The Fantasie of a Stepmother

Description

They called her the Iron Widow. When her husband died, he left her to manage not only his vast holdings but also his four children. Young and inexperienced, Shuri nonetheless tried her best to raise them, despite their bitter attitude towards her. She is finally free to live her own life as her eldest son marries... only to find herself mysteriously reset to seven years ago—the night of her husband's funeral. Can Shuri find happiness with this second chance at a new destiny?

Original Webtoon:
KakaoPage

Official Translations:
English, S.Chinese, T.Chinese, French, German, Japanese, Thai

Note: The English print editions published by Seven Seas use a new translation.

Type

Manhwa

Associated Names

A Stepmother's Fairy Tale

A Stepmother's Märchen

Câu chuyện cổ tích của mẹ kế

Câu chuyện cổ tích về người mẹ kế

Câu truyện cổ tích về người mẹ kế

Cổ tích về một người mẹ kế

Das Märchen von der Stiefmutter

El cuento de hadas de una madrastra

Eotteon Gyemonimui Märchen

La madrastra de Merchen

La madrastra de Märchen

Merveilleuse marâtre

O conto de fadas de uma madrasta

Üvey anne efsanesi

Казка мачухи

Небилиця мачухи

Хойд ээжийн үлгэр

เทพนิยายของแม่เลี้ยงชูริ

ある継母のメルヘン

某个继母的童话

某個繼母的童話

어떤 계모님의 메르헨

Groups Scanlating

Latest Release(s)

c.129 by MagusManga 1 year ago

c.89-90 by FLAME-SCANS 2 years ago

c.88 by FLAME-SCANS 2 years ago

Search for all releases of this series

Status in Country of Origin

138 Chapters + Prologue (Ongoing)

S1: 56 Chapters (1-56)
S1 Epilogue: 9 Chapters (57-65)
S2: 68 Chapters (66-133)
S2 Epilogue: 3 Chapters (134-136)
S3: 2 Chapters (137-)

Completely Scanlated?

Anime Start/End Chapter

N/A

User Reviews

N/A

Forum

0 topics, 0 posts

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User Rating

Average: 8.5 / 10.0 (362 votes)

Bayesian Average: 8.33 / 10.0

37%

25%

21%

Last Updated

April 25th, 2025 6:43am PDT - 12 hours ago

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Genre

Comedy Drama Fantasy Historical Psychological Romance Shoujo
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Categories

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Recommendations

The Knight and Her Emperor

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Author(s)

Artist(s)

Year

Original Publisher

CarroToon

Kakaopage

Serialized In (magazine)

KakaoPage (Kakao)

Licensed (in English)

Yes

English Publisher

Radish (Expired)

Seven Seas (Print; Aug 2023)

Tapas (Digital)

Activity Stats (vs. other series)

Weekly Pos #154

(-64)

Monthly Pos #203

(-30)

3 Month Pos #246

(-42)

6 Month Pos #260

(-16)

Year Pos #222

(+75)

List Stats

On 1877 reading lists

On 408 wish lists

On 44 completed lists

On 64 unfinished lists

On 540 custom lists

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Forum Posts Click to view the forum

User Comments [ Order by usefulness ]

Fabergé eggs for all!

by AstralRabbit
4 years ago

Rating: 9.0 / 10.0

“A Stepmother's Märchen” is my favourite foray into “I’m a woman and I’ve been isekai’d (or revived) into an aristocrats/oligarchs life” – thank god I’m not the one coming up with these sub-genre tags! I could heap endless praise onto this manhwa – the execution, plot conceit, art, character designs, political/social intrigue are all fantastic. Shuli is an awesome main character and incredibly likeable. Really the whole cast of characters are impeccable. They have plasticity and breadth; the extravagant social events and the formal political proceedings feel electric as our atomic cast clashes and bounces off one another. Compassion is genuinely felt for each one, as their highs and lows are experienced through out the story. I do hope to see further exploration of other big names that have appeared in the story, but obviously haven’t had a chance to take a centre stage narratively just yet. Particularly in the antagonist department…

One issue with the modern mind conjuring the political and social setting of 18/19th century (?) Europe is that justice is not necessarily done to mindset and ideological/theological backing that people within this period would have. This is particularly apparent in the main priest antagonist, who is a very devout believer (as almost all people would have been at this time) in his faith, and this is currently being used to fuel his disdain for our MC. Some of it just reads to me as a bit trite and cliched in the current year, but it’s a manhwa so… Obviously I’m not looking for historical accuracy, but it is something that will naturally flag in my mind when a story is trying to weave a narrative that touches on political/social/theological motivations. As long as his motivation becomes a bit more complicated than “muh religion says women must be quiet, so don’t like the talkative woman herpa derp” then I will be satisfied. Albeit, the character has already shown plenty of interesting interactions with many people in the cast, include the MC, so I am possibly being overly pedantic. This point does dovetail nicely with my next concern, in that we have just come out of an arc (involving the crown price and the eldest son of Shuli) that felt a bit contrived. There is an explanation for the heightened drama of the situation via character motivations, and it leaves me feeling.. Generally satisfied. But a lot of bellyaching over something that was just hand waved away, particularly when the climax didn’t feel as “epic” as it could have, left me feeling slightly unfulfilled. Ultimately I am nit picking a bit, but it is just because these sort of issues could continue to crop up into the future, which might defuse my enjoyment later into the story. I do have very high hopes though, as the narrative has some incredibly juicy morsels left to feed us (Romance! Romance! Romance!).

... Last updated 4 years ago

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i love this

by Miachann
4 years ago

Rating: 10.0 / 10.0

I enjoy this, but somehow i love it more if this ended up with no romance at all like Family lovey dovey, but well even tho this have romance still very good tho- and I feel bad so much for her in fer first timeline, not just her but their child too bruh they were misunderstand but when they want to apologize, she is dead and i hate ohara bruh (Jeremi Fiance in the first life),

and how in the first timeline She is spread the rumour about Shuli and Jeremy just because jealousy and ended up make Shuli died (not her tho but she still guilty) and how she is get marriage with elias -_-" seriously elias? you knocked her up? the person who spread the rumors about your step mother and your older brother? and ofc their marriage straiten the siblings relationship :((

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Wow, female MC is a strong woman (not in literal sense but mentally)

by hoBRO
5 years ago

Rating: 10.0 / 10.0

Taking care of someone else's kids even though you're around the same age as them and being left alone after the death of your "so called husband" who's older than you and have to face the harshness of life alone and all the greed of others..

I wouldn't have made it. I would have run. But this MC didn't. She loved those kids that wasn't her own, unconditionally. SHE FOUGHT WITH HER OWN STRENGTH, DIDN'T WAVER. Even when she wasn't supported by the very same kids she fought for. This time around, in her new life, I hope she does get recognition and love that she deserves.

Well, she did get recognition her 2nd life, but I hope once the older kid gets married, she's invited to his wedding this time and that she finds someone to love and marry her too once she's finished her duties to the kids.

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Time for a golden age of matriarchy!

by moonmystery
5 years ago

Rating: 10.0 / 10.0

I love how mature the main character is -- well duh she's like a 25 year old woman stuck in a teenager's body. Either way, it's so refreshing to see the way she resolves the various issues she has to deal with as a family grieving for their lost patriarch. Her interactions with her children are so precious, although I'm not totally sold on how fast the kids went from hating to loving her.

I also like that she doesn't seem to have romantic pairings at the moment since everyone else is too young. That could change with time, but I'm loving the focus on family rather than typical shoujo crushes.

... Last updated 5 years ago

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Clearing up the age confusion

by Utsukushii Yume
5 years ago

Rating: 8.0 / 10.0

Some people may get confused about the characters age, so I will just clear that up now, she is 16 years old when she wakes up in the past. That makes her about 2 or 3 years younger or older than most potential love interest in this story. She is mature for her age because she comes from the future. Also, back in those days, talk of marriage for your 13+ year old was the norm. With that said:

I honestly thought the children would be a pain in the butt and unbearable. They are not.

The art is is nice, the story is nice, the FL is smart, the ML has obvious growth planned out, the romance is slow paced just how I like it, and I do enjoy reading this. It feels like thought was put into this story, and it doesn't rush itself. I hope it will do the novel justice and avoid butchering the story just to rush things along like some other Manhwa adaptions I have read.

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Beautiful art, cute kids

by whitespade
5 years ago

Rating: 9.0 / 10.0

Another one of those reincarnation do-over stories. With beautiful art and lively colours, a pure young female lead and a variety of shotas as eye candies! Full of love and noble families conflict, it is similar but yet still enjoyable read like all other about noble society.

If you like kids rearing story, this is for you.

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