Iyeon wanted a quiet life as an arborist—but hidden upstairs is a comatose killer who once tried to murder her. When he wakes with no memory, she panics… and lies: "I'm your wife." Can she survive the man who doesn't remember her—or what he did?

Flower of Allure has story by Haru Sakura and illustrations by MOOMI. English translation is done by RIDI Corporation. Published by Manta (October 2, 2025).

Rebecca Silverman
Rating:

Welcome, my friends, to the Bad Decisions Book Club. If you've ever picked up a novel, started reading it, realized it was hot garbage, and then couldn't put it down, you're already a member. And if you're not, allow me to offer MOOMI's The Flower of Allure as an excellent first book. Available only on Manta's app as of this writing (Manta does sometimes put e-book editions in other stores, so this could get that same treatment eventually), the series is perhaps best described as “dark romance,” although “batshit crazy” would also work. It's a symphony of terrible choices, saved from being discordant because MOOMI gives heroine Iyeon relatively believable reasons for making them.

We don't learn until almost the final chapter of this volume why Iyeon is so emotionally damaged. The child of two affairs that tore her family apart, she grew up in what sounds like a much worse situation than Cinderella's, eventually finding solace in trees. But that doesn't save her from the main plot of the story: two years ago, she finds Chaewoo Kwon burying a man alive, conks him on the head with a chainsaw, then ends up having to keep his comatose body in her house for two years because his brother is some kind of Korean crime boss. And when he wakes up with amnesia, she panics and tells him they're married. Chaewoo, unable to remember anything but Iyeon's face (possibly because he was trying to kill her as a witness, but I suspect other reasons as well), grabs onto this lie like a lifeline.

This volume is largely comprised of Iyeon being terrified of Chaewoo finding out the truth, fending off his attempts at physical intimacy (with mixed results), and trying to find some peace in her life – something she arguably never had. Chaewoo, although clearly a very dangerous man, is attached to Iyeon, and possibly not just because he believes they're married. He seems to genuinely want to be with her in many senses of the word, and he tries to tame his nature to fit her wishes – although when a stalker shows up, he proves that he's willing to be utterly ruthless to protect her. (That goes for when a wild boar shows up, too, because of course one does.) It's ludicrous in the most readable way.

Flower of Allure is one of those novels that requires your brain to be turned off. If you think about it too closely, you realize how insane it is, but sometimes that's just the kind of book you need. I'm certainly curious to see where this is going and if things will work out for Chaewoo and Iyeon (whatever that may mean), and that I'm seriously considering reading more volumes when I don't like reading on my phone should say something.

The Bad Decisions Book Club may not be an exclusive membership, but that's what makes it so great. Join me, won't you?