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.

I love Jasmine Guillory romances. I have not read the first book in the Meant to Be series but I felt this book was standalone and I did not miss any part of the story.

By the Book is a retelling of Beauty and the Beast and I loved the small references to the original story sprinkled throughout. I enjoyed the banter between Beau and Isabelle but also the way they each supported each other through their work.

I also loved Beau's spunky assistant Michaela.

At times, the story skewed a little too cheesy but overall it was very cute and sweet romance.

I think this was a cute book. I enjoyed it and it was a nice change of pace from my usual heavy fantasy romance selections. Isabelle is an interesting character, and the Beauty and the Beast retelling was also quite nicely done. I would recommend this to anyone who loves fairytales and grew up loving Beauty and the Beast.

An adorable fairy tale retelling for grown-ups! In this riff on Beauty & the Beast, a book-loving editorial assistant must convince the gruff, surly celebrity to finally sit down and write his memoir. Set in a mansion so gorgeous it's practically magical, the plot hits key B&tB touchstones while telling a sweet, romantic tale that's also original and entertaining.

this is my second novel from the “meant to be” series and “by the books” was another winner for me! i said it before and i’ll say it again: i love how disney has reimagined these beloved tales into modern stories and i couldn’t be happier that they’ve chosen jasmine guillory for this novel! there are lots of references to “the beauty and the beast” movie and i had so much looking out for them. if there were speech bubbles above my head as i was reading, there’s be a lot of “i canNOT believe that got snuck in there” and “that’s so clever!!”

this was such a fun read and i found it extra fitting that izzy works in the publishing world! but i found myself frustrated at beau over the same situations multiple times. izzy and beau took a lot of steps forward, followed by even more steps back and i’m not sure if it’s because of the way “the beast” was recreated, but i felt that a lot of beau’s actions were repetitive. besides that, i thought izzy and beau were adorable together; one of my favorite parts of reading this novel were the dates the two of them would go on. whether it’s in beau’s mansion or outdoors, i thought they had great chemistry and banter!

I’ve been reading a lot of publishing world novels in the past year or so but was drawn to this one because it was written by Jasmine Guillory. The details felt spot on but this didn’t captivate me as much as some of the others, like Shauna Robinson’s Must Love Books. Delivers on the grumpy/happy trope and gives a very satisfying ending for Izzy and Beau, both romantically and professionally. But the slow burn was very slow indeed. Tons of tension but it didn’t feel romantic to me until more than halfway through.

I wanted to enjoy this book so much, and it was just so under-whelming. I know that the premise of the book was to be in the vain of Beauty and the Beast but my goodness was it so cringey and overly done. BATB is one of my favorite stories and this was so flat, so undeveloped and made me really uncomfy. I am usually such a fan of JG too.

This second novel in the Meant to Be series of Disney reimaginings brings a fun, sweet take on Beauty and the Beast. Guillory does a wonderful job of crafting extremely likeable main characters and a romance that blooms from hate to love with the backdrop of the publishing industry. It's a definitely recommend for readers looking for a cute romance.

I stayed up to 1am to finish this gem.
You’ve got my favorite Disney story, plus one of my favorite authors, plus a book about books? You can’t get any better.
I loved the Beauty and Beast references sprinkled throughout the book and I fell in love with Izzy and Beau.
I loved both Izzy and Beau’s character growth. I know it’s a romance, but to me it was so much more. Both our MCs battled serious internal struggles around self-image and confidence. And with the Beauty and the Beast twist, we have a lovely sunshine/grump trope. This romance made me laugh and cry.

And don’t worry - yes there is a library and it’s fantastic. I want to move to this house immediately.

3 stars
A fairly average work-together romance based on Beauty and the Beast (Disney’s version). Fans of the animated film will enjoy all the little easter eggs sprinkled throughout, but they neither add to nor detract from the story. Our “beast,” Beau Towers, fills the role nicely as his “beastliness” is mainly the rudeness of a misunderstood loner who’s spent a year in isolation (making this perhaps the perfect book for the post-lockdown reader), and our Belle, Isabelle Marlowe, is an appropriately independent bookworm.
The chemistry between the two characters progresses nicely, and I liked that Isabelle isn’t at all perfect. Her struggles at her job are largely due to her passivity (and I do feel for how she’s been conditioned to just take everything; if she had half the confidence of a mediocre white man, she would conquer the world) that would largely be fixed by just asking her boss for feedback. She also struggles to consider others’ point of view and responds to conflict in her budding relationship with Beau by storming out of rooms and not communicating. Beau, for his part, is a total daydream: when he blows up, he takes a minute to regroup and then sincerely apologizes once he’s cooled down! He opens the lines of communication! He bakes homemade croissants! (This book, I warn you, will make you hungry). Sign me up. And his library, of course, is #goals.
Some side notes: Priya, Isabelle’s best friend, is amazing. The New York-to-California setting is well utilized without being too twee. Beau’s family history is really nicely done.
My main complaint, I think, is to do with the professional/personal relationship. Dating your editor is a terrible idea. Yes, we’re meant to take it as Beau would only open up to Isabelle, and so only she could start to edit his work—but emotions run high with creative work and putting your partner in that position isn’t a good idea. But there isn’t really room to address that in this fluffy romance, and Beau isn’t writing any more books after this memoir anyway so it seems a moot point.
A sweet, fluffy book, a little forgettable, but well-meaning.

By the Book is a Beauty and the Beast modern retelling. It's a super light romance that feels exactly like a Disney movie.

Fans of the original cartoon will love all of the Beauty and the Beast nods woven throughout the entire book. Isabelle works for a company called Tale as Old as Time. The Wi-Fi password for the house is Lum1ere. There's a character nicknamed Kettle, a fabulous library and I quite frankly laughed out loud when beef ragout and cheese souffle was mentioned.

Beau played a brooding, misunderstood beast with a short temper perfectly. I liked the idea of him being a recluse and needing assistance to find his way back to society by accepting help to share his celebrity memoir. Isabelle was a great lead. I liked how her story-line shared glimpses into the world of publishing and what it takes to write a book. Their story was definitely a slow burn with plenty of super sweet moments. I really wish the romance would have been steamier, but it read very New Adult with lots of kissing and closed door innuendos.

I loved all of the descriptions of Santa Barbara, this enchanting mansion and all of the food. You will wish you had a fully stocked snack closet while reading this one. Can't wait to see which author continues the series next. If you missed it, book 1 - If the Shoe Fits by Julie Murphy - was a wonderful Cinderella retelling.

I enjoyed this fun romance, a slow burn, enemies to lovers played out over a book manuscript in progress. The chemistry between Izzy and Beau is strong, and I enjoyed watching Beau change from a beast to a really caring partner. Both of them have issues they need to work through before they can be together.
Using Santa Barbara as the location was inspired, the town is a jewel situated between the mountains and the ocean. It’s one of my favorite places for a weekend getaway! I live in the next county south and I’ve spent quite a bit of time there.
All in all, a well written book with humor and interesting characters. 4 stars.

Blurb:
“A tale as old as time—for a new generation…

Isabelle is completely lost. When she first began her career in publishing right out of college, she did not expect to be twenty-five, living at home, still an editorial assistant, and the only Black employee 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 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.

Best-selling author Jasmine Guillory’s reimagining of a beloved fairy tale is a romantic triumph of love and acceptance and learning that sometimes to truly know a person you have to read between the lines.”

Thanks to the publisher and NetGalley I received a complimentary copy of this book. Opinions expressed in this review are completely my own.