16 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.
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.
