Book Review: Not In Love by Ali Hazelwood

Title: Not In Love by Ali Hazelwood

Publication Date: 11 June 2024

Publisher: Sphere (Imprint of Hachette Australia)

Australian RRP: $22.99

Rating: 4/5 Stars

Synopsis:

Rue Siebert might not have it all, but she has enough: a few friends she can always count on, the financial stability she yearned for as a kid, and a successful career as a biotech engineer at Kline, one of the most promising start-ups in the field of food science. Her world is stable, pleasant, and hard-fought. Until a hostile takeover and its offensively attractive front man threatens to bring it all crumbling down.

Eli Killgore and his business partners want Kline, period. Eli has his own reasons for pushing this deal through - and he's a man who gets what he wants. With one burning exception: Rue. The woman he can't stop thinking about. The woman who's off-limits to him.

Torn between loyalty and an undeniable attraction, Rue and Eli throw caution out the lab and the boardroom windows. Their affair is secret, no-strings-attached, and has a built-in deadline: the day one of their companies will prevail. But the heart is risky business - one that plays for keeps.

Book Review:

The chemistry between Rue and Eli are so intense. Their relationship borders on the more angsty side and I absolutely love the way they navigated through their issues together and was able to complement one another so well. Ali Hazelwood is a brilliant writer. She writes with so much confidence and fleshes out her characters so well. While the main drama of the plot was interesting, all I really cared about were Rue and Eli. Did I mention how intense these two were?! I love the build up and the sprinkle of angst that made things more heated. I don't think a lot of authors do this very well which is why I really appreciated the tangibility of these two. The way Eli treats Rue is incredibly endearing and makes my heart clench all the time 😭😭 This book is also a dual POV which is my FAVORITE! I love seeing both sides of the story, and the book has little to no frustrating miscommunication (which puts me off from picking up romance books initially)! The characters acted their age which made the story infinitely more enjoyable to read.

One issue I had with this book was how quick Rue and Eli escalated things with their relationship. This made it look like their relationship was just a device to drive the main focus of the book, which is fine in the grand scheme of things, but I wanted more of Rue and Eli! There were a lot of spicy scenes in the book which was fine, but I truly wanted more of the talking and the emotional vulnerability (which came up pretty often, just not often as I'd like)! The characters both have very interesting pasts and amazing development as far as I can see, and I truly wanted them to explore more of each other emotionally rather than physically, if that makes any sense?! It was still an amazing read in my opinion, I just think it could have been even more amazing with more emotional vulnerability, more talking, and more getting to know each other without getting physical.

Overall I thoroughly enjoyed this book. Angsty romance is my faaaaavorite just because of how emotionally attached I get to the characters. I love the tension and the insane chemistry Eli and Rue had. Seriously through the roof. I'm not too big on spicy scenes and therefore do not regard my feelings on a romance book based on how spicy it is, so my thoughts are purely based on how I enjoyed the writing, the pacing, the characters, the emotional impact and also the overall structure. With this in mind, I LOVED the book and the characters. The writing was, as expected, very easy to follow and really well done. It was the right amount of angst, made me hold on to dear life from the emotional impact of their relationship, and just so incredibly enjoyable overall. There was just the minor issue of the relationship pacing and the personal preference of wanting more emotional and less physical scenes, but it's a magnetic and intense, angsty and emotionally incredible book nonetheless. 

Thank you SO much to The Bookish Type / Hachette Australia for sending over an ARC in exchange for an honest review! <3