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This weekend I gobbled up Jasmine Guillory's latest, By the Book. A modern take on Beauty and the Beast, it's the story of how editorial assistant Isabelle-not-Belle-but-Izzy Marlowe sacrifices herself for success by volunteering to bunk with celebrity bad boy Beau Towers. Although maybe "bunk" is a bad choice of words, as it makes Izzy sound like some kind of publishing prostitute. Which she's not; after all, this is Disney! No, Izzy moves in with Beau to help him finish his long-overdue memoir. And it's awkward and scary and uncomfortable. But after years as an overlooked Black overachiever at an almost-all-white publishing house, Izzy is burned out by New York City and ready to escape to sunny Santa Barbara:
"Publishing was so different than she thought it would be. It seemed like people only cared about status and profits and the bottom line, and not that feeling you got when you read a book that meant something to you, that wonder and hope and fullness in your chest, that feeling like there was a place for you in the world, and it was out there for you to find it." (65)
If that's not a Belle sentiment, then I don't know what is. Who could blame Izzy for feeling like she's losing touch with it?
Indeed, the Disney parallels in By the Book are as effective as they are charming. Izzy's publishing house is called Tale as Old as Time, she imagines that inanimate objects in Beau's rose-covered mansion are talking to her, and she and Beau binge a TV show called This Provincial Life. What's more, Izzy makes an entrance down Beau's sweeping staircase in a yellow dress, the mansion boasts several secret rooms as well as a library, and Beau has a tea-loving assistant nicknamed Kettle. Yet most importantly, it isn't long before Izzy realizes that the so-called spoiled beast she's being paid to tame is simply a sheep in wolf's clothing (or, in his case, sweatpants). Like the roses in the garden, under her persistent but gentle tutelage, Beau begins to blossom into a writer -- and human.
Full of all the fun, food, and romance for which Guillory's novels are known, By the Book delivers a Disney-worthy happy ending. No doubt about it, you'll want to be Guillory's guest. :)
