A couple of days ago, I made a post on [why most allegedly enemies-to-lovers stories don’t hit the mark](https://www.reddit.com/r/OtomeIsekai/comments/1u26484/enemies_to_lovers_only_work_if_the_love_interest/) of this trope and how to fix it. Later, someone gave me a recommendation and said it ticked all the boxes I mentioned: The Spirit Queen.

And they were absolutely right.

The spirit queen follows a girl who rose from slave to concubine in her quest to find out the whereabouts of her clan. For that, she must climb the hierarchical ladder within the harem until the very top. However, this journey isn’t easy when she must tread carefully between a politically weak emperor, a dowager who controls the military, and the other concubines. In a palace where having a soft heart means having a weakness and having a weakness means you’re as good as dead, will she manage to come on top?

This story has all the ingredients to be a masterpiece: creative worldbuilding, realistic court intrigue, interesting side-characters, villains with relatable motivations, peak art, captivating love interest, and finally, a strong and extremely clever female lead.

And the recipe was a damn success, this is an unquestionable 10/10. The author ate and left no crumbs.

#Peak Enemies-To-Lovers

Their relationship already began on the wrong foot because she was appointed as a concubine by the empress dowager, the male lead’s main political adversary. But they turn this around rather quickly and become inseparable love-doveys, which I obviously found extremely weird. For a moment there, I doubted the author’s capacity. But, babe, after the plot twist in chapter 40, everything that you read for the first 39 chapters gains a completely different meaning, and you’ll be left collecting your jaw from the ground.

That’s when the real enemies-to-lovers begins, and it’s just so peak. Sadly, I can’t say a lot without giving you the spoilers that would ruin your experience, but the constant backstabbing between these two is simply amazing, and when they plot together, it’s even better because you never know when they’re really about to chop each other’s heads and when they’re acting together until the end. 

Their relationship will keep you on the edge of your seat the entire time, but it doesn’t end there. If you like the bickering and banter part of the enemies-to-lovers trope, you just found the perfect story. I love their dialogues so much!
#A Feminist Tale

I really love the romance in this series, as you can see. Still, it’s just my second favourite aspect of this story. The first place would be the women.

Every female character here has so much depth to their personalities, their motivations are reasonable, they’re genuinely interesting, and each one of them could even have their own book with how fleshed out they are. The female lead is the main voice in this, with her spotless strategies, strong attitude and her growth throughout the story: she never loses her compassion for the people who actually deserve it, but she becomes ruthless for everyone else.

I also loved the consort Madam Mystic. This woman is amazing, even if you dislike her in the beginning, by the end of the first season, you’ll be screaming, “Slaaaay queen”. >!I can’t get enough of her insulting the emperor with all available adjectives!<.

Finally, the main villain of the story: the empress dowager. She’s evil, period. But you can’t not love her political game, strategies, her powerful and cynical attitude and the way she’s been manipulating this entire country for a decade. Queen behaviour, ok. All that said, I was praying for her death the entire time.

#Random Positive Points That I Just Loved

The servants all have their own motivations, and they don’t act on mere loyalty unless they have something to gain from it. This isn’t one of the stories where the fl wins everyone over with some specks of kindness.

The ML and FL are equally manipulative. They have a very balanced dynamic, even if he holds the most powerful position in theory.

The betrayal comes from ANYWHERE.

The third act conflict is spotless. The battle here is what the battle against the king of the night in Game of Thrones was supposed to be.

I have a feeling I’m forgetting something important, but I’ll leave it to you after you read this masterpiece.

Thank you for the rec, u/Trackeys ?





One of the best enemies-to-lovers EVER [The Spirit Queen]