The Oblivious Saint Can't Contain Her Power: Forget My Sister! Turns Out I Was the Real Saint All Along! Vol. 1 by Almond

 

The Oblivious Saint Can't Contain Her Power: Forget My Sister! Turns Out I Was the Real Saint All Along! Vol. 1 by Almond

My Rating: ★★★★

Lady Carolina was born to a prestigious family full of magical abilities. Unfortunately, she’s the only person in the family born without a single ounce of magical powers. Raised as the family disappointment forced to live in the shadow of her older sister, Carolina is used to being ridiculed by her sister and the public at every turn. Things change when the king needs to smooth out political breakdown with a neighboring empire, and now she finds herself being married off to the second prince of Malcosias who is widely known as the “Bloodthirsty Prince,” otherwise known as a slayer of both good and bad.

I was so excited to start this book because the title informed me that Carolina was going to come out on top, and quickly. We follow Carolina through her perspective, which reads like a long-winded diary with dialogue added. We occasionally see things through a different character’s perspective, but Carolina is narrating the story majority of the time. I really liked reading this book because the flowery long-winded passages were done extremely well. There was definitely a risk of this kind of narration not panning out, but it was done very well, and I just couldn’t get enough of the story.

That said, it is a slow-paced story. It was 250+ pages that covered under a month of Carolina’s life. I haven’t checked out the manga yet, but if a slow-paced and long-winded story isn’t your thing and the premise sounds up your alley, I would recommend seeing if the manga will be more your thing. The romance is also a very slow burn and not one of the primary plots in this first volume, but I swear that this romance is also simmering on main.

I absolutely loved this book. It’s a story about characters who are verbally abused and shamed by public society, and even by family in Carolina’s case. It’s also a story about these characters slowly finding confidence in themselves and connecting with each other in a political climate that could potentially claim their lives. At first, I thought Carolina was the only character who has gone through a lot behind closed doors and is forced to pretend everything is okay as the public constantly informs her that she is a disappointment. However, I quickly discovered that is not the case and there are actually a lot of complex characters going through something similar.

All in all, I’m really excited to check out the second book. It was a little weird that Carolina doesn’t find out that she’s been a Saint all along before the end of the book, but there was quite a bit of world building that took place instead, so it worked out. However, there are some details that don’t quite add up, and sometimes the sudden change in POV is jarring. I’m overlooking those issues because I think they’ll add up as the story progresses, especially if what I think will be revealed is indeed what’s going to be revealed to the characters. I just know I’m excited to check out the second book and see where we go from here, especially when Carolina eventually comes out way ahead of her truly awful sister!