ARC Review: Meet Me in The Margin or an Editing Romance

Hello people! I can’t believe that we are in March, February flew by but… here we are! Anyway, finally I am back with a review for a sweet and light-hearted book, so let’s start!

Thanks to NetGalley and to the Editor. I received a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

Title: Meet Me In The Maring
Author: Melissa Ferguson
Publication Date: February 15th, 2022
Pages: 320

Savannah Cade is a low-level editor at Pennington Publishing, a prestigious publisher producing only the highest of highbrow titles. And while editing the latest edition of The Anthology of Medieval Didactic Poetry may be her day job, she has two secrets she’s hiding.
One: She’s writing a romance novel.
Two: She’s discovered the Book Nook—a secret room in the publishing house where she finds inspiration for her “lowbrow” hobby.
After leaving her manuscript behind one afternoon, she returns to the nook only to discover someone has written notes in the margins. Savannah’s first response to the criticism is defensive, but events transpire that force her to admit that she needs the help of this shadowy editor after all. As the notes take a turn for the romantic, and as Savannah’s madcap life gets more complicated than ever, she uses the process of elimination to identify her mysterious editor—only to discover that what she truly wants and what she should want just might not be the same. Melissa Ferguson’s latest—a love letter to books, readers, and romance—will leave fans laughing out loud and swooning in the same breath.

This book is sweet and funny, and I had mostly a really good time with it. I enjoyed myself and I am really happy to recommend it if you want a romance with the publishing setting (and let’s be honest, we are bookworms, being an editor, even vicariously is pretty great in itself, right? Or maybe it is just me? Anyhow…) and an original romance in it. And I would talk more about the things that I enjoyed later on, but first thing first, I need to vent a bit, because there were two points that really irked me. And, the main one (point 2) it is not really the book’s fault, it is just that it is a thing that irks me and that rubs me in the wrong way, but in general, it has more to do with real-life than the book itself, but since we have in this one the perfect portrait for it, I would vent a bit here too. But please keep reading, or skim-reading, also the second part, because the book is good, and it deserves some love!

And now, let’s start with the sore points!

1. I like Savannah, but she can really be quite slow, to be gentle about it. What I mean is: she has a secret nook (more about it later on, I promise) and since it is a secret she is the only one that knows of its existence. Since the fateful day: she left her secret manuscript in there, and when she went back to retrieve it someone has annoted it, hence her secret place is not so secret anymore. But who would be this new and mysterious person??
   Well, let’s see. She works in a really small press and since that day no one ever intruded in the nook. It is a small place of work so everyone knows everyone, it is not a public place, because it is not really open to anyone like a park, for example, and it is private property. But on that specific day, one other big thing happened: there is a new co-worker!
   So… really, it is not that hard to piece together, right? But she starts to think about it around 50% of the book. She is constantly there wondering who the mysterious editor would be, and not even once for the first half of the book, she thoughts that the new coworker (that incidentally is not only an Editor, but he is the son of the Boss, so he should be quite knowledgeable of the premises, too, just to add something more to an easy equation) could be the mysterious person. I really really wanted to scroll her and scream at her. Because, come on!!!!
   It is not that she has to know from the beginning, because obviously there are happenings that murk the water and confound things, and that’s okay. What I am saying here is that she should have thought about it.
   
2. Her family. They are simply awful. And they are awful not because they are bad people, or your classical bad family, with physical abuse or addiction or violence or neglect. Not at all. At least on the surface. On the surface, they are the perfect family. They are considerate, over-achievers, invested in the community and they do good deeds at every turn, and for them, family is the most important thing of all.
   So they will seem great, right? Maybe keeping up with their expectations can be hard, and the MC feels like she is not really up to them. And all this would be quite normal and not bad. What is bad is that the family, as a whole, is not good with Savannah, at all. They are not considerate of her. They don’t really see what she needs, and they are not even trying! And this is what is maddening for me.
   And as I was saying before, it is not something I am mad about with the book. The author did a great job portraying this kind of family, but I just want to say that this can be abuse too. Sure, it is not the “worst” kind of abuse, if saying something like this can make sense, but it is abuse all the same and it has to be acknowledged.
   Case in point: Savannah’s ex-boyfriend, who was with her for years and years, left her for her sister (yep, this is pretty shitty!) and after three months he proposed to said younger sister (and this is another thing that gets me mad, but again not at the book, at life in general, because we are pretty good at being shitty with the people around us!). This is not an ideal situation, and it is even harder because Savannah and her sister live together (at her sister’s house). But what is worst is the way in which the family is all on board with it because he proposed, so he would become a member of the family too and so, since family is all, Savannah has to keep it together and just go with it. Because they are family. And even if the way in which this thing happens seems pretty considerate and sort of… well, it makes sense, it is not really fair or right.
   And there is more. As a family, they have a date on which they all went together to donate blood. Other families have lunch family days, they have this. And it is sweet. And it is unique. And eccentric in the best possible way. But Savannah is not so happy to donate blood. She is anxious about it, she has low pressure, and it is always problematic for her. So since they are a family and family is all they should just stop. They can and should donate blood, sure. But they should do something else as a family activity. Even if you want to keep the trend and do something for the community too, there are a ton of things that you can do together that would also help others. And it is highly probable that amidst all that different possibilities there are some things that would make no one uncomfortable.
   It is true that Savannah should speak for herself, but in this case it is even harder than in other cases. But it is abuse, even if it seems like all done in good faith. You can’t just ignore like that one member of the family while saying that family is the most important thing.
   And these are only examples but you can find more of them while reading this book.

But my ranting aside, I had a great time with it! In part because it was nice to read about an Editor’s life. And the room in which there is the secret access to the nook is the ARC room. A room full of ARCs. Amazing! Simply amazing! And yes, the publishing world is interesting and I enjoyed this set a lot.
I know that lately, romances with authors in it, or that rotate around the publishing world, are becoming THE thing, but I enjoy them, from time to time, so no complaints here!

And then we have Savannah, our MC, who is a nice girl, with a big heart. Sure, she is not so used to speaking up for herself, in general, not only with her family, and usually, I am not a big fan of this kind of character, but she is kind, and I loved her relationship with Lyla, her friend, and coworker. Also, Lyla is great and thanks to her we get some really funny scenes.
And Will is really nice. I liked him from the start. He is a frosty with a nice heart if you just have the time to de-freeze him. Joking here, at least a bit. But I really liked him from the start, and even if it was not easily assumed, he is the funny one! And there is a scene that made me love him a bit too, and if you have read both my ranting and the book you would know what I am talking about here. He was just amazing!
And these two together are quite the pair! And I am not only talking about the romance, but they are also pretty good in general and together they bring out the best in each other. It is really a nice thing!

And, last but not least, I devoured it. Sure, it is a fast-paced book and it is light-hearted and smooth, but it made you so invested in their story that you just turn page after page. I am really happy to have read this one, and I have to recommend it if you want something to take a break from more demanding reading. It is really a cute romance, and it talks about books too!

And Half!

And that’s all for today! Have you read this one? Or are you interested in it?? Let me know!

Happy reading!
S.