Home Office Romance

Thanks to NetGalley for the ARC! 

“Home Office Romance” is a the story of a blooming romance at the height of Covid in Japan, while both main characters are forced to work in near isolation from home.

What more can I say besides the fact that I absolutely loved this story? It made me giggle and kick my feet in the air almost every chapter and that's a very hard feat for a romance, let alone a straight one, to make me feel.

The art style, without being super out there, has an original feel that distinguishes it from other romance manga that I've read, without mentioning the fact that it's also very polished. No single panel or chapter felt rushed out or like a first draft or like this was a second serialized work from the author.

Most importantly in my opinion, the story felt REAL. I felt like the author was really drawing the story of how he met his wife, not reading a romance manga. A lot of manga tends to be very tropey and formulaic, so this one was a breath of fresh air. Neither the problems that arose from their work, nor the conversations they had as neighbors, nor the mental ruminations from the characters felt overdone for the sake of comedic efect nor forced to create a false sense of conflict and urgency for them to get together. And also, because of the short nature of the story (only this one singular volume) it was also told very thightly, every chapter connecting with the next one, nothing being used as filler or irrelevant to the plot.

I will 100% recomend this to everyone I know. It's a short and super sweet read that won't make you feel like you wasted your time for a relationship without chemistry.