Once upon a time there was a lonely prince who lived in a palace where toxic masculinity and rivalry ruled... The women where abused and used as objects owned by men. Tradition was supposedly strong in the palace and any one male or female who tried to go up against it was tossed in to a marriage against their will, pretty much forced to commit suicide or ended up in prison. People where scheming plots all over the place...

But one day the prince met a girl whom was warm, funny and loved food above anything. And while he could not make her his wife he made her is concubine... Which made for the start of a whole bunch of people working towards new lives... and yes A New Life Begins...

The drama has a lot of everything, maybe a bit to much of everything as nothing seems to get fully explored and both drags out for what seems like an eternity only to be wrapped up with a few lines here and there... maybe a slow mo scene of the result but the turns are fast and the process extremely inconsistent. Is this the result of poor writing, censorship or a writer who just wants to include a bit to much I do not know... But it did feel very off at times. Which is really sad because there is so much good in here.

Both leads are lovable, good actors, have great chemistry and lovely interactions with each other with some pretty steamy kisses. Unfortunately. their story does not get nearly enough screen time as all those other side plots take away from their time together. However I do have to say that this is a male lead who even though he grew up in the toxic palace actually seems to have some kind of respect for women and can both take no for an answer and seems to try to avoid forcing himself on the female lead even if they are supposed to try to consummate the guy seems to want to the girl to actually want to consummate before consummating. Showing some type of consent culture.

The food in this drama is mouth watering, making you hungry every single episode.

The side couples are mostly lovely and show a bunch of ways of power relations and personalities... As we get to see the difference between domestic violence practiced by people with power and violence in the relationship practiced by people with less power. Non are good but we do get to see a nuance done pretty well.

We also get to see a lot of women empowerment, sisterhood and a potential poly relationship that could have been so good if the drama was not so obsessed with monogamy vs concubine culture.... There is one truly annoying character but she grew on me after a while, but then she pretty much disappeared from the plot.

This drama is a good pick for those who like c-historical with many episodes and do not mind the draggy parts. For those who want to see 100 years of woman's rights battles cut down to about 3 or 4 years and are okay with getting pebbles of great romance between sisterhood, friendship, family relations, politics, food and pretty much everything in-between...

However if you are like me you will miss the pebbles and find it draggy and may find yourself struggling to finish it wanting to drop it yet still not being able to score it to low because it just has so many good parts in it...

Also the predictability is pretty high so do not expect to be kept on your toes, at all.