It had won the ridi awards for best bl novel of 2025 as someone had revealed in here. So, DMIYC being good is backed up by survey votes.
wow i just realised they're all by the same author lmao. copy paste x3 and fujos eat that shit up
yes!! i was shocked when i saw it on twt, bc some readers still had a stigma against grayson while dmiyc was ongoing. it deserves it tho!
i do think zig has a certain style or preference when it comes to her characters, specifically her main leads. (villain who is only kind to you? redemption arc? gap moe ??) but they’re all unique, as zig does play around with diff genres (￣ ³￣)
From my experience, following FB groups while it was ongoing: Most, if they really read it, who still hated him at that point changed their mind with Disneyland and what came after. Doesn't mean they all started to liked him, but they didn't have the orginal negative view of him anymore. The ones who still hated him, either didn't read it or were so dead set to hate him, that they completly irgnored his character development. But as I said that was my experience.
KML was what got me hooked, manhwa first, novel next. And for some years, only KML and KMIYC was released so I never thought i'd see more from zig - especially when the official english translators didn't really care much for it or didn't have the licenses so had to make do with bad translation for a while. One thing about Zig is they're unapologetic about their toxic leads, making it somehow work and I like it? I haven't read the others tho only sticking to the Millers and probably Keith's brothers if zig finally gets to them. Keith and Yeonwoo have some freaky sex i just love them both
im ngl you guys when i read both kiss me liar and kiss me if you can (before the release of kmiyc manhwa) i really thought that kiss me if you can was the best zig novel and that they deserved a manhwa adaptation more than kml, as i thought kml was one of zig’s weaker work.
but then desire me if you can was finally released by the author last year, which i was rlly interested in & was waiting for bc you grow to dislike grayson in both kml and kmiyc, making his past & charac development one to anticipate, but also extremely curious abt dane, the dominant omega from kml, known for his promiscuity yet extreme aversion to relationships. as i read it, i was actually surprised by how much i ended up liking grayson.
it surely won’t be everyone’s cup of tea, but imo dmiyc is zig’s best work in the if you can series so far. it doesn’t shy away from grayson’s psychopathy, nor his past wrongdoings, but it does explain why he is the way that he is (yet not in a way that ‘justifies’ his actions)
and i do think that he gets his karma in the form of dane, so if you dislike him, you’ll find it satisfying how much he suffers in dmiyc (￣▽￣) he doesn’t make it easy for grayson, thats for sure. anyways, if you’re into character development stories, you’ll really like dmiyc. hopefully ppl can give it a chance, its a romantic comedy story, but everything about it was written tastefully (hopefully the manhwa adaptation does it justice!)