Jeanette the Genius: Defying My Evil Stepmother by Starting a Business with My Ride-or-Die Fiancé! Volume 1

隠れ才女は全然めげない～義母と義妹に家を追い出されたので婚約破棄してもらおうと思ったら、紳士だった婚約者が激しく溺愛してくるようになりました！？～ (Novel) #1

by Miyako Miyano, Jyun Hayase (Illustrator), Ray Kricki (Translator)

When Jeanette’s father suddenly goes missing, her evil stepmother seizes the opportunity to cast her out of the house! Now she’s left with no family, no belongings, and nowhere to live. But Jeanette the eternal optimist firmly believes in one “Every crisis is an opportunity for growth!” Eager to face her new life, she has only one thing left to do to break free of her old—call off her engagement with the popular and beloved Count Claus! Little does she know the saintly gentleman she’s supposed to marry is secretly a blackhearted schemer, and he has other plans. In fact, he’s so madly in love with her, he’ll use any means necessary to stay by her side and assist her! Once the couple begins working together, Jeanette’s enterprising nature starts to shine. With her positive attitude, her natural genius, and her clever, besotted fiancé, can Jeanette triumph over adversity and earn back what’s rightfully hers?

Genres: Light Novel, Romance, Fantasy, Manga, Historical

196 pages, Kindle Edition

First published June 9, 2023

About the author

宮之みやこ

Reviews

[Jennifer · Rating 2 out of 5]

The author has mistaken “optimistic and dense” for “stupid.” I can appreciate that she turns adversity into lessons, but to be so staunchly oblivious to her stepmom’s bad intentions does not fit with being a savvy merchant.

Also…there are a lot of problems with the aristocracy here. Her dad is a baron but for some reason is called “Sir” by some people, and “His Grace“ by their butler. Jeanette herself is called a baroness at one point, and it says that her father intended to leave the house and his peerage to her stepsister, and the business to her. What? The stepsister isn’t his blood relative, how can she inherit his title? And she is NOT the daughter of a baron, her dad should be the count that was the stepmom’s first husband.

The antagonists are cardboard cutouts of villainous idiots. How on earth they can decide to do business with a guy that sold them tons of fake gems is ridiculous. And if she’s not in charge, how can she sell the company? None of this world is thought out very well.

Jeanette is a super upbeat person with lots of ideas. Every man falls in love with her for some reason, but she’s oblivious to any of it and makes up the weirdest justifications for the compliments.

TBH, her sense of business was not impressive. I don’t know why she thinks buying her dad’s company is somehow better than inheriting it. And giving away Claude’s company in exchange for being a simple front for a purchase? It initially said she had a lot of gold saved up, then that switched to her going to work as a servant because she was worried about money. If the dad were so shrewd, where is his will?

There were some cute moments and it is an easy read, but it’s also got some major logic fails and amateurish writing.

[Aelvana · Rating 3 out of 5]

Jeanette is a cheerful, optimistic girl in love with business. But when her father goes missing, her stepmother seizes the opportunity to take full control, and kicks Jeanette out. Far from being discouraged, though, Jeanette seizes it as an opportunity---and her fiance, Claus, also sees HIS opportunity to finally get this dense girl to recognize how he feels about her.

So the story makes quite a few concessions for the comedy---like how can Jeanette not recognize that her stepmother and stepsister are trying to ruin her, not help her---but on the flip side the story directly acknowledges that she's dense by having Claus realize the truth. And once he figures out the problem, he starts making his own moves to remedy it.

So overall this is pretty light, but decently funny. It's building up a few more love interests by the end, and the mystery of Jeanette's father isn't solved, but this volume does end well enough. I rate this book Recommended.

[Pieter · Rating 3 out of 5]

A decent romance story of a young noble woman raised as a merchant who is more or less kicked out of her home by her stepmother when her father disappears. She gleefully sets out to make a life of her own. Her (in her mind begrudgingly) fiancé is less happy with the situation, and at least uses the situation to set a few things straight with her.

The book is a light-hearted romance about an oblivious protagonist with the eyes and skills of a true merchant. While entertaining, she doesn't really face much of a challenge, and her obliviousness towards her fiancé and her mother feels odd considering her skills as a merchant. The story itself is also fairly predictable and typical for the genre. So, all in all, a decent read, but nothing special.

[Nicole Nieto · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book turned out to be a lot cuter than I thought it would be. Jeanette is a business-smart young lady who I thought would be completely oblivious to her fiancé (arranged marriage kind of situation). To be fair, she is a bit oblivious, but not to truly painful degrees and the harmony between her and Claus makes their relationship very sweet. I enjoyed myself.
I will say though, the short story about Duke Pablo and his wife Christine at the end of the novel is what really turned this book into a 5 star for me. It was so adorable, I giggled out loud.

[Di Johnson-Dobbs · Rating 1 out of 5]

surprisingly hard to read

I normally like light novels where the MC is in a Cinderella trope, but this one is such a moron, you can't sympathize with her. I got maybe three chapters in, only to realize she has the mental capacity of a damaged lake trout. Even hit with a clue by four, she can't be educated. Ironic considering the title of the book.
This was a total waste of money to buy.

[J-Lynn · Rating 4 out of 5]

I just love a relationship where one character is serious and the other is oblivious! Seriously, it’s one of my favorite romance tropes.

Side note: Princess Christine’s extra chapter is one of the best extra chapters I’ve ever read! It has suspense and romance and fabulousness and adventure all within 10 pages….. 10/10 do recommend just for that chapter alone! (ﾉ◕ヮ◕)ﾉ*:･ﾟ✧

[Alarna · Rating 3 out of 5]

it was ok. the h has been trained since shows little to be a marchant but one of the thing that make people good merchants is being able to read people and there intentions but the h is so obvious to all those i would even say she's really stupid when it comes to people, a little bit of that is ok but to the extent the h was acting was just kinda annoying. other that that it was ok. :/

[Emrys · Rating 1 out of 5]

Ok not for me. I can't for the life of me imagine who this is for.

But a character being this dumb and idiotic and trying to just say shes dense and optimistic is just, to me, an insult.

I only got to page 11 and I have no interest in finding out how this 'genius' is going to live out her life.

I would forgive it if it was at least funny to read. It's not

[ReadToBreathe · Rating 2 out of 5]

2 Stars
I skimmed through the majority of the book. I dislike characters like the MC, she is way too dense and everything surprises her. I like my FLs to be strong and have a good head which is why I didn't enjoy reading this book.

[Mistress OP · Rating 2 out of 5]

so confusing on the start of this novel it jumps around weird. Read the manga instead to start the series off. Super confusing.


Not in love with this. Just doesn't have a connecting moment just dumpy start.

[K · Rating 1 out of 5]

Where’s the rest of the book?

This is only the first 24 pages. Looking at other reviews this is a known issue and has not been fixed. Very disappointed!

[Stas · Rating 1 out of 5]

HARD PASS.