Thank you to Netgalley, the publishers, and the author for the ARC I read.

I was already familiar with this work because a while ago I had read some of the manhwa on WEBTOON or tapas (I forget which one). I don’t remember how far I had gotten into the manhwa but I think maybe about half of what this first novel volume covers. With that in mind, I was already primed to be interested in the story and the characters.

Ultimately, this story is very easy and quick to read. I got sucked pretty quickly into the story and had within a day or so read ~2/3 of the book. However that was the part where I started getting a bit annoyed with the story and characters and I ended up taking a break for a few days before finally pushing through to finish the story. So here are my thoughts on what I liked and what didn’t quite work for me.

I like the setting of the novel and the world. It’s not super unique but it gives me general fantasy medieval Europe vibes. As such, you can expect castles, knights, nobility, and traditional gender roles (this part annoys me but I have just tried to accept it).

The plot is definitely not the strong point here, this story is definitely focused on characters, relationships, and character growth. So if you are a plot focused reader I do not think you will enjoy this. Almost all of the plot points are focused on driving character growth and they move pretty slowly. But I like character focused stories so that didn’t bother me inherently. I will say, the manhwa reads faster than the novel so I wasn’t quite prepared for how long some parts would take to get through and I do think the story could have been told in less time and it would have been better. There is only so long I want to read about the same issues before I start to get annoyed.

The characters are the main draw of the story. So if you don’t like them, I don’t think you will enjoy reading this. Personally, I like Maxi, our main character. I like the representation of a character with a speech impediment. I don’t think I’ve read something with a main character with such an impediment before. So I appreciated getting to read that perspective and I’m sure people that can relate will really appreciate reading this story. I am hopefully that the author will continue this representation well throughout the full story. But while I like Maxi, it can be hard to read her POV sometimes because she is so insecure. And I fully understand why she is, her whole life with her horrible father would of course lead to this, but that’s doesn’t make it any less frustrating to read. She basically has the same problems throughout the whole first volume and they all stem from her insecurities. She does however have some character growth in this first volume and I was happy to see that.

A big component of the story is the miscommunication with Riftan, her husband. I don’t mind miscommunication sometimes but I hate when it drags on and on. It really starts to drag within this first volume. However, the book itself acknowledges the major issue right towards the end so I do have hope it will be resolved hopefully soon. But it did make it hard for me to finish this first volume because I was just so annoyed.

I was also very annoyed with Riftan. There are good parts to him and really annoying parts. I appreciate that he is very loyal to Maxi, he obviously cares about her, he protects and defends her. But also, like does he even know her? Does he love her or does he love the idea of her (basically possessing a noble lady as a wife)? I’m not entirely sure. I think we will come to see the love develop and the characters to fully know each other in the future, but at least for this first volume, the love feels very superficial. It’s a bit frustrating to read.

Finally, I will talk about Ruth. Thank god he exists, because the story would surely suffer without him. He is the one person that fully knows Maxi’s faults and also initiates a lot of her growth in the story. I very much enjoyed reading a scene if he was in it. He is by no means perfect. He’s selfish in some ways and he isn’t very nice, but he does so much for the story, plus he’s kind of just a grouchy cat really, which is pretty cute.

Ultimately, I am glad I got to read this and I will probably read the second volume, but I need some more growth and way less miscommunication soon, otherwise I may drop the series and just continue the manhwa. I am very happy to see webnovels getting traditionally published in the US and I really hope to see more, especially my favorites. I think there are some really good ones that should really get published and I think the success of this one will likely determine if others do. So I’m very hopeful this one is successful. And honestly, it’s a very popular one so that’s probably why it was chosen even if it’s not the best one. But I’m okay with that, I will be patient and hopefully we can see more coming out soon.

I adored this story! SO much! I had no idea it was a web comic so now I’m going through and inhaling the comic from Manta. The novel was adapted from the comic so seamlessly-it doesn’t read like a disjointed, narrated graphic novel. It reads like a true novel.

There was so much beautiful angst and pining in this story between our heroine, Maxi, an insecure young woman who suffers from a stutter and her husband, Riftan. Riftan was forced to marry Maxi three years ago by her diabolical father and he then left for war the morning after their wedding night. Now Riftan has returned, a decorated and renowned knight, and is collecting his wife. Riftan feels like he doesn’t deserve Maxi because he feels like she deserves to be treated like a queen and provided that kind of lifestyle and Maxi believes that she doesn’t deserve someone strong and brave and capable like Riftan. It’s quite ridiculous because they are both so head over heels for each other and I enjoyed the heck out of the mutual pining. Also, the sexy bits. So much steamy spicy happenings happened in this book. Like, you’ll need a fan trained on you when you get to those parts. The spicy scenes added to the story as a whole, especially because it seemed like that was how they communicated their true adoration and love for each other since neither of them were great at speaking their feelings.

I love where the story is going as we see Maxi come into her confidence and begin to learn how to be helpful and powerful in her own right. I can’t wait to watch Riftan fall deeper in love with his wife and all that will entail!

Thank you to Random House Publishing for review consideration via Netgalley. All opinions are my own.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for this arc.

*SPOILERS* This book aggravated me. At first when Riftan didn’t notice Maxi had just been beaten by her father. Very later on, we learned her father had mages heal her. So I suppose he healed that beating too. Also, Riftan is not taking any time trying to understand Maxi. He forces himself onto her over and over again. Once she becomes more comfortable and shows him the slightest affection, his lust takes over. Of course he blames it on her. Maxi infuriates me because she won’t tell Riftan the truth about herself. I get she’s scared, but she needs to open up if she wants this marriage to thrive. Ruth is by far my favorite character, yet no one seems to like him. I’m still not sure why. I don’t know. This series has promise, but it has started out rough. I hope there is much development. I pay for a Manta subscription, so I may read on there to see how much further the series has gotten.

Trigger warning: rape(some detail), child abuse(some detail) , spicy (some detail)

I truly liked this story so very much. Other than the rape scene. Unexcusable and it almost made me not continue with the book. I wish that part would have been written some other way. The story would have been even better.

I enjoyed the developing love story with how the main character found her voice and strength. It was very difficult to come to grips with the actions of some of the main characters. Changing how I felt about them was admittedly hard, in the back of my mind their character was truly tainted.

I didn't know this was originally a webnovel. I felt it read like one though, so I looked it up. It's very popular. Many people who know it will like the novel.



From the publisher

Lady Maximilian is the daughter of the powerful Duke Croyso, but she is rarely allowed outside her family’s sprawling castle for fear that her stutter will tarnish their noble name. When she is forced to marry Sir Riftan, a lowborn knight caught in one of her father’s schemes, Maxi doesn’t dare hope for happiness, let alone love. Her stumbling communication and his gruff manner sour their relationship before it can begin, and Riftan leaves without a word the morning after their vows are exchanged.

Now, three years after their disastrous wedding night, Riftan has returned as a war hero. To Maxi’s surprise, despite rumors that he was offered marriage to Princess Agnes, a beautiful and renowned sorceress, Riftan still wants Maxi for his wife. And when he comes to claim her, his longing becomes a desire that bewilders Maxi, even as she is overcome by the scorching heat that Riftan’s presence ignites within her. As she learns to navigate the intricacies of her new life, Maxi will find herself and her courage, and discover that she is anything but powerless.

This volume collects chapters 1-76 of the original webnovel by Suji Kim.

Beyond thrilled to be able to have an ARC for this!!! I loved the webnovel so it’s no surprise I loved this. I do think I can agree it reads better as a webnovel, but that does not detract from what a charming read this was.

Thank you, netgalley, for letting me read this arc.
I was very happy with how Maxi gets to grow and become more than the frightened daughter of an abusive Duke. The beginning of the book was a little rough, and it would be good to have some warnings. It starts out with Maxi being abused by her father and gifted to a knight to be his wife. Their relationship starts off rocky and comes off a bit abusive in its own ways. She knows nothing about what is expected of her as a wife, other than to just lay there and do what her husband tells her.
It was nice that very quickly their relationship changed for the better, and she became the lady of the castle. There are the up and down struggles, but Maxi finds a way to navigate this new world she has been forced into and has made friends along the way that stand by her. I can't wait to see how she continues to grow.

A romatic fantasy for the ages. A novelization of the much loved webtoon of the same name, Under the Oak Tree was an interesting introduction to what im hoping will be a terrific series. The character growth of both Maxi and Riftan, as well as some of the other characters was riveting. It did end sort of abruptly, but other than that it was really well done.

This book is for anyone who craves a plot forward story that is not solely focused on the Romance aspect which acts as more of a slow burn sub plot. The world building was fantastic, the pacing of information shared was in sync with the storyline and what the characters were experiencing. The natural flow to it made for such an immersive read that was easy to follow along with.
The characters in this book are so well-developed. It was really interesting to learn the different pieces of their back stories to form theories and learn what motivates their purpose.
-ANNOTATION AND HIGHLIGHT FRIENDS! GET YOUR STUFF READY!-
This book is one of the easiest and most deserving ratings I have given this year. Quite honestly it reminded me why I love reading in the Sci Fi and Fantasy genre so much.

Maximilian Is such a strong and brave woman. Everything she been through she still standing. Like that she has new life with Riftan. Also like that Maxi found something that she wants to do in life and not get hated for it. I dislike Maxi family very much. From the way Duke Croysu treats her to the abuse, and the fact that she was kept away. Riftan character has grown since the beginning of the novel. He has become more open, and he has become less grumpy towards everyone. The one thing that I just dislike about him was that he left right after their wedding and did not tell her anything. Like that he really doesn’t care about luxurious things. I wish they communicated more about everything going on. And there’s also a lot of miscommunication about Maxi. Like the Ruth is willing to help Maxi. From studying and helping her understand money, and so many other things. Throughout the book, there is a lot of happy moments between these two. Also, there is a ton of spices scenes throughout the whole novel. I can’t wait to read the next volume, to see what happens between these too.

I have read the web comic and absolutely love the characters. I will be comparing the novel to the comic as well as it being an independent work.

plot:
The premises for both the comic and novel are the same. There's this teasing out of wondering when it's going to be revealed to Riftan that Maxi's prior life with her father isn't as pleasant as he thought it was. I don't mind dragging this out. It's nerve-wrecking to think about what Riftan's reaction will be. I would've liked to see more backstory on Maxi's relationship with her father, specific scenes I can compare her being back home versus with Riftan with.

characters:
Riftan as a character in the novel is disappointing. He seems far more aggressive in the novel to Maxi. At least, in the comic, I could tell that he misunderstood her. In the novel, he's more of a "take what I want" guy, which I wasn't fond of. The writing made it seem like Riftan was more abusive rather than aggressive and misunderstood. He's not painted in a good light. I feel like people who didn't read the comic would mistake him for being more of a villain than he is aimed to be.

Maxi was the same in both comic and novel. She's this flat character who is trying to develop as an independent person. In the novel, she remains flat up until she's learning magic. I understand her re-decorating the castle was also a step-up, but it would've been nice to see her interactions with the servants and cooks who have been there for so long. I did enjoy her interactions with the knights like Sir Hebaron and seeing their view about Maxi and her family.

intimate scenes:
It felt like there was sex every other chapter, especially in the beginning. The beginning was hard to read because the writing was awkward and clunky when it came to the intimate scenes. It became better over the chapters, but there's a lot of sex.

This was terrible. Incredibly boring, barely any plot. Far too much non consensual or dubious consensual sex. All of which was poorly written. The story had no climax and I was left wondering what the point of this story was. Maybe it’s because I never read the web series this was based on, but I thought it was awful.

I didn’t care for this novel at all. I feel like there was a whole lot of nothing going on the whole time. This novel revolved around Maxi hating and questioning herself 90% of the time, sex, sex, sex, and Maxi learning magic. There’s little character development, no real plot or climax to the story, and so many questions left unanswered. I understand there’s a vol. 2 that may answer everything and get to the point of the story but theres no reason vol. 1 should have been this long.

4.5 stars

I am a big fan of the webcomic. (Though like all my webcomic reading, I am severely behind right now.) So I was very excited to see the original web novel getting a print one (and such a gorgeous edition!)

I will say that the comic seems to move a bit faster than the novel (not in a bad way, it just felt like Maxi acclimated to her new home quicker in the comic.) Also I find Maxi's voice and emotions and thoughts to come through a lot clearer in novel form. I didn't realize quite what she was feeling and on the receiving end as much in the comics.

And also, the novel is much more explicit and spicy than the comic. (Something that is a few panels is entire, detailed, frequent chapters.)

On a minor note, I really loved the formatting of the chapter headers.

Will definitely read more, and looking forward to my pre-ordered fancy edged copy.

I read this without having any prior experience with the webcomic or original Korean webnovel.

The story follows Maximilian Croyso, the neglected and abused daughter of Duke Croyso with a speech disabilty, who marries Riftan Calypse, a low born knight who later becomes a war hero, through an arrangement made by her father in a bid to avoid going on a dragon hunting crusade. As the story progresses, we witness Maxi’s growth as a character and the relationship between Maxi and Riftan evolve.

This was a solid story in my opinion. It’s more character driven rather than plot driven as it explores Maxi’s development now that she’s in a more loving and safe environment. I am looking forward to seeing how her magic develops but I am mainly interested in seeing her become more assertive and stand up for herself.

I had some doubts in the beginning due to the dub-con/non-con aspects of the relationship. I feel like this doesn’t really endear the readers to Riftan and is more of a disservice to his character. He does improve as the story goes on, but it doesn’t change the events that were used to introduce him to us unfortunately. I hope this will be addressed between Maxi and Riftan later in the story. If not for the beginning scenes, I would be more into the romance.

Overall, I rate it 3/5 as it was entertaining and easy to read. I will definitely pick up the next volumes to follow Maxi’s development. Hopefully, the relationship between Riftan and Maxi improve as well.

Thank you to NetGalley and Random House Publishing Group for the arc.

RIBBON BOOKMARK! YAY! Do more of those please :-) Beautiful first edition!

Based on the writing style, I think this will appeal better to the more traditional fantasy reader set. I stopped after chapter 1 but it feels like a solid 3-4 stars for the target audience with 5 for the right readers.

Thank you to NetGalley and Random House Publishing for the ARC.

The absolute happiness I feel knowing that the light novel of this series FINALLY has offical translations makes me the most content person in the universe right now.

As someone whose already a huge fan of the manhwa, I knew I immediately needed to pick up the novel. I felt like I got more in depth with the charcaters of riftan and the mc. I loved reading in a perspective that had no images and a guess on what they could be really thinking. Instead we get the whole perspective of the fmc and I loved that detail even more.

I’m also dying to have the physical copy with the sprayed edges because it is absolutely stunning and having that in my hands will make this book even MORE memorable<3

I originally read this online as a comic and mostly enjoyed it. I think that it reads okay as a novel but does not have a lot of depth to it. The characters have personalities but there doesn’t seem to be anything more to them. I don’t see an underlying goal or anything motivating which made the book fall flat at times.

Have been really enjoying this. Starts as non-consent, reluctance, but the story and worldbuilding and character building is actually quite strong. I love the idea that this novel is a serialized book not dissimilar to some of the old Victorian novels that people love. Written a chapter at a time. Read the whole thing (seasons 1 +2) and enjoyed it a lot.

NOTE TO OTHER READERS - after reading this book, I continued to read the series and enjoyed it TREMENDOUSLY. It will *not* be everyone’s cup of tea. There is a lot of conservatism in how men’s and women’s roles are depicted and how the main characters treat each other. But there is still a place for women who wish to have a handsome hero sweep them off their feet and protect them with single-minded devotion…just as there is a place for men who growl but love deeply, and wish to fight monsters and defeat enemies and return to their beautiful lovers who they can be safe and spoil with fine things and fine foods.

Under the Oak Tree balances this traditional wish fulfillment with the main character, Maxi, starting down the road to her own independence, which I appreciated as a strongly independent woman myself.

BIG trigger warning for familiar abuse, rape, and violence. There is also no LGBT at all.

Loved the webtoon for awhile now and really see how the novel brings the story to life in a new way! The novel brings so much more detail and gives insight that is overlooked so I highly recommend reading if you are a fan of the series!

I had previously read the manhwa (the novel goes further than what I had read) and really liked it, so I wanted to check out the now translated novels. This is the first volume of several.

The story is set in a mostly generic fantasy world, but there is still some good world building here. We follow Maximillian ("Maxi" for short), a young woman with a pronounced stutter. She's the daughter of the richest noble in the land, Duke Croyso, who has abused and hidden away Maxi for most of her life. He marries her off to a lowborn knight, Riftan Calypse, who, after marrying Maxi, is sent on a seemingly impossible campaign for three years. Riftan defies the odds and emerges a hero, so much so that even the King wants Riftan to marry his daughter. We start the story with Riftan retrieving Maxi from her father's castle and taking her home.

I've read my fair share of fantasy romance, and I will say that Under the Oak Tree has an honest-to-god interesting dynamic not usually seen in these types of books. We see lots of sassy, headstrong, beautiful female leads and their bad-boy-but-not-really male leads; but actual difficult relationship dynamics are rare. Both Maxi and Riftan are incredibly insecure, but in different ways. Maxi has lived a life of being abused and told not to speak. She's been compared to a younger sister who is supposedly her but without defects. Riftan has spent his youth tirelessly proving himself worthy to be a knight. Their insecurities play off each other in interesting ways. Riftan believes Maxi to not see him as worthy and lavishes riches and constantly questions if she is unhappy away from the wealth of the Croyso castle. Maxi believes that if she lowers her walls for a moment, Riftan will abandon her and see her for the charlatan she believes herself to be.

In the manhwa, I thought that Riftan's possessive and at times, very toxic behavior was portrayed favorably. In the novel, it's much clearer that Riftan is shown to be quite agitative. The beginning of their sexual relationship is hard to read, with Riftan treating Maxi as his object. They do find their way and honestly, one of the only ways they seem to communicate positively is through sex. They have a weird and kinda messy relationship!

This is not to say that I don't have qualms with this book, I do. The way time is presented is bizarre to me. Riftan is gone three years, that's understandable. It seemingly takes a very long time for Maxi to get to Anatol, but then Maxi has the castle decorated and remodeled in 8 days. And in that time, Riftan goes to the Capitol, attends a celebration, and returns to Anatol. It is bonkers. There's also just a lot of time spent...not doing a lot. I don't mind this generally because, well, Maxi isn't Riftan and she's not fighting monsters, but it can be a bit boring at times.

This is a romantic fantasy that has some elements you just never see. A female lead with a disability! A relationship that's a sort of reverse slow burn, but then is...a slow burn? It's drawn out for sure, but there is something just really addicting about the characters and story.