I like the premise of Heroine For Hire. Id love to read a good shoujo with the girl as a bodyguard in a high school romance setting. I like badass female characters or even shy characters learning to embrace their strengths. It could have been really good but it failed to deliver. Heroine For Hire is just really really boring. I say this as someone who loves shoujo romance. A good premise isnt enough to keep the manga afloat. You need good characters with chemistry in order to make the romance work. The idea of the characters is great Its a super strong insecure girl x a popular but passive guy who needs to be rescued. I can think of all kinds of cute moments and dynamics and yet the relationship in actuality was pretty bland. Ive realized that I like really dynamic characters. I have a soft spot for characters who are really out there and have weird personalities. However I can appreciate characters with more subtle personalities. These guys are a bit too subtle to the point where theyre kind of bland. I cant see how Kodakamine and Serizawa help each other gain the confidence to do what they want without them announcing it through their internal monologues. Theres so much exposition and so little chemistry. I want to see them banter or really inspire each other in ways that you can see without the characters just telling you. The side character couple was a majorly lazy afterthought. Most of their personalities and traits were just expositioned onto us and them falling in love was so randomly tacked on near the end. They also didnt have much chemistry in the scenes they were in. In fact the only chapter where anyone had chemistry was a side chapter where the two male characters were hanging out as kids. Im not going to blame this on the length since Tomodachi no Hanashi is only one volume and set up two romantic couples and two friendships with chemistry within that span as opposed to Heroine For Hires 4 volumes. There were things I liked. I loved all the messages about confidence and the characters helping each other stand up for themselves. I think the messages were really good. It kind of made me think of the chapter in Karakuri Odette where Asao was telling Odette that she could be strong and be a girl at the same time. I also really enjoyed the bit with the childhood friend. I thought it was one of the better parts of the story since it was more of a character arc rather than a romantic one. Also the FL and the childhood friend actually had a bit of chemistry as characters. I thought it was cute. The art was nice and it had a sketchy feel. I really liked how the FLs best friend was drawn. And yes Im just going to be calling them the ML and FL because their names are long and difficult to remember. Anyways it was just so boring and a chore to read. Absolute Boyfriend may have been a mess but it had that this spark. It felt dynamic in a way that Heroine For Hire doesnt. Heroine For Hire isnt bad. Its just uninteresting. Id much rather read something that makes me feel something even a negative emotion over something that makes me feel nothing.