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Muneeza22

Pakistan

Muneeza22

Pakistan
Romance Is a Bonus Book korean drama review
Completed
Romance Is a Bonus Book
37 people found this review helpful
by Muneeza22
Apr 26, 2020
16 of 16 episodes seen
Completed
Overall 6.5
Story 7.0
Acting/Cast 10.0
Music 8.0
Rewatch Value 5.0
This review may contain spoilers
WHAT I LIKED: The acting was amazing. The characters are all lovable, especially all the ones excluding the main couple. The color palette was so pleasing to the eye, as well as the furnishings, the clothes, the ambience was all fitting to the story and a joy to look at. I loved everything involving books, as a book lover myself. I loved the interactions between the founding members of Gyeoroo, especially Eun Ho and the President. I also loved the sisterhood between Ms. Go, Ms. Seo and Kang Dan-i. That was my favorite part of the entire drama.

WHAT I DIDN'T LIKE: The plot weakened towards the second half of the drama. Gyeoroo allowed Kang Dan-i to resign for something that wasn't even her fault in the end, and was even on the verge of firing her, and then she was referred to a small, shady publishing company for who knows what reason (I can't believe Ms. Go would do that!) , then rehired to Gyeoroo when the President was reminded that they have a "special recruitment policy". I mean what?? Couldn't you think of that right after she'd resigned and y'all were missing her?

Kang Dan-i never speaks of her past life as married woman, and after one scene of her videocalling her daughter on the phone, there is no mention of the daughter again. I found it very disturbing, considering that she laments her divorcee and mom status when thinking about dating again. The story focuses solely on her struggles to reenter the workforce, and her experiences as a wife and mother do not factor in at all in her growth. I get that the husband was an utter jerk and deserved a nice beating, but a complete omission of that aspect of her life didn't sit well with me.

I found Eun Ho's character and his relationship with Kang Dan-i hard to swallow, and not just because of a meh chemistry. Eun Ho is that perfect man that shouldn't even exist in kdramaland; rich, handsome editor, professor and successful writer who is down-to-earth, responsible, friendly, kind, and sensitive, who has suffered a one-sided love for his noona for twenty years, is ready to buy expensive clothes for her, furnish a room in his house for her, will wash dishes for her and cook food for her, help her here and there at her job at Gyeoroo, is ready to stand up for her whenever possible, and will rush to her when she's hurting (Except when he didn't keep in touch with her enough to know she had been divorced a year ago and was pretty much homeless?) What's more is that Dan-i just seems to take and take and give back very little. Sure she saved him from an accident when he was little, and she helped him out with some problems involving his parents a long time ago, but for a woman who wants to write her own story and not be a Cinderella, she does get rescued by him in the first few episodes. She's older than him but at times he was the mature person between the two, especially when it came to expressing love.

Both Dan-i and Eun Ho (as individuals) seem too nice to be believable. I did like her interactions with Ji Seo Jun, and of course I loved the dog! I think that the Seo Jun - Hye Rin pair seemed just a tad forced in the last episode.

The only thing that kept me going was the support characters and their hilarious interactions.
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