Princess Beatrice of Elpasa can do nothing but watch helplessly as Duke Alessandro of the Nosteros Empire invades her country and strips her of her status―but nobody could've have predicted to take to the hard labor like a fish to water. Having grown up as the commoner Chloe, the former princess is quick to reclaim her birth name and chop off her long locks, eager to get a fresh start to her second life. Her past is hard to escape, however, as her intellect and charm catches the eye of Duke Alessandro himself! Will she be able to hide her identity as Beatrice, or is she fated to meet her end by his sword?

Beatrice has story and art by Cierra, based on a work by Macherie. English translation is done by Tapas Entertainment and lettering by Elena Pizarro Lanzas. Published by Ize Press (January 20, 2026). Rated T.

Rebecca Silverman
Rating:

Look at that cover – this book is gorgeous. While the interior art doesn't quite have the polish of the cover art, Cierra's flair for exquisite, doll-like ladies in gowns that would make Marie-Antoinette weep with envy is undeniable – and they're not too shabby when it comes to men both handsome and beautiful, to say nothing of a love of sculpted bare chests, complete with the oft-overlooked male nipple. Cierra's even quite good at drawing horses, which is nothing to sneeze at. If Ize Press sold a poster of the cover, I'd be lining up to buy it.

It's just too bad that the story doesn't quite have the same appeal. The heroine is only sort of the eponymous Beatrice (which, given the other names in the series, I suspect is meant to be pronounced “Bay-ah-tree-chay”) – not only is this her second life after one lived in modern Korea, but she began this one as Chloe, a slave. Born to the king of her country and a slave he spent one night with, Chloe's life working in an apothecary seems to have afforded her a lot of freedom, especially since she has the skills from her previous life as a doctor of traditional Korean medicine. But when the king needed a daughter to marry to his repulsive retainer, he came for Chloe, renamed her Beatrice, and that was that…until Grand Duke Alessandro of the neighboring kingdom conquered them. Showing an admirable lack of understanding genetics, Alessadro declared that Beatrice could live on as a slave rather than be killed, because her dark hair and eyes obviously meant that she couldn't bear a child with the royal blonde hair. And thus Beatrice became Chloe once more.

It's an odd story, and one that definitely doesn't make a ton of sense. While Chloe's assertion that she'd rather live as a slave again than die as a princess does have some root in her lived experiences, there's still some whitewashing going on. Alessandro's repulsive knight Rio makes it clear that as a slave she's in for sexual assault and torture…but then once she cuts off her hair and is apparently no long recognizable as the princess, her life as a slave is painted as pretty good. Certainly she's happier than Alessandro, whose father is eager to marry him off and doesn't care what his son thinks. Is this an attempt to draw a parallel between their situations and to show that anything can be slavery? I hope not, but I can't count the possibility out.

This isn't a terrible first volume, but I can't say that I particularly enjoyed it. It's glib with its storytelling and has some issues with plot and pacing, although I do appreciate the efforts made to prevent the killing of a horse. I'll probably give it a second book out of grim curiosity, but judging this by its cover turned out not to be the best plan.

Bolts
Rating:

Have you ever read a story that felt like it was trying to tell multiple stories all at the same time? Beatrice is a story about a woman who was stripped of everything and betrayed by her husband, forced to become a slave once again after being used as a political bargaining chip. However, it is also a story about a prince who wants nothing to do with his title because of his daddy issues. Oh, but it's also a story about that same young woman gaining status and recognition because of her doctoring skills but it's ALSO an isekai story because that same woman was actually a doctor in the real world and got reincarnated in this medieval fantasy setting with all of her knowledge intact. It genuinely felt like I was introduced to a new, random plot or set up for another story every chapter. It happened so often that it almost felt comedic in nature. The problem is that I didn't think I was getting anything even remotely funny after reading the first chapter, considering how incredibly violent and horrific things start out.

One of the main themes of Beatrice is the idea of names and identity. Sometimes identities are thrust upon us while other times we have a rare opportunity to craft an identity for ourselves. The fact that our main character goes through different names throughout the story I think is evident of that and acts as one of the main themes of the story that I think actually works. Seeing her adapt to different circumstances and try to make the best of them when most people are shown to be horrified is incredibly endearing. I like Beatrice as a main character because of that quality and how infectious it seems to be with the rest of the cast. I am genuinely curious what the story has in store for her moving forward because, by the end of this first volume, it feels like she's put in a position where it will be hard for her to circumvent those situations that she is desperately trying to avoid.

The problem is that introducing all of these different plot points one after another each chapter makes things feel incredibly contrived and uneven. Sometimes it feels like incredibly large plot points are introduced just for the sake of explaining or finding a solution to a previous plot point. For example, it feels like the only reason why Beatrice is written to have been from another world is to justify her being an expert at medicine which is the only time that ever gets brought up. Situations like this don't really give the story a lot of room to breathe because I'm too distracted. The book sort of settles into a solid pacing by the end, but this first volume definitely spends a lot of its time setting things up without actually hitting any type of emotional investment.

I don't care much for the violent and standoffish duke character with his daddy issues, because this first chapter spends so much time frontloading the horrific things that he does at the beginning of the story. If the idea is to set up a romance between our main characters in the future, I actually don't know how the story is going to be able to do that given the messy foundation that is laid out here. Even if I give the story the benefit of the doubt there's not enough that grabs me to think that my patience or dedication is going to be rewarded by giving it all of this time. The story doesn't even present itself like it is a slow burn because something is always happening. I would say you could get away with skipping this one because there are other stories out there that do a better job of economically using their time but that also might be because those other stories also have a more solid idea of what it is they want to be.