For her entire life in Joseon, Yun Jini believed there was only one man in the world, the king. As a newly appointed chambermaid guarding the royal bedchamber, she begins to awaken to forbidden desires she has never dared to name.

But in a palace where love and freedom are luxuries no court lady can afford, her fate turns even darker. Accused of treason and forced to flee, Jini falls into a pond, sinking fast toward certain death.

“I don't want to die like this!”

Her desperate plea is answered. The mysterious waters carry her not to the afterlife, but across time itself, into 21st-century Korea.

Here, in a world bursting with freedom she never imagined, Jini experiences love for the very first time. Emotions long suppressed finally find release, and a woman who once knew only duty and fear begins to discover what it means to live... and to love.

Confessions of a Chambermaid has story by CANNT works and art by NOK HAE. Translation and lettering by Lezhin. Published by Lezhin (October 14, 2025). Rated R.

Rebecca Silverman
Rating:

If there's a single word that describes this series, it might be “silly.” That's not in any deprecatory sense, though - Confessions of a Chambermaid is silly in the way all fun romances are. There's danger, excitement, smutty bits, and a heroine determined to find her way in the world, all with a dollop of time travel thrown in for good measure. It's delightfully easy reading.

The time travel element is perhaps less of a factor than it might sound. Court maid Jini lives in the Joseon period, where she works for the king. Because of who her boss is, she's forbidden from having sexual congress with anyone else, and if he never chooses her, well, she's out of luck. She's remarkably naïve about the whole process until she's assigned to guard outside his bedchamber when he's indulging in a different chambermaid, at which point she becomes absolutely consumed with sexual curiosity. But before she can do anything about it, she's slightly wrongly accused of treason (she was covering for her roommate, who was sleeping with the king's cousin), falls into a pond, and ends up in the modern world.

If you're thinking that she's going to immediately be able to start satisfying her curiosity, you're partially correct. In a remarkably convenient turn of events, Jini bumps into another court lady from Joseon, who now runs a hanbok (traditional clothing) shop. She also encounters two men who look remarkably like the king and his cousin – a stuntman named Jung and an actor. Jini's thrilled that Jung is a much nicer guy than the king (or at least is living a life that allows him more happiness than the king), and it looks like he's going to be her man…except that back in Joseon, the king is trying to figure out why people keep falling into his pond and vanishing without a trace. So the time travel seems unlikely to stop any time soon, and I, for one, would love to see things get totally confused.

The art is very nice – artist NOK HAE draws really nice faces and bodies (and you get to see all of the body parts; this is on Lezhin, which means it has at least an 85% chance of being explicit), and the colors are beautiful. The hanbok looks more lived in than we often see in period pieces, and attention is also paid to the women's long hair and how it would be put up. I'm definitely curious to read more of Jini's adventures, and if you're looking for an easy read and don't mind some explicit content, I'd suggest checking this out.

Bolts
Rating:

I did not expect this story to take that turn after the first few chapters. This is a story that set itself up as a sexual period piece where a chambermaid named Yun Jini is infatuated with the idea of potentially being physically intimate with the emperor that she serves. However, she gets drawn into the unfortunate, passionate circumstances of others and is forced to run under the threat of being executed. It's scary to think that this woman could've died without ever knowing the touch of a man…until she falls into a lake and gets teleported hundreds of years into the future. I'm not kidding. That's literally what happened, and it's not even a spoiler because this book has a time traveler tag on it, so I figured it's better I splash the cold water on you.

I am mixed on the sharp right turn that the story makes by the time it gets to the third chapter. On the one hand, I nearly broke my neck with the amount of whiplash that I suffered because it ultimately ends up feeling like we're telling a very different story. When we're in the past, things were violent and indicative of the inherent sexism that came with how women were treated during that time. Women were raised and expected to serve to the point where not being a virgin could actually get you killed. It's a surprisingly violent and visceral start that is mixed with some erotic imagery. But then, when we go to the future, it only feels like we're in a romantic comedy. We even get some stylistic changes in order to punctuate comedic moments.

On the other hand, I do like this second story of seeing Yun Jini adjust to the future. Things are tremendously less serious, and we take on a more self-aware identity. It is genuinely ridiculous when the setup for the story suddenly becomes about sex, like it's some grand goal that needs to be accomplished in the modern day. The execution of plot points just comes off as very goofy, and if it didn't have that degree of self-awareness, then I would argue that the story would be garbage. However, without giving too much away, the story still tries to interweave elements of the past timeline, but it's too soon to tell if it manages to balance these very different tones engagingly. Given the way the story currently plays out, I don't fully get to see how everything matches together just yet, but I'm willing to give it another try to win me over.

The premise isn't anything new, but the idea of having sex be the main thing that connects these two alternate stories is fascinating. Plus, I like the comedic angle that the story takes, and I want to see how that clashes with the more violent aspects of the old time period. Something is definitely being set up here, and I would say give it a try so that you can also confirm if your curiosity is strong enough to continue.