This book is a love letter to romcoms and those of us who love them! 5 stars for By Any Other Name by Lauren Kate!
Synopsis:
With a successful career as a romance editor, and an engagement to a man who checks off all ninety-nine boxes on her carefully curated list, Lanie’s more than good. She’s killing it. Then she’s given the opportunity of a lifetime: to work with world-renowned author and her biggest inspiration in love and life—the Noa Callaway. All Lanie has to do is cure Noa’s writer’s block and she’ll get the promotion she’s always dreamed of. Simple, right?
But there’s a reason no one has ever seen or spoken to the mysterious Noa Calloway. And that reason will rock Lanie’s world. It will call into question everything she thought she knew. When she finally tosses her ninety-nine expectations to the wind, Lanie may just discover that love By Any Other Name can still be as sweet.
"Remember," she says over the rumble of the engines, "your eyes should always be where you want to be twenty seconds from now. Don't look down at where you are, only out at where you're going."
With life being busy, I missed posting about this book before the release date, but I devoured this book! I received an advanced copy of the book via NetGalley and am so glad I did. I had goosebumps by the time I finished. Did I know basically all the twists that were going to happen? Yes. Did it make a difference? Absolutely not. It is just such a cute, book-loving read, and I absolutely adored the ending! Everything was wrapped up in just the most heartwarming of ways.
They say never meet your heroes and, unfortunately, Lanie learns that lesson the hard way in the book, when she's promoted to editor and comes face-to-face with the person responsible for her favorite books and her philosophies on love. She's now in charge of wringing the next book out of them, which is already way past its deadline and winds up finding out that her favorite author, the person whose writing has formed the very foundations of her ideas on love, is nowhere near who she thought they were. It's got a bit of the You've Got Mail vibe and all the emotional mishaps and rom-com moments you could want.
Lanie is the kind of MC that I've come to expect, and love, from a romance novel. She loves her job, she's good at it, and she's independent. Her one-bedroom New York apartment sounds like my dream come true and I always laugh when I find myself jealous of a fictional character. Maybe my next bookstagram account will be focused on the interior design in books. :) Lanie goes through a fair bit of self-discovery in By Any Other Name and I was really happy that the author made it very realistic. She gets a promotion that stresses her out. She makes a tough decision about her relationship when she realizes she'll end up trapped in a life she doesn't want. All believable and easy to relate to. It adds the right balance to the story to let the reader believe the romance part more.
"However long it takes, Collins. If it means a chance to be with you, I'll be here every Saturday at sunset for the rest of my life."
From the start, I was a huge Noah fan. I knew there was going to be more to him than just the grumpiness he showed Lanie once she realized who he was. I loved that, even if Lanie was unaware of it, they started out as email friends. Every moment of their time together gets added to Noah's story in such a sweet way that by the time the book ends, your heart has completely melted. Because Noah writes his newest book backward, we can see all the hope he has for creating his own love story with Lanie. By the end, I was in tears and absolutely adored how the author wrapped everything up. This will definitely be one I buy to add to my romcom shelf!
Towards the end of the book, there is a special meal that I really wanted to make for this review, but due to my schedule right now I wasn't able to. Instead, I picked another moment from earlier in the book between Lanie and her boss. Lanie's boss keeps buying her fancy baking and kitchen equipment and even though she doesn't really do either, she's now worked there for so long that she doesn't know how to tell her boss that her thoughtful gifts go unused. A madeleine pan is one of those thoughtful, baking gifts. I recently purchased a (cheap one because that's how it's gotta be) madeleine pan for myself so I thought I'd take the opportunity to try it out for the first time! While I didn't get the telltale hump in mine, these dark chocolate and hazelnut dipped madeleines turned incredible! The recipe made quite a few so I left a couple at home for my husband and me and whisked the rest off to work so I wouldn't end up eating all of them. I'm excited to make more in the future and experiment with flavors! Lanie might not be a baker, but I sure am! :)
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