Secretary's Job Review

Secretary’s Job  

Author: Miki Araya

Publisher: June Manga/DMP

American release date: July 24, 2012

Format/Genre/Length: Manga/Yaoi/200 pages

Publisher/Industry Age Rating: 19+

Overall Personal Rating: ★★★★★

Takase is well-known at the company he works for—he’s not only cute and adorable, but he has the ability to take anyone he works with a success! And now his boss has given him a challenge. The president wishes Takase to work with his slacker son, Toshiaka. Is Takase up to the challenge?

Synopsis:

Secretary’s Job: Honjou is surprised to learn he’s been given a secretary. After all,, he’s a low level employee in his father’s company. But he accepts Takase with his usual indifference, although the rest of his department is delighted to have Takase working with them. Takase finds that Honjou is not interested in working, but he doesn’t give up and inspires Honjou to actually make an effort.

When a colleague’s stay in the hospital is extended, Takase volunteers Honjou to take his place at a business golf meeting over the weekend, to Honjou’s dismay. When Honjou criticizes Takase, the younger man breaks into tears, engendering the sympathy of the department and driving Honjou to accept the golf date.

Takase continues to spur Honjou on to greater and greater efforts. One day he realizes that Honjou doesn’t eat very well, so the next day he brings him a box lunch that he’s made himself. Touched, Honjou gives Takase thanks—with a kiss! Why did he just do that? Honjou has no idea!

As they begin to grow closer, Takase realizes, to his horror, that Honjou needs to find someone he can marry and have a child with, so he asks to be removed from his assignment, which leads to more trouble than he bargained for. Is there any way for Takase and Honjou to be more than colleagues? Will love find a way?

I’ll Make You My Prisoner:  Monma has a great deal of charm, which goes a long way toward making him successful. And he isn’t shy about using that charm to get his way. When a co-worker, Takada, confides that the secretary she had eyes for took no interest in her, Monma’s competitive spirit takes that as a challenge, so they make a bet. If Monma can’t get into this guy’s pants, he owes Takada an expensive dinner.

Figuring that his job will be easy, Monma targets his prey, Setoguchi, and “runs” into him. The guy is very cute and just as clueless as Takada said, and Monma finds himself forgetting what he was going to do. He starts to spend more and more time with Setoguchi, taking him to different places, wining and dining him. At one point, he gets the other man drunk and into his bed! But something  has changed, and Monma is suddenly unsure he can go through with the bet because of it.

Falling in Love With You: Tokuno is a very popular student. All the girls love him and are more than willing to lend him their notes. Tokuno is very stuck on himself. So when he notices another student, Kanbe, garnering their attention, he doesn’t like it. He’s determined to make them not like Kanbe as much as him, so he sets out to find out something that will ruin his reputation. In order to do this, he gets as close to him as he can. But then he discovers that Kanbe is more than just a great guy. Can he go through with his master plan?

Jealousy 1 and 2: Takase, Honjou, Monma and Setoguchi return in these mini stories about jealousy.

Commentary:

I really loved the development of the characters in this, and their storyline, co-workers to friends to lovers. It wasn’t insta-love on anyone’s part, and it felt natural. Each of these stories has a similar central theme, but the characters are all unique. I like stories where characters start out as less than stellar people but end up redeeming themselves through their actions.

This is a really good book, one I would gladly re-read. The artwork is good, the guys are good looking, the romance element is strong, and the sex is hot. What more do you want from a yaoi?  I give this book an enthusiastic thumbs up and look forward to reading it again.