10/5 #favourite #court politics #royalty #shameless smart mc (4 Jan 2021) ... more>>

This was honestly my favourite novel. How I wish I could go back in time and reread it again. Overall, this was a mix of court politics (written slightly mystery-novel style), fluff, angst and slow burn. What I liked about it was that the court politics were not over-dramatic "dogblood drama", but rather pretty well-planned schemes. Written in a mystery style, hints were slowly given to you bit by bit. 

Romance wise, it was fluffy, humourous, and angsty. I loved how MC was top-level shameless but does it with a sense of purpose (be it for survival, to get someone to do something, or to seduce ML). He's smart, and together with ML, their scheming brought about many misunderstandings between each other and later, the downfall of their "enemies". As the story unfolds, you got to understand the complexity of both characters, which were really well developed, and you really //feel// for them. It was pretty heart wrenching, and I cried. Later, they also made me laugh and giggle from all the s*upid and shameless antics, so it balances out. 

Gotta admit though, trigger warning that ML was suicidal. He's pretty deranged, but for valid reasons which were revealed later, and he also got better bit by bit. I was slightly uncomfortable with how crazy he was at first, but I grew to appreciate the complexity of his character after learning about his background. 

Honestly, the best part of the novel was the balance between the fluff, humour and angsty slow burn. The plot was interesting although not wholly unique, but the characters keep you on your toes in anticipation of what smart/dumb/shameless/cute things they might do next. Please do give this a try!!! 

(Translation was AMAZING, explains all the meaning of the Chinese phrases and contextual knowledge that you would otherwise miss without proper T/N. Kudos to them) <<less

5/5 #catfishing... more>>

MC pretends to be a female player to take revenge for his sister on a guy in-game (unbeknown to him, that guy wasn't the one playing at that time). Very funny and sweet, with just a smitch of well written angst  <<less

5/5 #school #fluff #mild-angst #cried Cute #fluff ... more>>

Two top students falling in love through a misunderstanding. One established gay who thought he had a crush on another guy but ended up falling in love with #1 student. (Meanwhile, he's the eternal #2 lmao). Very cute, a little angst, and a side of coming out to the family, and uni god praying shenanigans.  <<less

5/5 #Funny #comedy #shameless MC #shameless bottom #Favourite (6 Nov 2020) ... more>>

An absolutely hilarious light-hearted romance. Really funny how the MC is so shamelessly bottom and mildly tsundere. Every time he gets put into an awkward situation, he just does something very funny or s*upid that makes me laugh when I read it! This story may be a little lame for those that cannot appreciate this kind of humour though but I really love it. ML started to like him halfway through the story too and was quite sweet about it too. The fans of ML was also quite respectful in a funny way which was not overly unrealistic but still quite funny. I really like how foolish the MC is in striving in his goal to 1. live like the rich man (daddy) that he is and 2. get his boy! The extras were really interesting and funny too, and I totally ship the side characters!! This novel is very worth re-reading :)  <<less

5/5 #fluff #royalty #reincarnation #transmigration #Favourites (19 Nov 2020) Fluffy and cute couple, with a protective gong. Really love how MC ("Empress" Song Xiao) is independent and capable in his own right but still defers to ML not because he has to but because he wants to. I don't agree with other reviews that he just blindly follows ML because he still makes his own decisions throughout the novel and also supports ML. ... more>>

However, from the start, they already love each other (since this is a reincarnation story after all) so the main development in this story is more on building their understanding of each other. I love that, but if you're looking for ML pursuing MC then that doesn't happen much here. (ML tries, but well...MC already loves him). A really warm and funny story that's not overly dramatic, not very angsty but made me cry from how touching it is. Vaguely related to "I Have Amnesia, Don’t Be Noisy!" but IMO, this is much better. 

Side characters are interesting too although not as important. End-of-chapter shorts "theatre" is also very funny. <<less

5/5 #magic #student-teacher #favourites (22 Dec 2020) A story about a magic school that teaches about elements, a royalty-magic MC student and a (slightly eccentric) teacher... more>> ML. This story was very well written in terms of character development and world-building was pretty complete imo. Any more details and it might have gotten boring, so this was just right. The characters were slowly introduced and their characteristics were shown rather than told, which I liked. Fair warning though, the relationship wasn't the main focus in this story, although situations were definitely building towards it. So if you're here looking for some sweet fluff or "dog food" then you'll probably be disappointed. Personally, I won't say this is the BEST novel, but it's definitely one of my favourites because it's well planned and the magic school/element was interesting. The characters did not suddenly become OOC (out-of-character) after they got together as well. Personally, I felt that ML's reaction to the relationship was pretty in-line with his previously-established character/attitude, although I can understand the disappointment from the other readers (reviewers) about it. My only qualms about it would be that this novel is part of a SERIES (of 5 books, if I'm not wrong), so although the main story of //this couple// should be complete, it did end in a sort of cliff-hanger that links to the next book, so there's that. Otherwise, love this novel, those who are into plots and development without too much details can definitely give this a try.  <<less

5/5 #going back in time #established r/s #funny #Favourites (21 Nov 2020)... more>>

An absolutely hilarious novel where MC and ML went back in time when they were enemies, and save some of their friends and family (who had previously been affected by their fighting) along the way. At first, they keep getting into ridiculous situations where their friends (who used to be enemies together with them) were really confused about why they suddenly got along and hence had really s*upid and funny misunderstandings. Later, it was how MC and ML helped various people that were implicated by them in their past lives to live a better life this time. 

Since MC and ML were already in an established relationship before they were reborn, this story is more about how they made amends to their past mistakes while being a tooth-rotting sweet couple. The way MC and ML use their "innocent" act to sabotage people who did them wrong was also amusing. 

Overall, a really sweet, fluffy and funny novel.  <<less

5/5 #mild-angst #fluff #sudden angst #cried #rec #Favourites (3 Nov 2020)... more>>

A realistic mature romance. Started off a little bitter-sweet bcoz they were divorced, but later it was just a sweet story of pursuing the one you love. Beware of the sudden A N G S T ™ near the end but don't worry it's resolved. Really love this mature adult type of stories, really refreshing after constantly reading cute school-life stories. It dived a little into adult type of problems in love that we don't usually consider in a typical romance story. Definitely worth the read!  <<less

5/5 #historical #mature #war #politics #royalty-politics #favourite (9 Dec 2020) I really love how much the MC and ML respect each other. Even when they were... more>> still enemies (of sorts) and really seem to like each other, they still respected each other's work. There's some degree of mystery in the midst of the political warfare and I really liked how they hinted many of the things to come beforehand, which just shows that the story was well planned. The progression of the story was at a good pace, and author was smart to skip through any potential unnecessary (actual) warfare and only write the parts that are important to the story, preventing it from being too draggy. The relationship was cute too, especially in the later part when more was revealed and things happened. (Saw a review about how the "characterization of the MC and ML seem to break after they got together" midway. Just like to tell everyone else to push through it! Personally, I don't think that's the case. It's more like when they're temporarily in a honeymoon phase and everything was just sweet and cute. Later, you can still see that they did not lose any of their strong characteristics as a general/envoy etc)(Also, just like to mention that the translation here is done really really well. Historical novels in general are really hard to translate so kudos!!)  <<less

5/5 #working #adults #fresh-grad #cried #Favourites ... more>>

(the black belly tag is mostly a lie, it's pretty much just teasing and some pigtail-pulling, imo it wasn't that bad) 

One of the most refreshing stories I've read thusfar. The author managed to depict a realistic view of a fresh grad entering the harsh working world. What I really loved about this story was the character development of the MC where his determination to learn more and grow as a person started to arise amidst difficult times. While the ML was supportive, I really liked how the MC's growth wasn't purely reliant on him. ML guided him, but did not hand-hold him all the way, and that was something I really appreciated and did not expect from this novel due to the 'black belly' tag. Don't get me wrong, the teasing and 'bullying' element was still present, but instead of being the main feature of their relationship dynamic, it was just a cute aspect of how they interacted. In actuality, they both held respect for each other's work.

Author also delved into the difficulties of coming out as gay to their parents, and touched on the fears of being gay in a slightly more homophobic environment (especially in regards to the asian older generation). It was a light-hearted presentation of a very realistic issue.

Although the MC and ML's fights can sometimes seem quite childish as it was often due to misunderstandings, I personally felt that it was quite realistic because many fights tend to be due to misunderstanding of other's intentions. In the later part of the novel, you could tell that the small bouts of jealousy was just a natural human reaction and not due to the lack of trust with each other. Honestly, I just really loved the character and relationship development in this story, and I particularly cried when MC met his first real setback that was a big building block to his character development. 

This review was a mess, but tldr, it was unexpected but I love this story and would definitely recommend (and reread it) ! (ﾉ´ヮ´) ﾉ 

(Side note: author adds quite a lot of kaomojis during the non-serious conversation parts of the story, which can be off-putting for those not used to it I guess, but personally I found it quite fitting for the characters) 

Translation has quite some mistakes especially when the names of characters were mixed up but it was mostly still quite readable other than that. (eg. sometimes Gu Yu was talking to Gu Yu when he was most likely talking to Gu Yao lol)  <<less