Is What's Wrong with Secretary Kim? Worth Reading? Review & Where to Read

Overview

What's Wrong with Secretary Kim? is a charming office romantic comedy with one of the genre's most reliable setups. Lee Young-joon is the vice-chairman of a major company — brilliant, gorgeous, obscenely rich, and almost cartoonishly in love with himself. For nine years, the one person who's kept his life running is his hyper-competent secretary, Kim Mi-so. Then she drops a bombshell: she's quitting, to finally live for herself, and maybe get married. Young-joon, who has never had to imagine life without her, is thrown into a panic — and slowly realizes his feelings run deeper than "she's a great employee." It's based on Jeong Gyeong Yun's novel with art by Kim Myeongmi, it's the source of the hit 2018 K-drama, and it's available in English on Tapas.

What it does well

The banter is the heart of it. Young-joon's preening narcissism bouncing off Mi-so's dry, unimpressed competence is genuinely funny, and their dynamic — boss and secretary who know each other better than anyone — gives the romance a warm, lived-in foundation. You buy that these two belong together, which is half the battle in any romcom.

Mi-so is also a big part of the appeal. She's smart, capable, and self-possessed, not a doormat or a damsel — she's the one quitting, the one with a plan, and the story respects that. Watching the all-powerful CEO completely lose his composure over a woman who isn't dazzled by him is the fun engine of the whole thing.

It's also just breezy and feel-good. It's light, fast, and charming, with appealing art and a steady stream of romantic-comedy beats that land. As pure comfort reading, it goes down easy.

Where it falls short

It's extremely tropey. The chaebol (super-rich) hero, the contract-feeling workplace closeness, the slow-burn realization, the dramatic hidden backstory — these are romance staples you've seen many times, and Secretary Kim plays them straight rather than subverting them. If you want fresh, this isn't it.

The later turn toward a more melodramatic past-trauma storyline can also feel like a tonal shift from the light comedy, and not everyone will love it when the fluffy romcom reaches for heavier drama. And as comfort food, it prioritizes charm over depth — the supporting cast and the conflicts are fairly thin. This is a feel-good fantasy, not a complex one.

Verdict

What's Wrong with Secretary Kim? is a delightful, easy-to-love office romcom that earns its popularity through sharp banter and a genuinely appealing central pair. It's as tropey as they come and the heavier later drama is a mixed bag, but if you want a fun, fluffy chaebol romance with a competent heroine and a vain hero getting humbled by love, it's a charmer — and a nice companion piece to the famous drama.