Finding Mr. Write

At first, Finding Mr. Write reads like hearty rom-com fare: Daphne McFadden, a struggling writer who can’t get an agent, hires a dishy man to pose as the author of her book. She wants to hate “Zane Remington” but can’t, and complications ensue, not to mention increasingly lingering looks. While the enjoyable rom-com type misunderstandings and drama continue throughout the book, there’s also more here. Crime and mystery come into play when Daphne’s publisher and the book’s rabid fans get ever closer to finding out that Zane isn’t really the author of the wildly popular “dark zombie thriller with a teen girl protagonist,” and Daphne worries about her legal future. There’s also a lot to absorb about the economics, biases, and general messed-up-edness of the publishing industry, with an overworked publicist, one in a long string of underpaid young women, one of the tale’s quiet heroes. This well-plotted look at a maybe-romance and the bizarro world writers inhabit is a fun mix of mystery and romance, and well worth a read.