Not going to lie, I was ready to DNF this book at about the halfway point, especially with the most irrelevant scene coming in hot at that point. IYKYK. But I also owed it to this book to read past that point because I really liked how this book began. And let me tell you, it was well worth trudging through the middle to get to the end. That end was absolutely bonkers. I'm still reeling over it. And I love the fact that the Fairyloot edition had bonus content, and boy, that was WILD.

That all said, I couldn't very well find it in my amused heart of hearts to bring this up to four stars just for the beginning and end. A lot of what I loved at the beginning--which included the quirky and philosophical zingers, as well as the main character's irreverent attitude to being the villain in an isekai--started becoming grating to me by the middle. I felt like a lot of this book hinged on the need to insert humor to remind us that this world is surreal, and oftentimes it just felt jarring to me. Rae came in to the fantasy world with a lot of insights about story, and obviously she had her own thoughts about the characters and the plot. But more and more, I started to feel like she was just all about her platitudes, and it literally took to the very end for her to realize the error in her thinking. I also wanted her to really get into the mindset of being a villain, but I felt like she wasn't really pulling the weight of her character, if that makes sense.

As for the other characters, I found a number of them interesting, and a few of them mostly had me rolling my eyes. I don't know. Maybe I'm just not all about that isekai life, because by the end, the two characters I kind of stopped caring about were the ones who came from the modern world. Despite me loving the development between Marius and one of said characters.

I will definitely still read the next book, because as I said, that ending alone pretty much saved this book for me.