BY THE BOOK by JASMINE GUILLORY

Sometimes to truly know a person, you have to read between the lines.

Isabelle  is completely lost. When she first began her career in publishing after  college, she did not expect to be twenty-five, still living at home,  and one of the few Black employees at her publishing house. Overworked  and underpaid, constantly torn between speaking up or stifling herself,  Izzy thinks there must be more to this publishing life. So when she  overhears her boss complaining about a beastly high-profile author who  has failed to deliver his long-awaited manuscript, Isabelle sees an  opportunity to finally get the promotion she deserves.

All she has to do is go to the author’s Santa Barbara mansion and give him a pep talk or three. How hard could it be?

But  Izzy quickly finds out she is in over her head. Beau Towers is not some  celebrity lightweight writing a tell-all memoir. He is jaded and  withdrawn and—it turns out—just as lost as Izzy. But despite his  standoffishness, Izzy needs Beau to deliver, and with her encouragement,  his story begins to spill onto the page. They soon discover they have  more in common than either of them expected, and as their deadline  nears, Izzy and Beau begin to realize there may be something there that  wasn’t there before.