Synopsis

Savannah Cade’s dreams are coming true. The Claire Donovan, editor-in-chief of the most successful romance publishing company in the country, has requested to see the manuscript Savannah’s been secretly writing. The only problem: she’s an editor for a different company, and their philosophy is only highbrow works are worth printing and romance should be reserved for the lowest level of Dante’s inferno.

But when Savannah drops her manuscript during a staff meeting and nearly exposes herself to the whole company–including William Pennington, the new boss and son of the romance-despising CEO herself–she has no choice but to hide the manuscript in a hidden room.

When she returns, she’s dismayed to discover that someone has not only been in her hidden nook but has written notes in the margins–quite critical ones. But when Claire’s own reaction turns out to be nearly identical to the scribbled remarks, and, worse, Claire announces that Savannah has six weeks to resubmit before she retires, Savannah finds herself forced to seek the help of the shadowy editor after all.

As their notes back and forth start to fill up the pages, however, Savannah finds him becoming pivotal not just to her work but her life. There’s no doubt about it: she’s falling for her mystery editor. If she only knew who he was.

(via Amazon)

Review

As my second audio book review for my blog, I am still getting used to the culture shock of it all. I find myself having to rewind the audio to double check I was paying as much attention to the story as possible. I will say Talon David does a great job at reading this book. She is terrific at giving the more prominent characters different voices, so as to make it easier to keep track of who all is talking without having to follow along.

“Meet Me in the Margins” is a nice and cozy romantic, contemporary book set mainly in a publishing office. Some of the tropes that are present include workplace romance, boss and employee romance, writer FMC, and book about a book. If any of these tropes interest you, I recommend giving this one a try!

This is my first review for a book that is set in Tennessee, I believe Nashville actually. You do get some scenes outside the typical home and work ones that showcase some of the city life. For example, one of the side characters is interested in becoming a singer, so she performs at this one country bar on the weekends, hoping to get the attention of an agent. Throughout the book there are a few nods towards famous country singers that I believe have ties to Tennessee which was great immersion for me. I have always wanted to visit that beautiful state myself for all the different cultures and scenery there.

Savannah Cade is working as an editor for this well-known publishing house. She loves her job so much in fact that she has been giving writing the old college try herself. The only problem is the fact the CEO of her company is strictly against romance, so she is keeping her project on the down low. This spurs her to hide her manuscript in a secret room she somehow believes nobody else comes into. I for one, enjoyed Savannah as the MC. She is both hardworking and ambitious and genuinely cares about the careers of her clients, even making herself uncomfortable in the process. At one point, she is following one of her more introverted clients around town when he decides to go into one of those sensory deprivation tank places. Savannah was not a fan but put up with it anyways. Her supportive nature led me to becoming more and more supportive and hopeful that she would eventually finish her book and send it off to be published. I will say, as far as the secret editor is concerned, it was pretty obvious from the beginning who it was (at least to me) but she had convinced herself it was somebody else for the longest time which led to some humorous scenes of no consequence misunderstandings. Overall, she was a fine choice for the FMC.

William (Will) Pennington is the main male interest in the book. He begins taking over a lot of his mother’s work at her publishing company at the beginning of the book. Will is set up to act exactly like his mother of whom is quite domineering and a stickler for doing things as they have been done previously. Fortunately for us and Savannah, he ends up being a breath of fresh air for the company. Will is a supportive boss who cares about what his employees have going on both while at work, and outside. Sure, he has his moments of putting his foot down, as any boss should, but he never goes overboard like his mother. In fact, the one person he demoted in the book deserved it without a doubt. His blunt but caring personality was a delight to read, and he had his own humorous moments as well as he began lowering his guard and showing his true personality around Savannah.

The romance between Savannah and her mystery editor starts off as purely platonic and like a teacher/student relationship in which the editor is giving her points as to what corrections or omissions are needed for her book. At first, Savannah seems a bit offended and taken aback by how blunt the remarks are. Oh, I forgot to mention that they are speaking back and forth via sticky notes which explains how Savannah took forever figuring out who he was. As the book goes on and she begins to take the advice seriously, she begins to obsess over who this editor is since she cannot seem to stop thinking about her version of him in her mind. Their relationship ends up being quite sweet and lovely to read once his identity is revealed.

I do not know why but the books I have been reading recently have all had quite overbearing side characters, particularly the family members of the FMC. Savannah’s family in this book are sticklers for being the absolute best people they can be in society. That may sound like a positive thing, and it kind of was at times, but I could not help but feel incredibly annoyed by the continued goody-two-shoes behavior of both her parents and her sister. For example, the sister created this health app or whatever that tracked steps and she would hound Savannah whenever she did not make her step goal for the day. Over and over she would be pressing Savannah anytime she said or did anything that was contrary to what she thought Savannah should do. As if Savannah was not her own grown adult woman. It was quite frustrating to listen to at times. I will say though that her sister does have a very humbling moment by the end of the book that changes her whole personality for the better so that was a plus. Speaking of humbling moment, there was this bit of a side plot involving Savannah’s sister being engaged to Savannah’s ex boyfriend….I thought that was really weird coming from someone who felt as though her crap did not stink. I was afraid there was going to be a bit of a love triangle thing going on, but luckily that was not the case.

All in all, if you like a good modern day workplace romance in which writing is very much the prime passion of the main characters, I would recommend this book. I did rate it 3 stars per it being a good mid-tiered book. Since nothing really new happens that I have not read before. This has been on my TBR for a while, so I am happy to have discovered that it was a good read.