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Very Little romance in this. Romance is definitely a bonus here
I enjoyed this show for what it was.Pretty decent story about people that love books.
The FL here is absolutely amazing. She went through a lot and she smiled, danced and dabbed? and took everything like a boss. However,the writters really have forgotten that they gave her a kid..
She really was like fk them kids lol. She mentioned her kid like 3 times throughout the whole series. All she focused on was her work and falling for her like a brother boyfriend lol
Speaking of boyfriend, the ML really forced her into liking him as more than a friend or a brother. She really had no interest in him. He really pushed her to it. I don't think they should have been together.
The chemistry wasn't there between them
Maybe it's just age gap but he always comes up as a little kid next to her for some reason lol
I liked the second FL as well. She's very charming and lovable and deserved to be happy after she spent like 3 years crushing over the ML.
The story is more about writers and books rather than the romance part
Because the leads took forever to get together and it wasn't natural at all
Also there's one character here, she hated the FL for no reason just because she was latened, she stole her ideas . I wasn't a fan of her even though around but meh
Plus the forgotten kid story line and sloppy writing, made this drama a very mid drama.
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The storyline was good even though somethings were missing.
Some episodes were really boring to watch and I liked the supporting characters more. It gave me the devil wears Prada vibes. It could have been better. I liked the story overall but there was nothing about her(the main character's daughter and how they are going to keep on living. It felt empty at the end. Also the age gap was a bit too much but they are fully grownup adults so it might not matter. I liked how it also focused on literature than romance or drama. A good healing drama but not my cup of tea. The first 3 or 4 episodes were boring but it slowly turns into comedy and drama. It could have delivered what it wanted to within just 12 or so episodes.Was this review helpful to you?
I love that , a book has been beautifully used as a metaphor to describe a person. The storytelling has an artistic aspect and flows almost fluidly. There is a good balance of romance, humor and all other elements to give the story a full body. The casting is really well done and the actors really lived their characters onscreen. The only thing i have complaints about is the last part of the drama, which could have been better. But overall, its a light watch with great life lessons, and more importantly , for me it substantiated my believe in books and why i should keep reading.
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I LOVED the characters so much. They were sooooo cute and adorable. The story was also so interesting that it got me hooked. The kdrama gave relaxing vibes. I don't know how to explain it hahahaha .
There were a lot of funny moments and I love how strong the female lead is . She depends on herself so much and she doesn't think of quitting at all.
I recoomend this so much and I hope anyone who watches it loves it as much as I did .
I will definetly rewatch it soon.
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Fangirling over Jun Sook all the way ❤️
Can Lee Jun Sook get any cuter!!! Seems impossible, but with Jun Sook, cuteness knows no bounds❤️??Besides the story is heartfelt and the narrative style is beautiful and the characters are warm and aspirational, but in a real way. The show also manages to highlight the pitfalls of patriarchy without being preachy. The female lead was really likable and her optimism was inspiring. The second leads also capture your heart. It's impossible to dislike anyone in the show (besides 1), it's amazing people all round.
All in all, a great watch!!❤️
PS: Also rooting for the second leads' to become a couple ❤️
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It's alright I guess
Alright I finally finished Romance is A Bonus book and it's surprising how long it took me. Initially I started watching this and the plot with Dani facing employment troubles had me hooked. The first few episodes I was crying during her job hunts and invested in her plight However as the drama went it started to kind of drag for me. In the sense that I stated using another drama as motivation to finish this one (before it was Extraordinary Attorney Woo and now it's Hometown Cha Cha Cha).It was nice learning about the inner workings of publishing's and witnessing the company's passion for their work. Though like others have said in the comments, I found the later half to be more mundane and slice of life like. Sure I wanted to see some other character's relationships, but nothing else in the story really kept me hooked. Thus I don't see much rewatch value in this drama. It was cute with the whole book analogy thing, but that's it.
One thing that rubbed me the wrong way (and another review highlighted this too) is the fact her daughter wasn't mentioned/ shown. Only at the end she vaguely mentions worrying about when she'll return to Seoul when she graduates and Eun-ho says they can worry later. Like I think you should tell your daughter O _________O
Anyway if you want something light to watch after the first 8 episodes or so, this would be it.
The moon is beautiful.
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A beautiful drama of resiliency, friendship, second chances, love, and family.
I'm honestly surprised by how much I liked this drama. I have put off watching this for so long since I've read several reviews saying this is disappointing so I never felt like it was the right time to watch. But one random day of missing seeing Lee Jong Suk in a drama, I finally decided to give this a try and I didn't regret every second I spent watching this. It was actually a beautiful drama of resiliency, friendship, second chances, love, and family.The top reason why I loved this is the book references. As a huge bookworm, it's definitely a big plus for me! The story was mainly set in a publishing company and it was absolutely nice to see and witness the process of creating books from the first manuscript until it reach the bookshelves.
Most of the characters were really well written, especially the side characters. I loved how they weren't just bland characters inserted to complement the leads, each of the characters were given a distinguishing personality and their own storyline, even.
More than the leads, my favorite character was actually Song Hae Rin. She's an editor who works with the leads and she's just a literal angel. I love how she isn't written as the typical second lead who falls for the male lead then decides to make things hard for the female lead just to get back at her. She's a passionate, goal-driven, warm-hearted person and I just love her so much.
Meanwhile, I do love the relationship between the leads and how they transitioned from long-time friends to lovers. It gradually and slowly developed so for me, nothing felt forced. Knowing and understanding their history, everything felt natural to me, like things were just meant to happen. I loved how mature and domestic their relationship is. It felt so stable and seeing them just felt peaceful. Individually though, their characters aren't that remarkable.
Kang Dan-i, the female lead, was introduced so strongly. She made me cry in the first episode, in fact. A divorcee and a single mother trying to regain her place in the world no matter how much the world rejects her. In the latter episodes though, this image wasn't maintained when she got too caught up with the romance. She doesn't even remember to mention or call her child. That detail really annoyed me. Cha Eun Ho, Lee Jong Suk's character, as swoon-worthy as he is, didn't really live to his full potential. He was veiled with mystery with so much potential in the beginning but I'm not very satisfied with how everything unfolded. I felt like it could've been so much better. We didn't even get a scene of him in his full elements as a writer. I wanted to see his character in his writing process so bad. Instead, he was just referred to as a bestselling author, receiving the highest royalties from their publishing company. Although when picturing it in general, the development of the characters of the support roles kinda make up for it.
The acting was phenomenal, though. Even small scenes of support roles with filler scenarios make me tear up because it was executed so well.
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Read this if you are thinking of watching this drama….
Before watching drama, I read some negative reviews about this drama so when i started to watch this drama, i didn’t have any expections going into this drama. I was so close to not watch this drama since i read some negative towards this drama but i’m so so glad that i did watch this drama. It was so good. I fell in love with lee jong suk character. As a book lover, i totally enjoyed this. I just wanted to say if you don’t like strong love triangle trope, then you might not like this. I don’t mind it so much in dramas so this wasn’t bad for me. But please give this drama chance.Was this review helpful to you?
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The whole concept I think is very cool, I really enjoyed watching the work life of book publishers, the work that each department do, and their struggles as employees but also as different individuals with their own personal matter, and the development of each character is very nice to see. The office environment looks very cute and cool and lowkey made me feel like I wish I was there.I watched the show because of Wi Hajoon, so I think it's pretty obvious and super biased when I say my favorite character is Ji Seojun. Before I watched it I've only seen fanmade edits and pictures, and thought that his character would be nice and sweet, which he is! But I didn't eexpect his character to go a lot deeper than that, but I absolutely love it. I can always enjoy some lowkey mysterious characters, and when his secret was revealed ngl I cried. I do think his story is showed enough for a second lead, but I kinda had wished there was a little bit more to show... Other than him, I unexpectedly actually really like Song Haerin. When she first appeared I thought she would be more on the annoying side, but thankfully she's not, and became my second favorite. She was actually really adorable and sometimes I can relate to her character...
Honestly... adding to that, not just Seojun and Haerin as individual characters, I also really like seeing them as a couple (idk if i can say that bc... they technically haven't? but anyway) I really like their chemistry. From the way they meet, the way they bonded with work, their little problem, their reconciliation... I really loved seeing them and lowkey wished they would have more scenes together, and tbh even wished that they would at least end up dating a few episodes before the drama ends.. I honestly like Seojun and Haerin (both individually and as a "couple") than Eunho and Dani. Though I do think Eunho and Dani are adorable too, I can't help but feel a little bored. To me it's just the usual childhood best friends to lovers trope. When they weren't dating their bickering, Eunho's jealousy, Dani's interactions with Seojun were really enjoyable to watch, but I guess starting around the middle of the drama? When Eunho confessed and Dani kept thinking about it... Ever since that I skipped a little of their moments, and when they date or have romantic scenes I kept skipping for some reason? It just felt... a little boring for me. But that's probably just me... I generally don't really watch romance unless my favorite actor is there... Was it because I was biased? Who knows really...
Other than that, it's pretty good overall. The songs were nice, though sadly weren't really memorable for me, I don't remember any of them...
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Cute but not about motherhood
My sister reccomended this drama to me because I was really missing a touching romance like Because this is my first life or Personal Taste, where they talk about the challenges of being older and having to deal with responsibilities while in love. Then I read the caption and I thought it would be a pleasant surprise to see something about a single mother, since this is not the kind of storie that it's portraited is most medias...It's so sad I was actually wrong.
The drama is ok, the ost is awesome (It has Jannabi in it so that's obvious) and the relationships between the characters are cute and all, but in the end I got myself anxiously waiting more for the resolution of the mistery behind the book author then the romance itself. I must confess, I got a little upset that she doesn't look like she's a mother AT ALL except when she's having a hard time and she reminds herself she has bills to pay. Through 16 episodes Dan I has ONE talk with her daughter and when the girl is finally brought up in the last episode is just to say "oh, we can talk about it later". I think I'd be a little more inclined to give the highest scores to this drama if she was just a divorced woman, not a mother who doesn't seem to care about her daughter at all and just think about her now and then, putting her on a boarding school so she wouldn't have to deal with the girl.
It's a cute romance and the acting is nice and all, for those who always loved books like myself is really interesting to see they working in a publisher and I think is quite accurate all the problems that appear there, but in the end I think the story got quite stuck and could've been better developed. I think 12 episodes would've been enough in this drama, or 16 but if they actually cared about the challenges of being a single mother. It's good to watch if you don't have anything better to do, but I don't think I would rewatch it anywhere soon.
8/10
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Good story setting, could've been better!
I liked this drama with a few exceptions.What I liked
• As a book lover I loved that the drama was set in a book publishing company. I enjoyed everything related to publishing. It was quiet interesting to see how much hard work goes to launching a book.
• The support characters were all entertaining and had their own stories.
• The SFL and the SML were likable and not the typical annoying over-the-top jealous type.
What I didn't like
• The main couple was not to my liking. I have watched and liked dramas with noona-love but this couple didn't have the depth or passion to their romance. They lacked chemistry but had a good friendship.
• The sudden omission of FLs daughter was unrealistic, I mean the drama started with the FL struggling to meet ends to take care of her child, so where is she?
• Difficulty to understand how the ML didn't have a clue about his best friend of 20 years being divorced and homeless. How didn't he know what was going on if he ended up at her place everytime he was drunk? I mean did he not get drunk for a whole year?
What could've been explored
It would have been more interesting to have explored the relationship of FL, Ms.Go & Ms.Seo plus a few scenes of the ML as an actual author and a professor would have been great. More backstory for the characters could've been added instead of unnecessary fillers in the second half of the drama, like more about FLs daughter, SMLs childhood or SFLs etc.
Conclusion
That being said I enjoyed this light weight drama excluding the main romance, those parts were skipped. For the main couple it felt like the writer didn't have much to say after a certain point. It was bland. But the story of the publishing company was enjoyed. The day to day tasks of a publishing house was interesting.
At the beginning it felt like the drama was going to show us a courageous FL with a strong willpower tackling the unfairness of life, but it soon went all Cinderella with the young and rich ML being there to save the day. The FLs character was selfish and always had to play the sympathy card and never apologetic.
So overall, without the romance parts this drama was a good watch. If you are interested in publishing and love books this could be enjoyed.
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It was lovely
This was like opening then closing a good book that made me feel warm inside. After a few false starts I finally watched all of it. Admittedly I skipped the parts involving the newbie employee couple and the main romance didn't pack as much of a punch. I didn't completely buy that Da-ni had finally fallen for Eun-ho, more like the he (or the writer) forced them to be a thing. I liked the second lead in this - I thought he was sexier - and he really needs a lead, I would like to see him a noona romance. I mostly liked it because of Da-ni's journey, Seo Yeong-wa's heartbreaking broken down marriage (she needs a lead, she stand out in the dramas I've seen her in), even the director's sad story with her ex-fiance, those were the most compelling stories to me. Lee Jong-suk didn't do much for me apart from a few lines here and there. He nails being goofy as always but I always feel like he's reading a script for his longer scenes, especially the ones where he's giving some romantic speech (see it shouldn't even feel like a speech). However, the crying scene was well done. I still think his best acting was in While You Were Sleeping, he hasn't topped what he did there yet in my opinionWas this review helpful to you?
