This was a loose retelling of Beauty and the Beast and I think it worked really well. Izzy is an overworked editorial assistant tasked with getting celebrity Beau Towers to reluctantly write his memoir. I really liked both characters and their chemistry was great. I enjoyed how we slowly got to learn more about Beau’s life and why he is hesitant about writing his book. It was also fun to get a look at what an editor does. This was definitely an entertaining romcom from this prolific and exceptional author.

This was super cute! I loved all the Beauty and the Beast references throughout the book. It made me smile every time I recognized a name or quote. I was singing the songs in my head while reading just because that’s all I was thinking about! I loved the representation and the body positivity.

I loved Beau. He was definitely not a beast like in the Disney story but I loved how deep his character got and showed there was much more to him than people thought.

It was a very quick and easy read but it was a tad boring at times. Not too much happened and it was a big repetitive but just give me any book about a library or books and I will still enjoy it!

Lots of fun! I was wondering how a modern beauty and the beast would work but it’s done well. Also enjoyed the character dynamics between these two, always laughing and joking with each other. I look forward to seeing the next meant to be novel.

This book fell a little flat for me. I get that it is based on Beauty and the Beast, but there were elements that were just too contrived for me. The chemistry between the main characters was non existent for so much of the story because he literally does not talk about anything to do with himself. When he does talk he is outrageously hurtful. Ultimately Izzy is in love with the house and lifestyle.

Thank you NetGalley and Hyperion Avenue for an eARC.

This book was a fun treat! I loved it! It was a good reset after I read a heavier book. It kept me flipping pages well past my bedtime!!

I audibly squealed when I got approved for this net galley! Oh my goodness, Jasmine Guillory has done. it. again. By the Book is another new favorite! It follows Izzy as she navigates a career in publishing that feels at once like it’s exactly where she wants to be and a frustrating, micro-aggression-heavy, stagnant path. That all changes, though, when she is charged with getting the long-awaited manuscript of buzzworthy author Beau.

In true Guillory fashion, Izzy and Beau each meet their match in each other. There are tensions and inspirations and ultimately that magical connection of intellect and grit, individuation and self-actualization that I find myself coming back for every single time in Guillory’s work.

I loved this oh so much! Thank you immensely to Hyperion for this e-arc. Congratulations to Jasmine Guillory on another remarkable story of self-love and romantic love. They never get old.

I love the ties to a story that is so engrained in our childhood, but with a twist. Jasmine always delivers when she writes and this is no exception. I watched Izzy trying to tame "the beast" and convince him to complete his manuscript. Her confidence is high but she has met her match with Beau. What she hadn't expected to find was just how similarly lost they are.

I love how Jasmine builds characters up and allows the reader to watch them grow. She provides many laughs as well as heartfelt moments.

If you enjoy romcoms, this is definitely not a book to be missed.

I absolutely loved this one. It’s Jasmine Guillory so we knew she was going to deliver. She had no right to get me in my feelings that way. I’m glad I read this when I did or else my post-pregnancy hormones wouldn’t have handled this well.

Beauty and the Beast reimagined...

A sweet retelling of a familiar tale! Jasmine Guillory never misses. Even though it followed a familiar storyline, her writing gets you so invested in the characters and in finding out what happens next. Loved it!

📖 Book Review 📖

#bythebook
#jasmineguillory
#romance
#beautyandthebeastretelling
#arc
#NetGalley published 5/3/2022
#hyperionavenue

⭐⭐⭐⭐

I keep seeing JG books around. This was my first one. But from other reviews of this book, it seems that this is not her typical. So I'll need to try another one of hers too to decide if I love her. It was also my first "retelling" of a fairy tale.

This was a cute book. I loved that the retelling wasn't exact. I have watched retelling and I might not have bothered. This book just had a bunch of knods to the original. She kept saying that she imagined the house was magic. And that she could imagine the furniture coming to life and the teapot talking. Little things like that. It was a light easy reading book. With all that's been going on in my life lately, I needed light. Good book, perfect timing.

JG is an AOC. It is barely even mentioned in the book. At one point I was thinking, is she black? I know the author is. Why am I not getting any more info about her. There was a constant talk of her falling in love with the bathtub. And then falling in like with the shower. And her at the beach. I was surprised that there was zero mentioned about maintenance of her hair. Natural or wigs. Zero bad hair days. I have lots of those. Other authors of color that I have read so far have mentioned it in depth. Or am I just an ignorant white girl expecting something unnecessary? If you are a woman of color, please set me straight if I'm off.

But for some reason I felt it was missing a little something. I loved her blunt honestly in the beginning. But it didn't continue. Darn. I am personally a WYSIWYG person. The ending (not the epilogue) was a nice touch too.

Will definitely see out more from JG. Maybe first #1 in this series?

#fairytaleretelling
#bookstagram #bookreview #bookrecommendation #booknerdsbookreview #recommend #booklover #bookdragon #readalot #ilovereading #inkdrinker #librarymouse #bookaddict #bookaholic

Even though fairy tale retellings are a bit overdone in the romance book world, I enjoyed the first installment in the Meant to Be series from Julie Murphy, and wanted to give this one a chance since I've enjoyed Jasmine Guillory in the past. Unfortunately, By the Book did not exceed my expectations (which were sadly kind of low to begin with!). It wasn't a bad book by any means, but all I can think is 'meh'. What should have been a quick read took much too long as my interest waned.

I can get behind a Beauty and the Beast retelling, but the execution felt very surface level. This was heightened by the 'easter eggs' from the original - publishing companies Maurice and A Tale as Old as Time, a maid with the nickname Kettle, a horrible stand-in with Gavin as Gaston - I could go on. The majority of the book is spent on the nitty-gritty of Isabelle, our Belle, helping Beau, our Beast, write his memoir. There are constant allusions to his 'dark past' but they never pan out. For all this time spent on composing essentially an autobiography, Beau is as one-dimensional as they come. Nowhere did I get tortured Beast.

None of the characters felt fully developed and there wasn't much romantic tension until very late in the book. And even then, it's just an info dump of how our Beast has been pining for our Belle since day one. Sure, it's objectively romantic, especially for the main character who loves reading and writing, but it sort of felt like a way to forgive the lack of tension built at the beginning of the story.

This book had a really strong start. The cute little beauty and the beast references thrown in throughout were so cute. The WiFi password is Lumiere. I mean come on… adorable!

But about halfway through I just found myself beginning to lose interest. I think this book just kind of kept going in circles and the plot kept repeating itself. If it was shorter I would’ve liked it a lot more.

There was also so much giggling and laughing and it started to drive me crazy.

But I’m still happy I read it. I really enjoy this series and hope it continues!

What a magical escape! Jasmine Guillory can just do no wrong. I didn’t read the first in this series and was unsure if I would enjoy a retelling of Beauty and the Beast. This modern retelling was just perfect and although it’s more romantic than I normally am drawn too, it was captivating to read about these well know characters in today’s world.

The Beauty and The Beast references were so well weaved into the storyline of this contemporary romance! I loved how well connected it was to the reference material without being overly done or felt like it was squeezed in unnecessarily either. It all worked for the characters and never felt out of place, just fun little Easter eggs for the Disney fans. I do wish this one was more of a dual POV throughout because it was an ok read until we heard his side of the story at the very end, that put it into great read territory for me. Perfect for any Beauty and The Beast romance fan to have a fun cute read.

This Beauty and the Beast retelling takes place in modern-day America. A lowly assistant to the editor who is over-worked and underpaid overhears her boss talking about a beastly author who is way past his due date. She speaks up and offers to drive to the author's home in order to get him on track. Though he is unfriendly and awful in the beginning, their purely professional arrangement quickly turns romantic as they open up to one another.

Such a cute little book. I really enjoyed this one. I usually am not a huge romance genre person but I liked this one. It had a good storyline. I would say it was about a 3.75 stars for me,

This book was so incredibly cute and such a great spin on a Beauty and the Beast retelling!

Izzy and Beau’s relationship develops slowly and while I wouldn’t quite consider it full blown enemies to lovers, they are definitely people who dislike each other to lovers and I was here for it!

I haven’t yet read the first book in this series (the Cinderella retelling) but having not read that one did not effect my ability to enjoy this one at all!

I’m a sucker for books with bookish plot points. We meet Izzy while she is working in publishing as an editorial assistant and the plot revolves around Beau writing a book — and not just any book, a celebrity memoir.

We have family secrets, internalized trauma, and a magical Santa Barbara house that feels like a true magical escape from the real world for both of our main characters.

At times the characters could feel juvenile, and that is my one complaint. I feel the subject matter and the “fairy-tale” retelling was the cause for this as this book is truly appropriate for many age groups as it is a closed door romance.

No spice here, but I still very much enjoyed it and highly recommend!

My stomach was in knots as the relationship progressed and the third act turn hit in, and as we know, that’s how we know if I love a title or not. I stayed up until 1 am to finish and I have no regrets.

Huge thanks to the publisher and Netgalley for the advanced copy in exchange for an honest review!

When we meet Isabelle Marlowe, it’s the first day of her dream job – or at least the starter job on her dream job ladder. She’s the new editorial assistant to Marta Wallace, one of the top editors at TAOAT Publishing.

That intro clues the reader into the two themes of this story. TAOAT stands for “Tale as Old as Time”, part of the chorus of the Oscar and Grammy winning song “Beauty and the Beast” from the 1991 Disney movie of the same name. By the Book is a contemporary retelling of that now-classic movie.

The second theme is conveyed by Isabelle’s passion for her brand new job. Isabelle loves books and everything about them. She loves reading, she loves editing, she loves writing, she loves looking for new books and she loves talking about books. Working in the publishing industry (also being a librarian, a nurse, or a teacher, BTW) is what’s commonly called a “passion job”. People go into those and certain other fields because they have a passion for the work. Or, at least, a passion for what they think the work will be. They know they’ll be overworked and underpaid, but they expect the joys of the job to make up for the many shortfalls.

As the story fast forwards two years, we see that Izzy’s passion for the work and everything that surrounds it has been ground out – and Izzy has been ground down – by the circumstances and drudgery that surround it. She’s even more overworked than she expected, as she is not only Marta’ assistant but also her gopher, AND as one of the very few POC on the staff of TAOAT (the publishing industry as a whole is still mostly white IRL), Izzy gets called in whenever someone needs to represent diversity in the office or the industry.

That her boss Marta seems to be modeling herself after the villainess of The Devil Wears Prada – or at least the lower budget publishing industry version – is nasty icing on top of the already tasteless cake. And Izzy’s heard from one of the other editors that Marta still doesn’t think Izzy’s up to the job – even after two years.

But Izzy and her office bestie Priya are on their way to a publishing conference in Los Angeles with Marta. They’ll still be overworked, underpaid and underappreciated – but at least they’ll be able to escape New York City’s frigid winter for a few days of California sunshine.

Izzy’s pretty much at the end of her last rope – and she’s getting sick of just hanging on. That’s when she overhears Marta complaining about a former child actor she signed for an autobiography who not only refuses to deliver a manuscript – he refuses to communicate at all. Izzy leaps before she looks into the fray, and volunteers to drive from LA to Santa Barbara to get in the would-be author’s face about his book and the lack thereof.

Driving to the beast’s coastal “castle” gets Izzy one more night in sunny California. Barging her way into the house where that beast, Beau Towers, has been holed up for a year gets her the chance of a lifetime.

A chance to read. A chance to write. And a chance to recover her passion.

Escape Rating A-: The heart of this story is in Izzy’s invasion of Beau Towers castle and what happens after. Because what happens first is that Beau is pretty damn beastly.

He gets better.

While the romance between Izzy and Beau is intended as a retelling of Beauty and the Beast, it hits the obvious beats of the movie pretty hard. When Izzy starts talking to her luxurious bathtub and she’s almost sure it’s talking back, the way that those familiar beats get pounded borders on overkill.

But the romance is just so damn charming that if you liked the original at all it’s impossible not to love this version as well.

While the romance begins with a meet cute, the situations they are separately in are both pretty damn ugly. We know about the mess that Izzy is in, and we already feel for her when she barges into Beau’s house. We start out sharing her opinion, that Beau is an overprivileged, irresponsible asshole – and he does nothing to counter that impression. Quite the reverse – he leans into it in an attempt to drive Izzy away.

He’s retreated into his very own “Fortress of Solitude” and is desperate to pull up the drawbridge behind him. But Izzy’s stuck – and he’s stuck with her. Or so it seems at first.

Their work into friendship into romance works because they both have mountains to climb and shells to climb out of. She needs to find her own voice again, and he needs to get past his own hurt and shame. And they both need to do it the same way, by writing it all out – even the hard parts.

Especially the hard parts.

The more they write – separately but together in the same space – the more they expose to each other. Beau gets to see Izzy’s dreams and how much she has invested in them, while Izzy sees Beau’s pain and how much he needs to let it out so he can forgive himself.

They fall in love because they get to really know each other all the way down to the bone. And just as in the movie, once Beau is able to let out all the terrible secrets he has been hiding, he stops being a beast.

While that part was beautiful, what was even better was the way that once Izzy let herself reach for her dreams she was able to find the passion she once had for her passion job – and the success that was her due.

If it worked that way for passion jobs in real life, the world would be a much happier place!

What can I say? At this point Guillory is an auto-read, and I have not been let down yet. Her books always have strong heroines, who aren't perfect but who are perfectly relatable and adorable. Cute cover as well. Love!

By The Book is a very cute modern fairytale retelling. Jasmine Guillory is the queen of making her protagonists both realistically flawed and immensely likable. I also love a book about books and writing so having this rom com center around the writing of a memoir was very fun.

This story is not a 1:1 correspondence to the beauty & the beast fairytale— the “beast” really wasn’t that horrible and it really felt more like a friends to lovers than enemies to lovers tale—but it was fun to see all the cute Disney Easter eggs sprinkled throughout the story.

Thank you to the author, publisher, and NetGalley for providing me with a copy of this book to review.