I decided to read this because the reviews are stellar. Well, to put it simply: I shouldn't have wasted my time. Let me explain.
Let's start off with the things I did like:
- I really, really liked Viola. She is a complete professional, dependable, can stand up for herself, works hard, etc. She's a solid FL from the get go. And as someone who's been a secretary to a very important person (who could be a real asshole when they wanted to be) before, I could relate to her experiences on a deeply personal level.
- Sophie & Gerritt are really cute together, although they're just a side pairing.
[color=red]Warning: the rest of my review will contain spoilers so stop reading now if you don't wanna get spoiled.[/color]
That said, I've got a hell of a lot more things that I didn't like about this manhwa:
- Harrison and Gerritt see a book on Viola's desk and decide, right then and there, to open it simply because they're curious. Can't believe I have to say this but looking through your colleague's personal belongings without their explicit permission is not an okay thing to do, sirs. That's, like, basic human courtesy. I get that the author probably wanted to move the plot forward quickly (by making H finally finds out about Viola's secret), but in doing so, did they really have to make H seem even more like a jerk?
What pissed me off even more is how the author just brushes off H and Gerritt's behavior. They could've added a scene wherein Viola would ask how those two knew about her secret in the first place, and then proceeded to tell them off for snooping through her things. She's wrong for lying to them, yes—but that still does not excuse their behavior.
- Next, H completely abuses his authority as Viola's boss. Long story short, his beloved nephew asks him to make Viola his girlfriend because... he looks lonely? And because this dude is a total slave for his nephew, he just does as asked. So he, the CEO of a company, proceeds to "woo" Viola, his employee, who he has more or less tormented since her first day of working at his company. Yeah, that makes sense. 😃
Viola sees H as a bully, so of fucking course she's uncomfortable with his advances. She tells him she doesn't like it, but he apparently doesn't take no for an answer so he just keeps doing what he does best: being an ignorant bastard. He picks her up in the morning, calls her whenever he wants to ask about non related work things—knowing full well that she has to answer whether she likes it or not because she is still his employee and has to answer if she wants to keep her job. At one point he even threatens to come over to her place if she doesn't pick up his calls. Sir, what? She genuinely dislikes him yet she's still forced to bear with his advances because he holds the power over her career—and therefore her livelihood. Do people seriously find this cute? Romantic? Just how??
I understand that he wants to make his nephew happy, but does Viola's feelings not matter too? A no is a no, sir. Accept that and move on.
- Speaking of H's nephew, I don't understand why he had to take the kid's request to make her his girlfriend quite so literally. There are two ways he could've solved this problem:
- Just fucking say no? Will is a damn kid, H could say he's perfectly content being single for now, and if Will still wants the opportunity to play with Viola, H could ask her to come over every Saturday. Under the condition that he pay her, of course. Viola is a doll collector and that hobby ain't cheap, so I'm sure she'd appreciate the extra money.
- Or H could go the clichéd route and offer her a crazy amount of money to be his pretend girlfriend to appease Will then break up with her after a few months. Even if at the beginning she may feel uncomfortable acting as his gf, it wouldn't have been a problem because she had consented to it, she'd agreed to do it in exchange of something. They will probably fall in love in the process (of course they will).
All I'm saying is: There are better ways to solve things if only H was smarter or less self absorbed.
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Next, H lets Viola come into his office while he's in the middle of changing his shirt. She gets flustered, of course, and she looks away like the good employee that she is. But then he asks, "Anyway, why are you standing all the way over there?" Bruh I- 😔✋ You had to ask, Einstein? And when he finally realizes that she's all embarrassed, he smirks and goes ah-ha! as if he's just realized that not wearing a shirt..... in front of your female employee...... would make her uncomfortable?? Once again he shows his lack of awareness of basic workplace etiquette.
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My next point is regarding the rooftop accident, where a guy sexually harasses a female employee and Viola stands up to him. The purpose of this scene was to make the readers and Harrison appreciate her even more because of how brave she is. However, in my opinion it only highlights how H has no self awareness whatsoever. He fails to see that what he's been doing to her is only slightly less disturbing than that pervert.
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In ch 19, Viola gets drunk and H has to pick her up. When she wakes up in the morning she finds out that she's been sleeping in Will's—yes, Will the nephew, Will the kid—bed. I am happily single but [color=red] even I know not to ever let a child sleep together with a drunken person, on the child's fucking bed[/color]. When I first read this, I just went 👁️👄👁️ he really did this, huh? You're telling me he lives in, like, a fucking penthouse and there's not a single guest room? You're telling me he couldn't have let her sleep on his couch and put blankets over her?? I seriously wanna know why he did what he did but the author never explained it in the story. To top it all off, the next day H doesn't even immediately offer her a change of clothes. He just lets her walk around wearing last night's clothes which I'm pretty sure must stink like alcohol—I mean, she did get so drunk she passed out, didn't she? It wouldn't have been a problem if Will wasn't there, but he was, and none of the adults present showed any concerns whatsoever. Parenting skills? We don't know her.
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Ch 27 and 28. Hoooo boy, I got so pissed off reading these chapters I was literally speechless. The SHEER AUDACITY of this man I- 😔🤚 I am genuinely, honest to fucking God, curious how people find his behavior romantic? And why doesn't Viola tell him off for stepping over the line yet again? She's done it before so we know she has the balls to do it. He's not her boyfriend, he's her fucking boss. He has NO RIGHT- Anyway. We love it when a man disregards a woman's feelings completely and just does whatever the hell he wants. 🙂 He likes her, right? So it's cute to see him getting all jealous, right? Who cares if the woman is uncomfortable with his behavior? 🙂
Fml.
Quite a long list, huh? I don't know if you've noticed, but sometimes it's so obvious that when it comes to MLs, the bar is set so low it's practically on the floor. All they gotta do is look handsome, be in a powerful position (the emperor, duke, ceo, you name it), and act nice to the FL. That's pretty much it.
In Harrison's case, what does he have going for him aside from being a typical handsome CEO and a nice uncle? Nothing. He has little to no self awareness, bullies Viola for years only to suddenly start "wooing" her even though she firmly says no multiple times, gives her more work when she refuses to go to the movies with him, etc. Zero consideration for her feelings. This is straight up workplace harrassment and I don't see how it's cute or romantic in any way.
Harrison is supposedly a GeNiuS, someone who's so intelligent that literally all his employees have to fight tooth and nail to keep up with, but after reading 29 chapters I'm like where?? Where is this intelligence you speak of, author?? Seems to me like he only has one functioning brain cell.
I'm just disappointed. I don't care if a character is an ass or has flaws, what I want to see is how the author will develop said character. Will they get better or worse? Will there be consequences to their actions or not? etc. There's no such thing in this manhwa. More than halfway through the story, Harrison still acts like an entitled infant. That's why I finally decided to drop this story. I honestly would've kept reading if there were more Sophie and Gerritt scenes, but sadly the following chapters focus on Viola and H's trip to China. Thank you but no thank you, I'm outta here. 🏃🏃
P.S. I totally didn't expect to write such a long review, but it is what it is.
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