Literature / By Any Other Name (2022)

Lanie Bloom couldn't dream of having any more than what she already has: a fiancee that ticks off everything she wants in a lover and an illustrious career as a romance editor at Peony Press. Well, there might be one more dream: Peony's bestselling author, Noa Callaway, is one of Lanie's biggest inspirations in both love and life, and Lanie would be thrilled to help edit one of her favorite author's manuscripts. Sure, she- and the public at large- may not know what Noa even looks like, but Lanie has interacted with the elusive author through emails and they've gotten along swimmingly so far. Surely a face-to-face interaction won't go poorly?

That's when Lanie's ultimate dream finally comes true: Noa Callaway's current editor is leaving Peony Press and Lanie's boss has picked Lanie to replace her. Specifically, she wants Lanie to help Noa get through a recent bought of writer's block before her next deadline. In order to do that, Lanie will have to finally meet Noa Callaway in person.

Without hesitation, Lanie quickly accepts the job and soon gets to meet her idol. When she does, though, Lanie sees with her own eyes why Noa Callaway's identity was kept a secret. Once the initial shock has worn off, Lanie does everything she can to help Noa's creativity to return, but Noa proves difficult to work with. And as if trouble in her professional life wasn't enough, Lanie's personal life becomes derailed when she begins having doubts that her fiancee isn't Mr. Right after all.

With all of her expectations and assumptions thrown, Lanie will have to buckle down and figure out just what it means to really, really love someone.

By Any Other Name is a 2022 contemporary romance novel by Lauren Kate.

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This novel provides examples of:

• Idiosyncratic Episode Naming: Each of Noa Callaway's books include a number in the title, usually a very high number: Fifty Ways to Break Up Mom and Dad, Two Hundred and Sixty-­Six Vows, Ninety-­Nine Things I'm Going to Love About You, etc.
• Missing Mom: Lanie's mother died when Lanie was still very young. Her last words to Lanie was to try to find someone she really, really loved.
• Story Within a Story: The Noa Callaway book most important to Lanie is Ninety-Nine Things I'm Going to Love About You, a novel about a young woman named Carra Kenna who's struggling to survive a bad divorce. After a suicide attempt, Carra is admitted to a hospital's psych ward. In order to amuse herself, Carra decides to read the romance novels stocked by the hospital. There are ninety-nine of them and she manages to get through all of them by the time she's discharged. This novel helped Lanie to understand what it meant to really, really love someone. It even motivated her to write her own list of ninety-nine things she looks for in a significant other.

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