The Emperor’s Lady-in-Waiting Is Wanted as a Bride
Volume 1
Ratings1
Average rating4
15
Volume 1
Ratings1
Average rating4
Qatora was once a valiant knight of the Razanate Empire who gave her life to protect a young imperial noble. The tragedy cast her into the primordial Light of Origin, which not only revealed to her a dangerous secret... but also reincarnated her! She now lives as Lyse Winslette, the humble daughter of a poor baron in a neighboring country, who is doing everything in her power to keep her distance from the empire because of the forbidden knowledge she possesses. Lyse thus works her days away at the royal palace of Olwen as a lady-in-waiting. And sheâs rightfully mortified when sheâs chosen to attend the visiting Razanate emperor. Little does she know that sheâs about to learn another state secret thatâs going to land her... an engagement to an imperial knight?! Sheâll have to use all her skillsâfrom this life and her lastâto get out of this mess. Yet what is this strange feeling when she touches her fiancéâs hand? Just who is Sidis, and what secrets is HE keeping?
Featured Series
1 primary bookThe Emperor's Lady-in-Waiting Is Wanted as a Bride (Light Novel) is a 1-book series first released in 2021 with contributions by Kanata Satsuki and Emily Hemphill.
Reviews with the most likes.
Actual rating: 3.5★
Rounded up because it has the potential to be really good, and because I've been a fan of Ichige Yoru's art for almost a decade now.
This is a pretty standard reincarnation story. The main character, Lyse, remembers her past life as a knight of the Razanate Empire. She misses the empire greatly now that she's living in a vassal state, but decides that she cannot go back because she's learned the Light of Origin's secret when she died. She's now working at the palace, surrounded by people who are constantly side-eyeing her for being unladylike, until she meets Sidis and gets chosen as the emperor's lady-in-waiting. From there, she somehow gets roped into a temporary engagement with Sidis.
But of course we all know it won't stay temporary forever. Not with Sidis being super affectionate and protective of Lyse, despite her attempts to convince herself that there's nothing going on between them.
Aside from introducing us to the characters, the first volume also deals with the emperor's visit to the Kingdom of Olwen, where Lyse lives. The emperor has been slowly transforming into a dog since the moment he stepped into the kingdom, and the majority of the book is spent dealing with that issue while also linking it to another problem that might lead to something bigger: the Donan cult. The main reason why I can't rate this higher is because it has the potential to be really good, but it never quite reached that point. The writing feels rather flat for the most part, and even the Light of Origin's secret revelation feels so... bland. There's also a pretty bad case of telling instead of showing during the book's climax, and it's really unfortunate because it could've been done so much better.
Still, the characters are lovable and the romance is cute. In a true shoujo fashion, it has a frustrating moment caused by a misunderstanding, but it gets solved nicely in the end. To put it nicely, this is a classic shoujo fantasy story with all the familiar tropes. To put it not so nicely, it's nothing new and rather predictable. That being said, I like it enough to want to read all four volumes of this, so I hope the next books will be better and more engaging.
