This is a must-read book I don't want to give any spoilers, but you won't regret getting this book, you won't put it down till you're done reading the whole this.

Under the Oak Tree: Volume 1 by Suji Kim is a beautifully written fantasy romance that captivates readers with its heartfelt storytelling, rich world-building, and deeply emotional character development. This novel introduces us to Maxi, a timid and insecure noblewoman, and Riftan, her formidable knight husband, in a tale that balances tender romance with elements of medieval intrigue.

From the beginning, Maxi is portrayed as a fragile and stammering young woman, deeply affected by years of emotional abuse from her father. Her arranged marriage to Riftan is abrupt and, due to unforeseen circumstances, he leaves for war immediately after their wedding night. When he returns three years later, their relationship is rekindled, allowing the novel to explore themes of trust, self-worth, and love.

One of the novel’s greatest strengths is its character development. Maxi’s growth from a fearful, self-doubting woman to someone who begins to find her voice is both heart-wrenching and inspiring. Riftan, though initially distant and brooding, reveals layers of devotion and tenderness that make him an irresistible romantic lead. Their interactions are filled with longing, tension, and passion, which keeps the reader engaged throughout.

Suji Kim’s writing is immersive, painting a vivid medieval setting that enhances the emotional depth of the story. The author’s attention to detail in describing the landscapes, castles, and social hierarchy of the world adds a layer of authenticity that transports readers into Maxi and Riftan’s journey.

While the pacing may feel slow at times, especially for those expecting immediate action, it perfectly suits the slow-burn romance that unfolds between the protagonists. Some readers may find Maxi’s insecurities frustrating, but her journey is realistic and deeply personal, making her transformation all the more rewarding.

Overall, Under the Oak Tree: Volume 1 is an enchanting read for lovers of slow-burn romance, character-driven storytelling, and medieval fantasy. It’s an emotional rollercoaster that will leave you eager to follow Maxi and Riftan’s journey in the next volume. Highly recommended for fans of historical romance and epic love stories!

*Thank you to Random House and NetGalley for providing a review copy in exchange for my honest opinion.*

4.5 Stars

I absolutely adored reading Under the Oak Tree (Comic Version) from Manta when the series was first serialized. The art was gorgeous! (Always a huge factor for me.) Plus I was really interested in Maxi’s progression from downtrodden daughter to slowly gaining confidence and becoming close to those around her. She’s just so cute it’s hard not to root for her happiness!

When I saw Random House was coming out with Under the Oak Tree as a light novel, I was super excited but also nervous if I would like the text as much as the comic. Honestly, in certain ways I appreciated the text even more. I had an easier time understanding and empathizing with Maxi’s reactions when immersed in her point of view. She was a bit sassier too, especially in her interactions with Ruth, which I thoroughly enjoyed.

Despite an extraordinarily rough start between them and a few deliberate miscommunications for plot, watching Maxi and Riftan’s relationship unfold as they got closer was sweet. They’re both deeply flawed people trying to move beyond the traumas of their past and come to rely on each other as a refuge and escape from the pressures of their positions. Riftan may be an obnoxious hot head 95% of the time, but even he can say the most adoring things; “The first moment I saw you, I knew you would ruin me” for example. Many of the scenes between Maxi and Riftan were very tender and cute couple moments. The spice was also very good and frequent after they trusted each other a bit more.

My two insignificant gripes are; there were too many characters on the page that we didn’t get to know so it was hard to keep track of them all, and the book felt like it ended between one of Maxi’s thoughts and the next without warning. There wasn’t even a cliffhanger, it was like she dropped off in the middle of a monologue.

If you’re like me and hooked on the comic version of Under the Oak Tree, I highly recommend reading the light novel as well. Most scenes are beat for beat what happens in the comic, but the word building and characters are well expanded on. Or if you want a low-stakes sweet fantasy romance with a couple darker plot elements and lots of inner turmoil, Under the Oak Tree is a fantastic suggestion! Also, who could refuse such an absolute stunner of a cover? I hope the series keeps the same cover artist throughout the books.

*The Fine Print: Under the Oak Tree will not be for everyone. Most of the physical and verbal abuse described in the book are from memories; except for the opening scene. While the physical intimacy scenes between Riftan and Maxi get better, the first few are not totally consensual with Maxi being confused and bewildered by what is happening. I highly recommend checking the tags or tw on Storygraph before reading if you may be sensitive to these or other elements.

The story itself self seems interesting but I couldn't get passed the sex scenes and how many times it didn't seem very consensual.

Do yourself a favor and read this one. OH EM GEE I love this story so much!!! I read the webtoon first and was so excited to see this. The character growth in this story is top tier!

I absolutely loved Under the Oak Tree, Volume One!

This beautifully written fantasy romance pulls you in with its emotional depth and slow-burn love story. The novel follows Maxi, a noblewoman who’s been mistreated her whole life, and her husband, Riftan, a once-lowborn knight who becomes a legendary war hero. Their marriage starts off awkward and distant, especially after Riftan leaves for war right after their wedding night. When he returns three years later, Maxi must find her place beside him and prove her worth—not just to him, but to herself.

What really hooked me was Maxi’s journey. She’s insecure and fragile at first, but you can’t help but root for her as she slowly gains confidence. Her relationship with Riftan is intense—full of misunderstandings, longing, and quiet moments of tenderness that make their romance feel so real. Riftan himself is the perfect mix of brooding and protective, and watching their connection grow is incredibly satisfying.

Suji Kim’s writing brings the world to life, making you feel every emotion and struggle alongside Maxi. If you love character-driven stories with rich world-building and slow-burn romance, this one is a must-read and I can’t wait for Volume Two!

I went into Under the Oak Tree expecting more fantasy, but what really got me was Maxi’s journey. Watching her grow from a sheltered, abused woman into someone learning her own worth was everything ❤️.

The romance? Meh—Riftan’s an ass.
I just don't like him. I know he has baggage but ugh.

If you're here for self-discovery over swoons, it’s worth the ride.

Very graphic opening scene. It was better an a webnovel. The translation over to a book, was a bit rough. The world building was definitely from the medieval times mixed with with fantasy. The characters were portrayed as a a sheltered, innocent FMC, while the MMC came off s an Alpha with terrible communication skills. The book was a mixed bag for me. I don't think I would be recommending this to my readers who haven't read manga/ webnovels.

Too sexy and smutty for me. LOL I felt wrong reading it and was blushing hard the whole time but was definitely on the verge of erotica.

Thanks to NetGalley and Inklore for the ARC. FYI, I dropped this after the first chapter.

A big warning for marital rape and sexual assault from the very beginning of this. Not much usually gets me, I usually give everything a good shot and really like horror, extreme horror even! But getting that scene in a book billed as a romantasy put a really nasty taste in my mouth. And I hate to say it, but Maxi comes off as really pathetic for a main character. A victim of circumstances, she struggles to communicate anything. Maybe this would be cute in other contexts, but when her husband of convenience constantly gets offended as he forces himself on her, it's really hard to watch. I really can't bring myself to read more of this, and I wish that the subject was better forewarned in the summary.

I found this really hard to read. I put it down twice before I picked it up again. The flow of it is weird and I didn't find it enjoyable to read at all. Maybe it's better in it's original form? I don't know, but unfortunately it didn't work for me.

While the cover art for this book is beautiful, I wasn't as impressed with the content of the book. This is an adaptation of the webtoon of the same name, which I haven't read, but I probably won't continue this series any further. I thought that the stuttering was WAAAAAYYY too over the top, and was very poor representation for readers who do have a stutter in real life. I also did not like the romance between Maxi and Riftan, if you can call it that. The first interaction between them is a rape scene poorly dressed up as "romantic", and this dynamic continues throughout the book. I would not recommend this to readers, because of the amount of gross sexual assault content that is portrayed as "dark romance", it that.

I wanted to like this and while the spicy scenes were entertaining and not corny or cheesy, the rest left much to be desired. The characters are trying to figure out their marriage, but there's frustrating lack of communication. There are some issues with consent but it is "normal" for Korean based stories, which created a moment of rage for me.

It was a fun read. Very romantic. I loved the historical setting. Their dynamic was fun and had a lot of tension too it, which I loved. The yearning and slowness burn was done at a good pace, but it was also a bit too insta-lovey for my taste with the immediate attractions and flirtations

This book was so good. I really liked he graphic novel version as well. The romance was well put together and the character development was very good.

Thank you to Random House and NetGalley for the eGalley to review!

Oh boy.

I was debating with myself over how many stars to give this one because everything BUT the "romance" is honestly really good. It is solely what kept me reading, because if it was only about the "romance" and not Maxi doing her best to grow as a person and be accepted by the outside world, I doubt I would have finished this one.

Maxi is great and she has some real, honest character development. She's the eldest daughter of a truly horrible person of a duke and because of her stutter, she was basically given only a life of abuse, hidden away in her father's estate and never given the opportunities her younger, half-sister Rose gets. Everyone outside was made to believe she was just sickly and frail. Because Maxi is heavily sheltered and meek, she is awkward around others and feels inept and lesser than everyone else.

When Riftan, the knight to whom she was made to wed so her awful father could get out of serving in a battle campaign, runs off for said campaign without a word to her the next morning after they consummate their marriage, Maxi feels he hates her. Yet Riftan thinks she hates him because when he comes to collect her three years later, she was supposed to have been at *his* estate in Anatol already and not still at her father's (a decision made solely by her father, mind you). She was also anxious and gloomy during their wedding and wedding night because of how little she thinks of herself compared to him, that he misreads that as hatred toward him.

Everyone around Maxi at her father's estate are saying Riftan would be asking for divorce the moment he could so he could take the kingdom's princess's hand in marriage instead, because they're such a perfect pair together both on and off the battlefield. Riftan did not and, in fact, sees Princess Agnes as more like a sister.

You would think these little misunderstandings would be easily resolved with some heart-to-heart, right? Nope. Maxi, with pretty much no self-esteem, is determined to pretend she hasn't been abused and neglected for two decades so that Riftan and his people don't think ill of her. His knights already particularly loathe her because of her father. This sets up the better part of the story, however: Maxi proving her worth and getting more comfortable with being around others as she tries to befriend them, growing into the person she was meant to be had her father not been such a colossal butthole. In fact, my absolute favorite aspect of the story is Maxi's interpersonal interaction with everyone *but* Riftan, especially when Ruth, Anatol's resident mage, begins teaching her magic.

Because--simply put--Riftan is a jerk. A bonafide, grade-A, not-even-charming jerk. The very first time he inquires about any of Maxi's interests, or what makes her, you know, a *person*, happens in chapter SEVEN. Until then, the interactions he has with her are either spent reprimanding and controlling her like a child (telling her not to do this or that, forcing her away from people and places, etc.) or making her "fulfill her marital duties" by having *marathon* sex with her. He's even raped her a few times when she tells him "no" or "no more"! He's also extremely jealous of anyone she talks to, even her own dang horse and the baby kittens she adopts later on! The "romance" here is hardly any romance at all, in my opinion. Maxi only really starts "falling" for him because of how he makes her hot. Girl, that's not love--that's lust. Get a grip. She's not even pregnant after months of unprotected sex night after night! Oh, but there are a couple of mentions about how she must eventually give him an heir. I tried to chalk this up to her body being frail or that she's too stressed to viably conceive, but I'm pretty sure it's plot convenience. A pregnancy isn't needed yet, so miraculously she just isn't so just yet.

When Riftan gets jealous over Ruth teaching her magic, he tries to forbid her from learning magic. Now, I love Maxi's relationship with Ruth the most in this story because despite some headbutting occasionally, it's a very sweet friendship and there is such a sibling love between them that Maxi never got from her actual sibling. Their relationship isn't utilitarian, even though Ruth tries to pin it as such--it's genuine connection. I adored it. I love Ruth as a character too; he's stubborn and a little careless with his actions and words, but he's interesting and funny. Their magic lessons and heartfelt connections are my favorite. I don't wish for Ruth to be Maxi's real love interest, because I like their familial bond, but I wish Maxi's relationship with Riftan was at least half of that. I get that Riftan is "dark and brooding" with some life issues, and he does occasionally (very occasionally) try to treat Maxi as a person and with gentleness, but wow.

So that's why I was struggling to decide on how many stars to give this one. I wanted to give it three stars because the romance is just awful right now. Yet, the rest of the story is so good that I had a hard time putting it down, so I'm bumping it up a star for that. I am eager to read the next volume, because I'm emotionally invested in Maxi in particular and want to see her succeed.

If you were wanting to read this for the romance, I must suggest you reconsider and instead read this for the troubled, disabled girl who is doing her utmost best to find a home and genuine connection with her people after she's taken out of an abusive environment. It is such a better story than whatever is trying to happen between her and her husband.

I really enjoyed this book! From the first time I saw this book it was the cover drew me in but the words inside kept me captivated!

I was really excited to read this since Under the Oak Tree has such a huge fanbase, but I think this story works better as a webtoon than a novel. The pacing felt a little uneven, and the structure didn’t quite follow the typical arc of a fantasy novel, which made it a bit jarring at times. That said, the world-building was immersive, and I did enjoy seeing Maxi’s growth.

Maxi’s journey had some great moments, but I struggled to fully connect with her in this format. Riftan is the brooding, intense hero many romance readers will love, but their relationship has a rocky start that might not be for everyone. If you’re already a fan of the webtoon, you’ll likely enjoy this adaptation, but if you’re expecting a traditional fantasy romance, just know the storytelling style is a bit different.

Overall, a solid 3.5 stars! The cover is gorgeous, and I think fans of the original will enjoy revisiting this world in a new way.

Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for the ARC!

This one was not for me. It was all over the place. Beautiful cover though! I didn’t realize it had a been a wanton before, so I looked into it, and it seemed people really enjoy that version of it.

I've read the webtoon previously and so when I heard there were plans of releasing a novel, I knew I had to read it. As it is a webtoon-adaptation, the plot wasn't really that different but the structure and pacing don't really follow the format of a traditional novel. This can be a bit jarring for those who are used to the typical fantasy books. The world building is detailed and engaging. Though this time around, I didn't really connect with the heroine. Ultimately, I feel that the story is better suited as a webtoon than a novel.