This was a light and fun albeit predictable read. The bookish theme is nice and based on the publishing industry which is interesting. Definitely something easy to read when you don’t want to focus too much!

Thank you for netgalley for providing an ARC in exchange for my honest review

I thought it was cute.

Ok let me explain. we've got what amounts to pen pals flirting while the one you want is right in front of your face troupe.

Savannah is an editor at Pennington Publishing who wants to write her own book. She accidentally leaves her rejected manuscript in a secret book room at work and later finds it with all kinds of edits in the margins. Which leads to a pen-pal type relationship with her mystery editor. At the same time she find herself flirting or having moments with Will, her bossy new boss.

I thought that there would be a little more....in person action? It was a little slow and I found myself really upset with her family for the way the treated her.

But the romance was cute, but I wanted more.

3 1/2 stars.

I really enjoyed the fresh spin on a romance story where we focused on the female lead and the romance took more of a back seat. I do feel like a little something was missing in dealing with the family and some of their choices but all in all I loved the setting and main story.

I’m a sucker for books with bookish protagonists. With this in mind, it’s no wonder, I requested Meet Me in the Margins with no knowledge of the synopsis or the author. I knew I loved the title, and I hoped the plot would be lovable as well. Meet Me in the Margins more than exceeded my expectations in that it was a lighthearted, fast-paced, cute romance set in the world of publishing and one of my favorite cities, Nashville. If you’ve ever fallen in love with the movie, You’ve Got Mail, then you’ll adore this one. I found myself glued to the pages, and laughing out loud throughout. I binged this book in one sitting and will wholeheartedly recommend it to my romance loving bookish friends. Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for the advanced reader’s copy in exchange for my honest review.

Ahhh, I absolutely loved everything about the setting of this book: Nashville, a secret room at a publishing house, what's not to love?

This book exceeded my expectations as a rom-com and was ACTUALLY romantic and funny!

I have no complaints about this book other than it's not as popular as it should be right now!

Thanks so much to Netgalley and Thomas Nelson Fiction for the ARC of this book! This is out the day after Valentine's Day and would make the perfect Valentine's week read!

Thank you for this ARC. It was just okay for me- the attraction between the main characters needed just MORE (too tame). Her family drama was a little bizarre and could have been fleshed out more. All in all, very meh for me.

This is a very book-to-movie novel. It would translate perfectly to the big screen, very much along the lines of You've Got Mail. It's cute, funny, entertaining and a lovely feel-good rom-com, with its ups and downs and a very solid cast of characters. Let me add, just for clarification, that there is zero smut here, it's the kind of romance that ends when the two characters finally kiss.

In any other case, I would rate this 3 stars. I enjoyed it but there's nothing too remarkable about it:
- the heroine is funny and relatable
- the love interest is swoon-worthy and you recognize him the moment he walks into the story
- and why does he initially like her? we don't know
- but they suddenly bump into each other all the time and it's real cute

However, this is a book about books and that, my friends, automatically adds an extra star to the rating. Our leading lady, Savannah Cade, not only works at a publishing house, but is also in the middle of writing her own novel. And the love interest? He works with her and is secretly editing her novel (without her ever catching him doing so). I just loved the whole vibe of the story.

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

Thank you to the publisher and NetGalley for providing me with a copy of this novel for an honest review. It is set to be published in February 2022.

"Meet Me in the Margins" by Melissa Ferguson was a sweet and funny, slightly silly read.
It starts off very slow-paced, then it picks up.
The characters are caricatures: Savannah's younger sister, her ex-boyfriend, her parents, her colleagues... they're all ridiculously improbable, but I think that was intentional on the part of the author. It spoiled a bit of the fun for me, though, because how can I relate to the protagonist if her life is about as believable as a '90s sitcom? She literally doesn't have an interpersonal relationship in her life that is not toxic (until, of course, her "mystery editor" comes along).
On top of that, Sav does occasionally come across as willfully stupid (or selectively blind, if you prefer), when she misses all the clues to who her "mystery editor" really is: at one point, the man basically tells her to her face that he's the one editing her manuscript, by quoting parts of the edits to her word-by-word, for goodness' sake!
Another thing that left me unsatisfied is how all the characters in this novel seem to speak with the same voice. They all sound pretty much indistinguishable. The most blatant example of this is when Ferris, the ex-boyfriend who DOESN'T work in a publishing house and DIDN'T study classical literature, says something to the effect of "No, it wasn't Cupid who shot his arrow and made me fall for your sister, it was Dolos"... a line that might be credible if the man had a background in classical literature and/or Greek mythology, except he doesn't. Those words, uttered by an average British guy, and during a highly emotional dialogue no less, go well beyond how far my suspension of believability will stretch.
Also, Olivia's sudden, whiplash-generating transformation from queen b!tch to affectionate and supportive sister is not believable.
And let's not even mention the page, towards the end of the book, where the moral lesson is spelled out: I found it cringe-worthy.
Overall, this novel can be entertaining if you love slow-burn romantic comedies and don't bother too much with believability or character development. In other words, not my cup of tea.

Savannah is an editor at a publishing house devoted to publishing important books and she has a secret, she is writing a romance novel. When she leaves her novel in a hidden nook in the publishing house she returns to find someone is editing her book and leaving notes on the manuscript. Who is doing this? When this continues to happen and the notes are improving the book Savannah tries to figure out who her secret editor is.

I’m not sure if it was the writing style or the main character, but I did have a hard time connecting with this book. The concept piqued my interest the moment I knew this was centered around two people falling in love without meeting. And while I did find moments of joy, especially with the witty retort between the margins of the manuscript and the sweet interactions between Will and Savannah, these moments were few and far between.

I had a hard time connecting with the main character. She played the victim to her circumstances too much and it was hard to be sympathetic towards her when she didn’t exude the confidence I knew she had in her. While this was told in a first person narrative, I never fully understood why Savannah was in the situation she was in because she wasn't explained or developed well.

It had all the promise, but overall I felt like the execution fell a bit short for me. I wanted so badly to fall in love with this book. While there were aspects of the story I enjoyed, it severely lacked the romance aspect. I enjoyed learning the ins and outs of the publishing work and the inner workings of an author writing a book, but that shouldn’t have been the majority of the book. The pace of the story felt off and slow while the romance moments were few and far between leaving me feeling underwhelmed towards the end.

Thank you to Netgally for allowing me to read an ARC of Meet Me in the Margins.

This book was cute, but it did take some time to finally invest in the book. The beginning felt a little forced with the characters. For example, when she tripped in the meeting, while funny, it felt silly and contrived. Of course I rooted for the characters and their plots, but I never felt a deep connection with them.

I love all book lover troupes, so I did ENJOY the book, but I was hoping for a little more.

The kind of book you just have such a blast reading. You know exactly what’s going to happen, yet that doesn’t make it any less enjoyable. The characters are delightful, the concept is charming just a lovely easy read. Would recommend to anyone who loves a good romance!

Melissa Ferguson's latest novel is a fun dive into the publishing industry, an inside look at the anxiety of getting a first book published, and a unique romance.

The romance here is so interesting because the characters are almost never together on the page. We get a few scenes of in-person contact, but their relationship builds largely in the margins of her manuscript where they write back and forth in secret. I loved getting to know the characters and their relationship this way.

The side characters were also intriguing because they seem flat at first, but they develop in surprising ways. There are a couple plotlines here that are all interesting and could easily be their own story.

I recommend it for readers who like books about books, clean romances, and slow-burn romances.

Savannah is a low-level editor at Pennington Publishing, which sticks to producing only the highest of highbrow titles. During the day, she is editing the highbrow, but she is hiding a couple of secrets - one: she is writing a romance novel and two: she has discovered the Book Nook - a secret room where she finds writing inspiration.

One afternoon, she leaves her manuscript behind in the Book Nook. She returns to the nook to discover that someone has written notes in her margins. She is quick to take offense, but soon she realizes that she needs the help of her mystery editor. Through a process of elimination, she discovers who her mystery editor is and realizes that she wants more than just his notes in the margins.

Oh my, I really, really enjoyed this book! I loved the secret back and forth on the manuscript that helped build the tension between the two. It was charming and witty, just so perfect!

Thanks to Thomas Nelson and NetGalley for an eARC in exchange for an honest review.

I usually enjoy a good rom-com because they pull me in immediately and are easy to follow. Meet Me in the Margins, by Melissa Ferguson, is a rom-com novel, but I struggled to connect with the characters and get through the novel. I was over halfway through before I actually found it enjoyable. It was not a bad book, just couldn't connect with this one. Thank you, NetGalley, and the publisher for an ARC ebook in exchange for my honest review.

Witty & wonderful with enjoyable characters. The perfect read for book lovers: sweet romance with enough angst and shenanigans to make this a delightful read.

Meet Me In The Margins by Melissa Ferguson
Tags: RomCom; Epistolary Elements; Sweet

This was a sweet, romcom with some epistolary elements and a dash of You’ve Got Mail vibes. The premise was a fun one, and as a book lover who doesn’t love a publishing house romance with an editor who dreams of being a romance novelist?

I could definitely see this as a Hallmark movie, it definitely had that feel in storyline and characters. I enjoyed the two mains, Savannah and Will – and the slow build to their story. Yes, parts were easy to see coming, but that’s what I expect in a sweet, Hallmark-esque romance, so I thought it was appropriate. A highlight of the story was definitely the ‘notes in the margins’ back and forth with her editor.

In terms of wishes, the story was a bit slow to start for me, but I did feel that it finished on a stronger note. I also might have wished for a bit more secondary character development – Lyla was really the only other character I felt I got a feel for.

I was happy with the ending, as I noted – I thought it ended on a stronger note. I enjoyed the HEA for the main couple, and was pleased with some well deserved comeuppance that was doled out,
which made for a satisfactory wrap for me.

Thank you to NetGalley and Thomas Nelson Pub for the opportunity to read and review and early copy. All opinions expressed are freely given and my own.

I could not get into this book for the life of me.

Maybe the style of writing, but I could not empathize with the characters, or really cared what was going to happen. Fell really flat for me.

Savannah is an editor at Pennington books, a staunchly nonfiction publishing house but is secretly writing- and doing some final edits at work on - a romance novel. Will is the CEO’s son and is brought on to whip it into shape. Savannah is almost caught with her book so she hides it in a secret room in the attic. She comes back later to find the pages organized and with editorial notes in the margins. But who can have made them? Who also knows about the secret room? And why is she drawn to the boss’s son?
It is a romcom with a light mystery twist. The characters were lovable and I enjoyed the comedy and pure zaniness of all the characters and plot. On the other hand, sometimes it veered from zaniness to base implausibility for me. Parts of the book made it hard for me to suspend disbelief.
I know it was supposed to be the quirky voice of Savannah’s but I was distracted by the overuse-of-dashes-between-words as if it needed to be super emphasized that she was creating one phrase or word. I did wish that there was more ‘romance’ between Savannah and Will. Still, I would give this a 3.5/4.0.

Savannah is trying to perfect her manuscript for her romance novel behind the scenes while also working at Pennington Publishing. She finds solace in her secret room behind the ARC room and leaves her manuscript there to work on. When she comes back to the room, she finds a secret editor has written suggestions all over her manuscript – suggestions that she reluctantly agrees with. After lots of notes back and forth, she realizes she is starting to fall for her secret editor.

If you are looking for a nice slow burn romance without any smut, this book is perfect for you! It is really heartwarming, and I love reading books about books! This book was a nice break from all the smut that popular romance seems to have. I actually shed a few tears at the end.

Thank you to NetGalley and Thomas Nelson for the ARC in exchange for my honest review.