Scary competent king of a country: check
Lowly commoner girl that's hardworking and tries her best: check
Faking lovers, which has to be kept secret: check
Royal romance that isn't supposed to work out: check
Guy coming to the girl's rescue all the time: check
All these sound familiar, don't they? Even so, I find it comes together in a fun way in this manga, making it very enjoyable for me.
First, the forced fake bride thing. A common trope. But this does proceed in a way slightly different from expected. What usually comes to mind is
(1) a possessive king that falls in love with his bride and forces her to be his (fake) bride for whatever reason, and of course somehow the girl has to agree and she slowly falls in love with the overbearing king...
(2) a cold uncaring/evil king that doesn't care for his bride at all, but slowly falls in love with her due to her bright personality breaking down the walls surrounding his heart yadayada
Well. It's not really too different, but the king isn't fully either of these things. In the firs place, his personality has a different side to it, which is what made me interested in the first place. I hope this isn't a spoiler, since you get this info about 10+ pages in anyway. The presence of his puppy king personality allows him to move away from being just a scary king. It also allows him to expression affection in different ways.
Often there's a (probably tsundere or cold) king who eventually reveals his out of character/new soft side after spending time with the girl. In this case it might be kind of the opposite, since his soft side is out in the open from the start. It is therefore kind of refreshing, since the characters are on good terms from the start. Anyway, because of his personality, the king manages to show his affections through both his wolf and puppy sides, without being out of character at all. Seeing the female lead react to the different sides of him is also fun to watch, so it made things pretty enjoyable for me. Other than that, he's still a perfect king character that goes off to save his damsel in distress all the time, so if you like those, good for you.
The main female lead is pretty normal, as one would expect a female lead to be. Even so, she's not annoying, and I enjoy watching her going about with her palace life. She's a commoner who thinks hard about doing her job well, which makes it interesting as we watch her try to fit in with her environment. The setting of this story and her role in it allows her personality and actions to be pretty likable.
Next, about the fake royal romance. Usually, stories with fake relationships somehow manage to work out once the two realize and confess their feelings for each other. It simply goes from fake to real without too much hassle. In this case it's a little complicated.
There's the whole employee-employer thing, and the king-commoner thing. Rather than people around who disapprove of the relationship, it's probably the concerned parties themselves who understand the most that the relationship is not meant to be.
So much of the manga is watching these characters act according to these roles they are given, "fake consort" and"king", as they try to support one another in their own ways. Staying within the limits of their role while trying their best and caring for the other person - it's quite interesting to watch. How much can these limits be pushed before it goes beyond that of a employer-employee relationship? And what happens then? I'd really like to watch it play out.
The art is pretty pleasant as well, and I really love the different hairstyles. Yuurin looks good no matter what hairstyle she uses, and it's starting to be something I look forward to.
Overall, it's a manga that doesn't particularly stray too far from common trope-y stuff. But the elements do come together to make an interesting story. The story is also pretty light and easy to read. Romance doesn't progress that quickly, but I think that's the point of it, to be able to see the characters slowly move forward and pushing the boundaries of their relationship. Above all, I find the characters enjoyable, and I like seeing them interact, so I rate this pretty decently for it's enjoyment value despite there being a number of predictable elements. Predictable =/= bad all the time, after all.
Don't expect too much drama, or proper romantic progress. But due to the nature of the story, do expect some cute things and random romantic actions (which sadly, stop short of anything happening, as expected). Go in without expecting too much, and just enjoy the ride.
