Tied to You, Vol. 1 | ARC BL Manhwa Review

Wooseo Shin was never one to believe in fate…until a ring of red thread appears around his finger, that is! This ring marks a person’s meeting of their soulmate, and with it, neither can fall asleep if the other is absent. This development is not a welcome one for Wooseo, who decides to keep it from his close friend and crush Jiseok Kang at all costs. Because as fate would have it, the person with Wooseo’s matching set is Jigeon Kang—Jiseok’s older brother! When Jigeon proposes that they start sharing a bed, if only to combat their joint insomnia, Wooseo reluctantly accepts…but as the two spend more and more time together, feelings start to get messy. Will Wooseo be able to survive his new life tangled up in between these two brothers?!

YZE’s first BL publication in English, as far as I can tell, is a notable event. They are part of Yen Press, which has brought over plenty of LGBTQ titles from Japan, like the one I reviewed previously: The Other World’s Books Depend on the Bean Counter. I’m really hoping this release does well so that we can see more from YZE. As soon as I saw it pop up on Netgalley, I jumped at the chance to review it.

Volume 1 has 16 chapters and around 330 pages, and it will be published in print on May 21st, 2024. Affiliate links to preorder: Amazon | Bookshop.org.

Tags: Soulmates, Age Gap, Slow Burn

The Romance

This review is spoiler free…

It’s complicated~

Wooseo is in love with his best friend, Jiseok, but the string of fate links him to Jiseok’s older brother, Jigeon.

In the beginning, I honestly felt bad for Jiseok. Nobody wants their best friend to be fatefully tied to their older sibling—it’s just awkward. And to make matters worse, they both are poorly hiding their relationship from him instead of just telling him.

Everything is all mixed up due to the fated ring, but each character is not only well-drawn but also well-written. As other reviewers have mentioned, these three characters have a lot of depth, and the story is well-paced. Even though there is the supernatural element of ‘fated pairs,’ the story still feels very real and well-developed.

If, like me, you’ve grown increasingly tired of all the smut-filled webtoons that lack a substantial plot, I highly recommend this one. Sidenote: I cant even read dark romance books anymore…Butcher and Blackbrid review coming soon though…ㅠ.ㅠ

Anyway, this was an ARC review, meaning I received a free digital copy in exchange for an honest review. Volume 2 is in the works and should be releasing sometime in August.

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