Finding Camellia Volume 1 Review
In a fantasy world that resembles the Victorian era, Camellia lives with her mother in the poor area of the capital. However, when she’s 12 years old, her father’s family kidnap her and bring her back to their house. Camellia is the illegitimate child of Marquis Bale, and her mother used to work for him. When her mother was accused of harming the Marquis’s son, Kieran, she was thrown out, so Camellia was born on the streets without ever knowing her father.
The Marquess now needs Camellia and forces her to dress up and act like a boy. Kieran is sick and so that the other noble houses don’t look down on House Bale, she pretends that they have a younger son who grew up away from the house: Camellius Bale. Camellia is forced to obey if she wants to see her mother again, so she has to endure the abuse from the Marquess. The Marquis is aware of the situation, but he lets his wife deal as she pleases.
Camellia/ius seems to have a little bit of reprieve from the Marquess when Kieran ends up in the North to recover when his condition takes a turn for the worst. Four years later, ‘Camellius’ is in the capital when he’s forced to attend the academy that all nobles attend. Here he meets again the young duke and the crown prince who both happen to be his brother’s friends. Camellius hasn’t seen them in years – however, it appears that they haven’t forgotten about him, and something might be brewing: if it’s good or bad though remains to be seen.
I originally picked up this series because it gave me the same vibes as Daughter of the Emperor mixed with the Hana-Kimi series. However, I was left somewhat disappointed. While the story blurb sounds enticing, I was expecting a strong heroine or someone who would become strong. However, although we see four years passing, Camellia remains the same and doesn’t grow a backbone: she goes along with whatever her father and stepmother wish. At the end of the volume, ‘Camellius’ mentions that he agreed to attend the academy in the capital as a way to reclaim his life as Camellia, but this is just a case of ‘telling’ and not ‘showing’. No part in the story so far has shown Camellius doing anything for himself.
When Camellius is still new at the manor, he gets to meet his brother’s friends. Claude, the future duke, seems to know there is something off about Camellius, but he pretends that everything is ok. However, an accident when Camellius is trying shooting for the first time brings him to the attention of the Marquess and of the other noble young girls attending the tea party. It seems that Camellius has made his first enemy in a young girl who’s obsessed with Claude. The crown prince instead takes a more prominent part when Camellius arrives at the capital. It creates a little bit of confusion for me as a reader as the two seem to know each other but I couldn’t recall when they originally met. Revisiting the volume, I found out that he is shown in an illustration during the shooting scene mentioned above as a side character, where he wasn’t even introduced. I appreciate the author’s intention to set up Camellius’s background with characters that become important later on in the story, but if the author had taken more time to explain the characters and their interactions, it wouldn’t have felt so rushed.
The art is aesthetically pleasing as each character is drawn to look beautiful, and the colour palette remains in the shojo theme of the story with pastel and light colours. I know the saying ‘don’t judge a book by its cover’, but the cover for Finding Camellia will definitely attract the eye of readers thanks to the pale blue background, which is quite unusual, and the illustration of Camellia and Claude as teens which gives the readers an idea about the love story.
Finding Camellia is written by Jin Soye. It started as a web novel before being adapted as a manhwa on Manta Comics. Ize Press publishes the series in volumes for both print and digital formats. Volume 2 is slated for release in December.
Our review copy from Ize Press was supplied by Diamond Book Distributors UK.
