““Any dietary restrictions?” Michaela smiled at her... “Okay, but is there anything you hate?” Michaela asked...
”... Mostly I just hate anything that jiggles... You know, custards, pudding, Jell-O—anything that if you poke it, it jiggles...””
REVIEW
Interested in a detailed summary with read-alikes?? Check out my Annotation of this book.
Author: Jasmine Guillory
Category/Type: Adult Fiction
Genre: Romance
Subgenre: Contemporary Romance; Fairy Tales, Romantic Comedy
Publication Date: May 3, 2022
Number of Pages: 313 pages of story text; includes acknowledgements
Geographical Setting: Primarily Santa Barbara, California, with some scenes in New York City and nearby New Jersey where the protagonist lives and works
Time Period: Present day
Series (if applicable): This is a Meant to Be novel, a Disney series that reimagines their famous fairy tales as diverse, closed door, adult romances.
Plot Summary: It’s a tale as old as time… ish…
Sort of fresh out of college, Isabelle (Izzy) is like a wilting rose as she struggles to prove herself in the challenging and exclusive world of publishing. An editorial assistant eager to catch her big break, she would do anything for a promotion, even if it means dealing with the beastly, extremely, infamous Beau Towers who has missed every deadline for his book deal. Izzy’s plan to spend an afternoon with Beau to light a fire under his butt and set him on the path to finishing his book goes awry when his meddling housekeeper is injured, leading Izzy to spend longer at Beau’s home that she expected.
Acting as his writing coach, Izzy begins to crack Beau’s hard surface and expose the complexities within. As they get to know one another, they also discover a magical spark between them. When Izzy’s job deals them both a blow, can they keep the flame alive?
This Beauty and the Beast retelling creatively reimagines a familiar tale, offering a contemporary take on what it means to be different while attempting to succeed in the world.
Content warnings (may containt SLIGHT SPOILERS): Death of one of the main characters’ parents in the past, racism, sexism, workplace harassment of the main character (NOT from the love interest).
Representation:
Well-developed BIPOC main and supporting characters
Processing of trauma and grief
“Beau set a bottle of maple syrup in front of her.
”Here you go, straight from Vermont, a place I’ve never been. But I’ve been told maple syrup grows on trees there.””
PERSONAL THOUGHTS
WARNING: May contain spoilers
Uh, this book was alright. I did not find it nearly as good as the first in the Meant to Be series, which is likely to happen with a changing cast of authors for each book in the series. Not every author will resonate with every reader.
I did feel connected with Izzy, especially with her dislike of jiggly food, which made me feel seen and committed to finishing the book. My main criticism is that both main characters felt flat and underdeveloped as did the plot. The events that take place were low stakes, which doesn't invite a lot of engagement on the part of the reader. I had similar criticisms of Guillory's The Wedding Date, so perhaps her writing style isn’t to my taste. It's not that the characters didn't have backstories, but that their emotions appeared disconnected, either not extreme enough or too extreme for the situations and too easily resolved in either case. The angry male as a beast who needs a woman to fix him is a bit over-the-top and Izzy forgives far too quickly, maybe because Beau is a hot guy? Other interpretations of this story that felt more realistic are Jane Eyre and The Love Hypothesis. Of course, those two examples are incredibly white and far from perfect, but do give the female characters more agency to be unforgiving and make the "beast" step up and do some of their own fixing.
Some of my disappointment likely also stems from the fact Disney's Beauty and the Beast was a favorite of mine having grown up as a bookish child, and I felt like this book didn't resonate as much as I was hoping it would. It might also be that having another heterosexual rendition of the story was not going to bowl me over regardless of how it was handled. Thinking about it further, I had almost no attachment to Cinderella in my youth and that may be why I had more fun reading If the Shoe Fits, there was nothing to disappoint because I didn’t enter with many expectations.
I do think that moving the setting to the notoriously challenging and cutthroat world of publishing was a genius way to update the story and Gaston (Gavin) as a gaslighting white dude was perfect; having experienced something similar at work in the past year, it was a great point of connection for me. And while publishing's issues with racism and overworking and underpaying and undercrediting lower level staff is somewhat glossed over because 'hey, this is a fantasy,' these facts are mentioned making the world of the novel more realistic.
Considering the series thus far, I do enjoy the committment to females with careers and the fact that none of the protagonists start out looking for love or in hopelessly dire situations like in earlier versions of the stories. They are in difficult situations that need to be resolved and they find love along the way, but the men are not directly fixing things or performing daring rescues in the traditional sense. Even though this particular book wasn't a huge hit for me, I’ll continue reading the series because they are fun books that creatively update tales as old as time (sorry, I couldn't resist).
Final resting place: This book is on my shelf between Matrix by Lauren Groff and Emperor of the Eight Islands by Lian Hearn.
WHAT I’M READING NOW
My annotations and reviews are always running a bit (or more than a bit) behind what I’m actually reading so here’s a little bit of a teaser, if you will, for reviews to come.
Kiss Her Once for Me by Alison Cochrun