Ponder: By the Book

Jasmine Guillory is an author whose romance books I read when I want something light and frivolous. By the Book is the eighth book I've read by her. Her first three books I gave three stars each, her next three books also three stars, her seventh book only two stars, but her ninth book, Flirting Lessons, I abandoned after one and a half chapters and so zero stars for it. But with this, her eighth book, I became re-enamored with the author and I give By the Book four stars.

The plot in By the Book is that Isabelle, a young professional, currently working as an editorial assistant at a high profile New York publishing firm, aspires to become a book editor, or perhaps even an author in her own rite. Eager to get ahead, she volunteers to personally contact a famous celebrity, one of the firm's problem clients, and facilitate his submittal of behind schedule drafts of his memoir. Beau lives in a mansion in Santa Barbara. The man may be jaded and disagreeable, but the silver lining in that cloud is that a few days in California would be luscious reprieve for Isabelle from the cold, slushy, bitter winter in New York City.

What are the demons in Beau's life that make writing his memoir so difficult? In addition to the subject matter, what are the writing skills he struggles with that are contributing to his writer's block? Isabelle is precisely the feisty, yet patient and understanding, person Beau needs to help him out of his slump, personal and literary. The writing tips and motivational approaches are a bonus to the text of this novel.  The romantic entanglement is predictable, but the process in getting to the inevitable outcome is oh so enjoyable. 

I'd read those first seven books of Jasmine Guillory within August, September and October of 2022. Here are excerpts from those three blog posts.

• 8/30/22 (three-romance-novels) Was it rocket science? Hardly, especially not with a book published about every ten months. But I still gained some insight into other life experiences. I rate each of them three stars.
• 9/12/22 (three-more-romance-novels) There were intimations about other peripheral characters that make me wonder if perhaps more books are coming. I rate each of the above books three stars. They were a fictional romp that were worth the enjoyable time investment.
• 10/26/22 (ponder-drunk-on-love) There is no association with characters from the first six books and I found that absence a bit disappointing. ... [two stars] I think I will hold off on Jasmine Guillory's future books for a while. I may be saturated or she may be morphing her style to something less attractive to me.

I am glad I did not hold off on Jasmine Guillory's books since I chilled with relaxed reading time and  gained a few writing tips while enjoying this romance novel. I give By the Book four stars. My rating seems in keeping with the 3,500Amazon readers who rated By the Book an average of 4.2 stars. Perhaps they represent the limited audience to whom I refer in my rating.

★★★★☆ Really good; maybe only one weak aspect or limited audience