Lout of Count's Family by Yu Ryeo-Han

Kim Roksu falls asleep one day reading the fifth volume of Birth of a Hero and wakes in the body of minor antagonist character Cale Henituse. Which is great except for one small thing; in a week Cale is going to be beaten half to death by the Hero Choi Han! Determined to avoid that fate and live his life as the spoiled, loutish older son of Duke Henituse Cale immediately sets to work to increase his reputation not knowing that he'll end up far more embroiled in the novel's events than he ever intended. 

This was so much fun! Cale is the absolute perfect reluctant Hero because everything about Kim as Cale screams Hero. Kim/Cale may come across as calculating and selfish but as we learn more about his life as Kim it's pretty easy to see that these are defense mechanisms. As an orphan Kim/Cale is very defensive especially when it comes to getting close to other people but because he was an orphan he also has an ingrained need to protect those he sees as being in a similar situation he was as a child. It's those contradictions that make Kim the perfect person to become Cale, Kim doesn't want to be seen as caring too much but also doesn't want any major responsibilities. Inhabiting the body of a lazy, selfish, drunk jerk allows him to get away with this while the people around him just think Cale has finally grown up. 

There's an exceptionally diverse cast of magical humanoid creatures in this that makes it even better. So far there are Cat People, Wolf People, Bear People, Whale People, Mermaids, and Tiger People. I think that's every race that's been mentioned, if I missed one I apologize but as you can tell there's a lot. Oh shoot I totally forgot Dragons. See a lot. Animal-based characters are always a plus in my book as they allow for the magic systems to be expanded upon greatly, in this series in particular though we get some absolutely wonderful forged family members for Cale. Because Cale can't help himself he saves Ohn and Hong the exiled heirs to the Cat Tribe who are absolutely adorable little kittens. He also rescues the Dragon who is a four-year-old, which makes him even more adorable (baby Dragon c'mon more books need baby dragons), and finally Lark who is of the Wolf Tribe. We don't know much about Lark yet but yup he's adorable too. 

The world-building though has to be what puts this over the top. There is just so freaking much going on in this world that if we didn't get semi-decent world-building building it would have devolved into a giant mess. Politics, religion, magic systems, geography, and in turn geopolitics, are all introduced as they are needed not before except for small bits of foreshadowing. This really helps stop confusion before it even starts. I really can't stress how important this is especially when you consider that there is both a civil war and an intercontinental war that will happen in the future.

I will definitely be continuing this series, especially since this ending was a complete heart-stopping cliff hanger!