Non-BL Reading List (BG novels, Non-Romance)

123. Cinderella's Older Sister Reluctantly Marries the Prince

Translator: Nani Mo Wakaranai Kedo

Chapters: 28 (LN 1)

Tags: JAP novel, royalty, nobles

Synopsis:

Right in front of the prince, who had come to take her away with the glass slipper in hand, Cinderella elopes with the wizard! The prince, who couldn't leave empty handed lest he become a laughingstock, decided to take Cinderella's not mean stepsister with him instead. They returned to the castle, got married, and lived happily ever after...Not!

You're not going to love me? Of course, I know that. I'm just aiming for a peaceful divorce with tons of alimony. Feel free to get a mistress or concubine in the meantime.

The new princess enjoys her peaceful palace life, managing her field and fishing, but for some reason, the prince's cold attitude begins to thaw...?

This is the story of Cinderella's older stepsister, whose feet won't fit the glass slipper and who doesn't have a pumpkin carriage, reluctantly marrying the prince, while trying to find her own happiness.

Impressions: I was stuck somewhere without wifi last weekend and I only had several ebooks with me, mostly completed JAP novels~ I chose the ones with female MCs~ Writing my review now.

So our MC is Cinderella's older sister. I guess, she is the younger stepsister. No, she isn't a reincarnated Japanese highschool girl. Just a nice stepsister for once. Cinderella goes to the Ball, dances with the Prince, loses her perfectly fit shoe and the Prince goes searching for her. Then when he found her, she...eloped with the Wizard (no Fairy Godmother here). 

The Prince already had their Wedding underway, it was already announced that "he found the girl!" and so...he grabbed MC to replace Cinderella, told her that the story would be that, the shoe fit her, she was the girl. Of course after the Wedding, they had 'the Talk', it was a fake Wedding, he would never love her etc., wait for the news to cool down and divorce etc. etc. (scum!) MC agrees.

MC lived in a separate palace, farming and raising animals, cooking and baking and stuff. Everyone finds her so interesting. And after hearing about it so much, the Prince decides to visit and think she's interesting too. There's a running joke (maybe) all throughout the novel: the Prince never gets her name right. MC's name is Adelina and he calls her Evalina, Katrina, Nidorina etc. This continues even after the Prince decided that he's already inlove with her.

Laters, some haughty Princess from another country comes and MC somehow feels she's PERFECT for the Prince. A high profile confrontation in a Ball where MC is accused of using magic to seduce the Prince cos she looked different from the girl at the party.  #spoiler Ella comes in with his Wizard boyfriend and tells MC that this is her own story, be more confident, she's the protagonist of her own life etc. And also that she's casted magic/curse on herself and only the Prince's True Love can break it. Prince breaks it. And then they live happily ever after~

Haahh... Well, the elopement scene with the Wizard was soo...ridiculous, so...irresponsible. Poor MC. Cinderella leaves her family to clean up her mess while she live her happily ever after with her True Love Wizard. Of course, The Prince himself was just as ridiculous for the Wedding to already be underway, for falling inlove with a girl after just one dance. (The original Princess Anna???) and he was SCUM for telling that to MC on their Wedding night as if she forced him to marry her when it was clearly the other way around.

The Prince's favorability with me continues to get reduced when he kept getting her name wrong. I was already looking forward to their divorce and MC marrying her Knight (lol). There was no indication whatsoever that she has feelings for the Prince which I liked. THEN! The bratty Princess came and MC awakens her self-sacrificing soul of "Its completely okay to make me out to be the villainess as long as you guys can fulfill your love for each other." Or "Even if I might be beheaded for being a Witch, as long as the poor guy who got his heart broken by my sister finally becomes happy." (I think MC's brain was broken by her sister too =_=)

Anyways, on the final confrontation scene, it was revealed #SPPPOOILLLER that it was MC's fault (wow!) that the Prince kept getting her name wrong, cos she didn't believe that the Prince would fall for her and she convinced herself that she would never fall for the Prince/sealed her own feelings---by making him never say her name right. I actually don't blame her for thinking that way (for not believing that the Prince would like her), I mean, after "The Talk" after their Wedding, the whole Wedding itself, their terrible first meeting (ugh!), the Prince himself made sure to make MC kill that thought. Sure we get the Prince  POV and we see that he realizes how much of a jerk he was and feels guilty for it, but MC doesn't know that. 

Aaaannd of course, Ella comes to save the day...MC 'unsealed' her feelings and they lived happily ever after~~ Ehh.. I don't know, it kind of feels that it is still the same old story, it defeats the whole purpose of having a side character MC, ITS JUST LIKE CINDERELLA, whereas Ella is the Fairy Godmother of MC, asking her to "be your life's heroine" or something....

Uhmm..overall, I like it more when MC has no feelings for the Prince? When she was just aiming for the alimony~ Who cares about the Prince~ (Mwahaha) Make the scum suffer more~ ψ(｀∇')ψ and the resolution of the story felt too fast. Also didn't like that...illogical(?) self-sacrificing spirit again. And that our MC has such low self-esteem ("I'm so plain. Ella is so special."). Good thing that the curse only got unsealed at the end. Otherwise we'd be getting a lot of drama~ The first part was still pretty funny albeit the occasional self-derision by the heroine~

Reco: Magical Device Craftsman Dahlia Won't Hang Her Head Down Anymore, NOT similar to this, but a heroine who slowly regains her self-confidence: cut her hair, stopped dyeing it brown, showcased her own ideas (which are pretty awesome btw)~ something our MC could've been~ (maybe in Volume 2?)