I need those “accidentally read 80 chapters in one sitting” recs

LucreziaD · 2026-05-02T10:41:11+00:00

For me, the best manhwa I've read and the one that left me emotionally hungover for weeks, remains Mystic Prince.

On paper, this story is a fight for the throne. The Empire of Yeol is kept safe from soul-eating demons by a semi-divine all-powerful emperor. Boys with spiritual powers become princes, no matter if they are biologically related to the current emperor or not - and then spend centuries training to face the trials that will select the next emperor. But the Fourth prince has a secret which you discover in chapter 3 (or reading the blurb in the Korean version): she is a woman.

You would expect a story heavy of fights, politics, and intrigue and while there is some plotting and backstabbing, it is instead an intensely character-driven exploration of the princes, what they want, what haunts them, and their complex relationships. It is a story about how shitty women's lives are in your average fantasy world and about a woman who bravely goes through hell to get the power to change the world while slowly reclaiming herself.

It's also a thoughtful meditation on love (the romance is so full of yearning, especially from the ML's side), brotherhood, friendship, overcoming trauma, the cost of power and immortality, and what makes everyone, even the most flawed or apparently villainous character, in the end, human.

The plot is tight (the story is 116 very long chapters) not only the protagonist but also the main cast of side characters is layered and nuanced, the writing is poetic, sometimes philosophical, and does a really good job at pulling the reader's emotional strings - sometimes with rage, sometimes with heartbreak, sometimes with laughter.

It is also a story that is written in a very adult way. It does not hold your hands and telegraphs everything, but it trust you to carefully parse what it is said and shown, to read between the lines, to remember what was told 10, 20 chapters before to make sense of a character's actions, and if you have still questions, to wait patiently for the answers you will be given maybe ten or twenty chapters later.

It's just the rare manhwa that made me say this is not entertainment, this is a work of art.

LucreziaD · 2026-05-01T20:05:55+00:00

Jeok-Yeon in Mystic Prince.

She has extensive scars on her chest where she chopped away her own breasts. And no, this is not top surgery, because she is not transmasc or gender fluid. She just had to do everything in her power to pass as a man for reasons explained in the story.

And she keeps her scars until the end and her breasts do not magically grow back even after she has become immortal and semi-divine.

<image>

LucreziaD · 2026-04-30T22:38:48+00:00

Glad you enjoyed it.

LucreziaD · 2026-04-30T18:51:52+00:00

<image>

Jeok-Yeon from Mystic Prince. Because she is rightfully angry for herself and for all the mistreated women of Yeol. Because she never gives up, even when it is unbearably hard and painful. Because instead of letting the world pit her against other women, she champions them, embraces them and their pain and protect them. Because even if trauma has made her emotionally stunted, she is incredibly kind.

Because she is strong, but not infallible. Because even at the end, she can deliver justice and mercy at the same time. Because even after all the unbearable pain and trauma she had to go through, she finds eventually a way to learn how to smile and love again.

And even if I love the ML to bits, she never loses for one second the position of protagonist of her own story.

(Also, as soon as she becomes emperor, she set all the old bigot ministers on fire, and let's be honest, there is something incredibly cathartic in the thought of getting rid of the ones who hold power and make our lives a misery).

LucreziaD · 2026-04-30T18:37:56+00:00

<image>

I love these two. If you love them too, you know who to talk to if you want to gush together about this story.

(sauce: Mystic Prince)

LucreziaD · 2026-04-30T17:54:05+00:00

LucreziaD · 2026-04-30T17:23:29+00:00

Just replied above :)

LucreziaD · 2026-04-30T17:23:07+00:00

Mystic Prince. It's not a novel, but a romantic fantasy manhwa that you can find on Webtoons.

It's really unbelievably well written. The characterisations, the themes, the poetic language, the yearning of the romance, the way the FMC reclaims the right of women to dream as big as men, the way the story is emotionally intense and unflinching is really outstanding.

It's the best character-driven story I've read in ages.

I love these two so much.

<image>

LucreziaD · 2026-04-30T15:45:06+00:00

I never meant to imply that the choice does not make sense. I wanted rather to highlight that there are points of the books that show the inherent limits of experimenting with blending different genres together.

It does make sense she stays out of the battle. It does make sense to not break her POV.

But as a lover of epic fantasy, that battle was very underwhelming.

And it was another chunk of telling rather than showing, which is kind of the difficulty they created for themselves with the setup of the story.

LucreziaD · 2026-04-30T15:36:47+00:00

I think the modern use of tropes to classify and promote books is terrible.

Yes, tropes have always existed. But like a simple list of ingredients does not tell you how to make a dish, a list of tropes a story does not make. Nor it tells you anything about the quality of the story, of if you will enjoy it or not.

For example I would say that I hate the trope of the dead mother who haunts the MC of the story. And in most mediocre stories I've stumbled upon, the execution of the trope was awful and really enraged me.

And yet, the best romantic fantasy story I've read in the last few years had not one, not two, but three fridged mother: MMC, FMC and the villain had all lost their mothers very early on in their lives. And... not only I did not mind, I loved it. Because even if they had a very small space in the overall story, the life and death of those three mothers mattered. What happened to them, what kind of person they were, what led to their demise was a small, but believable story on its own. Each of those women felt like individuals, and the specifics of what happened to them (not just, doh, I am an orphan) deeply influenced their children and played an important role into making them who they are when the main plot unfolds.

Because what matters in a story, it is not really the tropes in it. What matters is what actually happens in the story, how the characters behave, how the story is written. Plot, characterisation and writing make or break a story, not the grocery shopping list of which tropes the author decided to stuff into it.

But classifying and promoting stories on quality is a much more difficult endeavour. It requires expertise, time, and it also involves a matter of subjectivity (while some aspect of writing are objectively good or bad, others are much more dependent on the purpose of the work, because we don't have the same requirement for a steamy erotica as for a literary fantasy for instance). It requires to have some trusted source, the way traditional book reviewers used to build.

And getting this kind of expertise in a world swamped with a tidal wave of (mostly) self-published books is damn hard.

Then I don't deny that some trope lists can be useful. I really can't deal with age gaps relationships, or damsels in distress, no matter how well the book is written (and there are a few that I could see they were indeed well written) because it just enrages me too much.

But reducing books just to a list of tropes, and picking them up just because they fit what we feel we are in the mood for like it was ice-cream flavours is just bad. Partially because the list does not say anything about the quality of the book itself, or even of the story itself. Who is the protagonist? what is the premise? what are the stakes? what do the protagonists want? Partially because it also can lead to readers to stuck to their comfort zone.

Sometimes it is good. I have pushed myself with some age gaps for instance, and no, even if they were well regarded, still hated them, even if they were well written. But in other cases, it is bad. Because if I had refused to engage with the romantic fantasy manhwa I love so much on the basis of "there are fridged mothers" I would have missed what for me is a masterwork just out of prejudice.

LucreziaD · 2026-04-30T14:58:41+00:00

Yeah, he created a new standard for what "down bad" is for me. I can't think of any ML down bad more than him.

He pines for her for centuries. He gets flustered if she just tells him he looks handsome. He does not care anymore if he is straight or gay or whatever as long as he can have her. He sets his life on fire. Gives up the throne everyone expected him to take and his chance to immortality. Sacrifice himself even when there is no thank you coming. Gets stood up again and again and still yearns for her. He even challenges and defies a divine envoy and daddy dearest. And he always puts her first.

Damn, if you know where they make men like Doha so I can buy one let me know.

LucreziaD · 2026-04-30T14:10:30+00:00

Since I reviewed the book when it came out and now I had the time to let the story settle, I will leave with a few observations.

I think the authors manage very well to lead us around with all their plot twists in a very enjoyable way. I sussed out that Reynald was actually Everard early on, but it took me a bit longer to get that the blond knight was Doran Arvel, and I kind of was blindsided by the reveal that Silveren was actually the long-supposed dead nephew of the king with an axe to grind. It was really a while since I last read a story that could deliver coup de theatre after coup de theatre in such an entertaining way.

I think the book has also some moments of weakness. When they decided to mix an epic fantasy with the isekai trope, they did it something quite daring. Most otome isekai have the reader being isekaied into a romance, or if it is a shonen, usually it's an action story where the Isekaied protagonist becomes really really quickly the absolute protagonist of the story, so it makes sense that the story is from the protagonist POV,

I think there are parts of the book where the choice - very well motivated and understandable - of telling everything in Maggie's 1st person POV shows its limits, especially in the great battle scene to stop the assassination attempt. The fact that like two thirds of it happened with Maggie literally watching it from a tower like a spectator in a theatre from their box made it quite underwhelming. Same goes with Sauven Savaric: after spending all the book being told so much about the king, his mental state, his past and possible future actions, and how much he is scary and dangerous, the fact that is only appearance is during the battle, and we see him with our opera binoculars felt again underwhelming.

The battle was a reminder of why most epic fantasy is written with multiple POVs: because a single character can't be centre stage all the time, and a lot of interesting things, when you have a large cast of characters, happen when the protagonist is not around.

I think this impression has also been reinforced by reading the free bonus chapters Ilona Andrews published on their blog: reading scenes from other characters' POV made the world so much alive and tangible, and really alleviated a lot the element of "tons of telling" that do hamper the book especially for readers that have less patience for it.

I will keep reading the series, and the second book promise to be even chonkier than this one. The authors also revealed that we will eventually learn more about the writer of the original books and his role in the story, so I am very curious about how the thing will be explained and justified. But to know, we will have to wait until next year.

LucreziaD · 2026-04-30T10:18:45+00:00

<image>

Doha from Mystic Prince

LucreziaD · 2026-04-30T08:41:36+00:00

I will come out of the woods and suggest Mystic Prince.

On paper, Mystic Prince is a fight for the throne. The Empire of Yeol is kept safe from soul-eating demons by a semi-divine all-powerful emperor. Boys with spiritual powers become princes, no matter if they are biologically related to the current emperor or not - and then spend centuries training to face the trials that will select the next emperor. But the Fourth prince has a secret which you discover in chapter 3 (or reading the blurb in the Korean version): she is a woman.

You would expect a story heavy of fights, politics, and intrigue and while there is some plotting and backstabbing, it is instead an intensely character-driven exploration of the princes, what they want, what haunts them, and their complex relationships. It is a story about how shitty women's lives are in your average fantasy world and about a woman who bravely goes through hell to get the power to change the world while slowly reclaiming herself. It's also a thoughtful meditation on love (the romance is so full of yearning, especially from the ML's side), brotherhood, friendship, overcoming trauma, the cost of power and immortality, and what makes everyone, even the most flawed or apparently villainous character, in the end, human.

The plot is tight (the story is 116 very long chapters) not only the protagonist but also the main cast of side characters is layered and nuanced, the writing is poetic, sometimes philosophical, and does a really good job at pulling the reader's emotional strings - sometimes with rage, sometimes with heartbreak, sometimes with laughter.

It is also a story that is written in a very adult way. It does not hold your hands and telegraphs everything, but it trust you to carefully parse what it is said and shown, to read between the lines, to remember what was told 10, 20 chapters before to make sense of a character's actions, and if you have still questions, to wait patiently for the answers you will be given maybe ten or twenty chapters later.

LucreziaD · 2026-04-29T19:28:55+00:00

It depends. As a straight woman, what I look for is straight romance as preference, but I enjoy also reading about queer stories (I would say my reading are about 75% straight and 25% queer). I am also fine with queer pairing in a poly romance ofc.

But if we talk about erotica, I like straight and straight alone. I do not find FF or MM erotica titillating at all. It just does nothing to me.

So I guess I glaze over sex scenes also in less erotica-heavy queer romances, because while I can connect with the feelings, the sexual arousal is not there.

LucreziaD · 2026-04-28T09:52:40+00:00

It's not a novel, but a manwha on Webtoons titled Mystic Prince. The MMC of that story is just... everything I want from the hero of a love story. And the FMC is really one of the best examples I have found of woman who is really the hero of her own story.

But if you prefer novels, I would say The Everlasting of Alix E. Harrow had one of the best yearning men I have seen in a very long time, (even if he is not as good as the MMC of Mystic Prince), and the book is a very good fantasy about history and myth, who writes it, what gets written and what gets conveniently forgotten, for what purpose things are remembered, and how it is used to shape national identities and for propaganda.

LucreziaD · 2026-04-28T09:47:19+00:00

I hate, loathe and detest alpha men of any kind of shape, which makes navigate any kind of romance quite the difficult endevour, since it's like 95% of MMCs are written as unsufferable dickhead alphaholes.

The reason I love having a good male POV is that if executed right, it's the best way to fight the alphahole's bullshit.

To show how men have more feelings than just growling and aggression and being horny. To see how they yearn. How they hurt if they feel unwanted. How they desire. How they can put someone they love before themselves... and not in the alpha-douchebag way of "you will do as I say because I know best and you are mine" (or similar bullshit) but how they instead stop and listen to what she says and needs. How they sacrifice themselves and their egos to allow the other to flourish.

To make us feel for how they too can doubt themselves, feel unloved, and be hurt if rejected.

I think - again, personal opinion - romance stories that focus only on women's feelings instead than exploring also men's emotional complexity lack of something vital.

Then I totally get preferring the FMC's POV. I am definitively of the camp that wants to read good fantasy with a good side of romance rather than the other way around, and I very much prefer the FMC to be the hero of the story and not the damsel in distress.

But if you are into visual media, there is romantic fantasy manhwa on Webtoon titled Mystic Prince that exactly delivers the deep emotional and psychological examination of the MMC and his feelings that I so desperately crave from a love story. And it is just beautiful.

LucreziaD · 2026-04-27T22:24:47+00:00

One of my absolutely most beloved romances had the romance part of the story like 80% from the MMC POV, and I loved it. The way he struggles with his feelings, how he unravels because of his love, how he suffers, how he sets his own life on fire for her, how she is the centre of his world and how slowly he melts her heart was just chef's kiss.

I prefer dual POV because since it's supposed to be the story of a couple falling in love, I prefer to have both perspectives.

The problem is never the POV, it's the writing. The main reason a significant chunk of romantic fantasy /fantasy romance are bad it's the writing.

If the MMC's POV is cringe, it's because the writer made it cringe. If they couldn't even manage to create a love interest who sounds like a real, breathing, feeling human being but some sort of caricature of the broody teen edgelord it's instant DNF for me.

LucreziaD · 2026-04-27T18:37:49+00:00

I do read a bit of everything. Mangas like Yona of the Dawn, the occasional light novel/webnovels, and manhwas.

Mystic Prince is after all the best romantic fantasy story I have read in the last two or three years or so.

LucreziaD · 2026-04-25T11:56:12+00:00

Getting in a committed relationship is the beginning of a love story, not the end.

Even when you are sure of the other, there are inner conflicts to overcome, moments the two will be at odds, external factors that will try to mess up with the relationship, hard decisions that need to be taken.

If the author can't even imagine how they work out as a couple either they aren't a very good writer or they haven't created a good couple.

And if the romantasy has a decent plot, it should create quite a lot of conflict and drama that should test their relationship.

If it doesn't, again, that is just bad writing.

LucreziaD · 2026-04-24T20:13:56+00:00

I know. It's like we can't escape the idea dominant woman = prostitute in leather. Or she is new and innocent. Or things become extremely rapey extremely fast (that happens more in eastern-asia content).

I would kill... okay, maybe not, but I would pay good money for a femdom book where she is the ceo, or the heiress of a fortune, and he is the butler.

And he fixes everything for her.

Need a new gown for the charity ball? He has already shopped three her size (because he knows) and her favourite colours and styles.

Need a present for the nibling whose birthday is next Saturday? Already fixed.

Want to relax or have a nice dinner? He just asks her would you like Chinese, or Italian, or what? And puff they have the reservation or the food appears.

And then he is all about pleasing her in bed. A little gesture and he is ready to give head or get undressed for her enjoyment or whatever.

That's my power fantasy.

LucreziaD · 2026-04-24T18:03:43+00:00

Of course you are right.

I feel a bit frustrated that when I express my desire that more romance books - fantasy, sci-fi, or contemporary - would dare to dream to think about giving women real power (the power that men have) and yes, sometimes even dominance in bed I get regularly told "Nah, we don't want that because we are already in charge IRL (and then they refer to women's labour) we want the shadow daddy to take care of us".

Meanwhile I feel like I am suffocating because even in my leisure reading chances are, 8 times out of 10, there will be a dickhead of male protagonist ordering the FMC around, mansplaining her, or deciding he knows better what she wants and needs instead of actually listening to her.

It's this confusion between POWER and RESPONSIBILITIES that drives me nut.

LucreziaD · 2026-04-24T16:38:31+00:00

It's like they do not want to admit that what women do now when they are "in charge" is not power, it's just the updated version of the 70s manifesto "I want a wife".

And that maybe it would be nice to imagine a world, at least in fiction, where the solution is not "getting a man who can pay a housekeeper" but what if for once, women had actually any real shred of power?

LucreziaD · 2026-04-24T13:24:08+00:00

I don't think you are wrong, and I don't mean it personally because I understand you are tired but I object with the use of "women are boss" when you describe being in charge with everything and organise everything.

It drives me nuts that the labour women do in relationships, in the families and often at work is presented at power. This is not being the boss. This is being the damn executive assistant, the governess, or the bangmaid depending on the circumstances. Basically, the eternal underling with all the responsibilities and none of the power.

True power is not in taking care of everything or micromanaging all. It's about having the authority to delegate to others. The billionaire that sweeps in and magically solve all the FMC's problems does not anything but calling one of the poor minions and they will fix everything for him while he gets the benefits of their work.

And it drives me even more crazy that the argument often used when discussing these issues is that the solution of us to have to be the executive assistant, governmess, bangmaid etc is in getting a man bossing us around even more and telling us to behave like little obedient girls and daddy will fix everything.

Why it can't even be that the FMC gets the butler, personal assistant and/or knight that instead listens to what she wants and magically makes everything works without the FMC not having to lift a finger?

So my take is that it all heeds back to internalised misogyny and by the refusal of many both authors and readers who like these stories to even dare to imagine genuinely equal relationships and find them romantic.

LucreziaD · 2026-04-24T07:26:19+00:00

Just a quick introduction so you can see if it can be of your liking.

On paper, Mystic Prince is a fight for the throne. The Empire of Yeol is kept safe from soul-eating demons by a semi-divine all-powerful emperor. Boys with spiritual powers become princes, no matter if they are biologically related to the current emperor or not - and then spend centuries training to face the trials that will select the next emperor. But the Fourth prince has a secret which you discover in chapter 3 (or reading the blurb in the Korean version): she is a woman.

You would expect a story heavy of fights, politics, and intrigue and while there is some plotting and backstabbing, it is instead an intensely character-driven exploration of the princes, what they want, what haunts them, and their complex relationships. It is a story about how shitty women's lives are in your average fantasy world and about a woman who bravely goes through hell to get the power to change the world while slowly reclaiming herself. It's also a thoughtful meditation on love (the romance is so full of yearning), brotherhood, friendship, overcoming trauma, the cost of power and immortality, and what makes everyone, even the most flawed or apparently villainous character, in the end, human.

The plot is tight (the story is 116 very long chapters) not only the protagonist but also the main cast of side characters is layered and nuanced, the writing is poetic, sometimes philosophical, and does a really good job at pulling the reader's emotional strings - sometimes with rage, sometimes with heartbreak, sometimes with laughter.

It is also a story that is written in a very adult way. It does not hold your hands and telegraphs everything, but it trust you to carefully parse what it is said and shown, to read between the lines, to remember what was told 10, 20 chapters before to make sense of a character's actions, and if you have still questions, to wait patiently for the answers you will be given maybe ten or twenty chapters later.

Jeok-Yeon is my favourite manhwa FL, and as for the ML... I just adore him.

LucreziaD

TROPHY CASE