“My Mother’s Lover” by Studio Stellas; My Thoughts
This is a manga / manhwa / manhua / (aka “comic”, by western standards). Every chapter I read was purchased at the official Lezhin website.Â
2.75/5 stars.
Ok so let me clear something up: the premise and actual plot of this manhwa is amazing.
"Well if that's the case, mgeereads, why did you rate it so low?"
Thank you for asking, dear reader, LET ME TELL YOU WHY.
So all the manhwa I read, I read on the official (PAID) sites. (I'm poor as f*ck because I'm in college, y'all probably know the drill but I digress), however, I STILL PAY FOR EVERYTHING I READ because I believe that the author/artist/etc should get their credit (money) where it's due. Although it costs me a ton of money, I try to pitch in as a thank you for their efforts.Â
Reading it from the official site, though good for the author, is bad for me when they deliver subpar content. Which honestly, it's a risk I take, right? Some things are hit or miss. I'm ok with that, because they tried their best. The plot wasn't my cup of tea, so what?
No reader. This is worse. This author literally padded this entire series with "Filler Chapters". If you don't know what "Filler Chapters" are, it's a lot like those episodes in anime where AN ENTIRE SERIES OF EPISODES have ABSOLUTELY NOTHING to do with the main plot. Nothing. Not a damn thing.
That's what happened here. "Oh, but RiceBear, a few chapters doesn't cost you much, maybe a few dollars, so why are you rating it so LoOoowwWw??" Becuase, reader. It wasn't a few chapters. It wasn't even a dozen chapters. It was the first TWENTY THREE chapters. I wasted so much f*cking money, (each chapter cost $0.75, roughly, and there was a total of 74 chapters, so that’s a total of $56.25 in total- without tax. God what the actual f*ck), reading about a tangent side plot that contributed NOTHING to the main plot.Â
Of course, it explained a the side characters to a certain extent, but those twenty three chapters were about a character... who was dead. Yes that’s right. They're not even the main character. They’re completely irrelevant to her current plot, and we don't ever even see them. What the heck.
NOT TO MENTION the main plot explains all the details you would have missed had you opted out of the 23 "filler chapters" that wasted your hard earned money. And it's like??? Why even write those filler chapters and waste people's time, if you're going to end up filling in the gaps anyway??? Like??? DO YOU THINK I'M RICH???
That's why I rated it so low.
Ok. Now that I've aired my grievances concerning the atrocities of the author for wasting my damn time and money (God I can't get over how much I hated those 23 filler chapters, I just fucking hate the main FL in those 23 chapters and she's all you fucking see!!!)
Let me tell you about how much I loved the main storyline:
The main character is this girl named Evie. She's the typical Millennial/Gen Z kid. She's flawed, easily swayed by nice things, oversensitive and quick to feel discouraged when things get tough, but I like her. She was real to me. I saw a lot of comments online about how she was a sl*t and slept around with a ton of people but I personally thought that the people saying those things need to grow the fuck up.
She's in college (legally an adult), and she didn't live with her parents (who would have otherwise disapproved of her behavior, I imagine). She's on her own. She lived the way she wanted, and I really liked that. I liked that she was so flawed and that she had shortcomings. She was well written and easy to empathize with.
The plot. OH LORD THE PLOT. It was so fucking GOOD (disregarding those damn 23 filler chapters. bro fuck those chapters.) I don't want to give away too much, but I would definitely recommend this to friends after I tell them where to actually start reading the manhwa so they don't waste so much money reading filler BS.
So at the end of the day, my verdict is this: If you like dark(ish) plots, slice of life, and a story that accurately depicts real life struggles, growth, and trauma, YOU SHOULD READ THIS.
My final rating: With the filler chapters: 2/5 stars. Without the filler chapters: 3.5/5 stars. (I’m not giving it a solid 4 stars because I would have liked to see more of the character she ends up with in the story.)














