Is Love by Mistake Worth Reading? Review & Where to Read

Quick facts
Format	Manhua (josei), 82 chapters
Run	2024–present · ongoing
Community score	AniList 7.9 · MangaUpdates 7.5
Content	Infidelity themes (backstory), mild romantic drama
Where to read	WEBTOON — official

Overview

When financial reporter Sylvie Jaine gets cheated on, she doesn't get mad — she gets petty. Spotting the mistress's uncle's Rolls-Royce gives her an idea: seduce the uncle herself and become the mistress's aunt by marriage, turning her ex's whole scheme upside down. The uncle in question is Stephan Yard, a cold, wealthy CEO who's supposed to be an instrument of Sylvie's revenge and predictably becomes something else entirely.

It's a premise built entirely on genre shorthand — the CEO romance, the revenge plot, the spirited heroine and the stoic rich love interest — and Love by Mistake doesn't pretend otherwise. What it offers instead of surprise is polish, and on that front it delivers.

What it does well

The art is the reason to read this. Character designs are clean and expressive, outfits and interiors are rendered with real care, and the panel-to-panel acting does a lot to sell moments that the writing alone wouldn't carry as well. It's the kind of manhua where you'll pause on a page just to look at it, which is a meaningful strength for a romance built around chemistry and physical presence.

The opening hook also works better than a standard meet-cute would. Starting from spite rather than attraction gives Sylvie's pursuit of Stephan a sense of momentum and purpose that a lot of CEO romances lack in their first act, and the comedy of her scheme slowly backfiring into real feelings is genuinely fun to watch play out.

The romance itself stays pleasantly low-stakes. Rather than manufacturing angst through secrets or betrayals, most of the tension comes from misunderstandings and banter, which makes this an easy, comfortable read rather than an emotionally exhausting one.

Where it falls short

Sylvie is set up as sharp and capable, but the day-to-day writing leans much harder on her being cute and pouty than on actually showing her competence outside the initial scheme. That gap between the character's premise and her execution is the biggest thing holding the story back, and more than one reader has pointed to the same frustration: a smart heroine who mostly gets by on being adorable.

The central dynamic also doesn't push past the genre's usual shape — Stephan is stoic and wealthy, Sylvie is spirited and works to win him over, and the power imbalance between a CEO and the woman pursuing him goes largely unexamined. If you've read a handful of these romances before, you've essentially read this one's skeleton already.

Once the initial revenge plot resolves, the story leans almost entirely on the couple's relationship to carry later chapters, and it doesn't always have enough new material to keep that stretch as engaging as the opening hook.

Verdict

Love by Mistake is a good-looking, low-stakes romance that leans on its art and its petty-revenge hook more than on genuine plot or character depth. For a relaxing, pretty read with a fun setup, it delivers — just don't expect the writing to match the quality of the linework.