Rae managed to survive the first book of the Time of Iron series, the universally hated character she inhabits originally didn't, but she greatly altered the lives of several characters including her favorite sociopath, the prophesied Emperor himself. She accidentally betrayed him to his death but it's okay because he still returned from the dead with his undead army and now plans to conquer the world with Rae as his wife. Ah true love, he doesn't trust her or believe anything Rae says but he'll decapitate anyone who insults her. Rae quickly comes to the conclusion that the sarcastic unpredictable sociopath isn't nearly as entertaining he was in the book but she feels guilty about his death and decides that finding him the right wife might help him find happiness. It might also have something to do with a god telling Rae that she's not worthy of being his wife but if she saves him from the second prophecy the god will send her back home. If she fails she'll just die horribly. If only Key knew about the second prophecy or knew what happiness was.

Rae's sister is obsessed with a fantasy series involving a Cinderella style heroine loved by all. In this series, both the spoiled king and his loyal best friend fall for her, creating an angst ridden love triangle before she's assassinated. With his queen dead, the king takes up his prophesied role as Emperor with vicious ruthlessness. Rae and her sister argue over which of the two guys are ultimately the better character, but her sister always gets annoyed with Rae because even though she is only 20 years old, she is dying of cancer and often doesn't remember the character names and plot points. No one else visits Rae anymore though, until a stranger offers her the chance to enter the fantasy world in the series to get the Flower of Life and Death to save herself. She doesn't really believe it, until she wakes up pain free in a character's body. Too bad the body belongs to the heroine's evil step-sister, scheduled to be executed in horrible fairy-tale style the next day. There are so many directions this plot could go, but it skips over most of the obvious to create a bazaar and oddly serious look at literary tropes and real human emotions.