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A review by litwithleigh
By Any Other Name by Lauren Kate
2.0
Writing: fine | Plot: ......??? | Ending: umm WUT WHERE'S THE REST OF THE BOOK??
SYNOPSIS
Lanie loves romance books—so much so that she'd made it her career. And now she has an opportunity to work with Noa Callaway, her favourite author of all time... But will Callaway's secret break her heart?
MY OPINION
Have you ever gotten to the end of the book and think: I MUST have a misprint because ain't no way we're into Acknowledgements. How about you acknowledge these unresolved major storylines??? Ima need another 50-100 pages because there's no way we spent 3 out of the last 10 pages describing the Amalfi Coast scenery instead of addressing the big, fat, earth-shattering gender-reveal in the room?????? If I want to know what colour the water is, I'll Google it. But where else am I gonna find out what kind of fallout Noa faces after the reveal????????????????????
At some point Lanie says "I think I missed the segue in this conversation", which is ironic because I feel like I missed about 30 segues in this book. It was jumping all over the place and I found myself flipping back to see if somehow I had missed a major 'reveal'. I didn't. This was just written like a paint-by-numbers picture without any numbers. Good luck!
And Lanie............. girl should pick up triple jump the way she was leaping to conclusions. When she learns Noa's big secret is that she is actually a he using a pseudonym, she calls him all types of names from narcissist to asshole to fuckface (okay maybe not that last one, but it has the same energy). Now, it's not clear if Noa was bopping about pretending to be a woman, or if readers just assumed Noa's gender and his publishers said STFU and lie by omission. It's not a great look either way... especially as Noa became more famous and it was obvious people thought it was a woman. Whatever the case, Noa did nothing personal to her and he wasn't rude to her in the slighest. It felt like the author really wanted this to be an enemies-to-lovers tale, but really it was Lanie's assumptions-to-lovers story.
Ugh and don't even get me started on her relationship with Ryan..... nvm, I'll start. Lanie had so many strong opinnis and truly believed she was always right, but the fact she was blinder than a bat to the several, bright red flags Ryan had coming out of his orifices was sad to say the least. All because he met all the things on your 'love list' that you wrote.....in college.............. ................
Anyways. Not great. Her upcoming romcom looks cute but I'm scared lol
PROS AND CONS
Pros: some funny moments
Cons: some risque jokes lol, felt like massive parts of the story was missing, one of the major plot points wasn't fully resolved (not even partially tbh), romance felt forced — didn't really feel the vibes, Lanie was extremely annoying and unlikeable (#freeNoa)
SYNOPSIS
Lanie loves romance books—so much so that she'd made it her career. And now she has an opportunity to work with Noa Callaway, her favourite author of all time... But will Callaway's secret break her heart?
MY OPINION
Have you ever gotten to the end of the book and think: I MUST have a misprint because ain't no way we're into Acknowledgements. How about you acknowledge these unresolved major storylines??? Ima need another 50-100 pages because there's no way we spent 3 out of the last 10 pages describing the Amalfi Coast scenery instead of addressing the big, fat, earth-shattering gender-reveal in the room?????? If I want to know what colour the water is, I'll Google it. But where else am I gonna find out what kind of fallout Noa faces after the reveal????????????????????
At some point Lanie says "I think I missed the segue in this conversation", which is ironic because I feel like I missed about 30 segues in this book. It was jumping all over the place and I found myself flipping back to see if somehow I had missed a major 'reveal'. I didn't. This was just written like a paint-by-numbers picture without any numbers. Good luck!
And Lanie............. girl should pick up triple jump the way she was leaping to conclusions. When she learns Noa's big secret is that she is actually a he using a pseudonym, she calls him all types of names from narcissist to asshole to fuckface (okay maybe not that last one, but it has the same energy). Now, it's not clear if Noa was bopping about pretending to be a woman, or if readers just assumed Noa's gender and his publishers said STFU and lie by omission. It's not a great look either way... especially as Noa became more famous and it was obvious people thought it was a woman. Whatever the case, Noa did nothing personal to her and he wasn't rude to her in the slighest. It felt like the author really wanted this to be an enemies-to-lovers tale, but really it was Lanie's assumptions-to-lovers story.
Ugh and don't even get me started on her relationship with Ryan..... nvm, I'll start. Lanie had so many strong opinnis and truly believed she was always right, but the fact she was blinder than a bat to the several, bright red flags Ryan had coming out of his orifices was sad to say the least. All because he met all the things on your 'love list' that you wrote.....in college.............. ................
Anyways. Not great. Her upcoming romcom looks cute but I'm scared lol
PROS AND CONS
Pros: some funny moments
Cons: some risque jokes lol, felt like massive parts of the story was missing, one of the major plot points wasn't fully resolved (not even partially tbh), romance felt forced — didn't really feel the vibes, Lanie was extremely annoying and unlikeable (#freeNoa)