I never thought I'd say this, but I am glad I finallllllyyyyy finished this one. I had such high hopes that my expectations just couldn't live up to. The writing was a bit clunky *checks thesaurus*, ahem, bunglesome and cumbersome. Maybe it was just because of Savannah's job that she thought with fancy words, but it was difficult to read at times. I just wanted to tell her to get to the point already.
I also found that the who-is-the-mysterious-editor got old very quickly. It seemed to be the plot for the majority of the book.
Also, there was not much humor in this book (and that I what I loved about Melissa's other books) and there also is not really romance either.
I am also wondering what happened to some of the other characters that were not mentioned in the epilogue.

Content: characters drink, a kiss

*I received a copy of this book from the publisher. All thoughts are my own and a positive review was not required. ( )

Recommended: no
MC is selfish and unlikable, there's not really any romance or interactions between them, it's very "told not shown," and nothing else carries it forward

Meh.

Thoughts:
I have a lot to say about this book. I'm trying very hard to find something positive to say. The best I can come up with is... it passed some time?

It just... was flat. I'll just run sequentially through the issues as they came up because my god there are just so many things that made me like it less that by the end my impression was that "pbbt" sound when you stick your tongue out.

From the first scene I did not like the MC. She's a crappy employee, despite apparently liking her current job. It's not even that she tries but is not good, she just does irresponsible obviously poor choice things like being in a meeting with all employees and editing her own manuscript instead of paying attention or otherwise just not completely ignoring the fact that she's at work. I hated it so much. This trend of her apparently giving no shits about her job was a constant thing. Later in the book she even makes some whiny statement like "but what about the regular girls like me who aren't great at their job and haven't accomplished their dreams and blah blah blah" and I'm like bitch I -don't- like you because you don't have any integrity so sucks to suck.

Anyway.

This escalated to her being quite selfish with her clients, too. She thinks very mean thoughts about perfectly nice people and doesn't even seem to realize how crappy she is to be thinking all these things about them. She has no grace, and again, no integrity or responsibility in doing HER JOB and thinks only about how she can use it to fulfill her own selfish desires on the company's credit card. The financially struggling company, by the way.

Moving on to the romance element... there wasn't much of one. The premise is that they get to know each other through edit notes on her manuscript, which definitely happens. The problem is that there's very little other in person interaction between them, and when there is it's often just focused on work. It was very unexciting so  by the end I was pretty apathetic about them being together, especially when I hadn't really seen any reason dude WOULD like her.

The other half of the plot being her attempt to get her manuscript ready for submitting to be published was boring as all hell. I know it took up a lot of time in the story but trying to describe now what happened? I mean, nothing really. She made some edits and that's great. Maybe the problem is that as a plot device, that's just not fun to read, but it felt low-impact even though it's supposed to be the crux of the story.

So there's not really any romance, there's not really any other solid plot to follow, and I didn't like the main character or find myself able to root for the relationship to happen. What else?

Ah, right. The forced and clumsy handling of her relationship with her family, including her ex-boyfriend-now-sister's-fiance was somehow both entirely predictable and entirely pointless. Nothing in that mattered at all for her, and it just felt like a useless addition.

And, finally, towards the end, there is a tongue in cheek self-referential moment to the book title and plot and "twist" that congratulates them for being so clever and funny and I FUCKING HATED IT. I very rarely cringe at something, but this made me cringe. I was annoyed for it being so smarmy especially when it was undeserved, and so blatant about it. It felt like someone who is subpar at something getting in your face and talking about how great they are at it and expecting you to agree completely and cheer them on and it was obnoxious and I hated it.

You know, writing this review has made me realize I didn't really enjoy this book. Probably just skip it y'all.

i actually thought this was pretty charming and fun. i am definitely partial to books about writing and writers and as this takes place in a publishing house and at a book conference, i was predisposed to liking it. but the writing was good and i enjoyed it, which wasn't a given. i thought this was really enjoyable and i'd definitely read her again. ( )

Enjoyed this story about a literary editor that wasn't based in New York.
Chock-full characters that rounded out the story.
The manuscript editing experience was a fun way to convey the storyline. ( )

Predictable, easy read. While the reader knows exactly where this story is going, it's a fun, lighthearted story. Good for a beach or lazy afternoon read. ( )