Book Review: ‘By The Book’ by Jasmine Guillory

Jasmine Guillory has done it again. She’s created another romantic page turner that’s impossible to put down. We loved By The Book, and we think you’ll also love her newest novel.

By the Book is the modern retelling of Beauty and the Beast. At the beginning of the story, Izzy is fresh out of college. She’s young and excited to start her first job in the book world as an assistant at the publishing company, Tale as Old As Time. Well, fast forward two years later and her career hasn’t exactly gone according to plan.

We’ve all been there, right? When you’re young and just beginning in your career, you have hopes and dreams for your life. But unfortunately, the real world is tough and careers and plans don’t always follow the path you think they will. Izzy’s informed by a co-worker that she won’t be making editor this year, and she’s about to give up. But then she’s given an opportunity to prove herself to her boss. Her mission: to get Beau, a former child actor, to finally write his manuscript that’s way overdue.

Beau isn’t exactly welcoming to Izzy at first. He’s rude and wants her to leave. But she does win him over, and he agrees to write his manuscript, but on one condition: Izzy has to stay and give him pep talks. Throughout the book, Izzy and Beau get to know each other better, and personally, I couldn’t wait to read more about their journey together.

The way Guillory wrote Izzy and Beau was beautiful. The two have amazing chemistry. We loved getting to see Beau begin to trust Izzy and drop his guard and “tough guy” personality around her. And as Beau starts to trust Izzy, she starts to fall for him. But, of course, she has her doubts about their relationship. They do work together? Should they keep their relationship strictly professional? Does he even like her like that?

We get the answers to those questions, and if you’ve read any of Guillory’s books before, you’ll know that her main characters get happy endings. Together, and separately. All of Izzy’s hard work pays off and her boss finally sees that she’s a valuable asset to the publishing world.

It was so nice seeing Izzy gaining confidence throughout the book. And while we loved Izzy and Beau together, we also loved that Izzy never lost sight of her goal. She knew she had to help Beau write his manuscript. We love seeing women accomplish their goals. Both personal and professionally.

We only really have one critique of By The Book. Okay, maybe two. First, the book is supposed to be the retelling of Beauty and the Beast. But honestly, Beau didn’t feel very ”beast” like. Sure, he was unwelcoming at first, but he quickly warmed up to Izzy. We don’t think this is necessarily bad, but we wouldn’t haven’t even thought to compare it to Beauty and the Beast if the official synopsis hadn’t mentioned that.

The other critique? It wasn’t long enough. We wished we could have seen more of Izzy’s life after she returned home and Beau’s book was published. But maybe Guillory will write a sequel for us? That would be something to look forward to.

By the Book is available now wherever books are sold.