trials and tribulations of my next life as a noblewoman

By Kamihara and Shiro46. Released in Japan as “Tensei Reijo to Sūki na Jinsei o” by Hayakawa Shobo. Released in North America by J-Novel Heart. Translated by Hengtee Lim.

(This review contains spoilers, though I will try to confine them till after the synopsis.)

Well, that went about the way I thought. Not that I knew what was going to happen precisely, but because “Great googley moogley, everything’s gone to shit” is the way that this series operates, and I had a feeling we were due for everything going wrong very rapidly, and that’s exactly what I got… eventually. Honestly, the first two-thirds or so of this volume feel like a typical “villainess” book, with just a bit more politics than usual. There’s even a big dance where Karen (who has been trying harder and harder to not be The Worst Dancer Ever) ends up needing to be literally dragged around in order to manage not to humiliate herself. And the Emperor even snubs her, which is a surprise given he invited her, but hey, good news! Then we get the last third of the book, and everything once again becomes a horror novel *and* a tragedy.

Karen is trying to make up with Ern, but unfortunately that involves running into Lubeck, the knight who really, really wants to seduce her and cannot understand why she seems to find him a massive creep. (The reason is that he’s a massive creep.) Fortunately, they do make up, and then Karen is off to the ball(s). She thinks that it doesn’t go well because after all this fuss, when she introdeuces herself to the Emperor he barely acknowledges her. To me, it read like she had significant conversations with every single powerful person in the Empire, all of whom are trying to curry her favor. But then, I’m not the one desperately trying to pretend I’m just a plain side character. (Un)Fortunately for Karen, the Emperor decides to invite her back for a meal. Breakfast. The next day. When she arrives, along with six other people the Emperor is “honoring”, we get to see just what he’s really like. It’s not great.

I admit I was not all that shocked at the window thing, as it was heavily telegraphed, but I was far more shocked at the Emperor essentially saying “rejoice, we’re going to make sure we have good Aryan stock by breeding my knights to you folks, so get ready”. Usually light novels aren’t quite this blatant, but this is Trials and Tribulations, and when has it ever held back before? To be frank, I’m amazed Karen escaped, and she even rescued a young noble who made me think of Galinda from Wicked but who quickly gets a nasty surprise. Then there’s the finale with Ern. Honestly, I suspected Ern would not survive this book, so again her death in and of itself is not what shocked me. What shocked me was HOW she chose to die, and the fact that Karen ended up, with gritted teeth and a callback to something that now seems far less funny, going along with it. On the bright side, this may make it harder for the Emperor to simply marry her off as breeding stock. On the less bright side, EVERYTHING ELSE. (Oh yes, bonus points for actually hearing the rumors about Karen explicitly, which frame her as the most evil woman in the universe.)

The cover to the next volume also seems to have a spoiler literally on it, suggesting that the events of this book affect Karen far more than we’d expected. I realize this is not for everyone, but I really do highly recommend it. It’s the best car crash being published right now.

By Kamihara and Shiro46. Released in Japan as “Tensei Reijo to Sūki na Jinsei o” by Hayakawa Shobo. Released in North America by J-Novel Heart. Translated by Hengtee Lim.

For the most part, Trials and Tribulations is content to wallow in the genre of “political intrigue”, as Karen finds herself getting involved in everything under the sun despite her best efforts. There’s also a bit of romance, though only a bit, as Karen has to literally be told about her growing feelings and she’s still pretty much in denial about them. That said, occasionally this series has dipped into straight up horror. Until now that’s also been part of the political intrigue, as we get politically-motivated massacres and regicide. The start of this third volume, though, is horror for horror’s sake, as Karen ends up trapped in a house with a bunch of rooms with corpses in them, and then is pretty much told without words “please become the next corpse”. The whole thing is unsettling both to her and to us, and things are not helped when Six, after rescuing her, admits that she was bait so that they could find out what was in that trap. This makes her unhappy.

After being freed from the murder house, Karen understandably comes down with a fever, which is what nobles do when they have too much stress. The fever is not helped when her brother Arno arrives to check on her… with Wilhelmina, who the family is now supporting. Of course, Karen is supporting Reinald, and as such things are a bit difficult between her end of the family and the main one now. Especially as Karen’s mysterious parentage is now the subject of rumor, and even though it’s not proven everyone seems to think her real father is a big-shot military man in the Empire… who is neutral in the throne war, so Karen is an even more useful pawn. Things then get even more troubling when the Emperor himself invites her to a ball… which means she will be forced to dance, and yes, dancing badly can mean you need to leave nobility entirely. She’s beyond bad. Finally, there’s a big fight with her best friend Ern, about which more below.

For the most part, the isekai in this book is used to show that Karen does not think like other nobles born in this world think (the funniest part of the book is when Karen, desperate to try to pay Reinald back for everything he’s done, offers to skin a deer and serve it for dinner to him, which causes his jaw to drop). But she’s not the only reincarnated character, and one could argue that Ern has had an even greater impact on this world. Karen is just dealing with politics and everyone wanting her to join their faction because she’s nice to them. Ern had a far worse life in our world, and a far worse death, and she is desperate to make something for herself in this new world,. despite a) the fact that she thinks she’s not doing anything but copying our world’s stuff so feels like a fake, and b) the fact that she’s starting an arms race by introducing modern weaponry to a society that’s not ready for it. The climax of this book (OK, the halfway point, but it’s a very good break) is her and Karen having a big fight about this, and I’ll be honest, the title of this arc does not make me optimistic she’ll get a happy ending here.

Karen will probably be OK, though she will no doubt suffer. But that’s why we read this. As always, this is addictive reading and highly recommended.

By Kamihara and Shiro46. Released in Japan as “Tensei Reijo to Sūki na Jinsei o” by Hayakawa Shobo. Released in North America by J-Novel Heart. Translated by Hengtee Lim.

This is the second half of what was originally a one-part 500+-page monster, and as such it definitely feels different than the first half. Which makes sense. If you look at the subtitle of this book, the first half was all about the ruination, so it makes sense that the second half would be about the resolve. As such, there’s not QUITE as many tribulations in this book compared to the first two? At least in terms of piles of death and threats of death. That said, Karen certainly does suffer a large number of shocks here. She allies with Reinald, which is the best thing to do to protect Conrad and those she lost, as well as those she still has, but it does make a whole lot of people think of her as… something impolite. What’s more, after the shock of her parentage that started the series, we now get more revelations about it, which may become a bigger problem down the road, as everyone’s packing up and moving.

That’s right, they’re doing new covers for us! It looks pretty great. That said, Reinald’s sister sort of comes and goes like a storm, and is not the actual focus of this book, which remains squarely on Karen. The kingdom itself is done for, and it turns out that this was actually very deliberate on Reinald’s part – he’s the son of the Emperor of Arrendle, who declares that only those who do amazing things can succeed him, and “overthrow a country next door for me” is one of those things. Karen is given some new land to oversee, mostly as the fall of Conrad was engineered very carefully by the Empire and the country on the other side – but things are rough, and Wendel is getting bullied at school. As such, a large chunk of the family makes the decision to move to the Empire.

As ever, Karen is the highlight of the book, and I get the feeling that a lot of people who like her try to compete to see who can make her show an actual emotion – though that may be unreliable narration on her part, as we see at points that her face is showing emotions that she is deliberately trying not to tell the reader about. It was also nice to see Ern again, who apparently went to the Empire and became a mad scientist – not as eccentric as Six, but still plenty eccentric, to be honest. She’s on the cover of Book 3-1, so I’m sure we’ll see more of her. On the other hand, I have to feel bad for Gerda. She loved her sister so much she married a man she didn’t want to to save Karen’s reputation, and now here she is, with a husband she loved dead, and Karen clearly knew it was coming. It’s a quiet note of tragedy in the books, where a lot of times things happen that are sad but no one can quite do anything about. I suspect she and Karen will never meet again.

This ends the second book proper, so you can be assured the main story ends with a very nasty cliffhanger, as Karen is seemingly caught in a magical trap. For those who love seeing bad things happen to good people when it’s well written.

By Kamihara and Shiro46. Released in Japan as “Tensei Reijo to Sūki na Jinsei o” by Hayakawa Shobo. Released in North America by J-Novel Heart. Translated by Hengtee Lim.

This review has massive spoilers, and I’m pretty sure that each review I do of this series will have to have the same thing.

When I first heard that J-Novel Club would be splitting the books in half starting from this volume, I admit I was a bit disappointed, the same way that a kid might pout when being told he can’t go on the 20-mile hike. I was looking forward to another 500+-page monster! Having finished this Part 1 volume, I admit that I’m actually grateful to them, as frankly, I’m exhausted. And so is Karen, to be fair. This series can best be described as “Everything happens at once”, and that applies even more so to this volume. The first book at least had occasional parts where a relaxed and happy Karen toured the grounds, or learned about the political landscape with her elderly husband. This volume has no time for that. It needs to run flat out to get to the cliffhanger at the end of the book. Which means resolving the cliffhanger at the end of the LAST book. Which involves… well, read on.

We open with Karen watching in horror as Sven, Nico and Doctor Emma are brutally murdered outside the mansion. Yeah, sorry, it’s that kind of book. As the rest of the cast desperately try to get to safety, it’s become clear that “bandits” are attacking and massacring everyone, and that one of the people they’ve been told to kill is Karen herself. At the end of a very long massacre, the only survivors who are able to stagger to the capital are Karen, younger son Wendell, steward Whateley… and a few townsfolk who managed to avoid being mass murdered. Karen now has to deal with trying to explain to the King how this domain got completely destroyed, try to set things up so that Wendell can inherit as her late husband wanted, and also try to secure her own future, which means NOT going back to her family. Unfortunately, it rapidly becomes clear that even staying in this country is going to be extremely unsafe…

There are some lovely pieces of prose in this series. I don’t normally read things this dark, but the writing pulls me in, which is a plus. My favorite part was probably Karen and Whateley being very angry at the Margrave for not coming back as a ghost and haunting them, so they could feel his presence still. I also like Karen trying to figure out what’s going on (which she MOSTLY does, though not in time to do much but damage control) and also figure out how to talk about what she suspects without getting straight up murdered. It helps that she and Reinald continue to be, frankly, perfect for each other. I’m half convinced that the main reason he does not have someone like her quickly taken care of is that he absolutely cannot get a bead on how she thinks – and he’s not alone. Then again, no one can get a bead on how Reinald thinks either, especially after the climax of this book.

By the “end” of this book, the nation has fallen and Reinald is greeting the invader… his younger sister. And may I remind you this was only HALFWAY through the original book. Riveting and compelling, but I believe tomorrow I will take a “no light novels today” break to rest.

By Kamihara and Shiro46. Released in Japan as “Tensei Reijo to Sūki na Jinsei o” by Hayakawa Shobo. Released in North America by J-Novel Heart. Translated by Hengtee Lim.

This was a title I’d been waiting for with great anticipation. I’d heard about it before it was licensed, as people on Twitter were discussing this series as “Oh my God… oh my God!” and noting not to get too attached to anyone in the cast. It’s also by Hayasaka Publishing, and one thing I’ve learned about them is that when they go into a common genre, like isekai/reincarnation books, there’s a very good reason and the book is going to be something else. Fortunately, all my anticipations were met with a remarkable book. Now, that’s not to say that it’s FUN… though there are a few moments of humor sprinkled throughout (notably our heroine trying to “invent” things from modern Japan and failing time and again). But it’s a fascinating read, with a great heroine. Just… be aware it’s a bit dark. There’s rape, there’s death, there’s torture (offscreen). The trials and tribulations in the deliberately bland title are no joke.

Trying to summarize this 554-page book is a bit ridiculous, but… Karen, our heroine, has been reincarnated from Japan as a noble girl, and spends the first 14 years of her life living happily. Then it comes out she’s the product of an affair, and she’s disowned. So, she goes to school to try to get a job… only to find, near graduation, no one will hire her as they know her past. Then she’s taken back into the family!… as her sister is now the King’s concubine, and had Karen being reinstated as one of her demands before she agreed to it. Now Karen’s a noble again… and is offered a choice. Either marry a gorgeous, handsome knight. Or marry a 63-year-old dude who lives out in the middle of nowhere. Karen, naturally, picks… the old man?

The whole book is like this. Another reason that people might be wary of it is that if you dislike plot twists, this book is poison to you. They come about every ten pages. Every time Karen was forced to return to the capital from her new home in the country, I cringed, because bad stuff always met her there. Her new husband, as it turns out, already has a common-law wife, but that suits Karen fine, she did not marry him to have kids or anything. As for the other choice, unsurprisingly given the cover art, he keeps turning up, and it rapidly becomes clear from their conversations that they’re perfect for each other (Karen describes them both as “odd”, which is a massive understatement. Everyone thinks Karen is a weirdo.) Unfortunately, it turns out (surprise!) that Reinald has his own secrets, and they’re big secrets.

There’s other characters I liked, such as the classic “young perky loyal maid”, and the Margrave’s common-law wife Emma, who has the patience of a saint but also does not want to get involved. This is one of those books that I recommend reading in chunks rather than all at once, but it’s rewarding. Also, feel relieved: J-Novel Club made a deal with the publisher to cut the next book in half, so the 2nd book, Part 1, will be a more sensible length. Which is good, as it means it’s coming faster, and I really want to read more about Karen, who is an odd combination of seemingly sensible but actually quite daring.