Is This Wasn't My Plan Worth Reading? Review & Where to Read

Quick facts
Format	Webtoon (josei), 80 chapters
Run	2021–2023 · completed
Community score	AniList 5.7 · MangaUpdates 6.7
Content	Workplace abuse, bullying (backstory), mature themes
Where to read	WEBTOON — official

Overview

Ro-a spent years as the overworked, underappreciated manager for Sihyeon, an actor who treats her like furniture on his way to superstardom. When exhaustion finally kills her, her last thought is pure spite: if she ever got the chance, she'd tear his career down before it started. Then she wakes up a decade in the past, face to face with a younger, still-unknown Sihyeon, and the plan writes itself. Sabotage him early. Save herself the years of misery. Simple.

Except revenge stories are rarely simple once you're actually living them, and This Wasn't My Plan spends its 80 chapters watching that plan buckle under the weight of a much messier, more human story.

What it does well

This is a genre that runs on manufactured conflict, and This Wasn't My Plan pointedly refuses that shortcut. Readers consistently point out how mature the communication is between its leads — misunderstandings get resolved through actual conversation rather than stretched out for artificial angst, which is rare enough in this space to be a real selling point on its own.

Ro-a herself is the other big draw: focused, competent, and firm about what she wants in a way that holds up across the whole runtime rather than softening into a generic romantic lead. The story's biggest gamble, redeeming the man who wronged her in her first life, actually pays off according to multiple readers, who describe going in skeptical and coming out convinced, thanks to a slow-built case for who he really is beneath the early cruelty.

The pacing gets consistent praise too. At 80 chapters split across two seasons, the story moves efficiently without dragging out its central tension past the point of interest, and it lands its resolution with enough conviction that one reviewer specifically calls out finishing it without a single sour note left over.

Where it falls short

The redemption of Sihyeon is also the story's biggest risk, and while most readers say it's earned, it requires patience through a genuine stretch of chapters where he's a legitimately unpleasant person to spend time with, before the story starts building its case for him. If you can't stomach an eventual romantic lead behaving badly in the first act, that arc will test you.

Character expression is a recurring, minor complaint: readers note the art can leave both leads looking blank or unreadable in the middle of tense emotional scenes, which occasionally undercuts moments that should land harder. And the second male lead, a childhood connection who represents Ro-a's other path, doesn't get quite the depth his role in the story seems to promise.

Verdict

This Wasn't My Plan takes a well-worn revenge-against-my-tormentor premise and executes it with unusually mature writing, a genuinely compelling lead, and a redemption arc that mostly earns the trust it asks for. It's a complete, well-paced josei romance that rewards patience with its rockier early chapters.