“Do you recall how much our marriage cost?”Countess Bianca de Arno was infamous throughout the land as a haughty, extravagant woman who spurned her spouse, neglected her duties, and spent her estate's money with wild abandon—in her first life, that is! After meeting a miserable and lonely end following the tragic death of her heroic husband, Bianca wakes up back in the castle as her nineteen-year-old self. It's not exactly the second chance she'd prayed for, but she'll do anything to avoid the cold and hunger that plagued her before. In fact, she's even willing to make amends with the indifferent man she calls her husband—but with an entire lifetime of misunderstandings between them, it'll take more than a few clumsy advances to win him over!

Marriage of Convenience has story by hanheun and art by Antstudio, based on a work by Ken. Translation by Tapas Entertainment Inc. Lettering by Shirley Chen. Published by Ize Press (September 23, 2025). Rated OT.

Rebecca Silverman
Rating:

I really enjoyed original novelist Ken's previous series when I read it in novel form - I'm Not the Final Boss' Lover played with basic game isekai tropes in a way that was entertaining and fun. The manhwa adaptation left me a little cold, though, and I'm wondering if that's the same issue with Marriage of Convenience, hanheum and Antstudio's comic adaptation of a different one of Ken's series. That's because there are a lot of very good elements here, but something just isn't quite coming together.

The story is a reset tale. Heroine Bianca died cold, starving, and alone at age thirty-five after a disappointing life and unhappy marriage. As she died, she begged for a second chance, which naturally led to her waking up at age eighteen, back in the life she'd previously lived. This was emphatically not what Bianca was hoping for, and as we learn more, it's obvious why: she was married off by an uncaring father at age nine, her husband is often at war and pays very little attention to her, and when she was thirteen, the one person who cared for her, her nursemaid, died. Bianca soothed herself with shopping, but no one seems to be willing to understand that her extravagant spending was nothing more than a coping mechanism.

This time, Bianca's determined to do things differently, but she's still the same hurt teen that she ever was. Yes, she has a better grasp of where things are going and what she needs to do differently to change them, but she's still not really seeing the forest for the trees. Her husband, Zachary, is much more astute, although he's very unnerved by her telling him that she'll “jump him” in order to have his heir if she has to – she seems to think having a baby will be her get-out-of-jail-free card. I suppose it would be easiest to describe Bianca as a tsundere, but that doesn't quite fit, because she herself seems unaware of any “dere” qualities in her makeup. The only person who could charitably be said to have a clue is Yvonne, a maid who is revealed to be the narrator an astounding fifty percent of the way through the book.

There are plenty of signs that there's more to this piece than we're getting. What little we learn about the story's world is astoundingly misogynist, to the point where Bianca as a noblewoman is likely to think that she has no value outside of her uterus. The pacing is awkward but still readable, and the art is beautiful, with the rich green of the dress Bianca wears for most of the book standing out in particular. There's also some very good humor with one of Zachary's knights; Saveur reminds me a lot of Iketeru from Uramichi Oniisan. I'd be more inclined to pick up the novels if I could find them than read more of the manhwa, but if that's the only way to get the story in English, I wouldn't mind reading another volume.

Erica Friedman
Rating:

I love a good villainess redemption story as much as the next person and I've sat through a fair number of “redeeming the villainess time loop stories,” but to be honest, I have read and watched better than this. Mainly because Bianca is still not a good person for a full three-quarters of the volume. Her husband, the count, is the non-verbal strongman beloved of romance readers who are not me, so Bianca's first decision to make a baby, right now, does not go well. It made me question who the intended audience for this manhwa might be.

I wanted to like Bianca, I really wanted to watch her grow, but the initial chapters did not help her cause. When she punishes a maid, we are assured it is the right choice, but it felt excessive.

Towards the end, something shifts in the volume, humor appears in gags that aren't tired, but feel much more genuine, And Bianca's choices are much less questionable. A repeated sound effect of an over-dressed Bianca, waddling her way around the kingdom feels less like a poke at Bianca and more like a laugh with her. At the same time, Bianca's focus finally switches from natalism and revenge to, at last, that story promised in the synopsis. Bianca starts to—in the most awkward and unfriendly way possible—collect craftsman, so she can build an economy that will save her county. Great! But I'm not the one who's gonna read it.

Art here is full-color, since this volume is a collected webtoon from Tappytoon. It looks good and I really hope it becomes good. For me, it wasted more than a half a volume on making the lead character uninteresting, unlikable and unsympathetic, so I really don't care all that much what happens to her.