By the Book is an exciting retelling of Beauty and the Beast with elements of an epistolary novel. The romance is sweet, and I finished this book in less than a day. Do you really need to hear anymore? Read this now!

4/5 Stars

Thank you to NetGalley and Hyperion Avenue for providing me with an e-arc of this book in exchange for an honest review.

I LOVE Jasmine Guillory's work, so I was thrilled to get an advance copy of this book to read. I also really like books about books, and this one did not disappoint. Isabelle is feeling really discouraged with where she has ended up at age 25, and when given the opportunity to work with Beau, she hopes this will be her ticket to the top. She finds out quickly that this client and relationship will soon become much more than she bargained for, in the best way. Thank you to NetGalley and Hyperion Avenue for a copy of this book for an honest review.

Jasmine Guillory is an "auto buy" for me. I devour everything she writes. I was so excited to hear about "By the Book" because Beauty and the Beast is my favorite Disney movie ever! I loved how this book had subtle similarities to the Disney classic, but it wasn't obvious. I loved it so much and can't wait to read more in the series!

A perfectly fine retelling of Beauty and the Beast. I think that I liked this book more than other reviews that I have read because I have not loved the other Jasmine Guillory books in the past, so if this is not quite her usual writing style then that doesn't bother me. I appreciated that the traditional "just freaking talk to each other and this slight issue could be immediately resolved" part of the book was very quick and was entirely in Izzy's head, so Beau never really knew about it and it could be wrapped up simply with an actual conversation.

Jasmine Guillory can do no wrong! By the Book--her latest book--is a must-read. A book about the publishing industry that also re-imagines one of my favorite fairy tales? Yes, please!

ARC Review: By the Book by Jasmine Guillory ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

This is book two in the Meant to Be Series of Disney fairytale retellings as romances for adults. I really enjoyed book one (If the Shoe Fits by Julie Murphy) but I was nervous for this one. I love Beauty and the Beast and even played Mrs. Potts in the stage play in high school, but had only read one of Guillory's books and wasn't a huge fan of it.

Fortunately, I really enjoyed this one as well! The MC is an editor's assistant in New York with authorial and editorial dreams who goes to California for a conference and to check in in an author who is notoriously beastly to work with. She ends up staying there to help him work on his next book and gets to know the man he really is.

Release date was early May so I'm a couple of weeks late, but I definitely recommend you pick it up! Thank you to @netgalley and the publisher for the ARC.

#BookReview #AmReading #ByTheBook #BeautyAndTheBeast #FairytaleRetelling

By the Book was my first Jasmine Guillory novel- I know she has a pretty big following for her romances so I wanted to give her a try. This one was also intriguing because it is a part of a series of authors who are writing modern day fairy tale retellings, By the Book being Beauty and the Beast. Overall, this book didn't quite do it for me and I don't think it was necessarily the books fault. It was just a little too fluffy and predictable. I ended up heavily skimming the last 20% because I wasn't super invested yet did want to see how it ended.

I could not finish this book -- the characters and plot felt completely contrived and stunted. There was so much dull buildup for not a lot of payoff as a reader. Ultimately very disappointed with this!

I absolutely adore Jasmine Guillory, I have all of her previous books signed and sitting pretty on my shelves. Imagine how excited I was to hear that she was writing a Beauty and the Beast retelling in a bookish world! outstanding.

The romance was character-based, which is something I love about Jasmine's books. The payoff when Izzy and Beau finally got together was immaculate.

I adored the nodes to Beauty and the Beast with the massive library, quotes, and little bits throughout the book.

The cover is beautiful, the book was beautiful and it made my 90s baby heart so happy.

I'm super grateful to NetGalley and Hyperion for the e-galley of By the Book, the second book in Jasmine Guillory's Meant to Be series. Which consists of fairy tale retellings. This one was Beauty and the Beast retelling, which is one of my favorites! Contains the grumpy guy with an anger issue and prone for blow ups and the female MC staying with him in his mansion. I think Guillory did a great job in terms of retelling the well-known fairy tale. And I LOVE Guillory's The Wedding Date series!

However, this book fell short for me. I like the supportive relationship between the two love interests but I found their romantic interactions lacking. To be honest, I think they'd be a great platonic relationship and more believable. I also had a tough time believing that this Beau was secretly this GREAT guy but just yelled at everyone, treated everyone around him rudely (apart from his assistant). The whole thing between Gavin and Izzy's boss also seemed lacking, like it was only thrown in to keep dragging the plot along.

P.S. I have all the desire to get myself By the Book's level of a snack cabinet..

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.

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.