Review Detail of Ellezra in The Villain's Wife

If you are looking for a female protagonist who is neither a ridiculously violent type, an infuriatingly stupid and clumsy type or a so soft and weak a breeze could break her type then you have found the right book! The FL is not the most book smart but she definitely has common sense and business acumen in buckets. I find her characterisation surprisingly refreshingly particularly in how she is exploring her feelings towards the ML - as in, she feels what real women feel in bewilderment towards their contradictory feelings! There are also no ridiculous misunderstandings, she actually talks to people around her and clears the air well before it becomes stupid. She does not suddenly become distracted when she gets together with ML and she is not some shy virgin keeping herself chaste and pure for the ML only! It’s the other way around. Now I will say ML might be unrealistically perfect in the sense of his devotion to FL - but dang it I need that to cleanse me of the rapist and yandere ML’s that seem to make up the majority of stories around here. The ML has his flaws and hardships in life but he does not allow this to distract from his feelings for ML. He is a steady and dependable partner - and they are partners! This is not a case of FL suddenly losing all agency when they get together and ML just does everything. No, they get **** done as a team and it’s awesome. Other positives: - You can tell the author thought about many elements of the story in advance. It does not feel cobbled together or rushed or just going with the flow. There is a method there and the reveals are well timed and do not pull you out of the flow of the story. - There is a good balance of romance, thriller and action to the story. Not so soppy that I skip parts of too verbose that it insults my intelligence as a ready. Very well balanced. - The author is clearly sensible and understands her audience. There is no glossed over rape, no justification of gratuitous violence and the world building makes sense. Even where the author has had to deviate away from or make up frameworks existing in the real world. - The side characters in the FL and ML’s orbits are well constructed in that they clearly have their own personalities and motivations and back stories. I did worry that they would become a bit trope-y (particularly the secretaries and the best friends) but they do complement the leads well. I will say though that some of the villains started out strong (Yang Lina, Qin Fei) with good backstories and motivations but others became a tiny bit cliched and over the top. This goes for both male and female villains. However, I think they do have a purpose in driving some of the drama and it is not super annoying or obvious as in other stories where villains that should have been removed keep recycling. I will say that where they are now makes absolute sense within the context of the story. I rarely write reviews or rave about a story. In fact this is only the second story that has received this treatment. Definitely recommend! Great job, author!