It should've been the end for the young Queen Etoile. When her beloved husband, Isar, cuts her down as the enemy invades, it seems she is destined for a miserably short reign. Instead, she awakens five years in the past. Armed with knowledge of what's to come, she now has the ultimate opportunity: fix her mistakes, take back everything that was stolen from her, and enact sweet revenge on her would-be betrayers! The powers that be won't let an upstart royal act with impunity, however. Malicious forces attack from every angle, and it soon becomes clear that Etoile isn't the only one that remembers the past. Can Etoile tame the flow of time and find true happiness? Or is she doomed to the fate that has already once consumed her?

Sorry Darling, but You Won't Kill Me Again! has a story by Tsuta Sonehara and art by Lemon Natsume. English translation is done by Hunter Prigg. Published by J-Novel Club (September 30, 2026).

Rebecca Silverman
Rating:

There are few things as satisfying as a revenge narrative where the bad guys truly deserve what they get. Sorry Darling, but You Won't Kill Me Again! provides that in Posenia. She's hardly a new character in otome-adjacent light novels; lauded as the saint for her remarkable healing powers, she is unsurprisingly actually a villain who shamelessly orchestrated Princess Etoile's downfall and death for her own selfish reasons. Her partner in crime, Isar, likewise makes a series of terrible and ultimately selfish decisions based in part on her blandishments and in part on his own stupidity. When Etoile and her knight Reigh are sent back in time to rectify the situation, it's remarkably cathartic to see them orchestrate the pair's comeuppance.

It of course would be even more satisfying if this were slightly longer and better written. While I wouldn't call this a bad book by any measure – I basically inhaled it in two sittings and it would have been one if not for Preview Guide – it also feels designed more for easy reading than for quality reading. What that means in this case is that Tsuta Sonehara glides through plot points breezily, skipping over several years twice and generally leaving out a lot of details. While it makes sense that Etoile would need to be reawakened at age twelve after her death at seventeen (that's when Posenia really started sabotaging her), the timeskip between twelve and fifteen feels clunky, and the skip between fifteen and seventeen downright unnecessary, as it cuts out almost all of the war Etoile is fighting. It also skims over most of the romantic subplot between Reigh and Etoile, but given that he's seven years her elder, I can understand not wanting to go into detail while she's, for example, thirteen.

The result of all of this is an entertaining book that could have been better. Sonehara writes a good story that could have been great, and the bones of that are plainly visible – Posenia, for example, is a solid villain without being a scenery chewing deranged harpy, and Isar is pitiful without being pitiable. Etoile doesn't get quite enough development, but she's still a heroine you want to see succeed. Reigh is the least developed of the main quartet, but his role in the prologue is particularly well written, so you at least know where he's coming from for the rest of the book.

I'm not entirely sure how this could have a second volume, but I am willing to read it. This reads like popcorn, where you think you'll just eat a handful and then consume the whole bowl before you realize it. It's not great, but it is good.