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A review by jackiehorne
By Any Other Name by Lauren Kate
3.0
2.5. A romantic comedy with occasional humor but not much in the way of compelling romance. It's narrated in the single POV first person present tense by Lanie, an editor at a NYC publishing house who inherits the house's biggest name author after her boss decides to stay home with her new baby. Said author, who writes romance, is months late with her latest ms., and Lanie's promotion to editorial director depends on getting that author over writer's block and the book edited in time for a summer release.
Lanie's been emailing with Noa Callaway for years, but has never met the author, as Callaway doesn't do author appearances or visit the publishing house, despite living in NYC. So Lanie's totally thrown for a loop when she discovers that. This situation could have led to an interesting interrogation of gender roles, or identity construction, or even publishing standards and mores (As Lanie exclaims to her hip grandmother, "But morally, I am violating the trust of millions of readers! Can I even call myself a feminist?") But the author chooses not to do anything more with the big secret except to use it as a set-up for a romance between Lanie and Noa, a romance that is rather underdeveloped and disappointingly tepid (the first kiss doesn't happen until the story's final page). Because Lanie, apparently forgetting the relationship she'd forged with Noa via email for all these years, immediately deems the author a narcissistic asshole, a judgment that seems wildly out of proportion to either the big secret or Noa's behavior after they meet in person.
Lanie is engaged to another guy for the first half of the book, and Lanie and Noa don't spend much time together, even in the book's second half, which makes for not very engaging romance reading. And the time they do spend together isn't all that sparky or entertaining. I did enjoy the sweetness of the final twist (the final chapter of Noa's latest book). But otherwise, I found the book underdeveloped and underwhelming.
Lanie's been emailing with Noa Callaway for years, but has never met the author, as Callaway doesn't do author appearances or visit the publishing house, despite living in NYC. So Lanie's totally thrown for a loop when she discovers that
Spoiler
Noa is actually Noah, a man, not a woman, a secret that both he and his publisher have been keeping for years. Not too big a surprise, given the cover image and the sell copy...Lanie is engaged to another guy for the first half of the book, and Lanie and Noa don't spend much time together, even in the book's second half, which makes for not very engaging romance reading. And the time they do spend together isn't all that sparky or entertaining. I did enjoy the sweetness of the final twist (the final chapter of Noa's latest book). But otherwise, I found the book underdeveloped and underwhelming.