Crossword Genius

Pass year with novel, not quite satisfactory (7-3)

Ross

I believe the answer is:

tickety-boo

'satisfactory' is the definition.
(tickety-boo can mean satisfying expectations)

'pass year with novel not quite' is the wordplay.
'pass' becomes 'ticket' (I've seen this before).
'year with' becomes 'y' (I am not sure about this - if you are sure you should believe this answer much more).
'novel' becomes 'book'.
'not quite' means to remove the last letter.
'book' with its last letter taken off is 'boo'.
'ticket'+'y'+'boo'='TICKETY-BOO'

(Another definition for tickety-boo that I've seen is " Fine".)

I've seen this clue in The Times.
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