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A review by livelymon
I'm Only a Stepmother But My Daughter is Just So Cute! - Volume 1 by 이르, Yir
5.0
To date, this is probably the best Light Novel I've had the pleasure of reading. The initial premise just sounded like it would be a fun story. A woman who works in the children's fashion industry gets reincarnated as Snow White's evil Stepmother, that premise has such great promise. And the story delivers, Abigail is suddenly this feared character when all she wants to do is doll up the cutest child to ever exist. Abigail understands that she can't rush people's trust in her and slowly works on repairing her relationship with Blanche (Snow White) and it's adorable and realistic.
But the story doesn't just take the premise, deliver all it's promised and stops there. No. The story goes beyond that. There's political intrigue that's set up between certain families, there's the discussion of modern problems but using era relevant issues (for example having Abigail make comparisons to the dieting issues of modern society to the corset problems of the past, it makes for some really interesting discussions throughout the novel) and the way the story integrates elements of the original fairy-tale into the story (the magic mirror being a defective mirror thus can become a true friend to Abigail is genius). Truly though this story excels at character development. I've already mentioned Abigail's and Blanche's relationship, but the development of the relationship between Abigail and Sabelian (the King and Blanche's father) is where it truly shines. There's a frustrated understanding at the beginning of the novel which turns to true camaraderie and even months after finishing this novel I still can't think of the 'may I hold you hand' scene without my heart fluttering.
This story is great and it ends perfectly and yet... I can't wait to read more of this series. There's so much potential for more in this universe that was created and I'm eager to see how it all plays out. The family Abigail finds in this story is sweet and I just want to read more about them working through past issues and making a good future for themselves.
But the story doesn't just take the premise, deliver all it's promised and stops there. No. The story goes beyond that. There's political intrigue that's set up between certain families, there's the discussion of modern problems but using era relevant issues (for example having Abigail make comparisons to the dieting issues of modern society to the corset problems of the past, it makes for some really interesting discussions throughout the novel) and the way the story integrates elements of the original fairy-tale into the story (the magic mirror being a defective mirror thus can become a true friend to Abigail is genius). Truly though this story excels at character development. I've already mentioned Abigail's and Blanche's relationship, but the development of the relationship between Abigail and Sabelian (the King and Blanche's father) is where it truly shines. There's a frustrated understanding at the beginning of the novel which turns to true camaraderie and even months after finishing this novel I still can't think of the 'may I hold you hand' scene without my heart fluttering.
This story is great and it ends perfectly and yet... I can't wait to read more of this series. There's so much potential for more in this universe that was created and I'm eager to see how it all plays out. The family Abigail finds in this story is sweet and I just want to read more about them working through past issues and making a good future for themselves.