Reviewed by Kana
Who it's for, and whether it holds up.
The concept is good: instead of a reincarnated protagonist desperately trying to avoid the villainess route, Alicia enthusiastically pursues it. She wants to be a great villainess, by her own exacting standards, and those standards are charmingly strange. The early chapters are light and funny, and Alicia is a genuinely interesting character to spend time with.
The novel earns some credit for taking Alicia seriously. She's determined, grows meaningfully over the course of the story, and her misguided moral compass usually points in a direction you can root for even when her logic is sideways. The plot held my attention well enough despite some structural unevenness.
Here's the honest problem: the story shifts into considerably darker territory, and that shift is sometimes abrupt. The tonal whiplash from fluffy villainess comedy to heavier drama is jarring in spots, and the writing doesn't always smooth the transition. The age gaps between Alicia and several male characters also create dynamics that are uncomfortable to sit with. The "heroine" character, the actual otome game protagonist, comes across as infuriating, and while that seems intentional, it doesn't make those scenes easier to read.
Some readers found the world-building inconsistent in the later arcs, and the idealism that makes Alicia likeable in the early chapters can feel naive when the story gets darker around her.
At 3.8, this is a decent read if you want an otome isekai that tries something different. The ambition is real, even if the execution gets uneven. Don't come in expecting the fluffy early tone to hold.
