I received this book from the publisher (Tokyopop) in exchange of an honest review.

So to be honest, I almost dropped/DNF-ed this one. The first part was just SO MUCH alike to many stories that I was wondering if I already read this manga. We get to see the girl on the left get ditched by her fiancee during a ball for a commoner girl (yup that trope), accused of crimes she did not do (YUP that trope), then we have a boy who is now having to step up to become the prince because the king didn’t like what the crown prince did (YUPPPPPP), the engagement is also moved to our boy (YUPPITY YUP), and so on. So yeah, I was like, did I read this? I checked both the JP version and online to see if there was an anime or something, but no. Apparently I hadn’t read this one. But I had read all those tropes. So I took a small break to read another ARC of mine and then decided I would continue.

And I am kinda happy I picked it up as apparently the story after all that is told, for 99%, by the now new crown prince. Yup. Not by the girl who got ditched (she just get 1% of the screentime). Not time loops or second chances. We get to read about a guy who was training to be a knight and is now the crown prince and engaged to a girl. We see how he is trying to do everything correctly, learn how to be a crown prince, learn how to handle all the duties that come with it, see him long for sword fighting/being a knight (thankfully he has a great father who knows his son and is able to arrange something which I just absolutely loved). It was all very interesting to read and I definitely had fun rooting for our guy to figure out all the things.

Along the way we also see him figure out things with his fiancee. Because of course he needs to handle that as well. I loved it when he took her out for a walk/for a small date and how considerate he was towards her. How he tried to make her happy. You know, I have high hopes for these two. I hope that they can fall in love with each other and make each other happy. They both deserve happiness. Well, especially her as she went through all sorts of crap.

I am also curious about that blessing/the statue and what that may bring. I have read other stories with something similar so I am curious to see what side this one will go to, good or bad? And I am of course also curious what kind of things the blessing does for Alvis!

The art style is a pretty one, I like the way the characters are drawn. Erina is drawn so pretty!

All in all, despite the bumpy start and the fact it was a bit too trope-heavy (and then all the overused tropes) I still had fun and I do like that we get to see a male lead! I may continue reading this one!