Review: A WICKED HUSBAND has wicked potential

Spoiler warning: This review contains spoilers for the first three chapters of A Wicked Husband.

A Wicked Husband, the latest Manta romantasy series, has been gaining popularity for its beautiful artwork and slow-burn romance with swoonworthy moments sprinkled throughout. SPI adapted SAHA‘s webnovel into a webcomic.

Dealing with narcotics is as good of a death sentence as any. If an individual is caught anywhere using or dealing drugs, they’ll get marched to the guillotine, where they’ll be beheaded in front of a cheering audience. That is the future that awaits Eileen Elrod should she ever get caught by Archduke Cesare Karl Erzeth. But instead of certain death, the archduke gives her a choice: marry him and become his archduchess or get executed.

Opium? Sign me up!

…For legal reasons, I’m joking.

But in all seriousness, I am very intrigued by the opium storyline, or more generally, Eileen’s job working as an apothecary. While the main conflict of her job is the narcotics side, we see dozens of commoners thanking Eileen for her help with their injuries and pain, which means she is a competent healer outside of that. It’d be good to see her working with patients and seeing what herbs or plants she uses to help their ailments.

Even though I don’t see it happening because Eileen could end up dead, I’m hoping the story dives deeper into her research into opium. It would be incredibly interesting to see her navigate that fine line while living under Cesare’s roof and being in the public eye as the archduchess. Either way, I have my fingers crossed that A Wicked Husband won’t abandon Eileen’s profession simply to focus on the romance between Eileen and Cesare. For some reason, a lot of female protagonists tend to lose their personality or sense of individuality when they fall in love in the romantasy genre.

One moment in the third chapter that caught my eye was when Eileen’s mother was speaking to her. As her mother warned her that their duty was serve the prince until their dying breath, she slipped a pair of glasses on her daughter, and in the close-up, Eileen’s eyes lost their sparkle. They turned a dull, darker green–almost as though she was being hypnotized. The color palette in those couple panels also turned darker, more ominous. It makes me wonder what sort of relationship Eileen and her mother had.

The one criticism I have is that I wish we got to understand more of who Eileen was. A Wicked Husband feels like a bit of a subversion to what I’m used to in romantasy; usually, I get a fairly good sense of the female protagonist’s personality while the male lead is often shrouded in mystery and has a few skeletons in his closet. I feel like I understood who Cesare was pretty quickly. Here, it’s sort of like I’m seeing Eileen through how she’s seeing herself through the other characters; the most obvious example is when she thinks Cesare still sees her as a child, which is emphasized by Sir Rothan, his personal guard, dumping two handfuls of candies in her lap. She’s also reluctant to marry him because she thinks she’ll only stain his reputation which is exacerbated by her father’s gambling problem. In that regard, it seems like Eileen’s personality is connected to how others, specifically Cesare, view her.

Time traveling male lead

As Cesare peruses Eileen’s notes on opium, his attention is pulled to the clock which, oddly, starts clanging at 11:35, which seems to be the same time that we see on the pocket watch in Chapter 1. The various panels that focus on the ticking of the clock and Cesare staring intently as each seconds pass provides some great suspenseful foreshadowing that time is an important element in the story.

Sue me, but I couldn’t resist taking a peek at the later chapters and it appears as though there is some time traveling! Cesare seems to have gone back in time in a desperate effort to save Eileen from execution, which is unique. Most romantasy stories have the female protagonist being the regressor, so it’s rare that the male lead is the one going back in time here. I’m so curious to learn more about what happened and how far Cesare will go to prevent the past from repeating itself.

It makes fans swoon

Having read Betrayal of Dignity, I would’ve never clocked that the two had the same artist. And while Betrayal of Dignity had pretty art, I much prefer the art style that SPI has taken for A Wicked Husband as I’m more partial to illustrations that look more hand-drawn with lines that don’t look as “clean.” And I think that fits this story perfectly. All the characters are stunning, with Eileen especially possessing an almost ethereal beauty. Her eyes almost look like blue-green marbles.

Although Cesare does kiss Eileen as early as the second chapter, it’s not creepy like in other romantasy series which also do the same. I can’t help comparing it to The Beast Within where I was more than a little disturbed by Clodan’s groping of Ray. But this kiss comes after a flirtatious moment when Cesare takes Eileen’s glasses off…and puts them on himself (Swoon. *Fans self*. We need more men with glasses). It builds up the tension between the two reunited childhood acquaintances (I can’t be certain if they can be considered childhood friends since Eileen’s mother was Cesare’s nursemaid), drawing it out in a suggestive and teasing manner.

A Wicked Husband has created an enticing relationship a man who will do anything (even time travel) to save the woman he loves and a woman who seems determined to put herself in dangerous situations, if only subconsciously. I’m eager to learn more about Eileen and Cesare’s past and what led to the latter time traveling. The “wickedness” hasn’t emerged yet in the first three chapters, but if this wicked husband is only evil to everyone but his lover…well, then I’m choosing to be color blind.