Kim and Mon (Antstudio). Cropped Korean Cover Image of I Shall Master This Family, D & C Webtoon.
I Shall Master This Family – Information
Author of Story: Kim Roah and Mon (Antstudio)
Chapter Count: 200+ chapters
Status: Ongoing
Available to read digitally on multiple comic platforms. Ebook and physical copies available through Ink Pop (Random House Graphic).
Content Warnings
These content warnings do not reflect the contents of the review below; only the literary work itself.
- Violence
- Abuse
- Neglect
- Disturbing imagery
- Classism
- Bullying
Spoiler Disclaimer
This recommendation post may contain small plot spoilers for review purposes. Any major spoilers are hidden by default and are able to be revealed via click or tap.
I Shall Master This Family – Plot Summary
This webcomic follows Firentia (often called Tia), a woman born into the strong and powerful Lombardi family. This family is known for having major influence, money, and even connections to the empire—but as their patriarch’s health wanes, the Lombardis quickly begin to fall at the hands of incapable people.
Poor Firentia tries her best to avoid this. She spends her late teen years handling various responsibilities for her grandfather, but receives cruel treatment from her family simply because her mother was a commoner… this mistreatment only worsens after her father passes from illness. She was eventually kicked out, even after dedicating all her time to supporting the family.
Just as the Lombardi family crumbles only two years later, Firentia is also hit and killed by a carriage—and reawakens several years prior, back to when she was only 7 years old. Memories intact, she is determined to change the trajectory of her family’s future.
Why You Should Read I Shall Master This Family
Plot:
I’ll start with saying that yes, this story is yet another reincarnation story with a “returns to the past to fix things” trope. If you aren’t a fan of this common melodramatic manhwa style story, maybe skip out on this recommendation!
If you’re like me and don’t mind reading what is essentially the same story in different formats (haha), jump right in! Although this story isn’t necessarily unique or new considering its genre, I still really enjoyed the characters, plot, and art a lot. For a story with such common themes, it really executes them quite well. I had a fun time reading it and rooting for Firentia, so of course I’m here to recommend it!
So… let’s jump in, starting with…you guessed it… the romance!
Although this story’s romance is more of a subplot, it is really lovely and well-developed. It is a sweet slow burn that takes quite some time to get started as much of the plot has to sort of unravel first to pave the way for the romance.
Additionally, the main characters are young for quite a long portion of the story, so the romance doesn’t truly start until they begin to grow and mature. Regardless, you will get to see some pure romantic feelings bloom quite early, primarily for the male lead—readers who love “he falls first” romances will enjoy this one!
Even though I was a little bummed about the romance being a side plot, I think it was actually very suitable for Tia’s character and the direction of the story. Plus, it’s nice to see a female lead with many ambitions, and who doesn’t solely look for romance!
So, as mentioned before, the main character’s child arc lasts quite a long time—which would typically completely throw me off of a story. However, I actually really enjoyed the entire arc! I often avoid series like this because I don’t really enjoy seeing the character at such a young age for such a major portion of the comic, but her character was mature (for obvious reasons) and the drama throughout even Firentia’s childhood was so engaging.
From a young age, Firentia puts in the work. She solely focuses on her goals, and this story doesn’t make her child arc weird or uncomfortable in any way. I’ve seen some webcomics that start romance even this early… which is just super weird to me regardless of what their “true” age is.
I Shall Master This Family handles the child arc very well and doesn’t delve into any real romance until the characters are older, so I was completely unbothered and able to completely enjoy Firentia’s growth in the meantime.
Additionally, although she is young for much of the story, we do see her in different stages of growth thanks to time skips. Time skips can often feel abrupt, but this webcomic times them perfectly.
You can even feel when they are necessary in the plot, making them more predictable when they occur. I never felt that the time skips in this webcomic were rushed or random—they always happened right when they were needed!
Honestly, I was pleasantly surprised by how fun and engaging this comic was. I thought that the too-common themes and age of the main character would bore me, but it was very engaging with lots of interesting topics of politics, economics, entrepreneurship, and more. One of the aspects related to this that I wasn’t expecting to enjoy so much was the familial themes.
As we know from the plot summary, Firentia loses her dad in her first life when she is only eleven, due to an incurable illness. Therefore, when she wakes up in the past as a 7 year old and gets to see her dad alive and well again, it is just so unbelievably sweet and heartwarming.
I really enjoyed seeing the wholesome relationship between Tia and her father. Her father is such a cute and lovable character who surprisingly plays an important role in the plot and even has some great growth and development! Other than her father, Tia also creates new relationships with family members that she didn’t have in her previous life. Another than these characters serving important supporting roles, it was really just cute to see so many familial bonds in the story.
Overall, this story had a lot more to offer than I initially thought, and turned out to be an incredibly engaging read! Now, I think I’ve talked enough about the plot… let’s talk about the characters next!
Kim and Mon (Antstudio). Korean Cover Image of I Shall Master This Family, D & C Webtoon.
Characters:
If you enjoy stories that have a strong, smart, and calculative female lead, I Shall Master This Family may be the perfect pick. Tia often uses experience and knowledge from her past life to develop strategies and plans to aid her goals in her current life.
However, things don’t always go exactly how she expects, and therefore she sometimes must rely on either quick wit or her relationships with others to get through her struggles. Regardless, she is a determined and ambitious female lead. Although, she’s a bit dense when it comes to romance!
Tia may be ambitious, but she isn’t solely focused on winning all the time. She often extends her hand to others who she knows will ultimately meet their downfall at the hands of greedy, villainess people. She is strong-willed, but also willing to go out of her way to help others and create a happier life for them, too. Overall, Tia is an incredibly likable female lead.
Then there’s Perez Durelli, the male lead. Outside of the insanely melodramatic and unfortunate start for Perez, he turns out to be one of the most likable supporting characters even from a young age. I’ve seen plenty of situations where the male lead becomes very “loyal” or dedicated to the female lead, and I have to say this story’s version of that trope was really enjoyable.
Perez is an incredibly sweet character who really goes out of his way to be useful to Tia and is very attentive to her needs. I really like thoughtful characters like this, although I would have liked if he had some other strong character traits outside of being in love with Tia.
He’s a bit of a “perfect” male lead with nothing other than a sad backstory to propel his character, but regardless I still really liked him. His character is the perfect match for Tia, and even has an early start to his romantic feelings.
Although he is mostly a supporting character at the start of the comic, he is written to be just as smart and calculating as Tia, and gets to shine a bit more when he’s older. I was really happy to see more of him as the story progressed! Once the characters are older, you’ll get to see more romance and more Perez—with some new sides to his personality! (´∀｀)
There’s many other characters in this series that leave an impression—Tia’s dad, her grandfather, her cousins, her work partners—but I’ll leave you to discover the different traits of these characters on your own!
Art:
I personally think that the art style for this comic is really nice. It has so many bright and lovely colors used throughout, and the style feels consistent and polished.
The overall style fits in with that common manhwa/webcomic style that we often see (particularly with the story’s setting) yet it still looks very pretty and captures your attention. The outfits and character designs are all well done and have a good level of detail that doesn’t feel overdone or rushed. The environment, details, and decorative accents all feel pretty fluid and look great!
Any Cons?
I do have some cons for this comic! The most obvious issue is that there is a bit of strong plot armor that protects the female lead and everything she does. While I did enjoy this story, I will say she rarely fell into serious problems and most troubles end up solved through the power of plot.
Most of the plot armor comes from Tia’s ability to tell the future (due to her experiencing it once already). When some characters discover this unique power of hers, especially when she is young, I felt that they were not sufficiently freaked out by it. They always have an initial confusion, but then simply brush it off.
Many characters trust her entirely, which I find a bit too unbelievable. I found it strange that she was this “child wonder” that grown adults followed indiscriminately after only a moment’s hesitation.
Additionally, the story has a few aspects that feel a little random. Firstly, the beginning of the story mentions that Firentia was reincarnated from a life as a young girl in Korea who died early. This plot point has served very little purpose in the story.
Secondly, there is a magic in the story called aura, which sort of feels like it was stuck into the story for convenience. It doesn’t seem to have any significance in terms of history or lore, especially considering the rest of the worldbuilding and plot doesn’t involve magic. It solely exists to make certain characters undeniably strong, which is just a little disappointing.
I also feel as though the villains in I Shall Master This Family are a bit superficial. They are portrayed in a way that makes me hate them as intended, but their motivations feel shallow and they do not have interesting or fleshed out backstories (at least thus far).
Lastly, although I did really enjoy the art a large majority of the time, I will mention that occasionally I felt that the proportions were a bit funny later into the story. Once the main characters became adults, I began to feel as though the proportions were strange at times—especially Perez.
Once in a while, the characters’ necks looked longer than usual, and Perez almost looked too large. Luckily this was a very infrequent occurrence for me, and most of the time the art looked very nice.
Final Thoughts
Overall, I think this webcomic is a pretty strong contender in terms of its genre. The setting and plot premise is pretty common, but I think I Shall Master This Family executes it quite well. I really enjoyed the story, adored the clever female lead, and the romance was cute enough to keep me hoping for more, even as a subplot.
I think its a pretty great option for those who are both familiar with or new to the genre, as it tells an engaging story that isn’t too outrageous but still on a higher level than others of a similar premise.
Disclaimer: Any images used for this blog are for illustrative purposes only, are not owned by me, and are under ownership of the artist or publisher.
Images Credit: Roah, Kim and Mon (Antstudio). I Shall Master This Family, D&C Media / D&C Webtoon, KakaoPage, Tapas Media, 2021. Random House Graphic, Ink Pop, 2026.
