Antonia Bernardin

The 63rd book I read this year was Not in Love by Ali Hazelwood. This is her latest book and, according to the foreword written in the book, it’s a little different from her previous Steminist books. This book is a little darker and grittier, it also has a bit more spice.

A sort of summary

Rue is a scientist, researching her dream project, when her company’s loan gets bought out by a tech acquisition company who seems hell bent on removing her boss, and friend, as CEO. To add insult to injury, one of the new prospective owners is the man she almost slept with, who she met through an anonymous dating app for sex.

Rue is forced to fight the magnetic connection she feels with Eli because his company is trying to oust her friend but events keep throwing them together until they are no longer able to resist getting together. Both of them have rules about no repeats, so Rue hopes she can get him out of her system but she finds Eli getting under her skin. They are brutally honest with each other about the darkest aspects of their pasts and they find themselves telling the other things they’ve never told anyone else. They see each other in secret and Rue feels terrible for betraying her friend, but as things progress with the buyout, it seems her boss has a lot of secrets and ties that go deeper with Eli and his partners than the acquisition.

My thoughts

Genuinely, this has rocketed to being my favourite Ali Hazelwood. I loved Bride and Love on the Brain but this just hit different. The writing was excellent, the depth of the characters was so much more than in other books. Just all round, this book had so much more depth than her other books, which isn’t a criticism, because those books have been written to fulfil a niche in the romance genre audience but I’ve found over time that I like a little more plot with my romance or smut. I like how their relationship changes, I like that it takes the girl longer to fall, I liked their brutal honesty and how they learn and grow out of the toxicity they grew up with. There was also a little more spice than her other books, but it was well written and made sense for the characters and the narrative.

Honestly, I’m not exaggerating when I say this is her best book, I hope this and Bride are a sign that she’s getting a bit more control of what she writes because these feel a lot more authentic than her other books.

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