Hey there. So I've been looking for a few romance novels but I decided it would be better to get some recommendations since I have some criterias. Here's what I would like to read : - No-nonsense MC. I can't stand submissive MC who accept all the bs you often see in typical shoujo stories, this include but is not limited to : blackmailing, abusive male lead and passively agreeing to whatever stupid/unreasonable things a random bishounen asked/ordered her to do just because he's a potential love interest (and still being friends afterwards). - Reasonable amount of drama. A little drama is always necessary in order to spice things up but I don't want a Korean drama with non-stop misunderstandings and critical situations, sudden terminal illness, yadda yadda yadda. - I'm ok with both heartwarming and more "realistic" kind of stories. - No BL. What I read and liked so far : - Sansheng, Wangchuan Wu Shang - One Life, One Incarnation – Beautiful Bones - Hokuou Kizoku to Moukinzuma no Yukiguni Karigurashi - Seven Unfortunate Lifetimes, All Thanks to a Single Moment of Impulse Thanks in advance !
If you don't mind quick transmigration, you can try out QT: Against My Will. If you dislike reincarnation/transmigration, you can skip to ARC 2, to get a taste of the MC's and ML's life, how they got to know each other and how they fell in love. But I recommend reading ARC 1 first. https://www.scribblehub.com/series/28698/qt-against-my-will/stats/
For more interesting MCs, you could check out other novels by the author of Sansheng and Seven Unfortunate Lifetimes. Demon King/The Parting of the Orchid and Cang is set in the same universe as Sansheng.
Thanks for the recs, seems interesting And yeah I forgot that but I'm okay with transmigrated/reincarnated MC.
How about reborn heroic wife , it really funny and long but easy to understand the plot. The female protagonist is overpowered character and shameless too. This the kind of strong female mc and blush male lead.
Here are some of my favorite stories with sensible MCs. There’s drama and conflict, but not the annoying, dogblood-drama kind. ‘Lost You Forever’ by Tong Hua. This is her best novel, imo. It’s set after the events of ‘Once Promised’ but you don’t need to read that to understand this one. ‘Song in the Clouds’ also by Tong Hua. You should read ‘Ballad of the Desert’ beforehand if you’re gonna getting into this one, but this novel is better than the prequel. ‘Heavy Sweetness Ash-Like Frost’ which the drama ‘Ashes of Love’ is based from. I prefer the book to the drama. ‘Your Majesty Please Calm Down’ is a fun and comedic story about a girl pretending to be a eunuch. IDK if you’ve watched the drama, ‘Eternal Love’ staring Yang Mi but ‘Three Lives Three Worlds: The Pillow Book’ is about Dong Hua and Feng Jiu’s love story. It’s better than the prequel, imo.
Wait, "Lost You Forever" is even better than "Song in the Clouds"? That's a pretty bold claim indeed! Personally I've been waiting for 解忧曲 to come out before I read any more Tong Hua, but maybe I should change my mind. I can't imagine any of her books being low on the drama scale though!
Well, tastes are subjective, but I would say that ‘Lost You Forever’ is definitely not worse than Song in the Clouds, so rest assured The two series are completely un-related so you can read LYF while waiting for that other book to come out. If you’re a fan of Tong Hua, you’re definitely missing out by not reading it! There is a lot of drama in LYF, but the story doesn’t end tragically unlike in SitC... Maybe that’s why I prefer it... Anyway, the MC does get her happy ending (after much difficulty) but it’s bittersweet-happy-ending rather than pure-happiness-and-sunshine. Reading the epilogue will break your heart. (The translator didn’t include it on her site, but it’s posted under one of the reviews in NovelUpdates). But if you’re planning on reading the story, don’t spoil yourself! The blurbs the translator posts before each chapter can be a bit spoiler-y...
I love "Song in the Clouds" because of its rich tapestry of character interrelationships and its ability to generate passions. In fact, it's better able to do so than any book I've ever come across. Just the narrative tricks it performs, like just as everything seems at it's worst, Third Brother shows up to steal the show. It's only too bad that Yu Zheng was allowed to butcher the TV adaptation. As for the rest of Tong Hua's books, I partly wanted to give other Romance writers a chance, but so far I've only read one that was particularly good. I've read a few other ones that are pretty decent but no better than that. I've actually had better luck finding good romantic interactions in male-oriented books. As for spoilers, they won't be an issue since I read these books in Chinese.
...Oh wow, I’m so jealous right now... I wish I could read Chinese... Anyway, I think you definitely won’t be disappointed with Lost You Forever. In some ways, I believe that the characters from LYF are better written than the two leads from SitC. I personally felt that YunGe & Liu Fuling were a bit lacking in character depth somewhat (especially when compared to Meng Jue & Liu Xun were so well-written). Although I must admit that it’s been a long time since I’ve read it. And the story was never completed translated, so I had missed out on a lot, probably. (I suppose I could watch the drama to fill in the blanks... but naaahh ).
One of the reasons I like the book so much is that it's not just about the main couple, or even the romance. It's about all of the characters and how they play off of one another. The main couple doesn't have to be the most complex because it's all about the full main cast and what they do for (and to) one another. For the record, my favorite character in the book is Shangguan Xiaomei, and she probably has the smallest role of that main cast. No! Don't torture yourself like this! It's one of the most awful adaptations I've ever seen, and Yu Zheng somehow managed to make Third Brother look terrible. Go watch the adaptation of "Bu Bu Jing Xin" instead - it's legitimately one of the best Chinese TV shows of the last decade, and it has great production values. There is even a full translation of it out there somewhere. I watched the show before reading the book and it's probably the closest book to TV adaptation I've ever come across. The adaptation of "Ballad of the Desert" doesn't reach the same heights, but it's still pretty darned good.
Thanks for the recommendation, but I’ve already seen them both For some reason ‘tho, most Chinese dramas fail to completely captivate me. They just seem... rather slow-paced? Almost every single Chinese Drama I’ve watched, I tend to skip A LOT of scenes just to rush to the ending. Especially when they have 50+ episodes. Spoiler Like Sun Li was utterly magnificent in ‘Legend of Zhen Huan’ but ommggg that show was too dang LONG! With a novel, I can read the entire thing in 1-3 days, but a TV series requires a lot of time & commitment... Or maybe I just have a short attention span, haha (And I’m just a really, really, extremely-picky person in general).