not really going into much spoiler details but..

Ugh! I knew I'd end up loving him from the moment he desperately chaaaased Rhia to the shore, with Rhia on board to Crichton.

Rhia WAS EVERYTHING TO HIM even in the first life ?? And we won't really know that unless we see the whole story from both POVs, right??

The FL believes that the ML always despised her, that he cheated on her with her half-sister both before and during her pregnancy, that he framed her for treason shortly after her miscarriage and ordered her death because she no longer had any utility as someone who could bear him an heir. All of these beliefs turn out to be false.

Here's what's true. The ML purposefully treats the FL as if he loathes her because he sees her as a pawn of his mother, whose control he seeks to escape, while secretly falling in love with her. He's angry at the FL for seemingly choosing his mother over him, so he:

refuses her overtures for communication

publicly humiliates and undermines her as Queen (in part by pretending to have an open affair with her half-sister)

has violent, painful s*x with her to punish her for not liking him (and at one point, for being too happy to see her cousin)

insults, castigates, and explicitly refuses to believe her

At the end of the day, the ML verbally, physically, and sexually ab*sed the FL to a pretty extreme degree in their first life. Completing the novel won't change these facts and readers are well within their rights to drop the novel, hate the ML, and hate the author for giving him a HE. Please do not force yourself to read this novel because reviewers are promising that it's all a misunderstanding and the ML had good reasons to do everything he did. It's not and he didn't. Go read "Don't Pick Up Boyfriends From The tr*sh Bin" instead, it's a BL but it does a great job of criticizing wife crematorium tropes & it's just better written in general.

"The FL is an unreliable narrator." This is just not true. An unreliable narrator is a main character that lies to the audience, and it's a fictional device that I really enjoy so I was looking forward to seeing that, but alas. The FL has genuine misunderstandings about the ML and we follow her perspective. That's it. She does not lie. (As a side note, calling a character "an unreliable narrator" is not a valid criticism any more than calling a novel "a mystery" is a criticism.)

"The FL is brainless." Yes, she is very s*upid. The ML is similarly extremely s*upid. To be blunt, the author isn't clever enough to sustain forced melodrama for >200 chapters without having the main characters become idiots for the convenience of the plot. For example, the ML makes an ambiguous statement to the FL about making a choice prior to their marriage. The FL thinks he's telling her he'll never love her if she becomes Queen. The ML thinks he's told her to choose between him and his Queen mother. Neither of them ever clarifies or revisits this topic over the YEARS of their marriage. Ughh

"The FL doesn't side with the ML over his mother." So, the FL never really understands the ML's "us vs them" attitude because he never bothers to make his position clear to her. When she tries to communicate, she is rebuffed. Her only understanding of the ML's relationship with his mother comes from his mother, who is in a position of absolute trust. Conversely, the ML is constantly mistreating her. The ambiguous attitude she takes is already extremely forgiving toward the ML. She has no reason to support him seeking power, nor does he ever try to win her over. She is remarkably kind to him considering his attitude.

"The FL whines about having a child, what else did she expect when she became Queen?" There's a crucial scene where the FL and ML consummate their first marriage. The FL decides she would rather not be trapped in a loveless marriage and tries to push the ML away, since pre-consummation is her last chance to call it off. She tries to push the ML off... and he brutally r*pes her. As in, BRUTALLY r*pes her. The FL was already being corralled into this marriage by the ML's mother and now she's been physically forced. In what way can you claim that she consented to be Queen? Where did she consent to s*x and procreation? She rejected him and he forced her. She has every right to complain about the s*xual ab*se the ML subjected her to in the name of procreation, as well as the awful medicines the ML's mother force-fed her, as well as the constant criticisms she got for being unable to get pregnant. (To be fair to the ML, he didn't really understand her rejection - he thought she was rejecting him, not the marriage itself, but the fact that he viciously r*ped her then and throughout their first marriage is something that he himself admits to.)

"The FL doesn't change the future." This isn't really a criticism of the FL so much as of the author's choices. The ML does quite a bit of changing the future but these changes are only ever alluded to, never shown. To wit, the author isn't interested in telling a rebirth story like "Rebirth of the Malicious Empress of Military Lineage", where the FL actively uses her knowledge of the future to protect herself and her loved ones. If you want to read a story like that, go read that series. This novel's FL is only given two opportunities to change the future: (1) kicking out her half-sister and father, which ends up having little effect because her half-sister returns as a main antagonist anyway; (2) the poisoning of the Chrichton nobles, which she debates back and forth before eventually deciding to prevent it... only to be told by the ML that his off-screen actions have already prevented that event. I mean, come on lmao. The FL just isn't given opportunities to change the future. This is the author's choice.

"The FL pities herself, cries too much, is unproductive, doesn't change, etc." Stories about recovery from trauma always get mixed results - some people will feel the main character recovers too easily, too slowly, etc. What we're told about the FL is that her mother died young, she was subsequently severely ab*sed by her father and half-sister, then even more severely ab*sed by her husband and mother-in-law, fainted from stress on a staircase and suffered a miscarriage, was wrongfully imprisoned, and chose to end her life. Afterward, she suffers from chronic insomnia, suicidal ideation, and clinical depression for 6 years. At this point, she's coerced into marrying the same husband and dragged back to the castle that's guaranteed to trigger her PTSD 24/7, undergoes several life-threatening events, and learns that the only person she ever believed cared about her - the ML's Queen mother - framed and tried to kill her, at which point she has a mental breakdown and continuous night terrors for over a week. I can't emphasize this enough. The FL, of all people, has full rights to feel sorry for herself lmfaooooooooo. If you don't like it, that's fair. I don't like how needlessly angsty this novel is. But it's not a character flaw of the FL.

"The ML tries, but the FL doesn't." The ML coerces the FL into a marriage in their second life while hiding the fact that he is reborn because he is fully aware if the FL knew he was the same person from their first life, she would run away at any cost or even kill herself to escape him. He has no illusions that she wants to be with him. The FL does not deserve to be criticized for not trying to rebuild her relationship with the ML when she does not want to be in a relationship with him at all. The onus is 100% on the ML to make amends.

"The FL is selfish". This is fair. The main critique revolves around her initial decision to let the Chrichton nobles die. She ultimately changes her mind so this critique doesn't hold much water, then it's revealed her decision doesn't matter so it holds even less water, but it is true that she prioritizes herself over others. For people used to FLs who self-sacrifice at the drop of a hat, this can be a difficult pill to swallow. That said, I don't get why the FL should be singled out for this when the ML r*pes, mu*ders, and even wages war at his leisure.

"The FL plays the blame game." This is the silliest complaint. The FL lays out accusations against the ML that she whole-heartedly believes to be true. Some are true and some aren't, but the ML chooses not to clarify anything. What is the FL even supposed to do here? If she says nothing, then she's not trying hard enough to communicate, but if she says anything, then she's playing the blame game and pitying herself. This is next level victim blaming.

The FL's half-sister is arrested, but is kidnapped from her carriage with its small contingent of guards. She then tries to infiltrate the Queen's Palace to kill the FL and is caught by staff. The staff also finds explosives near the Queen's Palace. As a result, the ML decides to send the FL out... in a carriage with a small contingent of guards... to the villa where his mother lives.

Ahahahahaha.

I didn't have to read the rest to know she gets kidnapped. Even more ridiculously, her kidnapper only wants to kill her, but instead of just slitting her throat on the spot he takes her to a distant cabin, waits for her to wake up, advises her to drink poison, and then sets the cabin on fire. Obviously the ML catches up during all this tomfoolery. Just hilariously bad writing.

The FL asks him to dance with her half-sister according to a pre-established tradition, and he just assumes the FL wants him to get the half-sister pregnant.

He interprets her pushing him away during consummation as her telling him she is politically aligned with his mother.

He sees the FL weakly conceding to his mother after his mother very blatantly pressures and bullies her into agreeing, and surmises that the two of them plotted against him behind his back, and also his wife doesn't respect him at all.

I think the ML missed his calling in writing novels. So many rich stories from so little information!

- he had the problems with his mothers, it's not her fault

- he r*ped her multiple times.

- he cheated on her with her half sister what has already taken away anything she had

- he was the cause of the miscarriage

- he killed her, not directly but it was his fault. If you play with fire you get burned little boy.

- he learned about her past after she took her own life

After the very first day of the "redo", the little dolt should have understood that BOTH lives have changed. Nope it took him till chap. 61 to even acknowledge that she changed. (that's some heavy plot armor (or rather plot s*upidity right there). You can not blame her for not understanding that he's been reborn, she removed herself from the country, so to her the changes of him where only natural BUT he was still the same person what did all what I listed above. Her father showed her the first day that his the same s*umbag as in her last life. So its natural for her to think everything will lead to doom for her if he gets her in his grasp again.

Lets not talk about the little Kings "Regret". To late little boy, you screwed up the first time, you truly should burn in hell for all eternity. The pure s*upidity (or plot armor whatever you wanna call it) of assaulting her on the ship because he was worried she kills herself, I'm sure it reminded her of r*pe rather than the concert he had, at the end to herself she was nothing more than a hostage or a stand in for the real princess and after the s*upid use of her name once she tells him the meaning of it.

Lets not forget about the Bullsh*t we wont keep secrets, a few chaps after he keeps and MAKES new secrets, so much for letting her put her trust in him, once a little dolt always one, the problem now was just that it was a dolt with power.

Now the love scene... ugh. if the author doesn't knows how to write a good one, its better to just skip and make it happen of screen. but yeah sure to stroke ones own ego it must be BIG lol. My god so cringe.

On to some more Chap... and there is where he thinks she might have her memories of her old life. That's just great, now we know for sure that his a stalker. He wants her, he doesn't give a sh*t if she scared of him, he wants her to fall in love with her killer AND wants the child again. Oh bloody hell. There is ONE, just ONE thing every dolt (author) should remember, if you love something from the deepest part of your heart, you have to let it free.

And he nearly r*pes her again... like I said he should burn in hell.

The worst part of it all is that he doesn't have a blank state when she is reborn, HE has the memory's of the past too, so in the end he IS the same person what hurt her the most.

It was his narcissistic wish that she had to relive her life, just so that HE could get her. Even after she left he could not let go of her, yeah if that's not twisted love. Did she loved him? Hell no. But I'm the King i'll make her fall in love (bend her to my will, that's more like it)

His reflections and jealousy about Dimitri show up so well in that one phrase "Who knows what that man would do with Rihannan. " He would make her happy without the bloody crap you putting her thru ya dolt.