Min Bo-ha possesses the psychic ability to read memories with her hands. Abandoned by the Min family and living from hand to mouth, one day she is given the position of the Crown Princess in place of her injured sister. Bo-ha puts on makeup and tries to fulfill her duties as a Crown Princess, but little did she know this decision will change her life forever.

The Scandalous Secret of the Crown Princess has story by and art by LaHee, based on a work by JEONG MUNEE. English localization is done by Manta. Published by Manta (December 7, 2025). Rated T+.

Rebecca Silverman
Rating:

Boha Min was never supposed to become the crown princess. In fact, as far as her father Lord Min is concerned, she shouldn't even be alive. Blaming her psychic abilities on evil spirits, and then blaming that for the deaths of Boha's mother and brother, he dumped her in the forest twelve years ago and began making plans for her sister Ryeonha to become Crown Prince Geom Lee's bride. But when Ryeonha is injured, he shifts his focus – he'll use the inferior daughter to get rid of Geom and put the royal younger brother Dongmyeong on the throne for…reasons. Possibly because he wants to get in good with the queen, who is not Geom's mother.

It's a set up ripe with dramatic possibilities. Boha has spent a decade and change trying to bury her sadness at being kicked out of the family by being brash and dressing as a boy to bilk susceptible women out of their money. She's fiercely loyal to the family who took her in, but she also clearly still mourns the loss of her biological family…or at least her sister. (Ryeonha, on the other hand, has spent twelve years being poisoned by her father's bile.) This means that when Lord Min demands that she take Ryeonha's place, she might not find it in herself to refuse – especially once she figures out that the noble she's had several heated encounters with is actually Geom himself. (Geom, of course, thinks she's a boy.) Boha is riddled with insecurities and conflicting emotions, and even she's not sure what she'll do from one minute to the next, which is a pretty good argument to keep reading.

Unfortunately, the translation here isn't as smooth as Manta's typically are. While anachronistic language won't bother everyone, I don't usually see Manta using words like “dude” in a Joseon-set story, and there are some sentences that are difficult to parse as well. It's still perfectly readable, just not up to the usual standards. The art, on the other hand, is nice and less fussy than a lot of Korean webtoons. It evokes the place and time quite well, it just doesn't bother with ornate details, which is particularly not a problem since the opening chapters take place before Boha returns to her noble roots.

With a real K-drama sensibility, The Scandalous Secret of the Crown Princess is easy to get pulled into. It balances its elements well, and if it's a bit predictable, that's not necessarily a problem because we've all read or watched some version of this story before, possibly when it was called “Cinderella.” It's fun, and with a plot like this, that's what really matters.