I gave it two stars but only because I did like the artwork.

I read dark romances and even taboo romances, but I can’t get behind an incestuous relationship that we are seemingly supposed to root for… if it had been a step brother, it wouldn’t have bothered me so much. But a twin brother? No.

This is not at all what I expected. While the art was beautiful and character design well appointed, I didn't enjoy the story too much. There was confusion and it was so negative and overwhelming that I found myself waiting for it to end.

I consider myself an unflappable reader, not much bothered by anything except bad writing. But this was just awful.

The entire story is based on incestuous relationship between twins. The brother and sister kissed once when they were six, and ever since she's been kept locked in the tower, and only briefly released for her wedding. That included a public consummation of the marriage, which she seems unfazed about, and the groom dying horribly that night. So she ended up back in the tower where she's fantasised about her brother ever since.

When her father announces another marriage for her, she wishes on the family demon that the marriage won't happen, and it turns her brother into a demon. And apparently, the demon's notion of breaking the engagement is to have sex with her (not shown). Her brother doesn't remember it the next morning, when the transformation is over, but she does. She was perfectly aware it was her brother she was with. She preferred it too.

Even without incest, the plot is just stupid. The entire society is so afraid of women losing their virtue that even siblings aren't allowed to be in the same room unsupervised, let alone men and women who aren't related. All it would've needed for her (already bad) reputation to be tarnished was to be found in the same room with another man. The demon part was wholly unnecessary.

The story doesn't really improve, when the younger brother, who is a monk, shows up (and eventually calls in his brethren for exorcism, which fails.) The first thing he does returning home is to sexually assault their nanny, which based on her reaction, is something he's accustomed of doing. When all the characters are this disgusting, therer's really no point in rooting for them or reading more.

DNF'd at 35%

Starting with the protag kissing her brother at 6, I was hoping it was going to move away from that. Then married and consummating a marriage at 12-ick, but its a medieval book and nothing graphic was drawn out.

DNF'd as the book doubled down on the incest and had her now transformed into a devil brother kiss her and try to have sex with her. Not for me.

The idea was interesting but nothing much happened during this book and I wonder if next ones will give us more information. As a first volume it’s not full of events to interest me to continue, but I will give it a try.

TW: incest

trigger warnings for: incest, sexual assault,

What do you do when you accidentally turned your beloved brother into a demon? Well, you do your best. Unfortunately, for XXX, her best isn’t all that great. She’s been sheltered most of her life, kept innocent of worldly affairs, and is in love with her brother John, which makes her feel even more upset in knowing she’s the one who crused him to become demon possessed. The demon unleashes John’s own desires … which involve his sister, leading to an incestuous romance.

Meanwhile their younger brother, a failed monk, is determined to ruin them both by revealing their secrets and becoming the heir. It’s a mess of pining, longing looks, guilt, lust, and a sort of madness. It’s beautifully drawn, and I think it can be taken in many ways. Giovinetta is kept achingly ignorant by the men who control her life — not knowing how food is made, how to socialize with anyone, kept locked in a tower with only her nurse. She’s kept innocent and ignorant so that she can be controlled and manipulated by her father, her brother, her nurse …

While it’s meant to be Lanister coded, it also comes across to me as very Christian Fundamentalist coded — not so much the incest as the control, the manipulation, the religious trappings, the ignorance and confusion and how easily Giovinetta was led into making poor decisions because she had no way of knowing better, because all of those around her failed her again and again.

This graphic novel will not be for everyone, and that’s perfectly fine. The sex scenes are implied, the violence never lingers and isn’t overly gratuitous and the art is beautiful. The story, though, is a bit flat. Because Giovinetta has such limited company and is kept in a tower for most of her life, she doesn’t really know what’s going on and … doesn’t care. It’s all about her love for her brother, her worry for him, her growing madness as she gives into lust and the desire to be touched, held and loved as, for fourteen years, she has been locked in her room.

It’s a complicated story. I liked it, but I do wish it had done more, story wise. However, this is only the first volume, so who knows where things go from here? Thank you to Net Galley and the publisher for the ARC!

So this wasn't for me.
Originally I liked the idea of a lady making a wish to a devil to save herself from her situation, however I didn't realize that this would include an incestuous relationship.
Other than that, I found that the dialogue was lacking and nothing really interesting happened through this first volume to make me want to read the next one.

Thanks to NetGalley and Yen Press for the ARC copy for "Lady Devil". This has not affected my review at all, which are my own thoughts.

If I have known this one was going to involve an incestuous relationship as the main romance while portraying it in such a, lets say, positive light, I would have not read it. But here we are, so lets dive into it. Because, if we take this fact out the window, the rest was quite enjoyable. And that frustrates me.

Lady Devil is the name our protagonist, Giovinetta Iseul Eurycrate Valdemar (just Giovinetta, or Inette to her twin brother), got after her first husband's heart was ripped out of his body on their wedding night. Years later, Inette is to remarry an older nobleman, a deal that could help end the war that's been going on for a while. Except, she doesn't want to be sold like that to someone she doesn't know nor does she want to be downgrade to a trophy wife and baby maker, which is understandable, but she makes really poor choices from then on. For in her desperation, she follows family rumors to a chamber where a devil (the devil of Ducommun, her family) is said to be kept and makes a wish. A plea to get rid of her future husband, except that it backfires and transform her twin brother Johannes into a devil himself, tainted the so lauded hero of the Valdemar country.

So, we have Giovinetta, who is to marry some man; she's sent a portrait to at least know how he looks. She is confined to her room, where she only sees Griselda, her nanny. We also have Johannes, her twin brother, a lauded hero of Valdemar that has fought in the war and come back home just now (at the start of the story). We also have guards, the father, and a third brother, the younger one, Winfried, who has gone and make himself a monk, so he isn't much around the castle.

As said on the plot's summary, desperate to not marry that man, Inette follows the family rumors that say the have a devil under the castle, in under ground chambers, that can grant any wishes. Is called the devil of Ducommun and it was tear apart limb by limb to be trapped in various coffins, most of which have been already destroy. She hammers one more coffin while asking for her husband to be gone so she doesn't have to merry him.
After this, no night is normal anymore.

This leads to Johannes turning into a devil, full on with wings, fangs, enormous size, claws... The complete set; I'm sure you can imagine it. Worry for him, Inette starts escaping from her room at night to pay him a visit and see what happens and if she can do anything about it. Without giving too much away, lets say that this is part of the story that I liked the least, because, even though it generates conflict between the twins that ends up bleeding into the secondary characters too and affecting the course of the plot, nothing can change this story for me due to the incest and how this relationship is portrait. At least the characters (mainly Inette since we follow her thoughts the most) have the decency to refer to it as a sin, but that doesn't deterred them, anyway😐

Also, as usual, the woman is so weak she faints from intense feelings🙄 And I know there's some sensations and feelings that can lead to the human body shutting down in real life, but in these stories it tends to be exaggerated to drive the drama up to the highest, contributing, in my opinion, to nothing. Such is the case of Inette.

But, lets forget for a moment that there is not such relationship in "Lady Devil". The art stood out to me, with vivid colors and a sharp attention to detail, painting great metaphors and imagery; my congratulations for the artists for creating such amazing display of illustrations. The lore of the world we know so far, how details were given, was also what kept me glue to the pages; i didn't really cared what happened between the siblins, but i wanted to know more about the devil of Ducommun, the devils in general that existed long ago and more; Winfried is the one studying that and he is such and interesting character, that I did read the volume completely for him and the devil's myth, really.

The only issue pacing/structure wise would be repetition of flashbacks, meaning, we see on the page Inette go to the cumbers to make a wish to the devil of Ducommun, yet, this fact is repeated like two or three more times in detail, as if we would forget about it in less than 50 pages. I'm not sure if the story originally was released chapter by chapter with long periods of time between them and that's why the repetition. But, if that's not the case, it is definitely jarring.

Anyway, even though the context of the story, the lore and such were good and give the story an interesting touch, I don't think i can recommend this one in good conscience. An incestuous relationship is quite the most stereotypical and harmful way of depicting twins that I've ever read (opinions of actual twins that I've read around bookish spaces agree with me, just in case someone wants to argue with the fact). And, really, incest that is justified by the story or portrait in a romantic light that hints at that it might be the actual romantic relationship that develops through the story until the end and the characters get their way and end up together will always be a no for me. Sorry, but it is what it is

Thank you, NetGalley, and to the author!
🌟🌟🌟🌟🌟🌟

Overall: 5/5

Overall this book will not be for everyone. There is incest. There is misogyny, old-fashioned ideas about a woman's role in the world, abuse of power, etc.

It is a mature manga. I do not recommend this for everyone. 🌶🌶🌶🌶🌶

The artwork is beautiful. The translation is amazing.

The characters are horrible people, lol. What I loved, though, is that the manga doesn't try to tell you they are. It gives you broken characters, explains why they are they way there are, and how they treat others based on their world views. Everyone is a victim. Everyone is a predator.

This first part does a character study. If you want something faster paced, I recommend looking elsewhere. If you want smut, this might not be for you.

For books like this a trigger warning here might help.

I’m only giving the 1 due to the art style being well done…this was…bad. I can’t get behind the incest/beastiality romance plot…I only continued this so that I didn’t DNF an ARC.

Interesting and exciting story, but too taboo for me

*Adult Read Only!*

"Lady Devil 01" is the first in a ten-book manhwa series drawn by Choco FUKI, adapted by Hanheun and based on an original story by B. Cenci. The story takes us into a world full of surprising twists and turns, social taboos and dark machinations.

"Lady Devil" caught my eye because of the cover. The drawing style immediately appealed to me and the blurb sounded like an exciting story with a forbidden love story, so I was hooked straight away! But I didn't know how forbidden this story would be. Because the story focuses on Giovinetta Vlademar, the only daughter of Duke Valdemar. Giovinetta had a very close relationship with her twin brother as a child, which ended in a kiss and Giovinetta was locked away and married off as punishment. This unleashed a series of events that opened up a dark and demonic path for Giovinetta, her brother Johan and the rest of the noble family.

Apart from the incest aspect, the story managed to win me over with the exciting twists and turns, interesting storyline, dark atmosphere and demons. However, I don't yet know whether I will continue to follow the story of Johan and Giovinetta.

I give "Lady Devil" 3.5 out of 5 stars.

Thanks to the publisher and NetGalley for providing me with an ARC.

2.5 stars rounded up*

If I'm being honest with this review, I didn't particularly like Lady Devil, but I also didn't hate it. The execution of the story and plot were not the best, and it didn't really go anywhere. It was a little messy, and what I imagine is the main theme of this story - the demon, was not fleshed out as much as I would have liked.

Volume 1 of Lady Devil was quite boring, slow paced and left you with more questions than answers. Also, the twin incest was a plot twist I was not expecting, but this taboo romance was the only exciting thing about this story. We know very little of the world, the character's and their relationships as siblings. We got a little of a lot, but it was not enough.

The artwork at times, especially in relation to more intimate scenes with the devil were beautiful and one of my favourite things about this book.

I personally won't be rushing to read more of this series soon, but I would like to see where it is headed eventually.

Lady Devil, Vol. 1 had an interesting premise, but it didn’t fully deliver for me. While the artwork was beautiful, the pacing felt off, and the story lacked the depth I was hoping for. The characters had potential but didn’t feel fully developed. It had some good moments, but overall, it just didn’t hook me.

This is a lot darker than any of the other manhwa I've ever read, and contains a lot of super mature themes. Definitely check the trigger warnings before heading into this one, as a lot happens in this introductory volume to the story. While the story is interesting, I don't find myself particularly attached to any of the characters, and I truly fail to understand the connection between the twins. I think for readers who love a dark story this will definitely be an interesting dive, given they're okay with the taboo topics presented.

Look, here's the thing. It's very well illustrated. The plot is good. There's just one massive issue that I think I missed in translation, which is: the "forbidden romance" in the description is forbidden because it's incest.

The annoying thing, for me at least, is that there are SO many good forbidden tropes you can do in this psuedo-European historical setting. Rival royal familes! Class differences! Interracial relationships! Queer relationships! All of those things are (presumably) forbidden in this setting. And yet. Incest :/

Had literally any character other than her brother been the love interest, I'd be ready to keep reading. I have absolutely no desire to continue though. This book is not for me. I suspect the audience for this book will be extremely niche.

1.5 ⭐

I may have overlooked the incest part. But that's okay, I can handle a taboo relationship, I just thought it wasn't full incestuous, not that way.
The thing is, apart from that and the devil thing, nothing much happened. I guess the plot will revolve about their forbidden relationship and the evil left-out brother. So, I wasn't really into it, it was not that interesting that I feel the need to read the next book. The cover is pretty, though. It just that sometimes the drawing felt a little sloppy, the dialogues were... meh. I couldn't care about any character, too. I know the FMC is this way because of her environment but it didn't make her more likeable.
To be honest, I don't even cared about the incest thing at the end, what really bothered me was the plot, it was so boring and uninteresting.

While I have a feeling the incestuous plot line is going to veer onto a path of these twins, "forbidden love" destroying their kingdom, I just really don't enjoy incestuous plots, period. Honestly, if this had been anything ,but* incest this would be a solid 4-star read, which is why I gave it 3.

I won't be continuing the series, but I'm sure there are plenty who will enjoy it.

As always, thanks to NetGalley and Yen Press the eArc!

While I love the concept of this one, the execution was a bit too messy + also boring for me. I didn't feel invested in the story or the characters even after I finished the volume, but I did like the art style was kind of retro! That's just unfortunately the only positive I have. I just really wish that things were more fleshed out because even though a lot technically happened here, I didn't really get any foundation for what the stakes were, what the characters were like besides the very basics of these two characters want to be together, but they're not allowed to be because it's obviously forbidden romance and also there's a family curse. Look, maybe the problem is me and I skimmed too much, but I had to put the book down a few times because I was just THAT bored with it. 😭 Which is a HUGE shame because I absolutely love some of the themes that are in this story (hello twincest + MMC who turns into a devil? Easily a recipe for success in the right hands).

I have to admit that I saw the cover of this manhwa, loved the art and didn't read the description before reading it.
If I had read the description, I think I would have at least been a bit more prepared for what it is ultimately about.
I think all I can say that I liked is the art, which was beautiful, but the themes were just not for me.

WOW I did not do my research before reading this. This manwha is FULL of twists, turns, and taboo. Inette is locked in a tower after kissing her brother as kids, so she grows up basically to be married off to an old old man - and clearly doesn’t want that. So she makes a wish on a devil and chaos ensues. Not entirely sure if I would continue the story.