Jan 5, 2024
It had promise, starting off relatively well with what appears to be a strong female lead, Claudia, promising to use the knowledge she learned from her previous life to bring down her sister who wronged her. Except she doesn't.
The story follows the typical beats of the villainess genre, but one of the things that makes this story unique from the others is Claudia supposedly being a successful sex worker which she would use to her advantage. "Supposedly" being the key word, as the story tells you this rather than shows you how before she's brought back in time.
One would think there would be more opportunities
...
for Claudia to showcase her wits and use the knowledge she learned working at a brothel to manipulate others into how she wants them to act or otherwise control the situation in later chapters, but this almost never happens. There are a few instances in which it does, but those instances are far and few in between, and they hardly leave any actual impact in the scene itself that it comes across as lacking and underwhelming.
Claudia vowed to "become the ultimate villainess", but she takes no proper initiative, leaving the reader to wonder what Claudia's goal actually is. She only decides to respond and act after her sister tries to accuse her and besmirch her reputation/ character multiple times, and even then, Claudia only does the bare minimum in defending herself that keeps the reader frustrated and wondering just where that strong female lead from the first couple of chapters had gone.
The pacing is a mess, acting too fast at times in resolving certain conflicts but then acting too slow in dragging out unnecessary scenes.
Most characters are one-dimensional, lacking any sort of characterization asides from the role they're put into (the caring older brother, the loyal and indebted maid, etc). Claudia's characterization is also inconsistent, switching from "confident femme fatale" to "typical blushing shoujo protagonist" to best conveniently suit the scene rather than acting as different facets of her character.
Despite its faults, it isn't a particularly a bad story per se. If you've read other villainess stories, then it's more or less the same thing, so if you enjoy the genre, it's still worth checking out, especially for the nice art and appealing character designs. The only thing that this story had going for it that made it stand out from other villainess stories was Claudia's backstory as a successful sex worker, but this is hardly utilized that it just becomes any other standard villainess story out there.
Reviewer’s Rating: 5
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