Hey all, Dani here.
Hello, Happy Monday, or at least I hope that it is a good Monday for all of you. I am currently sitting at work, which as per usual is just me sitting in an office by myself. I don’t want to talk about the details of my current position but it is one that I enjoy, and it allows me to pop on to my blog or my social media a bit and check in on things. Oh, and some days I get an okay amount of reading done too, which is pretty nice.
So, in a slightly different manga review post for this Manga Monday…I have an early review for you. I was on NetGalley and ended up just popping over to the graphic novel/comic section, which let me look at the manga available there. This particular one seemed pretty interesting to me, so I put in a request and it was approved shortly after that.
Obviously that means I need to say thank you to VIZ Media, LLC and NetGalley for granting me access to this manga, and this free review copy did not influence my rating or review in any way.
Let’s jump into this.
Book Details
Format: e-book
Pages: 192
Publisher: VIZ Media LLC
Publication Date: April 7, 2020
ISBN: 1974708764 (ISBN13: 9781974708765)
Summary
To save her kingdom, a simple village girl must live a royal lie.
The powerful kingdom of Sigurd has slowly been conquering all the lands that share its borders, and now it has turned its voracious attention to the small, resource-rich Tyr. Tyr cannot hope to match Sigurd in strength, so in order to survive, it must rely on the intelligence, skill and cunning of its prince and his loyal knights. But should their prince fall, so too shall Tyr…
Freya thinks of herself as a simple village girl, but her idyllic life is shattered when she is caught up in the aftermath of a treacherous Sigurdian plot. She bears a striking resemblance to her country’s beloved Prince Edvard, who lays dying from poison. Without its ruler, all of Tyr will quickly be engulfed by Sigurdian violence. Now Freya must take Prince Edvard’s place and lead his valiant knights in defending the realm!
My Thoughts
Rating: 3.5 stars
This is from the Shojo Beat line of manga from VIZ Media, so obviously it is pitched more as a romance series, and there are certainly hints to that here. At the very beginning it definitely seemed like it was going to almost immediately go into love triangle territory, which frankly was going to annoy me. But then it made me wonder if this was going to end up being like a reverse-harem story, with a bunch of guys all interested in one girl, because your typical harem manga is a bunch of girls interested in the main guy. I don’t exactly know if this story is going to end up going that way or not. I guess future volumes will answer that question.
Freya is a fairly weak main character. She doesn’t know how to do a whole lot, and she always seems to break down and cry. It could have been frustrating, but I also definitely realize that this gives her so much room to grow and learn and get stronger, so I’m very much hoping to see that start to happen as the story progresses.
Right now she’s pretty much been dumped into the position of pretending to be Prince Edvard of Tyr to protect those she cares about (and the rest of the nation) from the threat of the neighboring kingdom of Sigurd.
This is a pretty decent starting volume for the series. I mean, yes, I have read stronger first volumes, but with me giving this 3.5 stars, I’m intrigued enough to want to pick up the second volume. That will be the deciding factor for me; if I enjoy the second volume even a little bit more, then this will be a series I will add to my release schedule.
For now I can say that I read it pretty quickly, I thought the art style was nice and well executed, and I’m curious enough to at least check out the next installment of the story.
Where to Get a Copy
You can pre-order your own copy of this book from Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Books-a-million, Book Depository, or your local independent bookstore through IndieBound. This manga volume will be released on April 7, 2020.
You can also check with your local library.
Free State of Geek 
I’ve been looking forward to this series, glad to hear that you think it has potential.
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Thank you! I hope you enjoy it as well.
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