You know the story: a person dies in modern Korea and is reborn in a fantasy world with their memories intact. Or maybe you know this story: a man's life is saved by a hideous beast and he's forced to promise one of his daughters to the monster in exchange. My Secretly Hot Husband is what happens when someone spills their isekai in your ATU435C, and the combination of “reborn in a fantasy world” with Beauty and the Beast works better than you might expect.

Based on the novel by Jungyeon, My Secretly Hot Husband follows Leticia, a young woman who clearly remembers dying in a fire back in modern Korea. She's been aware of this for quite some time by the time the story opens when she's twelve, but she's learned to keep her mouth shut because, in her new world, those who remember past lives are damned as witches and burnt at the stake. Since she's already burned to death once, she'd just as soon avoid that fate, thank you very much, but the fact that she currently lives with her abusive aunt and uncle certainly contributes to her need to keep things quiet. Made to live like a servant, Leticia isn't precisely happy, but she's also not sure what she can do about her situation.

That all changes when her uncle is loudly bemoaning that not only can he not spend his niece's inheritance, but he also, in his quest to discover the family mines in the north, got himself into debt with the terrifying Lord Halstead. Erden Halstead is the scion of a cursed line of northern lords, and when he saves Leticia's uncle, he forces the man to sign a blood contract promising him one of the man's daughters in marriage. Or rather, one of the man's blood relatives, which the family realizes is a handy way to get rid of Leticia. Sent north to marry a beast, Leticia isn't sure whether she's been saved or doomed – and she's even more confused when, after being attacked by goblins, she discovers some Korean butane canisters lying around.

In her afterword, original author Jungyeon mentions that at one point she'd considered titling the book Leticia of the Red Flame, a nod both to how the heroine has red hair and can use the butane to fight off a variety of monsters. Although editors convinced her to stick with the current title, there's something to be said for the other. It's undeniable that Erden is secretly gorgeous, a fact that a brief flashforward reveals, while that and the story proper let us know that he's completely unaware of the fact, but as of this volume, Leticia is both the undeniable main character and a total firecracker. It's not just that she can make a place for herself in a world she's still trying to get a handle on. There are absolutely moments where she's thinking about Erden's beautiful hands and noting how kind he is. Still, those are minimal when we consider that for the bulk of this volume, they're not even together, Erden having left Halstead to hunt down copies of a rare book Leticia can use to end the monster invasions.

Why will the book help with this? Because it's written in Korean, of course – the presence of butane canisters indicates that she's not the only person to have washed up on this particular world's shores from our world. While she's living the reincarnation subgenre of isekai, the previous person seems to have been summoned or transported. There's a link between the two realms, and that's something Leticia would like to figure out, especially since it may have links to the supposed curse the Halstead family is under. Erden seems to believe that the family has been damned to a hideous appearance, but from what we've seen, that either isn't the case or Leticia can see his true form underneath the curse. That suggests that either the spell has cursed the Halsteads' self-perception or that Leticia is taking a page out of Belle's book and can see the person beneath the beastly exterior in a literal way.

This romantic plot is merely a subplot to this volume, however. The main focus is Leticia herself as she uses her modern knowledge to save Halstead while her fiancé is away. The book Erden showed her indicates that its author did much the same, using the principles of capitalism to fight the monsters, and that's something Leticia aims to do as well, introducing an army of would-be invading golems to gambling and greed to stop their attack. I'd be lying if I said that I was entirely comfortable with her using the “innate greed” of the golems against them; golems are creatures from Jewish mythology and this smacks a bit of old anti-Semitic tropes. That said, I don't believe it was deliberate, although that doesn't make it any less uncomfortable. Still, the idea that the evils of the modern world are just as good as firebombs for killing off demons is an interesting one, and watching Leticia grow more comfortable with herself and her surroundings is a treat.

The artist for this series, Harara, is primarily an illustrator rather than a comic artist, and that shows in the lushness of the costumes and settings. There's some stiffness in the movements and a few inconsistencies in characters from panel to panel, but overall the art is beautiful, and the vibrant colors are eye-catching. Side characters, like the three elderly women who work for Erden, are delightful, and on the whole, this is an engaging, enjoyable book. Even if the plot shifts towards making the title more central, this is a fun twist on Beauty and the Beast and the isekai genre, proving that sometimes a combination of plot elements is all you need to make a stronger whole.