The Lady with a Mask | Manhwa Review
Short & Sweet Office Romance with a Handful of Clichés
Korean Title: 가면 쓴 여자
Genre: Romance, Comedy
Story (Original Novel) By: 민 (MIN)
Art By: 메린 (Merin), 박한나 (Park Hanna)
Official English Translation: Tapas
Original Manhwa: KakaoPage, Naver Series
Original Novel: KakaoPage, Naver Series
Images via KakaoPage
By day Um Boran (Viola Lim) is a secretary, but by night she’s secretly a children’s storybook author under the pen name Bora (Violet). Too talented to be just an office worker, she created ‘The Child with A Mask’ to escape her terrible boss, Kwon Sehu (Harrison Kwon). Sure, he’s attractive, intelligent, but he’s also super rude! And now, he wants to find the creator of the book. How long can she keep her identity secret? And why does her boss want to meet her…
Note: The following review contains spoilers.
With how saturated the office romance genre has become, CEO and secretary pairings are a dime a dozen in the manhwa industry. The Lady with a Mask, which features cool and capable secretary Um Boran and her harsh yet handsome boss Kwon Sehu, is one such webtoon.
The main differentiator, though, is Boran’s secret identity as a children’s book author. Though her book ‘The Child with a Mask’ doesn’t perform well in sales, it serves as an outlet to vent her frustrations as she bases one of the characters on Sehu’s rudeness. It may be childish, but there’s very little chance that her boss would ever read the book, so no harm done right?
Well, that’s where Sehu’s nephew Woobin (William) comes in. Despite the book being practically unknown, Woobin somehow becomes aware of it and falls completely in love with the story. Moreover, the despicable CEO turns out to be an absolute fool for his precious nephew and will do almost anything to make him happy. And what better way to do that than have him meet the creator of his all-time favorite book? Little did Sehu know that said author is actually his secretary who after finding out about his intentions to contact her, does everything she can to hide her identity.
Like many other office romance manhwa, The Lady with a Mask includes several clichés with the secretary and overbearing boss dynamic being very prominent in the first few chapters. However, Sehu’s depth and gradual development feels genuine and distinguishes him from the stereotypical, arrogant CEO characters.
Aside from the romance plot, the webtoon also has a heartwarming family theme which is shown in the way that Boran connects with Woobin as well as the flashbacks that we see of Sehu’s past with his sister.
This manhwa is on the shorter side with 55 chapters, but the pacing for it is fairly well done on the whole. Boran and Sehu’s romantic development felt natural and not too rushed. There was also a good amount of buildup and foreshadowing for the dramatic parts. However, the actual tense moments that are the most compelling in the story were rather short-lived. It would’ve been interesting to see Woobin’s parents fleshed out just a bit more. Even though there are several flashbacks shown, there are still some loose ends that remain untied. It did end on a nice note, though, and the major conflicts were resolved satisfactorily.
For the most part, the art is quite pleasant especially with the bright and vivid coloring. There were some inconsistencies such as Sehu’s face changing a few times but it isn’t too distracting.
While The Lady with a Mask isn’t groundbreaking or anything like that, the webtoon’s simplicity and straightforwardness can be appealing to those who aren’t big fans of drama. If you’re looking for a short and sweet tale, or you just finished reading a heartbreaking story, The Lady with a Mask can be a good read to bring some cheer to your day!
