Romance Is a Bonus Book: Romaenseuneun Byulchaekboorok
August 31, 2020 8:31 PM - Season 1 (Full Season) - Subscribe
A gifted writer who's the youngest editor-in-chief ever at his publishing company gets enmeshed in the life of a former copywriter desperate for a job. (Netflix, tvN Korea)
MyDramaList show page: Cha Eun Ho is a successful and handsome writer who is also the youngest chief editor at a publishing company. He has a calm demeanor and remains reasonable at work. He then becomes involved in the life of his childhood friend, Kang Dan Yi who was once a popular copywriter. She is now divorced, a single mother, unemployed and struggling in life though still attempts to find a job, but even with her once good career, she cannot. However, in a desperate attempt to find a job, she lies about her background and begins to work as a temporary worker in the same building under none other than Cha Eun Ho. As they become involved in each other’s life more than often, a love story begins to unfold.
Dramabeans - all tagged entries
KDramaLove review - B+
JazmineMedia - Heartwarming or Boring? Spoiler Free Review
Cosmopolitan review: It's an ode to second chances—in life and in love.
K&J Reviews - With a strong lead, Lee Jong Suk, Romance is a bonus book offered a bookish experience, but failed to keep the story interesting.
KDramaKisses review
TheFangirlVerdict Review
MyDramaList show page: Cha Eun Ho is a successful and handsome writer who is also the youngest chief editor at a publishing company. He has a calm demeanor and remains reasonable at work. He then becomes involved in the life of his childhood friend, Kang Dan Yi who was once a popular copywriter. She is now divorced, a single mother, unemployed and struggling in life though still attempts to find a job, but even with her once good career, she cannot. However, in a desperate attempt to find a job, she lies about her background and begins to work as a temporary worker in the same building under none other than Cha Eun Ho. As they become involved in each other’s life more than often, a love story begins to unfold.
Dramabeans - all tagged entries
KDramaLove review - B+
JazmineMedia - Heartwarming or Boring? Spoiler Free Review
Cosmopolitan review: It's an ode to second chances—in life and in love.
K&J Reviews - With a strong lead, Lee Jong Suk, Romance is a bonus book offered a bookish experience, but failed to keep the story interesting.
KDramaKisses review
TheFangirlVerdict Review
I finished the show last night. While there were things I liked about the series, overall it missed the mark for me.
The Good:
-I liked the comic-relief subplot of Park Hoon (Kang Gi Doong) and Oh Ji Yul (Park Gyu Young). I recognized Kang Gi Doong from 'It's Okay To Not Be Okay' (as the friend who runs the pizza place) and 'The King: Eternal Monarch' (as the assistant to the Prime Minister), and liked him in both of those roles, so it was nice to see him again, and having some good broad comedic moments. And I enjoyed Ji Yul's character arc (and see now from her MyDramaList filmography that she was second lead in 'It's Okay To Not Be Okay' and yet I had not a glimmer of recognition while watching the show, and still can't quite see that it's the same actress, wow do I suck at recognition between hairstyle changes). Anyway, they were both enjoyably silly, and I loved their epilogue.
-Kim Sun Young as Marketing Team Leader Seo Young Ah: I've enjoyed seeing the actress playing the mom/ajumma parts in 'Crash Landing Into You', 'When the Camellia Blooms', and 'Because This Is Our First Life,', so it was fun seeing her looking more glamorous.
-Female friendships: Some of the reviews mentioned how the show highlighted the friendships among the various women, rather than rivalry, and, yeah, that was nice. Did not expect the 'Gangam Leopard' clubbing sequence.
The Bad:
-The main romance did not do it for me at all. Like, they're both ostensibly attractive people, but, Lee Jong Suk is not my type, so, when they did start getting kissy I had more of an "ick, you're kissing your brother" feeling than an "awww, sweet" reaction. Overall, I just didn't particularly like Cha Eun Ho as a character, he was so bratty to start with that I never really warmed up to him and didn't get as moved by the Writer Kang subplot as I think the show wanted me to.
-The invisible daughter: I get that they needed a story reason for Dan Yi to have a good reason for long resume gap and impoverishment post-divorce, but having the daughter just be away at boarding school for the entire series aside from a phone call or two in the first episode was off-putting, and I wish they'd come up with some other plot device.
So, yeah. There were a lot of good scenes & characters in the show, and I can see how/why people who loved it loved it, but, I just wasn't feeling it in the end.
posted by oh yeah! at 6:02 AM on September 1, 2020
The Good:
-I liked the comic-relief subplot of Park Hoon (Kang Gi Doong) and Oh Ji Yul (Park Gyu Young). I recognized Kang Gi Doong from 'It's Okay To Not Be Okay' (as the friend who runs the pizza place) and 'The King: Eternal Monarch' (as the assistant to the Prime Minister), and liked him in both of those roles, so it was nice to see him again, and having some good broad comedic moments. And I enjoyed Ji Yul's character arc (and see now from her MyDramaList filmography that she was second lead in 'It's Okay To Not Be Okay' and yet I had not a glimmer of recognition while watching the show, and still can't quite see that it's the same actress, wow do I suck at recognition between hairstyle changes). Anyway, they were both enjoyably silly, and I loved their epilogue.
-Kim Sun Young as Marketing Team Leader Seo Young Ah: I've enjoyed seeing the actress playing the mom/ajumma parts in 'Crash Landing Into You', 'When the Camellia Blooms', and 'Because This Is Our First Life,', so it was fun seeing her looking more glamorous.
-Female friendships: Some of the reviews mentioned how the show highlighted the friendships among the various women, rather than rivalry, and, yeah, that was nice. Did not expect the 'Gangam Leopard' clubbing sequence.
The Bad:
-The main romance did not do it for me at all. Like, they're both ostensibly attractive people, but, Lee Jong Suk is not my type, so, when they did start getting kissy I had more of an "ick, you're kissing your brother" feeling than an "awww, sweet" reaction. Overall, I just didn't particularly like Cha Eun Ho as a character, he was so bratty to start with that I never really warmed up to him and didn't get as moved by the Writer Kang subplot as I think the show wanted me to.
-The invisible daughter: I get that they needed a story reason for Dan Yi to have a good reason for long resume gap and impoverishment post-divorce, but having the daughter just be away at boarding school for the entire series aside from a phone call or two in the first episode was off-putting, and I wish they'd come up with some other plot device.
So, yeah. There were a lot of good scenes & characters in the show, and I can see how/why people who loved it loved it, but, I just wasn't feeling it in the end.
posted by oh yeah! at 6:02 AM on September 1, 2020
Still have not finished it but had to pop in to say the absent daughter bugged me too. Especially because she's just forgotten after a few episodes!
posted by rednikki at 1:30 AM on September 5, 2020
posted by rednikki at 1:30 AM on September 5, 2020
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One of the things I like about this and other Kdramas I've watched is that issues around money are REAL. I would have liked this one to have that hanging on for just a few more episodes. But boy howdy did they take on a lot of other workplace issues!
posted by rednikki at 3:08 AM on September 1, 2020