he was always so kind to her. How could he possibly have been a killer?

Now a senior herself, Pip decides to reexamine the closed case for her final project, at first just to cast doubt on the original investigation. But soon she discovers a trail of dark secrets that might actually prove Sal innocent . . . and the line between past and present begins to blur. Someone in Little Kilton doesn't want Pip digging around for answers, and now her own life might be in danger.

A Good Girl's Guide to Murder. Book 1

This was lovely. For a YA mystery book it was indeed quite lovely. I suppose I read the UK version? And also, I may be old for these book in age, but I never mind, sometimes reading about teens doing stuff is refreshing memories of how much of dumb shit can be dug from our own past. Just not as bad. in general I enjoyed the storyline, especially the pacing and the placement of all ups and downs so you're kept in that state of confusion (if you're not part of the brainy type).

Pip decided on her EPQ project theme to be the disappearance of the Andie Bell. With undeniable proof of Sal Singh's guilt that was found by the police the case was closed and the Singh family is now branded as a family of a murderer. But something always bothered Pip as a person who knew Sal personally, she just couldn't believe that such a kind young man was capable of doing what he's been charged with. Sal can't even defend himself because his body was found and he committed suicide out of guilt.

I'm not a person who likes to guess 'who did it'. If some ideas come into my head I may follow them, but otherwise I just like the feeling of a bit of a surprise coming. The only thing I thought about while reading - they couldn't be most obvious ones for sure (and I didn't guess exactly who, but certainly the category of not the obvious ones?). Holly Jackson managed to pace the book in such a way, so your conviction will constanty follow and change along with the main character. And because it's a YA, it may not be as dangerous as you think. Maybe a little bit.

This is how we follow Pippa on her journey to find out the truth. We see a lot of intricate relationships that keep getting interconnected and no one is as simple as they seem. Starting from Andie herself.

I saw comments that said stuff like - why people simply answered the girl's questions, but honestly why would they not? Sometimes strangers start to use you as a confession room and you surprised about this.. In many cases she reported who she was and what she's doing, but also I felt like there is a bit of disregard in people's attitude towards what Pippa did, "what can a young girl do?" that type of vibe. And another one is that how she was able to uncover what police was unable to... em, here I might argue. Real life is not a TV show with some genius detective that solves the crimes at count three, a lot of perpetrators are quite dumb when they commit something, so it's easy to investigate, but at other times police will follow the obvious path instead of theorizing. After all it's a missing person case, all evidence was against Sal Singh, what did they have to do? And yeah if they had some big head, which was the main character it might have been the case, but it's a YA mystery and our main girl is a teen "detective". Not comparing, but Nancy Drew somehow became the popular.. what was the word, sleuth? yeah, that's it.

Also what Pip asked and what she found are not grounbreaking things, it's just that there was no need to investigate further. While her agenda was different from everyone involved and for whom this case should better have stayed closed.

Not going to put any spoilers here, because books like these need their own reader to dig for the truth.

RATE: 4,75/5.

[Chinese BG novel] 弄蔷薇 by 芒厘 / Rose

Summary: Shu Qingwan and Rong Yin dated for years, but  she was always aware of the gap between them, even if she is now a successful person, but he is still her boss, their relationship is still very secret.

And then they heard the news that Tan Wei with whom Rong Yin had a prior relationship returned to China, there are also rumors that she is Rong Yin's White Moonlight. Rong Yin sneered but did not explain. Shortly after the two companies proposed cooperation between Rong and Tan families, but with it it feels that to solidify cooperation a marriage is inevitable.

Although Rong Yin asked Qingwan to wait for him, but she already settled in her own heart.

Now. I didn't finish it, but I wanted to rant.

First of all this novel has quite a pretentious style as I call it, because even if it included such tropey stuff like mixed babies in the plot, it tries to be more literary and beautified and also angsty. It is quite mulling and actually repeats same things over and over at times. Like I'm only at ch 17, instead I should say I'm already at ch 17 and I feel like we did not progress much at all.

The one who is beautified every few sentences is Shu Qingwan as a FMC.

My rant starts from here. First of all, if you're pretentious and want to sound more logical and real, then start switching on your brain.

In several years of their relationship both Rong Yin and Shu Qingwan lived in a close proximity, a man who has no activity that would remotely hint that he has someone else in his heart would have been picked up long time ago.

This is why I find stupid that when Qingwan heard the rumors, she did not analyze the behavior of her partner, but believed in rumors wholeheartedly, like wtf?

Secondly, I instantly didn't like that this novel has mixed babies scenarios.

Qingwan almost always broods on the fact that there is such a huge social gap between them, but instead of making it a true Cinderella story, with resilient FMC etc. we have a mixed babies scenario, that she's not some poor and unloved girl that comes from a patriarchial family, but actually her parents should be wealthy and if one day there will be a question about her, even the Rong family can't say a thing. I mean maybe a Cinderella story is a bit old, but why not make a strong female character? Everything I hear about Qingwan is her beauty and nothing more. She is such a flat character actually. This is such an irritating part of the novel world, like all about her is her beauty. What I also didn't like is that here I have no diea what she's doing, she never mentioned any aspirations, there is no backstory, but when they break up she suddenly digs out aspirations. Reminds me a lot of that novel with almost the same premise where the ML is the boss and FMC is subordinate, but then she decided to quit to continue her aspiration - singing. That was a wild jump for me tbh.

But back to the topic, Qingwan lived like that for 25 years and the parents are not rushing to recognize her. The situation of the Lin family (biological parents) is kinda... well how to explain it.

Mrs Lin once saw Qingwan by accident and she heard a comment that both look alike, inadvertantly she finds out that this young woman was born same day, same year and same place as her daughter. She already knows that her own daughter is not her biological child. They had investigated it, but she did not touch the report... like bravo, mom of the year. She cares for the daughter she raised, but couldn't help but approach Qingwan too.

Eventually Qingwan who heard the big secret about non-biological daughter, put two and two together and had her own guess, but no one said a word, tacitly not admitting to it, eventually she hinted not to approach her too.

At first Mrs Lin thought that if Qingwan lived well she will stop, after all all children are adults now and have their own life (it's her own logic), but Qingwan actually is not that happy go lucky.

It's glaringly obvious that if she's contacted by her family it is all about her younger brother, but they never cared if she has enough for rent, food etc. She lived by herself for so long. If it wasn't for Rong Yin maybe things would be different.

She met him early and eventually they developed a relationship. He sometimes says that "he grew her like a flower"... leaving me a bit speechless. He supported her in career and escorted her to success. There is no way there are no feelings. He is mature and a bit cold-looking. But men don't say much in general, giving simple instructions - wait for me. He actually meant it, but she made up her mind on that too.

For a reader of course he feels a bit like a scumbag, author did provide a bit of the hint to support the opposite, but will it stop Qingwan from leaving? Of course not. Like any chase to crematorium it will be definitely like that. We need to paint the man like that so the girl will be chased later. But actually Ring Yin did not give her the secure feeling she wanted. I mean, not all know how to do it. But with her family background and their relationship not going anywhere, of course she had a lot of ideas.

PS: What I dislike in these novels is the obvious blank space when it comes to business. because I hate when people can't even pretend to make up something, give a certain direction. They usually call it business. Believe me, it's ch 17 where I decided to write this rant and all I heard is that she's a project manager, they worked on a "project", she got it, now they released a "product" and it is so irritating, like what product? Cosmetics, perfume, jewellery? What do they do? Annoying.

I might continue reading if I won't dnf it.

Lately I've skipped several novels in similar fashion, before I re-read a novel to clean my palette, but now I'm thinking about switching to another book...

[AMBIENCE] by Lost Sounds