What:

Ordinary office worker Oohashi Rei wakes up in the body of the protagonist of her favorite otome game, Revolution. To her delight, the first person to greet her is also her favorite character, Claire Francois–the main antagonist of the story! Now, Rei is determined to romance Claire instead of the game’s male leads. But how will her villainous ladylove react to this new courtship?!

Author: Inori

Where to Read: Purchase a copy at your favorite brick-and-mortar or online retailer. Note that print copies may be of the original translation, which notably was missing some text.

Also see Okazu’s review.

The Good:

• The main character knows what she wants, and the romance isn’t dragged out forever. Instead, we get to see how Rei and Claire’s relationship evolves.
• Unlike many other isekai/villainess stories, the plot doesn’t stand still—there are multiple major arcs with different challenges and different settings, which allows the characters to continue developing. Again, things aren’t dragged out forever. Compare this to My Next Life as a Villainess where Bakarina faces the same situations over and over again, and later novels feel like a rehash of the first two.
• The main character is “special” but not unbearably so; she isn’t all-powerful.
• Absolutely bonkers last volume turns your understanding of the world on its head while wrapping things up nicely.

Overall: 5/5.

Scale for reference:

• 1/5: not really worth looking into; you won’t see many of these because I’ll just drop it without bothering to review it.
• 2/5: probably not worth the time, but you may enjoy it regardless.
• 3/5: an average to above-average series; may be a 4/5 to fans of certain genres or themes.
• 4/5: a strong recommendation with some flaws or shortcomings.
• 5/5: a universal recommendation; one of my favorites. Not necessarily flawless, but has something extremely compelling.