Is Adopted by My Enemy Worth Reading? Review & Where to Read

Quick facts
Format	Manhwa, 80 chapters
Run	2024–present · ongoing
Community score	AniList 5.9 · MangaUpdates 6.8
Where to read	Tapas — official

Overview

Liana le Merdi dies as the last pyromancer alive, having spent her life hunting down Alseid Hallias, the man she believes destroyed her family. Given a second chance by the fire god, she's reborn — as a three-year-old, and standing in front of Hallias again. Instead of finishing what she started, she ends up adopted by him. Now she has to grow up alongside the man from her past life while trying to uncover what actually happened to her family, all while barely able to pronounce her own name.

It's a sharp premise: the person Liana blames for her family's death is now raising her, which gives every interaction between them an edge that a typical found-family story doesn't have.

What it does well

The central setup carries real tension precisely because it refuses to be simple — Hallias isn't written as a cartoonish villain, and the story gets real mileage out of Liana having to reassess someone she was certain she understood. That willingness to complicate the adult cast, rather than lean on a flat good-guy/bad-guy divide, is the story's strongest asset.

The mystery behind the original murder also gives the plot a clear destination, which matters for a story that spends a lot of time on slower, character-driven chapters. And with two full seasons complete — 80 chapters plus specials — there's a substantial amount of story here for readers to sink into before hitting the current hiatus.

Where it falls short

The story's biggest problem is pacing: it lingers on Liana and the other children at toddler age for a long stretch, and that childhood arc tests patience for readers more invested in the revenge plot and central mystery than in watching young kids navigate a fantasy court. Some readers have also flagged that the art style for the child characters becomes increasingly exaggerated over time, to the point of being a distraction rather than an asset.

Secondary characters introduced during this stretch, like the isolated and withdrawn Third Prince, don't get the same depth as the adult leads, making some of the childhood-arc relationships feel thinner than the central Liana-Hallias dynamic. And with the series on hiatus ahead of a Season 3, the mystery that's supposed to be driving everything remains unresolved for now.

Verdict

Adopted by My Enemy has a genuinely sharp hook and a more nuanced adult cast than its premise suggests, but a long childhood stretch and a slowing pace keep it from being an easy recommendation in its current, still-unfinished state. Worth checking out if the central mystery and the Liana-Hallias dynamic are enough to carry you through the slower chapters — just go in knowing Season 3 hasn't arrived yet.