Genre: Romance
Publication Date: June 11, 2024
Rating: 4 Stars
NetGalley Blurb:
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.
Review:
I love everything Ali Hazelwood puts out, and I’ve been super excited to see her branching out into different genres lately; Fantasy romance with Bride, erotic romance with Not in Love, and an anticipated college/sports romance Whet in 2025. With that said, I would like to provide the forward from Ali at the beginning of Not in Love:
Not in Love is, tonally, a little different from the works I’ve published in the past. Rue and Eli have dealt with – and still deal with – the fallout from issues such as grief, food insecurity, and child neglect. They are eager to make a connection but are not sure how to go about it except through a physical relationship. The result is, I think, less of a rom-com and more of an erotic romance.
Not an issue, my queen. Let’s get to the review.
What I liked about the book:
1. Along the lines of her forward, this is truly a different side of Ali. We still got the typical quick wit and cool girl snark that we love from her writing, but we got a lot more of a heavy tone. Both of our MCs come from less than happy backgrounds and Ali leaned into these experiences.
Rue and her younger brother came from a single parent upbringing that could only be described as inconsistent. There were times her mom had a job or support and they had enough food, and then there were times they would go days without food. Not only did this spur her working towards scientific food preservations methods in her career, but it continues to affect her in small and large ways throughout the story. From not wanting to be rushed to eat, to simply not eating enough at times, to not being able to have more than a one-night stand with someone because of the feeling that the tables were always going to turn any minute, Rue was an emotion-evoking character for sure. I especially loved that she came off cold, but she was really just super insecure and nervous. Me and my RBF can totally relate to that! Here is a good quote that sums it up:
If people perceived me as aloof and detached, then they would want to keep their distance. And if they kept their distance, then they wouldn’t notice how nervous and blundering and inadequate I was.
Eli had a slightly different life, wrapped in adversity/conflicts with his parents (more his father), and then the burden of taking on his sister who was ~14 years his junior when he was 25 and his parents died. At that age, he was not secure financially and often resented everyone, including his sister for the situation. An incredibly raw admission, but real and believable all the same.
2. I loved the way our MCs were able to connect: through telling each other increasingly worse stories about themselves, revealing some of the worst parts of themselves they hadn’t always told others, and seeing if the other backed away from it being too much. Hint: It never was!
This is such a vulnerable position to put themselves in, but it worked for them given they both had a lot of stories and were able to listen to the other person without judgment because of their mutually devastating backgrounds. While it killed the romance lover in me that they resisted getting together for so long, this is one of my favorite ways I’ve seen two characters connect and I want to see more of this in other stories! For two people coming from unhealthy places, this was a very healthy step towards their long awaited HEA.
3. I loved the side characters.
Tisha and her sister Nyota were hilarious, especially when they bickered like the sisters they were; they were definitely the comedic relief in this book. They also both had Rue’s back when needed, making them very loveable side characters.
Minami was one of the four heads of the acquiring company, and really the brains behind a lot of the science stuff. She was the epitome of a woman who straightens another woman’s crown and I LOVED HER! Even with what happened to her in her past (won’t be spoiling what though!), she definitely didn’t want to pass that experience forward onto another woman in science. True Queen move.
Hark is one of the four heads of the acquiring company, and arguably the head head if that makes sense. I loved how he was a bit of a hard character to like. Under everything, you can tell he is a good dude, but given his personal life being in shambles, his professional life is his baby. I couldn’t blame him for the thoughts he had, but I definitely want to see the grump fall in love! With Eli’s younger sister, Maya, already having a long-term crush on the man, I’m hoping to the GODS that Ali gives us a second story in this series involving an age-gap romance between these two. Don’t think I didn’t notice him asking about her and some of the looks he had when her name was brought up! I see you Hazelwood!
Sul was another one of the 4 heads of the acquiring company, and was also the husband of Minami. He kinda took a back seat in this book, but his support of Minami at all times was lovely.
4. As mentioned previously, we still got Ali’s trademark “cool girl snark”. I reserve the “cool girl snark” descriptor for the authors who write snarky characters and effortlessly sarcastic humor, similar speaking to how I imagine the really cool alt girls in school I was too intimidated to talk to spoke like. These are your Lorelai Gilmores, Stevie Budds, April Ludgates, and at least 2 of the Derry Girls. Ali is one of the authors in my illustrious “cool girl snark” club and I’m happy she has kept her place there with this title.
Here are a few of my favorites:
I had no talent for enticing people to care about my work: either they saw its value, or they were wrong.
My first impression of him was probably highly similar to others’ first impressions of me – with the caveat that serious, unsmiling men tended to be considered consummate professionals, while serious, unsmiling women were often written off as haughty shrews.
What I wasn’t a fan of:
1. With the forward talking of this being more of an erotic romance and the kinks being mentioned between the MCs, I guess I was just expecting a bit more in that department. There was nothing in the intimate times that really stood out to me, which is not typical of a Hazelwood book. Usually, I am lusting after the MMCs hardcore and am jealous of the FMCs. I can see why Hazelwood would say this was more erotic given the number of encounters (I don’t have book-by-book stats, so don’t come at me if I’m wrong!), I just felt the encounters were not as sizzling as others I’ve read in her other books. DO NOT GET ME WRONG, this book was still swoony as hell, but not “erotic” in my own opinion.
2. I’m not sure if this was the case for her other books, but Rue’s chapters were written in first person while Eli’s were in third person. Why??? The inconsistency drove me crazy!
Thank you to NetGalley, Berkley Publishing Group, and Ali Hazelwood for the opportunity to read this book. The thoughts above are honest and my own.
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