Thank you @netgalley, @thomasnelson and @our_friendly_farmhouse for the e-ARC of Meet Me In The Margins.

First, the title of this book is absolute perfection. I ❤ it.

This book was filled with all of my favorite things: books, book publishing, book manuscripts, more things books, secret places where people hide books, and so much more.

There was even a shout out to Griswold Family Christmas. #checkplease

Savannah Cade is an editor at Pennington Publishing, an old school publishing company that finds literary fiction, especially romance, to be absolutely vile.

Not only is she an editor, but an aspiring writer, having worked for years on her manuscript for her romance novel.

While working a publishing event, Savannah is able to connect with Claire Donovan, the most sought after editor in the world, who agrees to take a look at her manuscript.

Unfortunately, Claire didn't feel Savannah's manuscript was ready, but gave her 44 days to revamp her entire story and resend for consideration.

Savannah didn't know where to start, until she discovered a "mystery editor" in her office.

She and this "mystery editor" would go back and forth, she leaving her manuscript in her secret space in the office and the editor leaving comments in the margins for her to read upon her return.

Over the next month, Savannah is not only able to revamp her novel, but also learn a lot about herself and the people in her life in the process.

There are a lot of characters in this book, but they all had a place.

This was a quick read. A fun rom-com that may just get you out of your reading slump.

Cute, clean rom-com! I loved the MC, she was a strong lead and funny! The authors writing style quickly engaged me and it became a page turner!

The book was a little bit of a slow start for me, but once it got going, I really enjoyed the characters and story! Endearing story of a girl who doesn't feel like she's on the same level as the rest of her family, but finds her way. Very cute read!

I fall in between the reviewers who loved this book and those who found the plot far-fetched and the characters underdeveloped. While I feel some of the criticism is warranted (it was definitely predictable and some points of conflict could have been better fleshed out), it also made me laugh out loud in some spots, and I enjoyed how the relationship developed. It was a sweet story full of books, publishing, and romance. Light-hearted and with a satisfying conclusion—just what I need right now! And I know just the type of customer I will recommend it to…!

Please note: I received a complimentary copy of this book. Opinions expressed in this review are completely my own.

I'm going to start the review by saying that the author does know how to steal the reader's heart. When I requested for this book, I was just looking for an usual rom-com book. But it turned out to be one of the best books I've read in recent times. I don't know if the banter between William and Savannah was based on her own true story but it was so realistic and touching. The romance didn't feel forced or hastened and I also liked how Savannah tried to portray Cecilia's character based on her own. Overall it's a great book and I will rate it a 5-star.

This is a sweet, light romance for book lovers everywhere and reminded me so much of one of my all-time favorite rom-com’s “You’ve Got Mail”. In both, the main characters fall in love with each other through their writing. While some of the characters were perhaps a tad one-dimensional, others were very relatable, and I really grew to love Savannah as she tried to navigate the waters of a new boss and attempting to edit her own manuscript, while still having to live up to her family's expectations. The romance was very understated throughout the novel and when it did show up, it was very sweet. Melissa Ferguson knows just how much humor to add into the mix to make her novels enjoyable reads. I really disliked Savannah’s family. I didn’t enjoy Savannah’s relationship or interactions with her parents or her sister, Olivia, and I really didn’t like the idea of the family supporting Olivia’s engagement to Savannah’s ex-boyfriend, who hooked up with her sister while he was still with Savannah. They all are kind of like suck it up and just be happy for your sister, even though you’re probably still hurting. I do wish we'd had more time with the two main characters together. If you love any movie on Hallmark, then this is the book for you! It’s a very clean, sweet and charming story with a slow burn. It's a little bit romance, a little bit mystery and a little bit comedy. Thanks to Netgalley, Thomas Nelson Fiction and Melissa Ferguson for the e-ARC me in exchange for my honest opinion.

Meet Me in the Margins is an adorable, easy, read with characters and emotions that just feel AUTHENTIC (even when the plot feels far-fetched!). I fell in love with Savannah and her colleagues at Pennington Books and appreciated Ferguson's ruminations on what real, long-lasting love looks like.

The plot was somewhat predictable, but the Nashville setting makes Ferguson's novel feel fresh and unique (instead of another whirlwind publishing romance set in New York City). It's rare that I read anything romantic or "light," but this is just what my heart needed at the end of 2021, and it took me just one day to read!

I was really looking forward to reading this book. The plot sounded so intriguing, but it fell flat for me.

Savanna’s works at a small publishing firm that specializes in non-fiction. The owner is very against commercial fiction, especially romance. Savannah secretly loves romance and is writing her own book. Savannah accidentally leaves her manuscript at work and finds it with a lot of notes. The mystery editor and her wrote notes back and forth, rewriting her manuscript in hopes that she can get published.

I felt like there wasn’t enough development of the romantic relationship, and I didn’t feel any chemistry between the main character and the love interest. At first I was really into the story but quickly grew bored as the story progressed, it didn’t keep my interest at all.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for an ARC of this book in exchange for an honest review.

In short, it’s a romantic novel about how to write a romantic novel when you do not have much experience with romantic relationships and people around you aren’t very romantic either.
I believe there is a good idea behind this story, but the author should have listened her own advice to her protagonist and the book would have been better - the first meet between the couple is boring (if you could call it a first meet at all) and the rest is typical to Hallmark books and films (just the seasonal music is missing) :)
A lot is happening in this book, but writing, as you would guess, is not the main thing, and romance is even less prominent. Misunderstandings and little sister’s wishes are more important than rewriting the romance novel. There is a happy ending for everyone, even if the ending isn’t exactly what they were hoping for.
It’s a good book, it just needs a bit more work.

Meet Me in the Margins is a delightful romance. It skillfully takes some very common romance tropes- interaction with an unknown person develops into a relationship (a la You’ve Got Mail), a certain dash of opposites attract, and lonely woman finds love, and presents them in a fresh way that feels so much more real and relatable than I’ve ever read. The characters and environments feel like people and places I could know. Their actions and reactions in most cases feels natural. I genuinely liked the main characters and was definitely rooting for them. Although the plot is somewhat predictable, there were enough twists and turns to make it interesting. Even the side characters were enjoyable. Definitely a book I would like to read again.
I received this as an advanced reader copy in exchange for an honest review. All opinions are my own

This is an honest review in exchange for an ARC of Meet Me in the Margins from NetGalley. The story follows the MC, Savannah, as she trudges through her day to day tasks as an acquisitions editor for a publishing company that doesn’t believe in anything remotely close to her true passion- romance- which is writes secretly in her spare time. No one knows of this until her hidden manuscript is found and edited. Savannah is falling for her editor and her boss. What will she do and who will she pick? Throw a little family drama into the mix- will she get her own HEA? Five stars to this cute rom-com of a story! Highly recommend!

This is a fun, quick read about an aspiring writer and her ghost editor. I love me a good epistolary novel and this one is sort epistolary-adjacent as the writer and her unknown editor exchange notes and conversations over the writer's manuscript. I also enjoyed this peeks into the publishing industry (there is nothing more magical sounding than an ARC room) as well as the author's understanding of her audience. A well-placed wink and Hallmark joke did not go amiss! Highly recommend for a fun read in the new year!

I loved seeing my favorite genre collide with the publishing industry. I so wanted to just LOVE this book. The premise was amazing, but ultimately I just needed more. I didn't connect with the characters as much as I would have liked to. The tension was there, but just missing the connection for me. I received a complimentary copy of this book. Opinions expressed in this review are completely my own.

I absolutely *adored* the premise of “Meet Me in the Margins” – aspiring romance writer falls in love with her secret editor. As an aspiring romance writer myself, I found Savannah (our main girl) to be incredibly relatable and well-written. She was quirky and fun and pleasant to follow. Her love interest, William was also a delight. His characterization as the stern editor with a hidden fun side was likewise very well done. It was so obvious that he was her not-so-secret editor (to everyone but Savannah, of course), and while that was cute sometimes it also felt super frustrating at others. Overall, I enjoyed this book, but I didn’t love it and I think part of that is on me because I was expecting more romance. The book is categorized as romance, but it felt like a cross between romance and Women’s Lit, with the latter being the dominant genre. This isn’t a bad thing, but I went in expecting more. I also found the situation between Savannah, her sister, and their shared ex-boyfriend/fiancé very bizarre and unnecessary. Some parts of this book really hit and held my attention whereas others were just meh for me. Rating: 3.75/5. Enjoyable, but not to-die.

Thank you so much to Thomas Nelson and NetGalley for this ARC in exchange for my honest review. #MeetMeintheMargins #NetGalley

I was quite stoked for this one, the plot was quite intriguing and had so much to give..
It’s sweet, has real life experiences and it is very surface level when it comes to the plot.
The romance between the main characters felt quite subdued to me.
The storytelling takes the complicated characters in real, complicated situations and tries to give them the most realistic/suitable ending, doesn’t matter, however, rushed it was. So, it’s a three star read for me.

- Thank you publisher for the arc!

Meet Me In The Margins by Melissa Ferguson is an adorable romantic comedy that book lovers everywhere are sure to enjoy given its setting in the world of publishing.
Savannah Cade works at a publishing house dedicated to "high brow works" where the words commercial fiction are accompanied by a shudder of disdain, which makes her dream of writing a romance novel a secret, one that she almost manages to expose to the entire company at a staff meeting to introduce the new hire, William Pennington, son of the current romance hating chief. She would never have risked taking the manuscript to work but for the fact that she is on a deadline to show it to the editor in chief of another publishing house that has the biggest romance imprint in the country.
She manages to hide the manuscript in what she thought was a secret room in her office building ,but apparently it is less of a secret than she thought because when she returns later, someone has annotated the first chapter , and though the notes are critical they are also good. Thus begins a correspondence relationship that soon starts to bleed through into real life as Savannah starts to fall for the mystery editor.
While there may be no real surprises in this book, it really is a warm comforting blanket of a read, perfect to snuggle up with on a cold winter's evening . The characters are vivid and very human, and I loved the thread of humour that is very evident throughout the book.
I read and reviewed an ARC courtesy of NetGalley and the publisher, all opinions are my own.

I read this book in one sitting, it was a quick and lighthearted read following Savannah, an assistant editor who is writing her own debut manuscript and the anonymous individual who has been scribbling critiques in the margins of said manuscript.

I found Savannah to be very relatable. The romance had a ‘will they or won’t they’ kind of vibe which was slightly predictable but that’s what we love about this kind of book.

I also love that the story was set in the world of publishing, it was definitely one of the things that drew me in and made me want to read this book.

Thank you to the publisher for the eARC which I received via NetGalley, all thoughts and opinions are my own.

Meet Me In The Margins

I was intrigued from the get go based on the blurb about the book.

I was really impressed with this author. I felt a large range of emotions from this book and it was due to the way she wrote it. I’ll try to share some of my thoughts without spoilers.

In the beginning I find Savannah frustrating with her lack of backbone and self doubt. I found myself at times rolling my eyes and wanting to pound my head on my desk. The entire situation with the exboyfriend is now the sister’s fiancé was 😳. And she lives with said sister… how incredibly uncomfortable and you can feel that coming to the pages. Which shows you how good the writer is.

On top of that Olivia, the sister, is incredibly annoying. I feel like Savannah lets her family run all over her! There is a point in the story where Will suggests that while Savannah is loyal to her family, it doesn’t sound like they are loyal to her… in my head that TikTok trend “Go Best Friend” popped into my head because I feel like he is so spot on! And her response after… damn 😭👏🏼

Ultimately the author shows growth and change not only with Savannah, but many of the other characters too. I feel limited on what I can say without spoiling, but it was a really enjoyable read with a few twists and snags. Some I saw coming and others not so much.

The HEA I actually went back and read a couple of times because it gave me the warm and fuzzies!

Overall I’d give this 4.25 stars.

I received this book via NetGalley for free for my honest review which is posted on GoodReads and StoryGraph.

slow burn baby slow burn

this is more....4.5/4.8 rather than 4 stars? I really liked the characters and the plot and the general theme of the story? her struggle with writing her own book and finding what worked and what didn't just struck so true. also, unsurprisingly, i'm a sucker for any romance where the main character's 'fall' for each other over text/email/not-in-person-communication (yes, i'm looking at you geekerella).

it's a bookish romance, it tugged at my heart strings and i already want to re-read it again.

Thank you to Netgalley for an e-ARC in exchange for an honest review

*I got a free copy through Netgalley, this in no way affected this review*

I really liked this cute romance book. I thought the plot was nice, the characters were well written and the ending left me very pleased.

It was great to see a book take place in a publishing house and that our main character wanted to be an author. Obviously I love reading and I always love it when books take place in these specific settings.

While there clearly was a heavy case of the miscommunication trope, which I usually don’t really enjoy, I found myself not really bothered with it in this book, because the characters were so enjoyable.

It’s also becoming more and more clear to me that I enjoy reading books where the characters are around my age instead of the teenagers in the books I usually read.

Definitely would recommend this if you’re looking for a light romance book.