By the Book by Jasmine Guillory

Title: By the Book (Meant to Be #2)

Author: Jasmine Guillory

Publisher: Hyperion Avenue 2022

Genre: Romance

Pages: 320

Rating: 3/5 stars

Reading Challenges: She Reads Romance - Romance Author (actually works in book industry) Finds Romance; Fairytale Retelling - Beauty and the Beast

Where I Got It: Library

Spice Rating: 4

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 finally get the promotion she deserves.

All she has to do is go to the author’s Santa Barbara mansion and give him a 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 He is jaded and withdrawn and―it turns out―just as lost as Izzy.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.

Ooof. I think I am not a fan of Jasmine Guillory. I desperately want to like her books, but the two that I have read have just not intrigued me. For this one, the characters seem way too young to be the actual ages they are supposed to be. I found Izzy to be way too naive and grating as a character. I found her to be too much at times. Usually I like the grump and sunshine trope, but this one really fell flat for me. Izzy is too much and Beau gives us nothing. In fact, I was super annoyed the revelation late in the book that Beau had been keeping a secret journal this whole time in which he expressed his love for Izzy very early on. I just could not with that part of the book.

Meant to Be:

• #1 If the Shoe Fits by Julie Murphy

• #2 By the Book by Jasmine Guillory

• #3 Kiss the Girl by Zoraida Córdova

• #4 Tangled Up in You by Christina Lauren

• #5 Worth Fighting For by Jesse Q. Sutanto

Next up on the TBR pile:

The Wedding Date by Jasmine Guillory

Title: The Wedding Date (Wedding Date #1)

Author: Jasmine Guillory

Publisher: Berkley 2018

Genre: Contemporary Romance

Pages: 317

Rating: 3/5 stars

Reading Challenges: Summer TBR

Agreeing to go to a wedding with a guy she gets stuck with in an elevator is something Alexa Monroe wouldn't normally do. But there's something about Drew Nichols that's too hard to resist.

On the eve of his ex's wedding festivities, Drew is minus a plus one. Until a power outage strands him with the perfect candidate for a fake girlfriend....

After Alexa and Drew have more fun than they ever thought possible, Drew has to fly back to Los Angeles and his job as a pediatric surgeon, and Alexa heads home to Berkeley, where she's the mayor's chief of staff. Too bad they can't stop thinking about the other....

They're just two high-powered professionals on a collision course toward the long distance dating disaster of the century--or closing the gap between what they think they need and what they truly want....

I grabbed this one as my audiobook selection for driving to Indiana. I was looking forward to a breezy fun contemporary romance. This one was okay, but definitely not my favorite. Let’s start with what I did like. I liked the meet-cute set-up between Alexa and Drew. I loved that they both had jobs that they were passionate about. I loved the interactions between each of them and their friends. I was board with all that. Unfortunately, this could not completely make up for a few of my issues. My first point is not about this particular book, but I did realize that I don’t love listening to open door scenes. I would most definitely prefer to read them instead. With respect to this actual story, I didn’t love how abrupt the ending was. I really wanted more of a discussion between the two characters about the miscommunication they engaged in. I wanted both parties to have a more serious discussion of their hang-ups before the obligatory epilogue chapter. I also became very annoyed with Alexa’s constant disparagement of her body. It really got old really fast. I imagine that I will continue reading the series, but this wasn’t the strongest start for me.

Wedding Date:

• #1 The Wedding Date

• #2 The Proposal

• #3 The Wedding Party

• #4 Royal Holiday

• #5 Party of Two

• #6 While We were Dating

Next up on the TBR pile: