Not in Love by Ali Hazelwood Pages: 394
Length: 11 hours 55 minutes
Genres: Contemporary Romance
Setting: Austin, TX
Source: ARC, NetGalley
Also by this author: Love, Theoretically, Bride
Goodreads
An Indie Next and a Hall of Fame LibraryReads Pick!
A forbidden, secret affair proves that all’s fair in love and science—from New York Times bestselling author Ali Hazelwood.
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.
Not in Love has a preface by Hazelwood that it is more erotic romance than rom-com. I will say that it is more erotic romance than her other books, but for those of us who read spicy romance, this is NOT erotic romance. More sex scenes? Yes, but that is the only real difference.
Rue is a typical Hazelwood heroine-smart, goal oriented, and socially less skilled. But, she also struggles with issues from her childhood, making her more prickly. Eli is way into Rue from day 1, which I always love, but its more about her physical appearance, which I don’t love. Don’t get me wrong-he likes, her but he talks/thinks about her its about her looks. Not a fan. There is some other woman drama too that I was not a fan of. It isn’t a big deal, but it was like an annoying gnat that you can’t manage to swat away.
Not in Love has the typical banter one expects from Hazelwood’s books and it is good. I liked Rue because it isn’t so much that she can’t socialize, its that she doesn’t care to because she isn’t going to pretend to be interested in other things for the sake of conversation. Overall, I enjoyed the story-good characters (including the side characters), intelligence on display, and an interesting story. Not my favorite Hazelwood read, but solid.
I would be remiss if I didn’t mention the audio though!! Duet narration is perfection and I am always on the lookout for more.
- POV: 1st/3rd (its a strange mix)
- Tears: no
- Trope: one night stand, dysfunctional family, office romance
- Triggers: View Spoiler »
- Series/Standalone: stand alone
- Cliffhanger: View Spoiler »
- HEA: View Spoiler »
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authors like Tessa Bailey, Christina Lauren, Elle Kennedy…then you will probably like Not In Love!
This wasn’t my favorite of hers because I didn’t really enjoy all the sex scenes. They felt like they just stopped the plot so it ruined pacing for me. I wanted more of the plot.
I agree that this wasn’t really erotic romance, as like you I have read a lot of that. But I felt like there wasn’t as much in the story as I wanted, so it didn’t work as much for me, even though in the end I still enjoyed it. Great review!