The Trials and Tribulations of My Next Life as a Noblewoman - LN 3

I decided to take a slightly different approach while writing this post. Instead of writing my thoughts after finishing the entirety of Volume 3 (both parts 1 and 2), I wanted to write about my thoughts on 3.1 while they’re still fresh in my mind. I’ll come back to this post and revise before uploading (so you’ll just receive the final product!).

As usual, it’s insane that this series’s books are double the length of normal light novels. Last book left off with a cliffhanger of poor Karen getting kidnapped to another dimension. We finally find out the outcome of that, and how she manages to get out of that situation. We end up finding out that the house next door has a lot more going on than it seems, and ties to some of the ancient magic in the capital.

We also find out about Six’s true identity, and get more world-building and development around the politics of the Empire, including the different factions jockeying for power and what Karen’s role is in all of this. We already know that Reinald and Wilhelmina are the main people vying for the throne, but who picks which side and for what reason becomes quite the interesting twist. I didn’t see this one coming, but in hindsight it was obvious it would turn out this way. I honestly felt just as blindsided as Karen was, which is probably not a good thing lol.

Since Ern is on the cover, you would be right to assume she plays a much bigger role in this book. We’ve known that there is actually high-level magic in this world, and both Ern and Six bring a perspective of what can actually be done when you have their level of prowess. I was glad to see more interactions between Karen and her friends, as the last volume felt (understandably) isolating. Karen is in a delicate position after completely moving countries and pledging loyalty to Reinald, and she doesn’t have many true friends in the Empire who know what she’s going through.

Both she and Ern really go through some major character development in Volume 3.1, and I was honestly shocked and impressed that Karen approached their hurdles in the manner that she did.

Overall, the first part felt a lot lighter and more slice-of-life-esque than I was anticipating, despite all the struggles and obstacles that continue to appear in Karen’s way. Let’s see what I think when I finally finish part 2. 

Okay Volume 3.2 was crazy, but what’s new for this series? After finding out that Karen was invited to the Emperor’s birthday party, there’s a mad dash of preparations made to make sure that she doesn’t end up embarrassing herself, or worse, offending the Emperor at the party.

To be honest, the entire sequence with the party had me on edge. This series loves to give off the illusion that everything is going to be just fine, until all hell breaks lose. Volume 3.2 was the most nerve-wracking book yet.

The rest of my impressions are going to be spoilery since there’s no other way to talk about them.