What Is The Plot Of CEO'S Unspoken Novel?

I recently finished reading ‘CEO's Unspoken’ by Chishee, and I am still reeling from the experience. It is one of those rare novels in the romance genre that totally hooks you from the very start. Our story begins with a notoriously cold CEO of a large corporation who is feared by all of his underlings. Few know of the hidden wound from his past that has left him emotionally shut down for so long. The female lead of this book is a smart, independent woman who has recently lost her job. Through a mix-up with a temp agency, she finds herself placed as the temporary secretary of the infamous CEO. As expected, there is immediate tension between the two, but as the story progresses, we get to slowly learn more about the CEO’s hidden world. He is seen in one of the few sweet scenes of the novel where he stumbles upon the female lead sketching out her designs for a new coat in the break room. For the first time in ages, he is interested in something outside of work, and is quietly curious about her passion. We also get to see him late at night in the office playing the piano – something that no one at the company even knows about. The majority of the novel is comprised of quiet moments such as these, between the two leads, where we get to slowly learn more about them both. The external office politics and a major subplot involving a rival company trying to poach the female lead in order to get to her new CEO boss are expertly woven throughout the novel to heighten the tension as the leads slowly begin to trust each other. As the female lead fights to find her place in her new career, the CEO must come to terms with his own past in order to move on from his current emotional shut down.

The unspoken theme really runs through the whole book – the CEO’s unvoiced grief, the female lead’s unacknowledged feelings for him, even their best conversations are unspoken. I loved the ending where instead of a big confession, the CEO just shows up to her art exhibition, holds her umbrella that he found in his office months prior and they can just be there. The small actions in this book meant so much and even though it is a tropey set up, it feels so real. I read it in a weekend and now I really want to write some fanfiction for this universe.

I was really waiting for the slow burn of this one to pay off and it did. Our CEO male lead is not your typical hero at first. He is kind of abrasive and you realize his guard is down later. The female lead is not an intern. She is a strong heroine with her own goals. Sometimes she calls a spade a spade to the CEO’s face when he is being unreasonable. I loved this CEO and female lead misadventure as it reminded me so much of Pride and Prejudice re-set in a corporate world. This book had great misunderstandings, lots of pride, respect slowly earned and tons of unrequited love. A great plot twist at the end involving his family was so good. I just wish we got more of the heroine’s back-story. Her art school dropout past is barely touched upon. The one scene where she defends him in a board room meeting to his critics was so fabulous because it is so rare to see a heroine this strong, kind and professional.

This was a book I kinda sorta expected to have the usual tropes and ending but I was surprised. The CEO’s trauma wasn’t some random tragic past that is suddenly dropped on us. Rather, it was woven into the rest of his personality and behavior throughout the novel. Like how he never eats lunch because his late mother used to make him lunch for school. And how the female lead notices all these little things about him and slowly meets his emotional walls instead of just exploding them dramatically. Their romance is told mostly through their shared routines, late night overtime at the office, her doodles in his meeting notes, etc. There was a large corporate rival subplot to the CEO’s position but it really served a purpose of forcing the two leads to really face their feelings when the female lead is offered a job abroad to work. My favorite part of the book was the so many symbolisms throughout the story. The CEO always has an empty chair in front of his, for example. And how after the female lead discovers the CEO to play piano in the middle of the night, she starts leaving post-it notes with her favorite song lyrics around his office. The story of their love was told through all these little glances and office supplies. Really creative take on a typical genre.