Pig Bride 5

KookHwa Huh / SuJin Kim – Yen Press – 2010 – 5 volumes

Hey, how about I read the last volume of yet another series I liked? Between all the last volumes and volume ones of series that never saw a followup, we’ve got a lot of finality tonight.

The beauty pageant was cute, if a bit shallow, but a good way to end the series. Mu-Yeon enters Si-Joon’s school, and in order to get accepted by both him and his grandfather, she decides to enter the school-wide beauty pageant that determines which girl at the school would make the best bride. This is, of course, Doe-Doe’s territory, but she’s running out of competitive steam, having second thoughts about the way her mother is spending the school’s money on her, sees that Si-Joon is head-over-heels for Mu-Yeon and a lost cause as far as husband material goes, and is starting to fall for Ji-Oh. But the other girls at school bully her into it, so she has one last hurrah as Queen Bee of the rich campus.

The beauty pageant itself gets ugly when the other girls treat Mu-Yeon poorly. She does well at the pageant itself, but the girls ruin her talent portion and Si-Joon deliberately sabotages her makeup to make her less pretty. Not out of spite, but to keep the other guys from eyeing her too heavily. Everything goes wrong, Mu-Yeon’s wrath is felt by the other girls, the grandfather is won over, Doe-Doe’s corrupt mother is exposed… you know.

Nothing too far out of the ordinary, but it was adorable and well-executed, and the element of Mu-Yeon’s slight magical power and provincial origins made this a lot of fun to read. Plus, it was nice to see a rich protagonist who wasn’t completely spoiled. It was also fun to see Si-Joon fall for Mu-Yeon over the course of the series. The last scene absolutely killed me, where each was trying to hold out unsuccessfully against the other for sex. Seeing Mu-Yeon stab herself in the leg out of frustration was especially awesome.

The one strange thing was Doe-Doe’s migration from Si-Joon to Ji-Oh. This was left unresolved, though it was clear that Doe-Doe was pretty far gone on him by the end of the book. But the story had been setting up a little romance between Mu-Yeon’s sister Mu-Hwa and Ji-Oh, which does continue (in its way) through this volume. It’s left open-ended at the end of the book. I assume this was to placate fans and enemies of Doe-Doe alike. Want her happy at the end? Miserable? Draw your own conclusions. Its infuriating when that happens. Just… end it.

But it was adorable, and a lot of fun. Pretty consistent with Yen Press’s other Korean romance titles. There are some that are a little more mature, and more steamy in the romance department, but this one has a lot more fun and takes a light tone, in addition to going off the beaten high school romance path a little. Odds are, if you like this type of story, you’ll love Pig Bride. Check out You’re So Cool while you’re at it, too. That one’s my favorite.