18 titles, most popular first
In late 1987, as South Korea is gripped by the struggle for democracy, university student Eun Yeong-ro finds graduate student Lim Soo-ho covered in blood. She hides him from the government in her dorm room, drawing herself into a story that unfolds amid the political upheaval of the time.
Ki Seung-nyang is a woman born in Goryeo who climbs to power despite the rigid class system of her time. Her story weaves together her political ambitions and her bonds with two men: Wang Yoo, her first love, and Toghon Temür, emperor of the Yuan dynasty.
In a made-up Joseon era, Crown Prince Lee Hwon falls in love with Heo Yeon-woo, a bright girl whose father is a palace scholar, while his older half-brother, Prince Yangmyung, loves her too. But the scheming Queen Dowager wants her own relative to become Crown Princess, and dangerous palace plots soon threaten Yeon-woo and the young prince.
Lee Yoon-sung grows up in the Golden Triangle, raised by Lee Jin-pyo, a former presidential bodyguard who survived a secret 1983 mission into North Korea only to see his team betrayed and their records erased. Trained hard in combat from childhood, Yoon-sung learns of Jin-pyo's long-held plan to get revenge on the officials responsible.
Kim Je-ha, a former mercenary framed for the killing of his lover in Iraq, flees back to South Korea. To get revenge on the presidential candidate he saw order her death, he takes a bodyguard job with Choi Yoo-jin, wife of the rival candidate, and is assigned to protect her husband's secret daughter, Go An-na.
Lee Yul, the king's nephew, would rather play than study, until Yoon Yi-seo, a kind and clever girl from a noble family, scolds him for treating peasant children cruelly. Smitten, he starts working harder to impress her. But Yul's ambitious father is plotting with Kim Cha-eon to seize the throne, and a violent coup soon tears their worlds apart.
As a boy, Park Hoon is sent to North Korea with his father, a famous surgeon, and the two end up trapped there. Trained by his father, he becomes a brilliant heart surgeon and falls in love with Song Jae-hee, but escapes south alone. At Myungwoo University Hospital, he meets Dr. Han Seung-hee, who looks just like Jae-hee yet claims not to know him.
In an alternate present where South Korea is still a constitutional monarchy, carefree crown prince Lee Jae-ha wants nothing to do with politics or the throne. The king tricks him into joining a joint military training with North Korea, where he meets Kim Hang-ah, a tough North Korean special forces officer, and the two clash from the start.
In the Joseon court, Grand Prince Suyang hopes to win over the loyal official Kim Jong-seo by marrying his daughter Se-ryung to Kim's son, Seung-yoo. Curious about her intended, Se-ryung trades places with her cousin, Princess Gyeonghye, to get a look at him, and a romance begins in the shadow of their fathers' bitter rivalry.
In 1980 Gwangju, medical student Hwang Hee-tae, the pride of his hometown, is pulled by his activist best friend into running an illegal clinic for students hiding from the government. To cover some costs, he agrees to a marriage meeting arranged by his father. There he meets nurse Kim Myung-hee, who came in her friend's place to raise money to study in Germany.
In Joseon, Lee Tae becomes king after King Seonjong, who seized the throne through a rebellion. Lee Tae is a ruler who must give up the woman he loves just to survive, Yoo Jeong is a woman who has to become queen to stay alive, and the real power lies with first vice-premier Park Gye-won.
At 42, Kwon Yul is South Korea's youngest-ever prime minister, admired for his integrity and raising three children alone since his wife's death. Behind the flawless image, he has almost no parenting skills. Nam Da-jung, a tabloid reporter supporting her sick father, chases him for a big scoop, and the two end up in a contract marriage.
Wang So, a Goryeo prince, is banished from the palace and rejected by his family because of a prophecy that he will drown the country in blood. Shin Yool, a princess of Later Balhae, barely survived her own people as a child because she is said to be destined to bring light to a different kingdom. When the two are swept into a hasty marriage, they begin to grow close.
Mun-ju is a skilled diplomat who once served as UN ambassador, and San-ho is an international special agent whose nationality is a mystery. After Mun-ju's husband is killed, the two join forces to uncover the truth behind a deadly attack that could shake the security of the Korean Peninsula.
Shin Mi-rae has spent seven years as the lowest-ranking clerk at Inju City Hall, mostly serving coffee to officials. After a fight over beauty pageant prize money and a clash with a local councilwoman cost both her and the mayor their jobs, she suddenly finds herself running for mayor, backed by the ambitious deputy mayor Jo Gook.
In 1896, after his queen is killed and his throne is under threat, Joseon's King Gojong shelters at the Russian legation, where he discovers a taste for coffee. Back in power, he hires the worldly Tanya as his personal barista. Tanya soon finds herself pulled into a dangerous circle that includes the Russian marksman Ilyich and a mysterious socialite who goes by two names.
In the early days of the Joseon dynasty, General Kim Min-jae guards the young kingdom's borders and keeps a wary eye on Prince Yi Bang-won, whom he suspects of wanting the throne. Kim's son Jin, married to the King's daughter, is shut out of politics and lives for pleasure, while the general falls in love for the first time with a gisaeng named Ka-hee.
Kang Eun-ki becomes Queen of Joseon, but she and King Lee Kyung are attacked by assassins during their wedding parade. As her father faces a treason charge, her secret twin sister, Kang Eun-bo, enters the palace contest to choose a new queen under a false name, determined to uncover who planned the attack on her sister.
