ADVANCE PRAISE FOR
By Any Other Name
“Reading Lauren Kate’s By Any Other Name is like watching a Nora Ephron movie. It makes the day seem brighter, the world seem more hopeful, and happiness seem possible for everyone. This book is a buoyant celebration of love.”
—Jill Santopolo, author of The Light We Lost and More Than Words
“I devoured this book in one sitting. Delightful, optimistic, and with a perfect dash of bookishness, By Any Other Name is the rom-com the world needs right now.”
—Julie Buxbaum, author of Tell Me Three Things
“A smart imaginative rom-com that had me turning the pages.”
—Abby Jimenez, author of Life’s Too Short
“A behind-the-scenes look at publishing that feels both realistic and totally fun—I wish I could read Noa Callaway’s books in real life! It’s a joy to watch Lanie get the courage to go after what she wants, and the supporting characters (like her hilarious best friends and her irreverent grandmother) leap off the page. An incredibly romantic love story that’s full of surprises, By Any Other Name is perfect for anyone who dreams of happily-ever-afters.”
—Kerry Winfrey, author of Waiting for Tom Hanks
“By Any Other Name is a beautiful, emotional, slow-burn love story with an ending that will leave you with the biggest smile. Lauren Kate shows she can write heartfelt contemporary romance just as deftly as every other genre she’s mastered.”
—Sarah Smith, author of Faker
“By Any Other Name is impossible to put down or to forget. A sharp, moving, and hilarious love story, it feels like being in the company of a close friend.”
—Maria Kuznetsova, author of Oksana, Behave! and Something Unbelievable
Novels by Lauren Kate
The Orphan’s Song
Young Adult Novels by Lauren Kate
TEARDROP SERIES
Waterfall
Teardrop
FALLEN SERIES
Unforgiven
Rapture
Fallen: Angels in the Dark
Fallen in Love
Passion
Torment
Fallen
The Betrayal of Natalie Hargrove
G. P. PUTNAM’S SONS
Publishers Since 1838
An imprint of Penguin Random House LLC
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Copyright © 2022 by Lauren Kate
Skyline illustration on title page copyright shutterstock/Illustrateurs
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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Names: Kate, Lauren, author.
Title: By any other name / Lauren Kate.
Description: New York: G. P. Putnam’s Sons, [2022]
Identifiers: LCCN 2021044069 (print) | LCCN 2021044070 (ebook) | ISBN 9780735212541 (trade paperback) | ISBN 9780735212565 (ebook)
Subjects: LCGFT: Romance fiction.
Classification: LCC PS3611.A78828 B9 2021 (print) | LCC PS3611.A78828 (ebook) | DDC 813/.6—dc23
LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2021044069
LC ebook record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2021044070
Book design by Ashley Tucker, adapted for ebook by Maggie Hunt
This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents either are the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously, and any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, businesses, companies, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.
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Contents
Cover
Advance Praise for By Any Other Name
Novels by Lauren Kate
Title Page
Copyright
Dedication
Epigraph
Chapter One
Chapter Two
Chapter Three
Chapter Four
Chapter Five
Chapter Six
Chapter Seven
Chapter Eight
Chapter Nine
Chapter Ten
Chapter Eleven
Chapter Twelve
Chapter Thirteen
Chapter Fourteen
Chapter Fifteen
Chapter Sixteen
Chapter Seventeen
Chapter Eighteen
Acknowledgments
Readers Guide
About the Author
For Elizabeth Nusbaum Epstein, my BD
Those you love come at you like lightning
—Dorianne Laux, “To Kiss Frank . . .”
Chapter One
“Peony Press, this is Lanie Bloom—” I say, barely getting the phone to my ear before the voice on the other end cuts me off.
“Hallelujah-you’re-still-at-your-desk!”
It’s Meg, our senior publicist, and my closest friend at work. She’s calling from the Hotel Shivani, where, four hours from now, we’ll be hosting a blowout wedding-themed book launch for Noa Callaway—our biggest author and the writer who taught me about love when my mom couldn’t. Noa Callaway’s books changed my life.
If experience is any guide, we’re just slightly overdue for all our best-laid plans to go up in flames.
“No sign of the signed books. And no fucking pun intended. Can you see if they were sent to the office by mistake,” Meg says, a mile a minute. “I need time to arrange them into a five-tiered, heart-shaped wedding cake—”
See? Best-laid plans.
“Meg, when’s the last time you breathed?” I ask. “Do you need to push your button?”
“How can you manage to sound pervy and like my mother? Okay, okay, I’m pushing my button.”
It’s a trick her therapist taught her, an imaginary elevator button Meg can press in the hollow of her throat to carry herself down a few levels. I picture her in her all-black ensemble and stylishly giant glasses, standing in the center of the hotel ballroom downtown with assistants buzzing all around, hurrying to transform the modernist SoHo event space into a quaint destination wedding on the Amalfi Coast. I see her closing her eyes and touching the hollow of her throat. She exhales into the phone.