It's satisfactory enough for its genre. The couple is cute, there's some nice tension between them, and the side characters are endearing. I do have my gripes with it though
In the beginning it seems to set up the idea of a villainess and a tyrant well, but in the end, her revenge kind of flows in her favor without her having to do much, and the tyrant, of course, is much kinder and more gracious than was first shown. Him almost killing his subordinate (an important side character!) for a little joke he'd pulled seems entirely out of character when you look back at it.
The plot itself was fun enough, except the more it progressed, the more things turned out well just because the plot demanded it, with a whole slew of illogical character decisions and skipped plot points. Maribelle's family never felt like true threats (besides the cousin that I didn't even think was that evil, just immature, her uncle showed up a total of what? Four times?) So instead it was building up towards the bigger enemy-- the emperor's brother-- only to fall so completely flat by the end I'd been left wondering if I skipped a chapter or two.
(The cloud/time loop deity thing suddenly having a character motivation was so ??? it was really all for a happy ending so it felt kind of cheap? This should really have the "rushed ending" tag)
Last complaint: I like Maribelle because I followed her journey, but I really have no idea why everyone else does? At least two side characters fall for her and quite literally ruin their lives because of it, and it just shows her smiling in their POV and call that an explanation?? And one of those characters is her COUSIN LOL?
But overall it was a fun read, its biggest flaw was trying to stick too close to a popular genre and becoming too tropey. Haven't read it, but I'm sure the novel is less confusing. Art too good to pass up though
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