Synopsis:
Sometimes to truly know a person, you have to read between the lines.
Isabelle is completely lost. When she first began her career in publishing after college, she did not expect to be twenty-five, still living at home, and one of the few Black employees at her publishing house. Overworked and underpaid, constantly torn between speaking up or stifling herself, Izzy thinks there must be more to this publishing life. So when she overhears her boss complaining about a beastly high-profile author who has failed to deliver his long-awaited manuscript, Isabelle sees an opportunity to prove her worth and finally get the recognition she deserves. All she has to do is go to the author’s Santa Barbara mansion and give him a quick pep talk or three. How hard could it be?
But Izzy quickly finds out she is in over her head. Beau Towers is not some celebrity lightweight writing a tell-all memoir. He is jaded and withdrawn and—it turns out—just as lost as Izzy. But despite his standoffishness, Izzy needs Beau to deliver, and with her encouragement, his story begins to spill onto the page. They soon discover they have more in common than either of them expected, and as their deadline nears, Izzy and Beau begin to realize there may be something there that wasn’t there before.
Review:
I’ve been on quite the journey with this book. I started it at the beginning of December, getting around four chapters in. I then put it down to read other books and didn’t pick it up again until a few days ago (late February). I managed to read two more chapters, which takes quite a while as the writing is tiny, before deciding that I just really wasn’t vibing with it. Sadly, this is a DNF.
I got well over 100 pages in and I realised I just did not care what happens. I have no interest in any of the characters and I found the Beauty and the Beast references to be awkward and forced. Some were cute like Izzy and Beau watching a show together called ‘This Provincial Life’ but other elements like Beau calling his housekeeper Kettle (I’m assuming this is a Mrs Potts reference). I don’t remember this being explained, but I did leave around three months between reading sessions, so that’s on me.
There’s too much time spent on things that just aren’t important. Basically, By the Book is way longer than it probably needs to be despite it looking like a short book. I should have checked the size of the font before picking this up, it’s deceptively long.
It does pain me to call a book boring as a lot of time and effort goes into writing a book, but this wasn’t for me. Clearly, a lot of people really enjoyed this book as it has a decent rating, but not me, sorry!
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