It rarely turns out like this in books (8)
I believe the answer is:
literary
'this in books' is the definition.
(I've seen this before)
'it rarely turns out' is the wordplay.
'turns out' is an anagram indicator.
'it'+'rarely'='itrarely'
'itrarely' with letters rearranged gives 'LITERARY'.
'like' acts as a link.
(Other definitions for literary that I've seen before include "Relating to books and other writings" , "Well-read" , "Learned" , "Relating to writing of artistic merit (8)" , "well read" .)