Personally, I don’t really understand why this series is so popular. Don’t get me wrong, it’s not terrible by any means, but it’s basically the definition of mediocre...
The story is as generic as it gets. The romance with the guy at the end feels completely bland, and the villain is barely even a character. She feels more like a plot event than someone who actually interacts with or influences the story.
I do like the premise of everything taking place within 24 hours, but the story never really makes you feel that urgency. This becomes even more obvious once the king and queen decide to side with her.
The ending also has some really unnecessary elements. The whole thing where she deliberately gets the woman abused just to prevent the man from participating in the final event felt unnecessary. The same goes for the creepy teacher subplot. The problem is that the story never really explains why either of them would have made a difference in the first place. From what we’re shown, they probably wouldn’t have.
What disappoints me the most is the lack of payoff. A lot of villainess stories build toward the villains being exposed and finally getting what they deserve, and this series seems to be setting up something similar, only to barely do anything with it. As a result, the ending feels much less satisfying than it could have been.
There are so many villainess stories where the protagonist is genuinely interesting, the villainess is actually well-written, or the romance and plot are good enough to justify the hype. Here, though, it feels like people are satisfied with very little.
Overall, it’s not a bad series, but it ultimately settles for being painfully average.