Wow, what an amazing read! I’m about to begin a 21 day fast. I won’t just be fasting from foods, but also ebooks. Trust me, I have a 2 books a day habit. Whether you are about to embark on a transformative something, like me, or are coming to the end of something, I can’t image a more perfect read. It’s beautiful in its telling, sincere in its emotion, and equal parts aching and joyous in all the right places.

I’ve never read this author before. This lack feels like a disservice to myself. Lines like, “My mother suffers from the same disease. It’s heartbreak in slow motion,” are what made this read next level. As someone who reads over 300 books each year, please believe me when I say, By Any Other Name by Lauren Kate is a rare gem. It’s a beautiful story, filled with enduring friendships, career woes, perfect loves that weren’t, and a heart’s happiness packaged in unexpected wrapping. I’m floored. I double dog dare you not to fall in love with By Any Other Name!

Based on the book's description I was expecting a cute, friends to lover rom com. For me at least that is not how this book read. Lanie is an editorial assistant at a small publishing company that represents one of the country's hottest selling contemporary romance authors. This author, a recluse whom no one from the publishing house ever sees, is months late on her newest book. Lanie is promoted to be the author's editor and told to make this next book happen. Here comes the enemies to lover rom com twist. Noa, the female bestselling author, is really a male named Noah. At this point Lanie, the supposedly professional editor, falls apart, is sort of rude and demanding and honestly, not very believable. As a contemporary fiction book it would be OK but marketed as a romance book it doesn’t work. I have not read this author before and I know romance is not her typical genre. I didn’t find the writing to be a problem. More so the plot and lack of chemistry between the characters.

By Any Other Name is a classic enemies-to-lovers contemporary romantic comedy set in New York City. Main character Lanie finds herself becoming the editor for the infamous romance best-seller author Noa Callaway. Unbeknownst to a few in the publishing world, Noa is a man - Noah Ross. Determined to help Noah with his writer’s block and not lose her job, Lanie develops a plan for them to work together on his next novel.

This was a cute rom-com, but I think the story would have been so much better with having Noah’s perspective and not so one-sided. At times, it seemed very predictable. Thank you to NetGalley for providing a digital ARC of this book in exchange for an honest review.

Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for the ARC!

This was a really sweet story. I was excited because there's just something I love about the idea of a romance between an author and editor, and this really delivered--in the end. I really loved the emails back and forth, the non-date dates as writing inspiration, and the resolution. My problem is that in such a short book, it feels like a lot of time is spent on set-up: getting Lanie single, as she starts the novel with a fiance, having Lanie and Noah meet and spend some time as one-sided enemies, etc.

I enjoy a good enemies-to-lovers romance, but here it felt kind of pointless. Lanie is assistant editor to Noa Calloway, her favorite author, and has been corresponding with them for years. She then discovers that Noa is actually Noah, a man. I understand why she's upset, but the way she went on about him as if he were a raging asshole in their first meeting felt very off. I had trouble connecting with her character until we got further into the novel. When you break down a lot of her responses and the reasoning for them, it makes sense, but something about the actual writing wasn't helping it all come together. It felt like weren't given enough information to really get on Lanie's side, even though the book is from her POV. For example, it would have helped if we got more to see more of Noa(h) and Lanie's email correspondence earlier, to really see their fairly long friendship and feel some of Lanie's betrayal more viscerally.

I really enjoyed the second half of the book, but the first was a bit of a struggle to get through.

Thank you NetGalley and Penguin Group Putnam for an e-book copy of BY ANY OTHER NAME to review.

I read this book in two sittings. I would have stayed up all night reading it but I had taken two Benadryls for a sinus infection. I loved this book. The premise is interesting because it's set in the publishing world and that may not be everybody's cup of tea.

However, if you have picked up this book to read, then you are a fan of romance fiction. And this is a good one. I enjoy books set in publishing because of all the behind-the-scenes intel.

Lanie finds herself becoming THE editor for the infamous romance best-seller Noa Calloway. She needs to help Noa with her writer's block. Lanie, who is realizing her engagement isn't meant to be, is a true fan of Noa's. Unbeknownst to only a few in the publishing world, Noa is a man.

Determined to help Noa break the block while helping her keep her job, Lanie and Noah have to come together to get. this. novel. written!

I've read one of Lauren's young adult books years ago and I remember loving the way she can encapsulate the feelings of the characters falling in love. She's done it, yet again, in BY ANY OTHER NAME.

Set in New York City, I love how both Lanie and Noah are into books, poetry, the city and want to flourish in their careers. They are the anti-millenials that I needed right now. I also loved the book-within-a-book trope.

I rate BY ANY OTHER NAME five stars out of five.

By Any Other Name is advertised as an enemies-to-lovers, contemporary rom-com, as well as a women's fiction, that follows the romance between editor and author

as a book that is one of my "most anticipated reads of 2022", it has unfortunately failed my expectations...

I'm going to be completely honest when i say that throughout the whole book i was bored and uninterested. up until 44% the heroine was engaged to another man, whom she knew she didn't want to make sacrifices for, yet strung him along because he ticked of her "list". regarding the romance with the hero, i felt absolutely nothing. for the little bit of romance that was supposedly there, it was incredibly dull and basically non-existent

i just didn't connect with any of the characters,  i didn't care about what was going on in their lives and i didn't find anything funny?!

i guess the only very small part i enjoyed was when it surrounded the story of Edward and Elizabeth

if you don't mind the lack of romance, please don't let my review deter you from reading this book

*𝘵𝘩𝘢𝘯𝘬 𝘺𝘰𝘶 𝘵𝘰 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘢𝘶𝘵𝘩𝘰𝘳, 𝘕𝘦𝘵𝘨𝘢𝘭𝘭𝘦𝘺 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘗𝘌𝘕𝘎𝘜𝘐𝘕 𝘎𝘙𝘖𝘜𝘗 𝘗𝘶𝘵𝘯𝘢𝘮, 𝘎.𝘗. 𝘗𝘶𝘵𝘯𝘢𝘮'𝘴 𝘚𝘰𝘯𝘴 𝘧𝘰𝘳 𝘱𝘳𝘰𝘷𝘪𝘥𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘮𝘦 𝘸𝘪𝘵𝘩 𝘢𝘯 𝘢𝘳𝘤 𝘪𝘯-𝘦𝘹𝘤𝘩𝘢𝘯𝘨𝘦 𝘧𝘰𝘳 𝘢𝘯 𝘩𝘰𝘯𝘦𝘴𝘵 𝘳𝘦𝘷𝘪𝘦𝘸*

The concept of this book is great and refreshingly fun. It just seems chapter after chapter you are left wondering why the book is both too long and not long enough since each scene isn't really thought out and it feels like this is not the first book in the series like I must be missing something ??

3.5 stars for this short & sweet piece of women's fiction by Lauren Kate!

Laine is a book editor who got into publishing thanks to her love of the prolific love stories told by Noa Calloway. But when her boss decides not to return from maternity leave and she takes over the sole job of editing Noa's next book, she realizes that Noa is not the interesting woman she's been emailing with for seven years but in fact a smoldering thirty-something man named Noah Ross --- who is four months late on the deadline for *his* next book.

As she tries to draw inspiration from her surprise author, she begins to think about her own love story and how she wants it to be written.

I really enjoyed this book but couldn't help feeling like it was missing a little "oomf". I was hoping for a little more romanic tension between Laine and Noah --- their relationship felt more like an excellent friendship. I also would have loved to see another 50 pages to wrap this up -- I felt like it ended very abruptly just when I wanted to see how they would handle the ramifications of Noa's last book.

I received this free ARC of By Any Other Name from NetGalley and this is my honest review. The story follows our MCs- an author and editor through the ups and downs of writing a book. There is one glaring difference though, the editor has thought she was corresponding and building a friendship with a sister-in-arms, a woman who got her on the very basic of levels. Lanie is quite stunned to find out her romance guru is in fact a man. What follows in the aftermath is having to rethink her views on her life path, career, and a different path towards love. The characters both struggle with real life problems- aging/ sick parent, death of a parent during childhood, wanting to understand your heritage, true love vs. a settling kind of love for fear of finding something better….I wanted this story to keep going and going long after I turned the last page. This is the epitome of the perfect love story and a glimpse into the writing process to boot! You will not be disappointed in devoting an entire day to diving into this love affair!

Thanks to NetGalley for the ARC of this novel.
This is a very sweet book. If you want something that’s lighthearted and a good afternoon treat, this is the one. I wish we could’ve spent more time with Lanie and Noah as a couple, but I did enjoy the ending as well as the cast of characters. You’ll get to know New York through the characters as they go about their lives. In all, this is a lovely read!

Reviewed on the Story Graph:
https://app.thestorygraph.com/reviews/01515ee5-8534-41bf-bd2a-b70546c2ab1c

By Any Other Name by Lauren Kate
Tags: Slow Burn Romance; Mistaken Identity; Epistolary Element

“…romance about an editor, her bestselling author, and one life changing secret.”

Having never read any books by this author before I was going in blind – I was initially attracted first by the cover (I am a sucker for cover art) and title, and then hooked by an intriguing premise. Luckily for me, this translated to a charming and heartwarming book that I adored. It somehow managed to check a lot of boxes for me (some of which I couldn’t even easily put into words) of what I delight in finding in a book.

Highlights for me:

• Although the story was billed as an enemies to lovers (a trope I adore), it didn’t read that way to me in the traditional sense. For me it was more of a combination of friends to lovers meets mistaken identity via a You’ve Got Mail meets Cyrano vibe ? I’m not sure if that makes sense, but like I said, I was really into it.

• I absolutely adored the Central Park, Gapstow Bridge bits – I won’t spoil anything but I was so happy with a few things about this bit. I could picture it so clearly in my mind, and very much long to visit after reading about it.

• I very much enjoyed the “meet cute(s)” of Noah and Lanie – each felt perfect to me. There are three bits in particular I could point to on this – if you’ve read I’ll just say initial, unveiling, and finale.

• The whole idea of finding the story inspiration and the moment when the story idea is captured – just heartfelt sigh moment for me.

• I also loved the epistolary elements and the story within a story angle (this in particular, does not always work for me) but honestly I desperately wanted more – I wanted to read that story and Chapter 1 = all the feels.

• Finally, last but definitely not least – in addition to a truly relatable and intriguing leading couple. I loved both of the mains and was intrigued by each story – I liked that Noah was a bit of a mystery that unraveled slowly as the story built and that we got a bit of a journey of discovery for Lanie. I also loved the secondary cast of characters – I think BD tops the list as being hilarious and eccentric, but I also really enjoyed Meg and Rufus and wanted more of them as well.

Nitpicks / Wishes:

Not too many, but as with any read, I had a few things that didn’t sit as well / work as well for me personally –

• The gender emphasis / focus – on the one hand I kind of understood it, it also bugged me. If I found out one of my favorite romance authors (who I thought was female) was in fact male, it wouldn’t really mean anything to me personally 🤷‍♀️I didn’t like the whole possibly being ‘cancelled’ bit. I also kind of felt like it was a little unresolved for me…

• The motorcycle piece – again a personal nitpick. I’m not interested in or a fan of motorcycles. I have some personal feelings that aren’t great about them, so it wasn’t a dealbreaker by any means but just didn’t do anything for me.

Overall, I found this story to be extremely enjoyable, I whisked through it and I didn’t want it to end. I actually found myself hoping for an epilogue (which I don’t always like) for a glimpse into what the future might hold for Noah and Lanie. Definitely one I will buy and read again.

All thoughts and opinions expressed are my own and freely offered. Thank you to Netgalley and Penguin Group Putnam for the opportunity to read an early copy!

This was a quick, cute read. Lanie reminds me in many ways of myself. She has her list of ninety nine things she wants in her SO, I had my list of fifty things. We both tried to define love by those lists and got it wrong the first time. I loved seeing her growth throughout the book, along with the character and romantic development of the LI. I really liked the overall message of the book and can’t wait to read Lauren Kate explore more adult romances. It’s almost poetic how I was reading her YA books a decade ago and falling for her characters and here I am, doing the same again.

I’m unsure of how I feel about Noa’s identity in the bigger scheme of things, but I’m willing to suspend my moral debate for this story (I don’t want to think of what that says about me).

"By Any Other Name", by Lauren Kate, has a fairly cute storyline: Lanie has been promoted to book editor for the highly popular author Noa Calloway. However, there is one small problem: no one has actually met Calloway. She is considered eccentric and reclusive. That's not a problem for Lanie, as she begins testing and emailing the author and developing a long-distance friendship. However, when Lanie finally meets this reclusive author and discovers "she" is actually Noah Ross, she is stunned. Can she continue to work with him despite his subterfuge? And how will she balance her work life and her romantic life?

I felt that Lanie's vitriol toward Noah was a little over the top, and the ending was resolved too quickly. Thanks to NetGalley for the ARC. All opinions are my own.

Thank you NetGalley for the arc in exchange for an honest review****


We follow the story of an editor who is tasked with working with one of her favorite romance authors. This author has never been seen in public and is particularly hard to work with.

Listen I was so excited for this book and the plot seem so intriguing. The problem is that at 70% of the book we are still setting up the story. It was underwhelming and kind of dumb how te problems were solved. There wasn’t real chemistry for the characters either. I will give it 3 stars because the storyline was different to whatever I’ve read before but it was sooooo poorly executed that I wished we could rewrite this one.

Ah! I downloaded this to read this week, then thought just one chapter…and now it is 12:30am and I finished it in one gulp. It’s cute and genuine and genre perfect.

Thank you to Penguin Group Putnam and Netgalley for an ARC of this book.

When the first words out of your mouth after reading the final words of a novel are, “Oh my God. That was so cute.” you know you’ve got a winner. I’ve never read anything from Lauren Kate before, so I had NO idea what to expect, but BY ANY OTHER NAME was pure magic.

Following newly promoted book editor, Lainie, as she navigates her new role with one of her favorite romance authors, reclusive and private Noa Calloway, who is months behind on their manuscript, despite consistently knocking out novels with regularity. However, when Lainie finally meets the author she’s only ever corresponded with through email, her life is turned upside down in more ways than one: Noa Calloway is actually the pseudonym for Noah Ross, a man who has changed and will change her life in more ways that one.

There were so many wonderful things about this book: Lainie’s friends and her Bubby, the little Easter eggs Noah slips into his novel, Javier Bardem the rabbit and Alice the tortoise. I loved Lauren Kate’s writing style—the words flowed so beautifully—and I could feel the connection between Lainie and Noah. One of the only complaints I have about BY ANY OTHER NAME, however, is that Lainie and Noah spent almost half the book barely interacting, and Lainie was engaged for most of that time! I would have loved to have gotten more moments with them as they trekked around New York hoping to break Noah’s writer’s block, though the scenes the reader does get are so, so sweet. I was a little nervous that there wasn’t going to be a resolution at the end, but even that was wrapped up so satisfyingly that I almost didn’t miss the epilogue I ALWAYS crave to get one last peek into the characters’ lives. I’ll definitely be looking out for more from Lauren Kate in the future.

Thank you to NetGalley and Penguin Group Putnam for the chance to read an ARC of By Any Other Name. I’m sharing my review voluntarily. This book was so charming and a super fun read. My attention was kept from the first chapter. The characters were well developed and seemed authentic. I especially loved BD, Meg and Rufus as captivating side characters.

I wish we’d learned more about Noah’s motivations and his feelings for Lanie more consistently throughout the book. I didn’t need a dual POV necessarily but just more exposure to his perspective. I also wouldn’t characterize this as an enemies to lovers. That is one of my least favorite tropes and I would have possibly skipped such a wonderful book!

I didn’t get most of the pop culture references but I think that’s probably an age/generation thing but I didn’t need them to stay engrossed.

I loved the inclusion of the book chapters and the work as an editor, that was fun to read.

Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for an ARC of this book. I very much appreciate it!

I enjoyed this quick and fun read. I couldn’t put it down but then I tried to slow down to make it last longer. The characters were great ; …. Very Likable and well developed. The only thing I didn’t like was the breakup with Ryan, her fiancé. They had been together for years and broke up on a whim before she realized what she was doing. However the rest of the book was well done and I thoroughly enjoyed it.

A sweet contemporary romance about an editor at a publishing house whose career is dependent on getting the reclusive star author to deliver a new manuscript on time. Only she finds out the truth about the author (and herself, of course). Lanie is likeable and quirky and the love interest, Noah, is not quite as three dimensional but you still get why she falls for him. Lanie’s friends are good sidekicks and the book feels grounded ven in the more fantastical elements. My biggest issue is that the last quarter of the book felt compressed. It needed to be drawn out more. Still, enjoyable to read.

I received an ARC from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

I instantly fell in love with this book. I didn’t want to put it down. I adore it. I cannot wait for March 1st so I can buy a physical copy and hug it.

Its fast pace writing will make you want to binge read it. And my only complaint is it’s over. I finished it and wanted more. I would happily read a 2nd book and 3rd with these characters! Would absolutely love that!