September Read: The Knight Captain is the New Princess-To-Be Vol. 1

Hey everyone! This is my review for my September Read, The Knight Captain is the New Princess-To-Be Vol. 1 by Yasuko Yamaru. I was super excited to read this because it not only looked hilarious, but also the concept reminded me of my current WIP.

There were also two unrelated shorts at the end of this volume (it seems to be a thing for the first volumes of manga series’s to have other shorts from their authors stuck in the back) so I will also be covering those as well.

As always, my content review comes first, then my personal review! There will be spoilers in the content review, so scroll down to the personal review if you’d like to avoid those!

The Synopsis (Taken from Goodreads)

In this shojo rom-com tale, a dashing female bodyguard pretends to be engaged to her childhood friend, the prince…but is their fake betrothal really just an act to him?

Christina, a.k.a. “Lady Chris,” was born into a noble family and treated more or less like a boy growing up. Now a dashing young woman, Chris is not only captain of the imperial guards–she personally protects Prince Leonardo, who has been a dear friend since childhood. When his father, the king, demands he find a suitable girl to marry, Leo insists that he’s already found Chris! Chris is shocked, but figures that Leo doesn’t really love her like that; it’s probably just some ploy to keep the king happy. Chris decides to play along, but as the charade goes on, she starts to wonder if maybe her princely pal has actually fallen for her!

Content Review:

Positive Messages: In the main story, there are some positive messages! Chris wants to fulfill her childhood promise to protect Leo, and Leo wants to both protect her and his people, being willing to hand himself over to his enemies for peace.

Leo obeys his father’s wishes and treats him very honorably throughout the book. He also sticks up for people who are being bullied.

As for Chris, for Leo’s sake, she tries very hard to be kind to nobles who are being rude and insulting, and wants to help him to the best of her ability.

The knights Chris is apart of don’t care about status or gender–they just want knights who are capable or doing their jobs.

In the two side stories at the end, the last of the two side stories (about a husband and wife) has the husband vowing to protect his wife all his days. (His wife had been kidnapped multiple times before their marriage because of who her father was.)

Rating: 5/5

Spiritual Messages: Other than the first of the two side stories in the back being about a “demon king” (who is literally just an immortal dude with horns who has a headless knight sidekick and his only known magical ability was that he created his own furniture) and references in that story to demons and a succubus, there was no spiritual content I caught in the story.

Rating: 0.5/5

Romantic Content: Seeing as this is the main plot of the main story, this has a lot.

Leo’s father wants him to get married, and Leo asks Chris to pretend to be his betrothed (although he really truly likes her). Chris, to play her part, tells the king she loves Leo, but she means it as a friend. Chris later tries to fake flirt with Leo and he flirts with her for real, and she is confused at her heart-pounding. He tells her he wishes no other man would look at her. Eventually, he asks for her to be his fiancé for real, and says he’s not going to break off the “fake” engagement until they’re married.

Leo tells people he fell he’d over heels for Chris. He also tries to pretend the engagement is fake for a little while because he knows Chris wouldn’t accept his true feelings right away.

Chris was raised like a boy and considers herself “one of the guys”. She’s never worn a dress, and when asked to, initially she is horrified and says she can’t “dress drag”. But then she wears dresses for pretty much the rest of the book. For much of the book, she thinks Leo just wants to be her best friend, and suggests another princess for his bride. When asked for her true feelings, Chris doesn’t know how she feels about Leo, but she wants to marry him to be able to stay by his side.

Leo and Chris kiss once, but Leo apologizes afterwards. He tells her he loves her and asks her to marry him, leaving Chris wondering if he’s actually serious or teasing her. Leo’s father tells them he wants them to marry right away and bear an heir. They have to spend the night together to be officially married. At the end of the story, they kiss again.

A guy kisses a girl’s hand. A guy tries to get a girl to sleep in the same bed with him, but she refuses. A couple dances. A guy picks up a girl, and later carries her to her room when she’s been poisoned. He also tries to feed her when she’s recovering. A man is said to have exhausted himself after spending all night canoodling with his wife. A guy asks for a kiss for his birthday from his fiancée, and when she refuses, a hug or date. She tells him she’s all his anyway.

In the two side stories, there is of course, more romance. In the first one, the “demon king” wants to fall in love and find true love, and reads romance novels. In his ignorance, he believes what is in the romance novels is reality and thinks that’s what will happen when he meets a captured princess (where he thinks they must be going to have a forbidden tryst because that’s what happens in novels). He also decides to rescue her when she’s in trouble and just announce her as his wife (neither actually happen; he ends up chickening out and asking her to be his friend instead). When the princess twists her ankle, he flies her back to her room to rest. The princess calls him a playboy initially, but at the end of the short, decides she’d like to spend more time with him.

In the second side story, a newlywed girl imagines how newlywed life would be, with kissing before going to work and so on, but then sees her reality, where she married a ninja who just disappears out of the blue without saying anything. The couple met for a marriage interview with their families present, and the girl’s dad set them up, wanting her to marry the ninja for her safety. The girl believes her husband is asking for a goodbye kiss before she goes to school and gets flustered (as it would be her first kiss), but when its clear he’s not, she decides to kiss him instead, asking him to be a husband to her not just a bodyguard. When she returns, he kisses her forehead and takes her on a date, trying to be a real husband to her.

Rating: 4/5

Violence: In the main story, a girl is kidnapped and poisoned. People try to kill a prince with swords, and multiple of these assassination attempts are thwarted. A guy gets kicked.

The queen orders a fire set in a tower to try to kill a couple. They jump from the tower into water below to escape it (and both survive).

In the two side stories, the only violence is that two guys get punched.

Rating: 4.5/5

Language: In the main story, there were two uses of the word “sucks” , five H- words, and two variations of the D- word.

In the side stories, there was no language!

Rating: 3.5/5

Other Negative Content: There wasn’t too much other negative content in the actual story. People gossip about Chris using her knightly position to seduce Leo, which isn’t true and Leo debunks. A step-mother tries multiple times to kill her stepson.

Style-wise, a villain gives his whole plan away in a typical taunting speech to a captured heroine, which annoyed me a little since it is such an unrealistic cliche in my opinion.

For the two side stories at the end, obviously I did not care for the “demon” mentions even if there wasn’t any magic/spell casting etc involved. In the last story, the husband was hired by his father-in-law to pretend to be in love with his daughter, and she ends up finding out. However, at least he does fall in love with her for real at that point.

Rating: 3/5

Total Content Rating: 4.1/5 Stars

Personal Rating:

This was hilarious! Maybe because in part it reminded me of my WIP so much, but I mean, come on. The misunderstandings and how Leo really does like Chris and she’s just so confused is adorable. And how they both want to look after each other and take care of one another, and how their love just isn’t purely physical but also comes from a deeper appreciation of who each other are as individuals was very sweet. And Leo’s obedience to his father is also another admirable thing. I will definitely be reading on in this series!

The side stories in the back were okay. The “demon king” one made me a bit uncomfortable since he was called a “demon” but there was no magic (other than the mention that he created all the furniture in his castle and that he’s immortal) so there wasn’t any witchcraft or anything. The second story I liked a lot more, but again, I enjoy stories set between married couples overcoming their misunderstandings and differences to truly love each other.

Personal Rating: 4.5/5 Stars

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Have you read this book? Do you want to read this book? Do you have a favorite manga series? Do you have any clean rom-com recommendations? Let me know in the comments below! Thanks for reading! ~ Kay Adelin