Romance Is a Bonus Book (2019) Review: Love Among Editors

Is Romance Is a Bonus Book worth watching?

Yes. Romance Is a Bonus Book is a warm, grown-up K-drama that is as much a love letter to publishing as it is a romance, and its central friendship-turned-love story is tender and well played. Lee Na-young and Lee Jong-suk make an appealing, unusual pairing, and the publishing-house setting gives the show a texture most workplace dramas lack. The drawback is energy: the stakes are low, the middle episodes wander, and some viewers will want more conflict than this gentle series offers.

What is Romance Is a Bonus Book about?

Kang Dan-i (Lee Na-young) was once a celebrated advertising copywriter. After years out of work while raising a child, and now divorced, she tries to return to the job market only to find that her experience and education count against her. Desperate, she hides her qualifications and lands a temporary support job at a publishing house.

The catch is that the company’s youngest-ever editor-in-chief is Cha Eun-ho (Lee Jong-suk), a writer and editor who has been her close friend since they were children, and who has quietly loved her for years. Dan-i keeps her circumstances secret from him, even as their lives become more entangled. Wi Ha-joon plays a book-cover designer who crosses her path, while Jung Yoo-jin and Kim Tae-woo fill out the office as an ambitious editor and the company’s chief executive.

Romance Is a Bonus Book was written by Jung Hyun-jung. It is a South Korean series in Korean, and this review covers the complete show: one season of 16 episodes that has ended.

A workplace drama that loves books

The show’s most distinctive pleasure is its setting. It spends real time on the business of making books: arguing over covers and titles, courting difficult authors, fretting about print runs and marketing a novel that might not sell. The editors are passionate, underpaid and a little eccentric, and the series treats their devotion to books with genuine affection. For readers, these scenes are a delight in themselves.

The drama also has something to say about work and age. Dan-i’s struggle to re-enter a career after years away, and the way the job market punishes women for time spent raising children, is handled with sympathy and a light touch. Her small victories at the office, as her old skills resurface, are among the most satisfying moments in the series.

Two leads with an easy intimacy

Lee Na-young, returning to television after a long absence, plays Dan-i with a mix of vulnerability and quiet competence that keeps her from becoming a pitiable figure. Lee Jong-suk, cast against his usual type as a younger man whose love is patient and understated, is warm and wry, and the pair’s decades of shared history come through in easy, familiar banter.

The romance is a slow burn built on loyalty and trust rather than grand gestures, which suits the show’s gentle tone. Wi Ha-joon is charming in a supporting role, and the office ensemble supplies comic relief and small side stories.

Where the plot drifts

The series is less confident with its structure. Once the premise is set up, the middle episodes circle similar misunderstandings and workplace subplots without building much momentum, and the love triangle feels more like a formality than a real dilemma. Some supporting characters are pleasant rather than memorable. Viewers who respond to the mood will not mind; those looking for sharp comedy or high drama may lose interest.

Who should watch Romance Is a Bonus Book?

It is well suited to fans of mature, low-key romance, book lovers, and anyone who enjoys K-dramas about adults rebuilding their lives. Sixteen hour-long episodes make it a comfortable binge for a couple of weeks. Content is mild, with some emotional themes around divorce and family, and little else to worry about. It is available on Netflix in many regions.

If you like it, try:

• Fight for My Way for another story of lifelong friends slowly realising they are in love.
• Because This Is My First Life for a grounded, thoughtful romance about work, housing and adulthood.
• Our Beloved Summer for a gentle romance built on shared history.

The verdict

Romance Is a Bonus Book is a soothing, affectionate drama that finds charm in the everyday life of a publishing house and in a friendship that deepens into love. It drifts in its middle stretch and rarely raises the stakes, but its warmth and appealing leads make it an easy recommendation for fans of gentle romance.

Rating: 4/5