A very fun and romantic retelling of Beauty and the Beast. :) Izzy (Isabelle) is an sunny, cheerful editor assistant who tries to encourage grumpy writer Beau to finish his novel. They complement each other wonderfully because they are opposites. They go through a wonderful journey of falling in love. Lots of romantic tension and chemistry. Jasmine Guillory writes terrific contemporary romances and this is another wonderful example of her writing!

Thanks to the publisher for the arc.

What a great story set in a beautiful location! The story was great on its own, but was enhanced by its allusions to Beauty and the Beast.

I always wonder what those of my favorite fairytale characters do in modern world. Does Rapunzel open a hair dresser chains and Sleeping Beauty works for designer company or Snow White prefers a commune life with her dwarves?
Well, “Meant to be “series keep growing on me. Because it gave life to those amazing fairytale characters in the real world!

Firstly “if the shoe fits” attracted my whole attention :the plus size beauty, shoe designed Cindy’s story who works with her evil stepmother was written by Julie Murphy and now one of my truly favorite romance authors : the one and only Jasmine Guillory joins the series with fascinating retelling of my all time favorite Disney story: “Beauty and the Beast”

This time Isabelle ( called as Izzy, but she’s still Belle) works for TAOAT Publishing Company ( acronym for “ Take as Old as Time”)as aspiring editorial assistant doing everything in her power to get the promotion she truly deserves but it seems like the company’s diversity policy remained from ancient times just like its name. She’s the only black girl who tries to prove she’s doing great job as like the other employees of the company, dealing with ultra annoying Gavin’s antics.

When her boss Marta shares her problem about a very popular author who gives the company hard time by not turning his memoir manuscript on time, she accepts the challenge, going to the mansion of the author located in California to negotiate with him face to face!

Of course their first meeting gives us the vibes of two favorite tropes: enemies to lovers and the sunshine meets the grump. That isolated, grumpy, exhausted author Beau is adamant to be big challenge against her promotion. But luckily Izzy doesn’t give up so easily.

As they spend more time together, they realize both of them suffer from their own losses in the past. There are so many common points help them easily connect a true friendship bond. Izzy gets an extension for him to finish the memoir consisting of his bad boy years.

Their attraction and chemistry were palpable. The fairy tale references were perfectly inserted including a magical kettle, a marvelous library, rose garden, Wi-fi password.

The character development was good. Both of the MCs were dealing with their inner demons but they were still strong, likable, connectable characters.

I only get bored because of extra slow burn progression of their romantic involvement. But overall the author did a marvelous job to retell and also adapt this classic fairytale into our modern world love story with representing diversity, inequality at work space, mansplaining.

Giving my 4 magical, heartfelt stars!

Special thanks to NetGalley and Hyperion Avenue for sharing this digital reviewer copy with me in exchange my honest thoughts.

I have always been a sucker for a good reimagined fairytale and this book started very strong. However, once we started getting to the denouement, it felt like the effort put into the story was dwindling and so did my interest.

By the Book: A Meant to be Novel by Jasmine Guillory is a wonderful and fun contemporary romance that is the second book in an adorable series of contemporary spins on classic fairytales from one of my favorite authors!

I loved this fun, adorable, flirty, and relaxing contemporary romance that gives several references and nods to the classic Beauty and the Beast tale. I love how the author incorporates some of those concepts without allowing it to overpower the contemporary concept. The balance was just perfect and she allowed the new storyline to hold its own and shine.

Izzy (Isabelle) and Beau are great main characters. Both are realistic, charming in their own ways, and compliment each other well. I enjoyed their paths, their chemistry, their progression, and of course their ending.

I most certainly will read more from this series in the future.

5/5 stars

Thank you NG and Hyperion Avenue for this wonderful arc and in return I am submitting my unbiased and voluntary review and opinion.

I am posting this review to my GR and Bookbub accounts immediately and will post it to my Amazon, Instagram, and B&N accounts upon publication on 5/3/22.

This book was cute. Definitely not my favorite by this author and the Disneyfication was a bit too much at times but it was a fun read. My major problem with it honestly was that the egalley was difficult to read; the type was very small and it was in a format that made it difficult to enlarge.

I was very excited to get to read this book early! I love Jasmine Guillory books.
I had very high hopes for this book and I may have aimed a little to high. It’s a fun book and great character development but doesn’t hit my top 3 for this author.

This book is very tame on the steam meter compared to her others. Cute romance but a very slow burn!

If you enjoy other books by this author, you will enjoy this one!

Loved this book. Although it is an interpretation of beauty and the beast it still felt like an accomplished romance novel.

Thanks NetGalley for the eARC in exchange for an honest review! This is my first Jasmine Guillory read and I can see why her work is so popular! Her characters are loveable, the romance between them is sweet, and perhaps most importantly, she knows how to write a story you can get invested in. You care about the goals of Beau and Izzy, and some of Izzy's quips actually made me laugh out loud. This is a cozy read!

Jasmine Guillory is a master of building tension and pacing. This book was a delight, especially for fans of a certain 1990 Disney film involving talking furniture, sumptuous backdrops and a conflicted heroin who loves to read and fly about on ladders in cathedral-esque libraries. Easter eggs abound in this re-imagined fairytale, incorporating realistic modern day elements into the structure of a classic "Tale as Old As Time". Readers will identify with and root for the couple at the heart of this engaging romance.

Love Jasmine Guillory's books. They always bring a smile to my face and give me something to think about. The heavy Beauty and the Beast references were a little cheesy at times, but the story was good. Not as steamy as some of her other books, but the chemistry between the characters was off the charts.

Highly recommend!! This book is a definite page-turner! You'll be left thinking about the story long after you put the book down. First book to read by this author but definitely not my last!

This sweet retelling of the Beauty and the Beast fairy tale took a while to get into; it had a choppy start with awkward dialogue (which is unusual for Guillory's books, in my experience). But once Izzy made it to CA and got settled into Beau's home, I began to recognize the author's usual gifts for creating believable characters and an imaginable setting.
I enjoyed this charming story and sailed through it.

Thanks to NetGalley and Hyperion Avenue for a free advance copy in exchange for an honest review.

This modern day take on Beauty and the Beast was a fantastic read! I have loved every one of Jasmine Guillory's books, and this one is no exception. Isabelle has a career in publishing as an editorial assistant but is in search of a promotion. Her boss, Marta, complains about a big-shot author who hasn't turned in his memoir manuscript, and Isabelle wants this opportunity to show she deserves a promotion. Upon arriving in California, Izzy meets the high-profile author, Beau Towers, and the two of them don't quite hit it off. However, after giving him pep talks, and spending more time with Beau, Izzy soon discovers they have a lot in common, and in some ways, he is just as lost in his profession as she is. Isabelle gets permission to extend the deadline Beau has to meet, and as they near the ending date, they soon realize they have developed a relationship that goes beyond just becoming "friends." This fairytale is a reflection of the famous saying, "don't judge a book by its cover."

Guillory did a phenomenal job of developing all of the characters, both major and minor. I fell in love with Izzy from the beginning and got lost in the story. I loved the development of Beau's character throughout and fell head over heels in love with him, much like Izzy did. I would highly recommend this book! If you have enjoyed Guillory's other books, and like a good fairytale (but with a modern twist), you won't be disappointed with this one. I am so happy I was given the chance to read the advanced copy!

Somehow I missed that Disney (as in Disney Publishing) was launching a series of adult books that will give a modern take on the classic Disney princesses. Just hearing that premise: “whoa, sign me up, and I’ll be here until Mirabelle of Encanto finds a dark and handsome Colombian guy who also wears glasses”. I’m a recent convert to romance stories and this is the kind of hook I needed.

The first of the “Meant to Be” series was “If the Shoe Fits” by Julie Murphy, published in August 2021,and had a shoe designer, Cindy, a plus size beauty, working with her stepmother on a reality show, Before Midnight. This book is the second entry, “Meant to Be #2”, with Isabelle (known as Izzy, not Belle), the lone Black employee of a publishing house, getting stuck with Beau (who can be a sarcastic beast) in his castle-like coastal California mansion, while trying to get him to finish a memoir of his celebrity bad boy years. There’s a secret library; a rose garden, a cook, Michaela, nicknamed “Kettle” (not “Potts”); and the wi-fi password is “Lum1ere!”

They haven’t announced future books yet, but I think after a few glasses of wine with the book club friends (which Izzy and Beau also generously partake of), we’ll be fantasizing about Snow (probably renamed Whitney) being the only woman running a crew of seven handymen in a rural area and ……CENSORED……. OK, this is still a Disney book, very PG, even if book club discussions go wild. But the idea of inclusive stories of all sorts of Disney Princesses is just so enchanting. Pooh, pooh (and not just Winnie) to those who dislike re-enactments of classic fairy tales and happily ever afters.

Izzy works for TAOAT Publishing (acronym for a Tale as Old as Time), and she’s delightful and ambitious. Maurice is a prestigious publishing firm (not her dad) and we also have the annoying Gavin (Gaston) as a toxic office rival. Izzy and Beau’s romance is a slow build (maybe too long through the middle section of the book). Although Belle was always a fairly modern heroine (1991 and 2017), Izzy knows to lecture the guy who leaves the dirty dishes behind for the unseen but not-so-magical housekeeper to clean up. In this version, the furniture does not come to life overnight, although Izzy does talk to her bathtub a lot (it’s a glorious bathtub). Welcome to the Gen Z Belle. We do get treated to a croissant making Beast as well. She brings out the writer in him and he reawakens the writer in her. Of course, there’s tension before the expected happy ending, and getting there is a joyous adventure.

4 stars. Ms.Guillory was a terrific choice for this series — wondering what the next 21st century fairy tale retelling will be. I’ll be there for it.

Thanks to NetGalley and Hyperion Avenue/Disney Book for the advanced reader copy.

Literary Pet Peeve Checklist:
Green Eyes (only 2% of the real world, yet it seems like 90% of all fictional females): YES There are “flecks of green” inside Beau’s golden-brown eyes.
Horticultural Faux Pas (plants out of season or growing zones, like daffodils in autumn or bougainvillea in Alaska): YES There’s a “green vine with red flowers” blooming on Beau’s gate in Santa Barbara in February and, well, even in California, the bougainvillea, mandevilla, and trumpet vines really don’t blossom fully until May. But there are be roses in California in winter.

A cute rom-com that it loosely based off of a modern retelling of Beauty and the Beast.

Izzy works for an publishing company and is sent to California to convince Beau to finally finish his memoir that her company is paying to dollar for. But while she is there she gets more than she can bargain for at first.

The book will release in early May.

I enjoyed this book. The plot was well paced and the characters were well developed. I would enjoy reading additional works by this author.

I thoroughly enjoyed Guillory’s series set in LA and San Francisco and was looking forward to reading her newest, By the Book. A publishing house, an assistant editor who wants to be a writer, and a bad boy former actor all could be an interesting combination for a romance novel. Even the structure — a take-off on Beauty and the Beast — could be a standard romantic trope. But Guillory never really creates the tension of whether the boy and girl will get together at the end. Isabelle and Beau quickly become comfortable with each other. While Beau certainly has some serious issues in his past, Izzy doesn’t. Most of her problems happen “off set;” we hardly ever see her actually interact with Gavin, her nemesis, or Marta, her boss. The result is that the story seems flat. I do hope that we find out more about Priya and Michaela.

I have read every book that Jasmine Guillory has written and loved them all! I also read If the Shoe Fits by Julie Murphy which is the first book in the Meant to Be Series and loved that. So I knew I had to read By the Book and I knew I would enjoy it just as much as Jasmine's previous books.

In this modern day retelling of Beauty and the Beast, Isabelle helps Beau Towers write his memoir which deals with his difficult past with his parents. As they work together they both learn some things and start having fun together as well. This is a pretty clean romance and I think anyone who has read Ms. Guillory's books will enjoy this one as well!

Thank you Netgalley for the opportunity to read and review. All opinions are my own.

Publishes 3 May 2022.

Thank you to Net Galley and Hyperion books for an advanced copy of this book. Touted as a retelling of Beauty and the Beast and in partnership with the author of the title “If the Shoe Fits” (first book in a partnered author series), I was underwhelmed.

I had read the Wedding Date series and thought the concept of the book was cute. Izzy (Isabelle) has a supportive family, sassy best friend, and middle manager Gavin whose feedback has cut Izzy short on writing her own memoirs.

There are fun nods to the tale of Beauty and the Beast. I struggled with the constant referral of TAOAT without an explanation until about 20% into the book. If you have seen a 90s retelling of this tale from a familiar children’s company you can piece it together, but these “nods” to that tale didn’t quite pull me in as well as her other stories. Izzy is full of self doubt and we’ll supported by the characters around her. I didn’t notice much growth or found her as likable as Guillory’s other characters.