My review is intended solely on the novel and not on the webtoon. With the webtoon in consideration, this would be 5 stars.
We started off with the romance revealed. I didn't know the whole main story will end in around 30 chapters. Good thing I didn't.
The reveal got the expected reactions. I loved the way the four siblings responded. It was the only way that'd have made sense. Despite Shuri's perspective, I'm disappointed that the reaction to Elias' words came too abruptly. A valid reaction but too abruptly. No shock. No processing the words. Directly crying out her grief and frustrations.
Also, the amount of times Elias got hit? It's crazy. Only some of it was valid.
There's a lot of references to the story lines that never got explained, which is irksome. What happened in past timeline? Who was the other lady who jumped with Shuri (I mean what truly happened)?
The villains got their ending mostly offscreen. Yes, our key characters will not be there but you already had POVs from others by then. Why not give us the full satisfaction of the plot resolution.
The buildup to the climax was done well. I knew they'd live but it wad exciting to keep reading, keep turning the page, all the way till that scene ended.
And the final POV of main story? Amazing.
Then came the 6 side story sets, each of multiple chapters length. Elias felt like an afterthought. Leon was forgotten at times, it felt. And it felt like the three brothers hadn't grown at all in the epilogue until life happened to them. Be it a child, dark job or new love. This is over years of events happening to them.
Only in final chapters they all got developments. On a side note, I loved the Hangover-esque final side story.
Theo was wasted except for one observation which didn't really matter in the larger scheme of things (unless there's a sequel).
All the ghosts who haunted the story, all the machinations that happened, all that potential unaddressed.
It was essentially a story of stepmother trying to raise her kids, defend against outside (including changing the world) and getting the guy from three(?) obvious (and maybe more unstated) options. And it could have been so much more.