Krystallina: There’s no perfect way to propose. But for me and all the other book lovers out there, being told that getting engaged means you get to read as much as you want is a pretty darn appealing proposal.
Well, that’s what our heroine, Elianna, was told four years ago. And coming from a line of book enthusiasts, it was a tempting offer. Especially since her fiancé’s library isn’t just any old library — he’s the crown prince, and Elianna would have access to the royals’ entire trove. Even better, she wouldn’t need to go to many events that would interrupt her reading time. Can’t turn down that deal!
But when Bibliophile Princess volume 1 opens, Elianna realizes this arrangement is about to end. She spots Prince Christopher smiling with a noble named Irene — a smile she has never seen before. Had this been a shoujo isekai, this would be about the time Elianna is the villainess in an otome game. But no, Elianna just realizes she’s been pretty much an idiot. Although she tends to care more for books than people and thought that it was inevitable that an engagement to avoid the hassles of societal events would come to an end, she feels pain when Christopher and his associates (his young uncle Theodore, cousin/work-minded Alexei, and friendly knight Glen) start icing her out of their conversations and the palace.
I made the otome game isekai comparison for another reason. Just as if you were to suddenly witness the much ballyhooed villain confrontation scene, there would be a lot of background and buildup you would have missed. And this first chapter (called Arc, and it’s one of three), as we learn, has a lot of information we missed because we start with Elianna preparing for the end of her engagement. What has led up to that point and how those four years between Elianna and Christopher were spent are only referenced as the whole Elianna-Christopher-Irene triangle comes to a boil.
It’s then readers realize how little we know about the heroine. People are often their own worst — and harshest — judges, and there are signs that the heroine, despite being a bookworm, may be a bit of an unreliable narrator when it comes to herself.
In that way, Elianna may be a bit irritating for some readers. After all, when we meet her, she doesn’t seem to have any real duties or obligations (just helping out carrying things when asked), she refers to herself as a “plain Jane”, and just so happens to have a bad memory when it comes to people. Which is why a more natural look at Elianna’s personality was necessary, and we got one in the second part of the story from someone I didn’t expect: an objective (and headache-prone) observer. We also get a section from Christopher’s point-of-view later one. I found these sections better than when Elianna is narrating; they tend to be more humorous, and Elianna’s eccentricities and strengths are presented more clearly. I think I would have loved Elianna if the author had set Bibliophile Princess sometime during the four years of their engagement — or even at the start.
The novel is also presented in an unusual way. The story is divided into three Arcs (aka Chapters). The first Arc is then divided into Acts. The second isn’t divided up any further except the usual section break symbols. Arc 3 is then divided into Chapters. The organization just felt inconsistent, and so did the story as a result. The first section felt like it needed to be the whole volume. Arc 2 seems like a side story since it’s not from Elianna’s (or even Christopher’s) point-of-view. The last is more like the typical arc/episode you’d read (or watch), involving a trip to a once-every-three-years book market run by neutral academics and a migrating race of people. However, while Elianna is ecstatic, the insecurity that has been weighing on her mind is wrapped up too suddenly. Which, again, makes her weakness — her bad memory of people — seem forced.
I do like how Bibliophile Princess, despite tackling some of the usual political tension and resentment, is rather light and sweet. I’d rather keep it as the misadventures of a bookworm, the man devoted to her, and the others who feel sick at the display versus some deep life-or-death light novel. But volume 1’s writing and the character development leave much to be desired, and I find myself liking the idea of Bibliophile Princess more than the actual light novel.
Krystallina’s Rating: 2 out of 5
Helen: Between the publishing output of Cross Infinite World and the creation of J-Novel’s new line, J-Novel Heart, English-speaking readers have the opportunity to be exposed to a large number of shojo light novels for the first time, and I’m a little surprised at how different they feel from American Young Adult novels. Of the two J-Novel Heart series I’ve read so far, this series and Bakarina, they both come across rather differently from the female-helmed YA novels I’ve spent the past decade and a half reading, even thought light novels are “the YA of Japan.”
Our heroine, the bibliophile princess herself, Elianna is in particular a much more internal main character than the kind you find in most American YA. Actually, she’s much more internal than most light novel protagonists as well! Her self-depreciating nature and inability to realize how many of her counterparts are crushing on her however is perfectly in line with with both YA and shojo tropes. However it’s less Elianna’s character that feels distinctly light novel “ish” but the structure of the work that would keep me from every mistaking it as an American YA novel.
Even for a light novel, Bibliophile Princess’s first volume feels a bit oddly set-up. The first and third parts feel almost more like short stories and the intermediary, second part is a partial retelling of the first part but this time from the point of view of fiancé Prince Christopher (who is able to explain to the reader just how Elianna has been able to unknowingly pull off a stunning list of triumphs both in the palace and for the nation). It’s an awkward set-up and I do think I would have preferred one, longer story rather than three “short stories” as it were, I’m curious if this is a one-off or if future volumes are similar.
One thing I’m sure of is future volumes showing Elianna’s practically savant ways of inadvertently solving domestic mysteries and international crises without the slightest bit of awareness of what she’s doing. She reads widely, in multiple languages, and has both a fantastic memory for minutia and a great instinct for connecting events without obvious links, something that is very useful to Sauslind’s government in cases ranging from improper collection of taxes to increasing the quality of life in distant regions. It’s easy to joke about many isekai heroes who are dropped into a foreign world and recreating civilization from the ground up (looking at you That Time I Reincarnated As A Slime), but frankly Elianna makes those instances look like child’s play. It seems like the only area she lacks knowledge in is romance!
While splitting the story into three parts did make it a bit more awkward at times, I enjoyed this fluffy story a surprising amount; I would certainly recommend it to anyone who is looking for a bit of romance, some drama, and generally a sense that nothing bad is going to happen to the characters (an essential part of many people’s fiction consumption in these extra-stressful times). I think I would enjoy a second volume of this but possibly not much more, as there’s not quite enough stakes to keep this series going for a long while but I think it could support another volume at least.
Helen’s Rating: 3.5 out of 5