I agree with you on almost everything, just I would not say its "fucking awful" a bit of an overstatement, but it's true that sometimes some things are out of the box but it still was pretty easy to understand what was happening (and I'm not even an English native). for the direction it is taking, I think it's a matter of taste there, I honestly like it but mostly because I'm into romance but at least is not random romance (i mean there is no romance yet which makes sense given the circumstance) and the fact the MC actually has a brain (as you said) help a lot so yeah