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Not in Love
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.
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.
384 pages, Paperback
First published June 11, 2024
About the author
Ali Hazelwood
15 books118k followersI'm Ali, and I write contemporary romcom novels about women in STEM and academia. I love cats, Nutella, and side ponytails. I'm also currently learning to crochet, so as you can tell I'm a super busy gal with an intense and exciting life!
I only use Goodreads as a reader, to review and hype books that I've loved (many of these book are ARCs received from fellow authors).
I only use Goodreads as a reader, to review and hype books that I've loved (many of these book are ARCs received from fellow authors).
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 17,270 reviews
July 6, 2024
2.75/5
The review contains spoilers!
It pains me to have to give this story such a low rating because Ali Hazelwood's books have always been one of my favorite forms of escapism, but Not in Love was the first book by this author that didn't make me blush, giggle, kick my feet, scream into my pillow, and highlight every possible cute scene. I don't know if it's because of some kind of curse that seems to be weighing on me this year and making most of this year's book releases a huge disappointment, or maybe the fact that Ali's more erotic romances may not be for me, but while reading Rue and Eli's story, I felt practically nothing. I literally went to scroll through instagram in the middle of their love confession. I think that speaks for itself.
Ali Hazelwood is known for writing obsessed, even pathetically obsessed men — just how I like them, so when I heard she was finally going to write a story that was also from the hero’s point of view, I knew I had to read it the second it’s released. Unfortunately, even though Eli Kilgore was the epitome of "man in finance, six-five, blue eyes" — I don’t know if he was exactly six foot five, but he was obviously tall and big everywhere, as usual — and he was a gentleman, who could cook, wore glasses, loved dogs, didn’t like driving microwaves (Teslas), and would probably do anything for Rue, there was one thing about him that didn’t sit right with me. I'm not even talking about him mentioning his schlong in almost every chapter and saying that Rue was a "fantastic lay," but I'm talking about him and his ex-fiancée. Look, I know he was a thirty-four-year-old man and it would be weird if he had never been in a relationship and had gone through life with only one-night stands, but the fact that he was "A little" jealous of his ex new partner, and
Rue also had some one night stands and briefly mentioned them, but those men meant nothing to her, but every time Eli talked or thought about his ex-fiancée like that, all I could think was, "Please stop. Please. Stop." I know he was over her and only had eyes for Rue, but quotes like that left a bitter taste in my mouth. Also, why did they have dinner with his ex? It was mentioned in the epilogue. Why did his ex make him and Rue dinner? It’s weird.
Moving on to our heroine — Rue Siebert, I liked her. Will she be added to my favorite characters shelf? No, but I could relate to her in some way, so it was hard for me not to like her character. In fact, it's hard for me not to like this author's heroines, because I could never dislike passionate women in STEM. I mean, if they were terrible people then yes, but Ali Hazelwood's women are not.
As the beginning of the book states that Not in Love is "less of a rom-com and more of an erotic romance", I knew that it would have more mature scenes than most of Ali's books, and probably less of those typical rom-com-y ones, but I didn't know it would turn out to be something I wouldn't be a big fan of. I've read a lot of erotic novels and I've really enjoyed some of them, but I don't think books like this by Ali Hazelwood will be for me. It's not that there weren't some touching and romantic scenes, but Rue and Eli's intimate life seemed to overshadow them, and because of that, I couldn't feel a deeper connection between our main characters. I think I could have survived even without the feeling that the two of them were soulmates if I had felt any chemistry between them — which is usually welcomed in erotic literature, but even that was missing for me.
Ali's stories bring so much happiness to my life and I can't help but smile when I think about some of them, so even though Not in Love has unfortunately ended up at the end of my list of her books, it doesn't mean I'll stop reading them. Yes, they are cringey, and yes, some of the quotes make me wonder who allowed them to be published, but I don't think I'll ever be able to hate them.
────────
ahhhhh it’s here it’s here it’s here
The review contains spoilers!
It pains me to have to give this story such a low rating because Ali Hazelwood's books have always been one of my favorite forms of escapism, but Not in Love was the first book by this author that didn't make me blush, giggle, kick my feet, scream into my pillow, and highlight every possible cute scene. I don't know if it's because of some kind of curse that seems to be weighing on me this year and making most of this year's book releases a huge disappointment, or maybe the fact that Ali's more erotic romances may not be for me, but while reading Rue and Eli's story, I felt practically nothing. I literally went to scroll through instagram in the middle of their love confession. I think that speaks for itself.
Ali Hazelwood is known for writing obsessed, even pathetically obsessed men — just how I like them, so when I heard she was finally going to write a story that was also from the hero’s point of view, I knew I had to read it the second it’s released. Unfortunately, even though Eli Kilgore was the epitome of "man in finance, six-five, blue eyes" — I don’t know if he was exactly six foot five, but he was obviously tall and big everywhere, as usual — and he was a gentleman, who could cook, wore glasses, loved dogs, didn’t like driving microwaves (Teslas), and would probably do anything for Rue, there was one thing about him that didn’t sit right with me. I'm not even talking about him mentioning his schlong in almost every chapter and saying that Rue was a "fantastic lay," but I'm talking about him and his ex-fiancée. Look, I know he was a thirty-four-year-old man and it would be weird if he had never been in a relationship and had gone through life with only one-night stands, but the fact that he was "A little" jealous of his ex new partner, and
“Was your fiancée into it?”
“She was. We were very well matched in that sense.”
[…]
“I’d tie her up. Blindfold her. Hold her down. Tell her what to do. Do you know what orgasm denial is?”
“My ex-fiancée was a chef,” he said.
Her look was blank. “And?”
“She was—is—damn good. And she thought everyone should have at least three signature dishes they could prepare without needing a recipe.”
"Cooking with McKenzie had been a lot of fun—McKenzie, who was bright and sunny and made everything turn into banter and kisses flavored with whatever ingredients they’d been using. Rue was nothing like that. She was intense and focused. A real fortress. She spoke little, always relevant questions and the occasional deadpan joke that had Eli biting his cheek to avoid laughing."
Rue also had some one night stands and briefly mentioned them, but those men meant nothing to her, but every time Eli talked or thought about his ex-fiancée like that, all I could think was, "Please stop. Please. Stop." I know he was over her and only had eyes for Rue, but quotes like that left a bitter taste in my mouth. Also, why did they have dinner with his ex? It was mentioned in the epilogue. Why did his ex make him and Rue dinner? It’s weird.
Moving on to our heroine — Rue Siebert, I liked her. Will she be added to my favorite characters shelf? No, but I could relate to her in some way, so it was hard for me not to like her character. In fact, it's hard for me not to like this author's heroines, because I could never dislike passionate women in STEM. I mean, if they were terrible people then yes, but Ali Hazelwood's women are not.
As the beginning of the book states that Not in Love is "less of a rom-com and more of an erotic romance", I knew that it would have more mature scenes than most of Ali's books, and probably less of those typical rom-com-y ones, but I didn't know it would turn out to be something I wouldn't be a big fan of. I've read a lot of erotic novels and I've really enjoyed some of them, but I don't think books like this by Ali Hazelwood will be for me. It's not that there weren't some touching and romantic scenes, but Rue and Eli's intimate life seemed to overshadow them, and because of that, I couldn't feel a deeper connection between our main characters. I think I could have survived even without the feeling that the two of them were soulmates if I had felt any chemistry between them — which is usually welcomed in erotic literature, but even that was missing for me.
Ali's stories bring so much happiness to my life and I can't help but smile when I think about some of them, so even though Not in Love has unfortunately ended up at the end of my list of her books, it doesn't mean I'll stop reading them. Yes, they are cringey, and yes, some of the quotes make me wonder who allowed them to be published, but I don't think I'll ever be able to hate them.
────────
ahhhhh it’s here it’s here it’s here
June 23, 2024
NOT IN LOVE with it. How can I be in love with it when even the characters are NOT IN LOVE?!
This is probably one of the worst books I have read this year, or ever in general. So brace yourself for the rant review, cause someone needs to tell Ali Hazelwood how bad her book is and why I will not be reading any of her future books (we'll see about that, don't hold me to it).
1. Firstly let's start with the fact that we're just thrown into the story. We are not made aware of what's happening, or happened. It's like the book started off at 25% mark and we're all magically supposed to know everything. Things did not make sense for a long time.
2. The whole Kline vs Harkness plot? BOO!!! So poorly written. I could be least interested. There was hardly any attempt to make readers care about that plotline. Why should I care about it if you did not spend time writing about it? See this is why you start with a book in a manner that the readers actually understand the issue.
3. The two main characters- Eli and Rue. KILL ME NOW. Rue has a personality of a cardboard. No wait, even a cardboard shows more personality. She is extremely boring and has no social or people skills at all. The only time she actually seemed normal was when she was drunk 🤡 Eli is comparatively bit better. But he gets really creepy sometimes, idk how to explain it. Also, apparently he has a "magic cock" 🤢 I needed Ali to stop writing it like that but ofc I wish for things that can't come true. He also said he would be tempted to cheat on his ex with the fmc 🚩
4. The non existent romance- It is EXTREMELY insta lusty. EXTREMELY. I hated the way it started off in chapter one itself. The first half spice is usual Ali sort- BAD. But I will admit, I liked two spice scenes in the second half which is kinda shocking but I'll give this book 1 star for that. Then towards the end, Rue uses "love" to manipulate (in her own words) to get Eli to make her orgasm, which was so weird. If a man had done that, no one would like it. Idk when and where did these two form a bond from cause there is ABSOLUTELY NO CHEMISTRY between the two. There is NO LOVE between the two, at least not that I saw and it's all a weird sexual infatuation.
Please don't read this book or waste your money, time on it. It might sound harsh but the truth is Ali Hazelwood's writing is below average in this book. She needs to stop publishing multiple mediocre books a year as it's deeply affecting her quality. It should always be quality over quantity and not the other way around. If she focuses on one book at a time, there might be some hope for her writing career otherwise the hype is already burning out. Also, can someone from her team tell her to stop writing cringe scenes and smut? You want fans to buy her books but won't listen to fans when they give you constructive criticism. How is that fair?!
Also, thanks to lovely Noi for reading this with me and letting me rant. Without her, I would have lost my sanity 🩷
~•~•~
I didn't realize it's an erotic romance before pre-ordering this, so watch me go through my worst bookish nightmare: Ali Hazelwood smut😓
This is probably one of the worst books I have read this year, or ever in general. So brace yourself for the rant review, cause someone needs to tell Ali Hazelwood how bad her book is and why I will not be reading any of her future books (we'll see about that, don't hold me to it).
1. Firstly let's start with the fact that we're just thrown into the story. We are not made aware of what's happening, or happened. It's like the book started off at 25% mark and we're all magically supposed to know everything. Things did not make sense for a long time.
2. The whole Kline vs Harkness plot? BOO!!! So poorly written. I could be least interested. There was hardly any attempt to make readers care about that plotline. Why should I care about it if you did not spend time writing about it? See this is why you start with a book in a manner that the readers actually understand the issue.
3. The two main characters- Eli and Rue. KILL ME NOW. Rue has a personality of a cardboard. No wait, even a cardboard shows more personality. She is extremely boring and has no social or people skills at all. The only time she actually seemed normal was when she was drunk 🤡 Eli is comparatively bit better. But he gets really creepy sometimes, idk how to explain it. Also, apparently he has a "magic cock" 🤢 I needed Ali to stop writing it like that but ofc I wish for things that can't come true. He also said he would be tempted to cheat on his ex with the fmc 🚩
4. The non existent romance- It is EXTREMELY insta lusty. EXTREMELY. I hated the way it started off in chapter one itself. The first half spice is usual Ali sort- BAD. But I will admit, I liked two spice scenes in the second half which is kinda shocking but I'll give this book 1 star for that. Then towards the end, Rue uses "love" to manipulate (in her own words) to get Eli to make her orgasm, which was so weird. If a man had done that, no one would like it. Idk when and where did these two form a bond from cause there is ABSOLUTELY NO CHEMISTRY between the two. There is NO LOVE between the two, at least not that I saw and it's all a weird sexual infatuation.
Please don't read this book or waste your money, time on it. It might sound harsh but the truth is Ali Hazelwood's writing is below average in this book. She needs to stop publishing multiple mediocre books a year as it's deeply affecting her quality. It should always be quality over quantity and not the other way around. If she focuses on one book at a time, there might be some hope for her writing career otherwise the hype is already burning out. Also, can someone from her team tell her to stop writing cringe scenes and smut? You want fans to buy her books but won't listen to fans when they give you constructive criticism. How is that fair?!
Also, thanks to lovely Noi for reading this with me and letting me rant. Without her, I would have lost my sanity 🩷
~•~•~
I didn't realize it's an erotic romance before pre-ordering this, so watch me go through my worst bookish nightmare: Ali Hazelwood smut😓
June 22, 2024
i will kill myself if i don’t get a man as obsessed with me as eli was with rue, so help me god‼️
Eli Killgore is a SLUT! he really said “i’ll cook, clean, take care of you, love you unconditionally, and worship the group you walk on even if i get none of that in return.” this man looks at Rue like nothing else exists in the world. “i forget to look at other things, when you’re around.” god he is so gentle and considerate and sweet and respectful. when he said he’d retire to service her full-time, i ripped my pillow in half with my teeth. eli would get that vacuum seal gorilla grip through the bars from me to say the least.
Rue is me and i am her. she’s so layered and real. the way she basically said “hmm i like having him around. he’s cool and makes me feel good. guess i’ll keep him” what a QUEEN! i was so afraid that this story would just be her getting in the way of herself when it came to being with eli officially, but i’m so glad their relationship went about the way it did. i hope they sell Eli’s on amazon 🤲🏽
“he had a couple of seconds to observe her before she noticed him, and used them to the very last drop, drinking her in like she was the end of a century long drought.” if a man thought about me this way in his head, he is getting the most toe curling, delightful, gut wrenching and superfragilistic alidocious kiss once i find him.
Eli Killgore is a SLUT! he really said “i’ll cook, clean, take care of you, love you unconditionally, and worship the group you walk on even if i get none of that in return.” this man looks at Rue like nothing else exists in the world. “i forget to look at other things, when you’re around.” god he is so gentle and considerate and sweet and respectful. when he said he’d retire to service her full-time, i ripped my pillow in half with my teeth. eli would get that vacuum seal gorilla grip through the bars from me to say the least.
Rue is me and i am her. she’s so layered and real. the way she basically said “hmm i like having him around. he’s cool and makes me feel good. guess i’ll keep him” what a QUEEN! i was so afraid that this story would just be her getting in the way of herself when it came to being with eli officially, but i’m so glad their relationship went about the way it did. i hope they sell Eli’s on amazon 🤲🏽
“he had a couple of seconds to observe her before she noticed him, and used them to the very last drop, drinking her in like she was the end of a century long drought.” if a man thought about me this way in his head, he is getting the most toe curling, delightful, gut wrenching and superfragilistic alidocious kiss once i find him.
Shelved as 'wishlist'
September 14, 2023The heroine: I like science and BIG men with BIG voices and BIG dicks and BIG height, but I don't like the hero even though he's the quadruple-BIG I crave because I think he hates me for Reasons
The hero: I am BIG and awkward and BIG and I want to fuck that itty bitty beanpole science nerd who is a test tube in the streets and an Olympic Gold Sex Medalist in the sheets, but because I am ~AWKWARD~ she thinks I hate her, so I will just be intense and horny and sad
Both together: OH THE DRAMA
Me: I know the score, but take my money anyway
The hero: I am BIG and awkward and BIG and I want to fuck that itty bitty beanpole science nerd who is a test tube in the streets and an Olympic Gold Sex Medalist in the sheets, but because I am ~AWKWARD~ she thinks I hate her, so I will just be intense and horny and sad
Both together: OH THE DRAMA
Me: I know the score, but take my money anyway
July 15, 2024
sisterhood of the traveling pants but it’s the galaxy leggings in ali hazelwood’s books & awkward and petite heroines trade them off to seduce their respective kylo rens (kylos ren? lmao)
June 12, 2024
chemistry between protagonists was invented in 1956.
books in 1955:
books in 1955:
July 17, 2024
Ehh this book was okay to me. It was very insta-lust/insta-obsession (especially on his end) which I wasn't really into. I did think the workplace plot line was really interesting though. And I liked the ending once their relationship developed more of an emotional connection. I honestly thought I was going to give a 2 star rating until the last 100 pages😭
Want to read
June 11, 2024update: UMM HELLO?? THE COVER??
forbidden, angsty, boy obsessed and enemies with benefits?? ENOUGH SAID, JUST TAKE MY MONEY RN!!
forbidden, angsty, boy obsessed and enemies with benefits?? ENOUGH SAID, JUST TAKE MY MONEY RN!!
July 13, 2024
2.75!
“She may have robbed him of his peace of mind, but he still wanted her to have hers. One more fault to add to the humbling business of falling in love, he supposed.”
If you want enjoy this book, manage your expectations because it is not a bad book it's just very different from what Ali Hazelwood usually writes so it is definitely not for her normal target audience. I myself feel like I would have enjoyed this book if I had known what I was going in for. I did try to expect something different when I read the note that its more of an 'Erotic romance' rather than a 'Rom-com' and it made me enjoy the book more and tbh I may change the rating in the future, this is just based on what I felt right now.
This is Hazelwood's most distinct work as of yet. It doesn’t have her super quirky female leads who are as usual oblivious and tiny and it also lacks grumpy, broody male leads. The writing style for this book was so different because the last book that I read by her was 'Bride' and it was so different, this just didn't feel like a book written by Ali Hazelwood at all. She finally took the genre 'New Adult' to her heart because it was so realistic, her characters were very realistic and the whole vibe of the book was more intense rather than fluffy. So, yeah do NOT expect a rom-com.
Rue was our FMC and a very different mc from what the author usually aims for and I didn’t mind her at all she was fun to read about but that was pretty much it. As for Eli, our MMC he was so in love with the Rue, like he was the definition of downbad. The way he would speak about her in his inner monologues or how would be willing to do anything for her but then again that was pretty much it. It for me felt like Eli's whole personality was lusting over Rue and thinking about having sex with her. There was such minimal connection that I felt towards the characters and that almost never happens with her books, even if it does happen I can still enjoy it because of their nature but despite Eli and Rue being more different, mature and realistic than her other character, they still failed to deliver on making me understand or sympathize with them.
Now, I did not mind the erotic theme, I did not know that this book was actually a part of that genre because I really thought that this was just an Ali Hazelwood with the most steam, it was worrying because her smut scenes aren't always well written but here, I must admit some of the scenes were well written and handled well, don’t get me wrong there were cringe scenes but it wasn't her worst, it had some good scenes 😭😭. The romance besides the smut…..I did not care for, truth be told I did not even care for the smutty scenes because there was this lack of connection between the characters and the romance did not feel good. It was also the fact that the romance was overall very insta-lusty and I wasn't a fan of it. The romance also felt very mid because it started of with them being enemies with benefits and the transition into love felt so sudden, I didn’t feel like we got enough time to even process what was going on.
As for the plot, I couldn’t really care for it either.
Its not that I did not enjoy this book, because there were moments that I really enjoyed but most of the time while reading this book, I was so conflicted as to what to think of it and I think if I had a sense of what this book was aiming before I had set all my expectations or if I had known how different it is from her other works before I got this book, I might have had a better experience. I was so sure that it was a stem rom-com with enemies with benefits but failed to see the change that was going to come with it. I can see myself giving this book a 3 but nothing more than that because I enjoyed it that much only but it was a very interesting take and I would like to read more of Ali Hazelwood's books with the same style.
__
OMGG A WEEK TILL WE GET ALI'S FIRST DOUBLE POV BOOK WHERE THE FMC'S TITS DEFY GRAVITY APPARENTLY?!?
“She may have robbed him of his peace of mind, but he still wanted her to have hers. One more fault to add to the humbling business of falling in love, he supposed.”
If you want enjoy this book, manage your expectations because it is not a bad book it's just very different from what Ali Hazelwood usually writes so it is definitely not for her normal target audience. I myself feel like I would have enjoyed this book if I had known what I was going in for. I did try to expect something different when I read the note that its more of an 'Erotic romance' rather than a 'Rom-com' and it made me enjoy the book more and tbh I may change the rating in the future, this is just based on what I felt right now.
This is Hazelwood's most distinct work as of yet. It doesn’t have her super quirky female leads who are as usual oblivious and tiny and it also lacks grumpy, broody male leads. The writing style for this book was so different because the last book that I read by her was 'Bride' and it was so different, this just didn't feel like a book written by Ali Hazelwood at all. She finally took the genre 'New Adult' to her heart because it was so realistic, her characters were very realistic and the whole vibe of the book was more intense rather than fluffy. So, yeah do NOT expect a rom-com.
Rue was our FMC and a very different mc from what the author usually aims for and I didn’t mind her at all she was fun to read about but that was pretty much it. As for Eli, our MMC he was so in love with the Rue, like he was the definition of downbad. The way he would speak about her in his inner monologues or how would be willing to do anything for her but then again that was pretty much it. It for me felt like Eli's whole personality was lusting over Rue and thinking about having sex with her. There was such minimal connection that I felt towards the characters and that almost never happens with her books, even if it does happen I can still enjoy it because of their nature but despite Eli and Rue being more different, mature and realistic than her other character, they still failed to deliver on making me understand or sympathize with them.
Now, I did not mind the erotic theme, I did not know that this book was actually a part of that genre because I really thought that this was just an Ali Hazelwood with the most steam, it was worrying because her smut scenes aren't always well written but here, I must admit some of the scenes were well written and handled well, don’t get me wrong there were cringe scenes but it wasn't her worst, it had some good scenes 😭😭. The romance besides the smut…..I did not care for, truth be told I did not even care for the smutty scenes because there was this lack of connection between the characters and the romance did not feel good. It was also the fact that the romance was overall very insta-lusty and I wasn't a fan of it. The romance also felt very mid because it started of with them being enemies with benefits and the transition into love felt so sudden, I didn’t feel like we got enough time to even process what was going on.
As for the plot, I couldn’t really care for it either.
Its not that I did not enjoy this book, because there were moments that I really enjoyed but most of the time while reading this book, I was so conflicted as to what to think of it and I think if I had a sense of what this book was aiming before I had set all my expectations or if I had known how different it is from her other works before I got this book, I might have had a better experience. I was so sure that it was a stem rom-com with enemies with benefits but failed to see the change that was going to come with it. I can see myself giving this book a 3 but nothing more than that because I enjoyed it that much only but it was a very interesting take and I would like to read more of Ali Hazelwood's books with the same style.
__
OMGG A WEEK TILL WE GET ALI'S FIRST DOUBLE POV BOOK WHERE THE FMC'S TITS DEFY GRAVITY APPARENTLY?!?
June 26, 2024
Yea I know I said that I'm done with Ali Hazelwood books, but guess what?
I fuckin lied.
I’m glad I did, too, not because I condone lying or anything—trust me—but because despite my negativity towards the book in the first half by the end it more or less won me over. Like a romance should do—wait was I involved in an enemies to lovers trope with this book!?!?
Anyways, like the title, I’m not in love with this one and it feels very rushed and unpolished but I also didn’t hate it and I appreciate that Ali Hazelwood has been continuing to try new things, with a YA and a paranormal romance in the past year and while this is sort of a return to her STEM-style it is less romcom, more grit, way more spice and a lot more nuance and complex characters. So, alright, no more lies, lets talk about the book which is straightforward with its title because Rue and Eli are very much Not in Love.
Okay, fine, maybe love is up for discussion in the boardroom here but Not in Love launches us into the story of one-night-stands-only Rue wakes up from a lovely time with Eli to discover themselves on opposite sides of company finance issues. And so we begin an enemies-with-benefits to lovers narrative with Eli working to take possession of the food nanotech company Rue has fought through misogynistic university and STEM programs to work for. And I know what you are all wondering—is it once again a tiny gal with a huge hulking beast of man meat and tameable fury? Well, this time no!
Okay fine, she is actually a tall woman this time but yea, he’s fucking huge. And a hockey player with some hockey stuff that feels very tacked on. But also a finance bro trying to take over a company which is pretty thumbs down on his record and at first when I realized it was going to be all “but he’s actually a good person” I thought “sounds unlikely, Ali” but hell she pulled it off and by the end they work. It helps he’s absolutely into Rue even if he doesn’t want to admit it and Hazelwood throws some twists into the narrative that make the initial plot much more palatable.
Then again, so much of this is still just capitalism-as-kink but I appreciate Hazelwood really pushing her own boundaries here. There’s a lot of Eli pushing into Rue too which like…I’m fairly under versed in the genre but I don’t feel like Hazelwood is necessarily stellar at spicy scenes? I mean, maybe its just me but lines like ‘are you anticipating curing me with your magic cock?’ are a bit clumsy at best, though I suppose sex between people trying to hate each other is always going to be clumsy. Also apparently Rue has space boobs that defy gravity.
No, Hazelwood said so, look: ‘Her breasts bounced—a masterpiece of gravity.’ TOLD YA. But…like, why? Why, Ali? In all fairness you don’t necessarily read romance for the plot per say, so that’s more on me, I just thought this struggled a bit to push itself along and here the amount of space given to them feels unjustified by a relatively thin plot that is straining to uphold them. But that bed was also straining so good for them even if they are caught up in a “I want your job to collapse” financial battle, though for all my hand wringing over that being annoying at least its real life and ends on a good note where I actually found the plotline about that to be handled alright.
‘If i were able to love someone, i would choose you. In that timeline, I would want it to be you.’
I was intending to make this a short review but I’d like to quickly touch upon some thoughts I had regarding the characters. I LOVE messy characters, morally grey characters, characters that do well by reminding us people contain multitudes and the notion of people just being good or bad doesn’t hold up beyond Disney animations. Which I also love but that’s not my point. Hazelwood crafts some complex characters here where we see how their past traumas integrate with their present day personalities and interpersonal communications. Now, in terms of 2024 romances, I think this was all done more effectively by Emily Henry in Funny Story (which I discuss at length HERE) but I liked the ways we get into how growing up in poverty and food insecurity has haunted Rue and a childhood marked by the failure of a trusted adult lingers in big, beefy, “I’m into being dominant to the point of it being weird, have I mentioned my Ex-Fiance enough yet?” Eli. The characterizations do, however, make them rather cold and stand-offish (Eli is super into that about Rue) which undercuts a lot of the emotion in this book and makes them feel like knocking blocks of wood against each other. Its a satisfying clang of their bang but also, its a bit lifeless? Authors like Sally Rooney, for instance, have had great success in navigating this but Hazelwood just…never really brings it to life here and while they are complex it still feels like 2D characters with backstories tacked on and also the friendships with other characters felt more like NPCs added into the plot rather than productively-explored relationships. But Florence is cool at least.
Shhhh! Anyways, I did enjoy the rotation between Rue and Eli’s perspectives, something that seems to be more common and was also a characteristic of Lynn Painter's recent Happily Never After, and gave a first person perspective of what Rue was thinking in her mind and a third-person perspective of Eli that allowed the narrative to sort of info-dump the board room aspects of the plot. Though with Rue there’s this aspect she has a Big Secret that, when it comes out, doesn’t actually seem like that big of a deal but also…if we are trying to stream-of-conscious her mind it feels awkward that she never ever actually thinks about it? In many ways it feels a bit contrived and like, I get that this is a book in service for the plot, but it just felt a bit underwhelming. Also the whole aspect of Eli being all like “oh I just really like inflicting pain on women to show im in charge” being played off as just some orgasmic fun felt weird in a novel that also addresses the rampant abuse and oppression of women in STEM fields. Maybe those things are systemic Enjoy what you like though, I don’t care and it was implied it was always consensual but it just felt like some eye rolling straight man in finance needing to feel like CEO of the bedroom and like... lol. Whatever.
‘If you still want me to love you, I really think I can love you back. Because I already do.” Two tears streaked her cheekbones…and if you don’t, I guess I’ll be loving you anyway.’
At the end of the day, this wasn’t my favorite but I enjoyed it well enough and don’t regret reading it. It feels like a bit of a bridge between her lighter, romcom STEM books and a future in more gritty and complex relationship novels so theres a few stumbling blocks along the way but it is cool to see an author I have a soft spot for progressing. Gotta admit the whole “we don’t believe in love” then actually do felt a little tired, and as Julia Armfield writes in Private Rites there’s ‘nothing more tedious than a person who wears their aversion to commitment as a blazon of their own originality.’ Cute enough, a bit frustrating as it seems trying to force itself a bit and reads as if the writing was rather rushed, but altogether…it was a book? Though, maybe its time, I think this will be my last Hazelwood.
2.5/5
I fuckin lied.
I’m glad I did, too, not because I condone lying or anything—trust me—but because despite my negativity towards the book in the first half by the end it more or less won me over. Like a romance should do—wait was I involved in an enemies to lovers trope with this book!?!?
Anyways, like the title, I’m not in love with this one and it feels very rushed and unpolished but I also didn’t hate it and I appreciate that Ali Hazelwood has been continuing to try new things, with a YA and a paranormal romance in the past year and while this is sort of a return to her STEM-style it is less romcom, more grit, way more spice and a lot more nuance and complex characters. So, alright, no more lies, lets talk about the book which is straightforward with its title because Rue and Eli are very much Not in Love.
Okay, fine, maybe love is up for discussion in the boardroom here but Not in Love launches us into the story of one-night-stands-only Rue wakes up from a lovely time with Eli to discover themselves on opposite sides of company finance issues. And so we begin an enemies-with-benefits to lovers narrative with Eli working to take possession of the food nanotech company Rue has fought through misogynistic university and STEM programs to work for. And I know what you are all wondering—is it once again a tiny gal with a huge hulking beast of man meat and tameable fury? Well, this time no!
Okay fine, she is actually a tall woman this time but yea, he’s fucking huge. And a hockey player with some hockey stuff that feels very tacked on. But also a finance bro trying to take over a company which is pretty thumbs down on his record and at first when I realized it was going to be all “but he’s actually a good person” I thought “sounds unlikely, Ali” but hell she pulled it off and by the end they work. It helps he’s absolutely into Rue even if he doesn’t want to admit it and Hazelwood throws some twists into the narrative that make the initial plot much more palatable.
Then again, so much of this is still just capitalism-as-kink but I appreciate Hazelwood really pushing her own boundaries here. There’s a lot of Eli pushing into Rue too which like…I’m fairly under versed in the genre but I don’t feel like Hazelwood is necessarily stellar at spicy scenes? I mean, maybe its just me but lines like ‘are you anticipating curing me with your magic cock?’ are a bit clumsy at best, though I suppose sex between people trying to hate each other is always going to be clumsy. Also apparently Rue has space boobs that defy gravity.
No, Hazelwood said so, look: ‘Her breasts bounced—a masterpiece of gravity.’ TOLD YA. But…like, why? Why, Ali? In all fairness you don’t necessarily read romance for the plot per say, so that’s more on me, I just thought this struggled a bit to push itself along and here the amount of space given to them feels unjustified by a relatively thin plot that is straining to uphold them. But that bed was also straining so good for them even if they are caught up in a “I want your job to collapse” financial battle, though for all my hand wringing over that being annoying at least its real life and ends on a good note where I actually found the plotline about that to be handled alright.
‘If i were able to love someone, i would choose you. In that timeline, I would want it to be you.’
I was intending to make this a short review but I’d like to quickly touch upon some thoughts I had regarding the characters. I LOVE messy characters, morally grey characters, characters that do well by reminding us people contain multitudes and the notion of people just being good or bad doesn’t hold up beyond Disney animations. Which I also love but that’s not my point. Hazelwood crafts some complex characters here where we see how their past traumas integrate with their present day personalities and interpersonal communications. Now, in terms of 2024 romances, I think this was all done more effectively by Emily Henry in Funny Story (which I discuss at length HERE) but I liked the ways we get into how growing up in poverty and food insecurity has haunted Rue and a childhood marked by the failure of a trusted adult lingers in big, beefy, “I’m into being dominant to the point of it being weird, have I mentioned my Ex-Fiance enough yet?” Eli. The characterizations do, however, make them rather cold and stand-offish (Eli is super into that about Rue) which undercuts a lot of the emotion in this book and makes them feel like knocking blocks of wood against each other. Its a satisfying clang of their bang but also, its a bit lifeless? Authors like Sally Rooney, for instance, have had great success in navigating this but Hazelwood just…never really brings it to life here and while they are complex it still feels like 2D characters with backstories tacked on and also the friendships with other characters felt more like NPCs added into the plot rather than productively-explored relationships. But Florence is cool at least.
Shhhh! Anyways, I did enjoy the rotation between Rue and Eli’s perspectives, something that seems to be more common and was also a characteristic of Lynn Painter's recent Happily Never After, and gave a first person perspective of what Rue was thinking in her mind and a third-person perspective of Eli that allowed the narrative to sort of info-dump the board room aspects of the plot. Though with Rue there’s this aspect she has a Big Secret that, when it comes out, doesn’t actually seem like that big of a deal but also…if we are trying to stream-of-conscious her mind it feels awkward that she never ever actually thinks about it? In many ways it feels a bit contrived and like, I get that this is a book in service for the plot, but it just felt a bit underwhelming. Also the whole aspect of Eli being all like “oh I just really like inflicting pain on women to show im in charge” being played off as just some orgasmic fun felt weird in a novel that also addresses the rampant abuse and oppression of women in STEM fields. Maybe those things are systemic Enjoy what you like though, I don’t care and it was implied it was always consensual but it just felt like some eye rolling straight man in finance needing to feel like CEO of the bedroom and like... lol. Whatever.
‘If you still want me to love you, I really think I can love you back. Because I already do.” Two tears streaked her cheekbones…and if you don’t, I guess I’ll be loving you anyway.’
At the end of the day, this wasn’t my favorite but I enjoyed it well enough and don’t regret reading it. It feels like a bit of a bridge between her lighter, romcom STEM books and a future in more gritty and complex relationship novels so theres a few stumbling blocks along the way but it is cool to see an author I have a soft spot for progressing. Gotta admit the whole “we don’t believe in love” then actually do felt a little tired, and as Julia Armfield writes in Private Rites there’s ‘nothing more tedious than a person who wears their aversion to commitment as a blazon of their own originality.’ Cute enough, a bit frustrating as it seems trying to force itself a bit and reads as if the writing was rather rushed, but altogether…it was a book? Though, maybe its time, I think this will be my last Hazelwood.
2.5/5
March 26, 2024
3 stars!
this was shaping up to be my favorite ali hazelwood book yet, but somewhere along the way, it lost me. i want to preface this by saying i tend to prefer closed door romances; leave out the sex scenes and instead show me the characters’ emotional connection — convince me they like each other beyond the physical (not that you can’t have both, but it seems to be mostly one or the other in my opinion).
this book sort of fell in between — copious amounts of sex (which i will say is not ms. hazelwood’s strong suit) and a tender emotional bond between our main characters, rue (incredibly relatable, emotionally unavailable girlie) and eli (kind of forgettable finance bro). it’s refreshing to read a book that centers on a woman who is shy and socially anxious but comes off as aloof and distant. she’s me! i’m not cold, i just don’t want to talk to people becausei don’t like them i’m not particularly good at talking to people — and seeing that in rue was so reassuring. eli, i was less fond of but he was incredibly sweet to her and completely, utterly obsessed just how i like my men! rue and eli were both so vulnerable with each other, revealing little pieces of themselves they had hidden away or repressed for years because of the shame and guilt associated with those long subdued thoughts. what must it be like to be with someone who doesn’t judge you or criticize you but instead just listens? i certainly don’t know, but i loved reading about it. as great as all of this was, it was, unfortunately, overshadowed by the sex and the physical attraction between the characters. the number of times eli thought about rue as a “fantastic lay” (or mentioned it to her face) is appalling. it just seemed so reductive, especially as their relationship grew and they began to like each other for more than just their bodies. it felt like all he really wanted her for, at least for the first 50-75% of the book, was sex, which is disappointing considering how promising the story was initially and how much potential it had. i do think this is partially a me problem, as i am incredibly picky with romance. but if you like cutesy stem romances, relatable fmcs, obsessed mmcs, and a whole lot of smut, this is for you.
thank you to netgalley and berkley publishing for an arc! <3
this was shaping up to be my favorite ali hazelwood book yet, but somewhere along the way, it lost me. i want to preface this by saying i tend to prefer closed door romances; leave out the sex scenes and instead show me the characters’ emotional connection — convince me they like each other beyond the physical (not that you can’t have both, but it seems to be mostly one or the other in my opinion).
this book sort of fell in between — copious amounts of sex (which i will say is not ms. hazelwood’s strong suit) and a tender emotional bond between our main characters, rue (incredibly relatable, emotionally unavailable girlie) and eli (kind of forgettable finance bro). it’s refreshing to read a book that centers on a woman who is shy and socially anxious but comes off as aloof and distant. she’s me! i’m not cold, i just don’t want to talk to people because
thank you to netgalley and berkley publishing for an arc! <3
July 29, 2024
Queen of STEM who can create a hell of steamy love stories in enemies to lovers trope that made me hyperventilate so hard and forgot your own name is back with another quirky, one of kind, intelligent, sensitive heroine meets her polar opposite: one of the founders of evil corporation is ready to take over company!
Do you the smoke on the air blended in love and hate! Who can resist the charm of forbidden love when you meet a hot Scottish man, ex hockey player, a mysterious past with science, emotional baggages that make him more sensitive, caring, sweet guy. Wouldn’t you give him a chance even though he’s working for the corporation that may destroy what you’re working for years.
Here’s the pant melting, stimulating, uncontrollably sexy, high chemistry fueled plot of new delicious Ali Hazelwood novel ( by the way the creator of book covers should be awarded with trophies for achieving amazing job. Aren’t they sweet, hot, also adorable?)
Rue Siebert: not having it all, but at least she finds her dream job, loyal boss who is also one of her best friends, her childhood bestie Trish who is her wingwoman and colleague she works side by side. She never lets anybody in her heart because she always feels uncomfortable in relationships, socially in-adapt, feeling like blank, insufficient, unable to articulate the right words to express herself due to her quirky nature and her traumatic childhood years that ruined by her mother and her brother Vince who still keep harassing her for inheritance issues.
She prefers one night stands, no strings attached relationship to keep her safe for humiliation and heartbreaks but when she meets with Eli Kilgore via dating app, she thinks she may reconsider her options and see him again but unfortunately the second time they meet, they are not naked in a hotel room, they are in Rue’s workplace because Eli and his business partners want to take over her company for mysterious reasons.
She has every intention to team up with her boss Florence and Trish’s lawyer sister to beat them in their own game and give cold shoulder to Eli: she has enough practice to ghost a guy but what if the temptation is at the roof and she has to be with him to get him out of her system forever but when she realizes Eli is everywhere she walks and coincidentally they are connected in more than ways and so much common, what she will do it’s more than physical attraction? Could she risk her heart to the enemy who is about to steal everything she’s worked for or could she be wrong about his motives from the beginning?
Well, I just guessed the real villain of the story from the beginning. As usual, the level of high chemistry between Eli and Rue was off the charts. I enjoyed their blooming intense relationship and Eli was one of the best book boyfriends Ali Hazelwood she’s created with his caring, passionate attitudes and high charisma, loyalty, honesty. Eli is also easy to resonate with her eccentricity.
I never get bored this devouring Stem romance series and I couldn’t get enough of them which means this is one of my top most anticipated 20 romances of the year and I’m also attaching the link to my article on medium.com that mentioning this amazing book: https://medium.com/@niluferyozmekik/v... and highly recommend you to read this book. It’s too good not to be missed.
Many thanks to NetGalley and Berkley Publishing for providing this amazing book’s digital reviewer copy with me in exchange for my honest review which is truly appreciated.
Follow me on medium.com to read my articles about books, movies, streaming series, astrology:
medium blog
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facebook
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Do you the smoke on the air blended in love and hate! Who can resist the charm of forbidden love when you meet a hot Scottish man, ex hockey player, a mysterious past with science, emotional baggages that make him more sensitive, caring, sweet guy. Wouldn’t you give him a chance even though he’s working for the corporation that may destroy what you’re working for years.
Here’s the pant melting, stimulating, uncontrollably sexy, high chemistry fueled plot of new delicious Ali Hazelwood novel ( by the way the creator of book covers should be awarded with trophies for achieving amazing job. Aren’t they sweet, hot, also adorable?)
Rue Siebert: not having it all, but at least she finds her dream job, loyal boss who is also one of her best friends, her childhood bestie Trish who is her wingwoman and colleague she works side by side. She never lets anybody in her heart because she always feels uncomfortable in relationships, socially in-adapt, feeling like blank, insufficient, unable to articulate the right words to express herself due to her quirky nature and her traumatic childhood years that ruined by her mother and her brother Vince who still keep harassing her for inheritance issues.
She prefers one night stands, no strings attached relationship to keep her safe for humiliation and heartbreaks but when she meets with Eli Kilgore via dating app, she thinks she may reconsider her options and see him again but unfortunately the second time they meet, they are not naked in a hotel room, they are in Rue’s workplace because Eli and his business partners want to take over her company for mysterious reasons.
She has every intention to team up with her boss Florence and Trish’s lawyer sister to beat them in their own game and give cold shoulder to Eli: she has enough practice to ghost a guy but what if the temptation is at the roof and she has to be with him to get him out of her system forever but when she realizes Eli is everywhere she walks and coincidentally they are connected in more than ways and so much common, what she will do it’s more than physical attraction? Could she risk her heart to the enemy who is about to steal everything she’s worked for or could she be wrong about his motives from the beginning?
Well, I just guessed the real villain of the story from the beginning. As usual, the level of high chemistry between Eli and Rue was off the charts. I enjoyed their blooming intense relationship and Eli was one of the best book boyfriends Ali Hazelwood she’s created with his caring, passionate attitudes and high charisma, loyalty, honesty. Eli is also easy to resonate with her eccentricity.
I never get bored this devouring Stem romance series and I couldn’t get enough of them which means this is one of my top most anticipated 20 romances of the year and I’m also attaching the link to my article on medium.com that mentioning this amazing book: https://medium.com/@niluferyozmekik/v... and highly recommend you to read this book. It’s too good not to be missed.
Many thanks to NetGalley and Berkley Publishing for providing this amazing book’s digital reviewer copy with me in exchange for my honest review which is truly appreciated.
Follow me on medium.com to read my articles about books, movies, streaming series, astrology:
medium blog
twitter<
June 16, 2024
1.5 stars
~Spoiler free review~
I don't know what convinced Ali to write a whole erotic book, but I became a voluntary victim. This book would've still been readable if it actually had a plot. Oh you ask what it's about? I'll tell you
He is her enemy.
She ignores him.
He's obsessed with her
They fuck.
She ignores him.
He's obsessed with her
They fuck
Multiply it by 100
There, I saved you from 400 pages of misery. Thank me later.
--CHARACTERS--
Rue: Rue ruined it for me. She was definitely different from other Ali Hazelwood's fmc. For one, she was TALL. Yeah I was shocked too but in a good way. She has been portrayed as a reserved socially awkward individual which was perfectly fine but girl, you still have to COMMUNICATE. She annoyed me so much everytime she abruptly left or simply refused to talk or admit what she's actually feeling.
Eli: He's perfect for girls looking for a man in finance, trust fund, six five, blue eyes (Yeah I know how cringe that, move on. Not my fault it matched the description so perfectly). I genuinely liked him at first. The way he was pining after Rue, trying to love her despite her shortcomings and just not giving up. Yes please 🥺
But... ofcourse, couldn't let a good thing last, now can we?
He failed me when he couldn't even think about Rue without fantasizing the way he would make her cum or the things he wants to do with her. Hell in a chapter he actually confessed, he wasn't in love with Rue but her body.
---ROMANCE---
There was no emotional connection between the characters. I couldn't even connect with them, let alone root for them. It was all physical which was also ahem.
The smut wasn't AS BAD as I thought maybe because my expectations were on the floor :)
But then the author uses lines like these that remind me why I hated it in the first place. Bear with me~
Ready to beg to smell the crease where her abdomen met her thigh.
“Are you anticipating curing me with your magic cock?”
“She shrugged. Her breasts bounced—a masterpiece of gravity.
One more minor issue I had: the names This shouldn't affect me much since I've literally read a book by this author where the fmc is named 'Misery' but still. Names like Nyota? Ali, please tell which book of names you use and I'll happily burn it for you<3
---PLOT---
Like I said, there was no major plot in this book. The backstories felt meh to me. I wish the friendships were more explored, especially Florence and Rue's.
I'm not sure if the concept of 'info dump' even exists in romance novels but it felt like that in this one. All the financial terms and issues were going straight up my head. I understood the basics but I'm a literature biology girl and I'm pretty sure I would've enjoyed this a bit better had everything been explained and put forward in a better way.
In a nutshell, I personally wouldn't recommend.
***
*cracks knuckles* oh boy, I've got a lot to say. Review and rating to come.
***
The author's note says this one leans a bit on the erotica side and I'm honestly terrified of Ali Hazelwood writing smut 💀
~Spoiler free review~
I don't know what convinced Ali to write a whole erotic book, but I became a voluntary victim. This book would've still been readable if it actually had a plot. Oh you ask what it's about? I'll tell you
He is her enemy.
She ignores him.
He's obsessed with her
They fuck.
She ignores him.
He's obsessed with her
They fuck
Multiply it by 100
There, I saved you from 400 pages of misery. Thank me later.
--CHARACTERS--
Rue: Rue ruined it for me. She was definitely different from other Ali Hazelwood's fmc. For one, she was TALL. Yeah I was shocked too but in a good way. She has been portrayed as a reserved socially awkward individual which was perfectly fine but girl, you still have to COMMUNICATE. She annoyed me so much everytime she abruptly left or simply refused to talk or admit what she's actually feeling.
Eli: He's perfect for girls looking for a man in finance, trust fund, six five, blue eyes (Yeah I know how cringe that, move on. Not my fault it matched the description so perfectly). I genuinely liked him at first. The way he was pining after Rue, trying to love her despite her shortcomings and just not giving up. Yes please 🥺
But... ofcourse, couldn't let a good thing last, now can we?
He failed me when he couldn't even think about Rue without fantasizing the way he would make her cum or the things he wants to do with her. Hell in a chapter he actually confessed, he wasn't in love with Rue but her body.
---ROMANCE---
There was no emotional connection between the characters. I couldn't even connect with them, let alone root for them. It was all physical which was also ahem.
The smut wasn't AS BAD as I thought maybe because my expectations were on the floor :)
But then the author uses lines like these that remind me why I hated it in the first place. Bear with me~
Ready to beg to smell the crease where her abdomen met her thigh.
“Are you anticipating curing me with your magic cock?”
“She shrugged. Her breasts bounced—a masterpiece of gravity.
One more minor issue I had: the names This shouldn't affect me much since I've literally read a book by this author where the fmc is named 'Misery' but still. Names like Nyota? Ali, please tell which book of names you use and I'll happily burn it for you<3
---PLOT---
Like I said, there was no major plot in this book. The backstories felt meh to me. I wish the friendships were more explored, especially Florence and Rue's.
I'm not sure if the concept of 'info dump' even exists in romance novels but it felt like that in this one. All the financial terms and issues were going straight up my head. I understood the basics but I'm a literature biology girl and I'm pretty sure I would've enjoyed this a bit better had everything been explained and put forward in a better way.
In a nutshell, I personally wouldn't recommend.
***
*cracks knuckles* oh boy, I've got a lot to say. Review and rating to come.
***
The author's note says this one leans a bit on the erotica side and I'm honestly terrified of Ali Hazelwood writing smut 💀
June 25, 2024
2.5⭐️ whose genius idea was it to write Rue's pov in first person and Eli's in third person? 🤔 it made a not so good read extra exhausting for no reason!!
also, please please please Ali Hazelwood, more STEM, less smut. we want characters we can actually relate to and want to care about so we will as excited as we were about Adam and Olive when we heard they were getting cameos in other books.
after the disappointment that was The Bride, I didn’t know if I wanted to touch this and I was scared 😩😩 it turns out I was right to be 🤷🏽♀️
also, please please please Ali Hazelwood, more STEM, less smut. we want characters we can actually relate to and want to care about so we will as excited as we were about Adam and Olive when we heard they were getting cameos in other books.
after the disappointment that was The Bride, I didn’t know if I wanted to touch this and I was scared 😩😩 it turns out I was right to be 🤷🏽♀️
July 21, 2024
post reading: it actually wasn't the same shit but boy was this weird and delicious at the same time. rtc??? (if i have time)
pre-reading: it will probably be the same shit but holy hell THE COVER!!!!!
pre-reading: it will probably be the same shit but holy hell THE COVER!!!!!
July 17, 2024
Es el libro que menos me ha gustado de Ali 😭. Odié que hubiera capítulos desde el POV del interés amoroso, LE QUITAN EL ENCANTO.
June 25, 2024
Is someone holding a gun to Ali Hazelwood's head? Ali if you are ok BLINK TWICE.
I mean I know the industry is forcing every single author out there to start putting smut in their books because sex is the only thing that sells now thanks to booktok but for the LOVE OF GOD.
Ali was the person who received a TON OF HATE for Love Hypothesis because "it wasn't spicy enough", "it was lame because it only had one sex scene", "it was a little silly and romcommy", BITCH THAT'S THE ENTIRE REASON WHY I LIKED HER STYLE IN THE FIRST PLACE.
She (used to) refused to sell herself out to the industry and wrote adorably quirky nerdy ALMOST innocent romances that actually made you cheer for the socially awkward female main characters and the brooding distant and intelligent male main characters.
She used to be the EPITOME of what it meant to write a NEW ADULT novel, with a plot and endearing characters who fell in love and consequently end up having one sex scene on page and living happily ever after.
BUT WE GET THIS WHORE HOUSE INSTEAD
Oh, she warned people this was going to be different. Oh she told everyone this was going to have more smut.
HOW ABOUT THIS DOESN'T HAVE ANYTHING BUT!!!!!!!!!
and it's not even well written smut. The characters talk breathe sing think about sex twenty four hours a day and there is absolutely nothing else going on in this god forsaken book.
She doesn't even try to develop the characters, their dynamics, their personalities, there is absolutely NOTHING here. No chemistry, no love, no affection, nothing. It's just two incredibly horny people who will make you SERIOUSLY uncomfortable.
At least that's what happened to me.
If your character has NOTHING to contribute other than how horny they are 24/7 then I HAVE NO REASON TO RELATE TO THEM. I am sorry. This isn't romance. This is an erotica novel.
She tried to create this very socially awkard female character who's afraid of getting hurt and because of that she only has one night stands but NO penetrative sex. She refuses to let dudes put their dicks inside her, but she will not stop talking about how horny she is. She treats every sexual encounter like A SERIAL KILLER. In the most distant, robotic way possible.
"You don't enjoy penetrative sex."
You mean penetrative intercourse?"
She sounded like a gynecologist and he couldn't wait to touch her.
AND THE DUDE LIKED IT, because he's into gynecologists I guess? or into women who treat sex like a business transaction.
He is equally as creepy because he: "was holding himself from driving to her house, watching her through her windows and masturbating furiously" and he ALSO stops her in the middle of her giving him a blowjob to tell her: My ex fiance cheated on me with my best friend and left, and married him, I think they have kids. Just thought you should know, you can carry on with the blowjob now (this is exactly how the scene went down)
To him, "the way her tits bounced would count as a formative moment in his sexual history."
The words she used to describe these encounters and to try SO FUCKING hard to make this book edgy and erotic completely ruined the entire thing for me. The characters had no chemistry, no passion, not even a friendship. They had nothing in common and both of them felt borderline sociopathic to me.
Every single scene made my skin crawl and being inside their heads (where FROM PAGE 1, with no slow burn or relationship buildup at all) all they talked about was: wow if she touches me I'll cum right here, wow her skin is radiating heat, wow she is talking about her job but I can't wait to put my dick in her mouth.
sex sex sex sex sex, it's like this book was written by a 12 year old WITH an arousal disorder, I am not going to lie to you. The disappointment I feel is immense.
BEFORE YOU COME FOR ME: NO, I am not a prude. I enjoy romance novels, It's ok to have erotic scenes in books, yatta yatta yatta. No one is judging you here. I am judging this HORRENDOUS writing. This complete lack of complexity in her characters, the most flushed out plot I have ever seen just so she could talk about sex constantly and the most uncomfortable book I have read in A WHILE.
The day after they "sleep together" he tells her, well I never dreamt about cheating on a partner, but part of me almost wishes my marriage had worked so I could meet you and cheat on her with you, because that's how much I want you and that's how undeniable our attraction is.
IS THIS WHAT YALL CALL ROMANCE??????????
She tried so hard to make it seem like their chemistry was undeniable!!! Irresistible. (what chemistry?) She wanted this female main character to seem like a badass who could kill you with a pencil!!! (she's not, she's a shell of a human being with no personality, not her fault, the writer just forgot she needed one)
She wanted so fucking bad to have an edgy romance where he is the bad guy because he is trying to buy the company she works for (he can legally do that without an issue) She tells him: I don't like you as a person.
He replies with I'm glad you don't need to like me to fuck me.
OK CHRISTIAN GREY lol
One of her friends mentions that the fact that he is trying to buy the company she works for makes him someone who "takes what's others without consent" LMAO HE'S JUST BUYING A COMPANY WITH MONEY HE HAS, A SIMPLE AND FAIRLY LEGAL PURCHASE, CHILL THE FUCK OUT VIGILANTE. lmao
Anyhow, this was a clusterfuck of so so so much telling and not showing. A clusterfuck of her trying to build the most erotic couple who treats sex like business, who are smart and don't get attached, who dirty talk all the time, who are nerds who get laid often because they are sooooooo hooooooot and soooooo like Christian Grey (even though he can't even have her touch his wrists without creaming his pants)
Everything about this book was so unbelievable. Unreliable. Badly written and exaggerated to the point where I'm officially done with Ali Hazelwood from this moment on.
If this is what the industry wants to force her to do...
SORRY
If her publisher (and I am assuming it was their decision and their push to pressure her into writing this heavy of an erotica book) wants to destroy an author's entire identity and the ONE thing that made her stand out: her unique, quirky, and fun writing(the fact that she was more New Adult with very little spice and a lot of silly soft giggly girly romance) because sex is the only thing that sells nowadays... I am out. 
June 19, 2024
i don’t even know how to write this review why is it so intimidating 😭😭
this was SUCH a departure from her previous work in the best way. if you’ve never been a fan *or* you’ve liked a book or two of hers but found them too formulaic, you definitely WON’T find that here. not in love is her most standout book yet and takes suchhh a far jump from “he’s so big, i’m so small 🥺, and we’re in stem together” we’re used to
these people have capital i Issues. rue and eli are solidly her most realistic characters which is ALWAYS my problem with her mmc’s in particular. eli actually having a personality was one of the most pleasant surprises of this book thank GOD. rue is nothing like the oblivious 2014 caricatures ali has a knack for. it still got some giggles outta me don’t get me wrong, but the tone was much more morose and it feels like her deepest book so far
to narrow it down to only a smutty book is doing it SUCH a disservice. it truly is the only way they can connect: yes it’s her hottest book and YES it’s graphic for us spice girlies, but it’s also realistic. sometimes the body understands something before your brain catches up and honestly? it felt really well done to me. they try to convince themselves it’s all they need from each other but being in their head when they admit that that’s not the case??? deeply romantic. truly.
i want this ali from now on!!!! now that i’m aware she’s capable of writing a tall fmc with big ol biddies, emotional intelligence, and the fashion sense that doesn’t rival jojo siwa how will i ever go back 😔
this was SUCH a departure from her previous work in the best way. if you’ve never been a fan *or* you’ve liked a book or two of hers but found them too formulaic, you definitely WON’T find that here. not in love is her most standout book yet and takes suchhh a far jump from “he’s so big, i’m so small 🥺, and we’re in stem together” we’re used to
these people have capital i Issues. rue and eli are solidly her most realistic characters which is ALWAYS my problem with her mmc’s in particular. eli actually having a personality was one of the most pleasant surprises of this book thank GOD. rue is nothing like the oblivious 2014 caricatures ali has a knack for. it still got some giggles outta me don’t get me wrong, but the tone was much more morose and it feels like her deepest book so far
to narrow it down to only a smutty book is doing it SUCH a disservice. it truly is the only way they can connect: yes it’s her hottest book and YES it’s graphic for us spice girlies, but it’s also realistic. sometimes the body understands something before your brain catches up and honestly? it felt really well done to me. they try to convince themselves it’s all they need from each other but being in their head when they admit that that’s not the case??? deeply romantic. truly.
i want this ali from now on!!!! now that i’m aware she’s capable of writing a tall fmc with big ol biddies, emotional intelligence, and the fashion sense that doesn’t rival jojo siwa how will i ever go back 😔
June 7, 2024
Not In Love written by Ali Hazelwood was absolutely STUNNING and PHENOMENAL!!!!!!!! This is my second book I've read by Ali Hazelwood, and let me just say it's my FAVORITE. When I saw that beautiful cover, I knew I had to get my hands on this book quickly, and I'm so happy that I did because I loved every single minute of it. If I could give this book a billion gazillion stars, I totally would because it was just that good. I know Ali is known for her STEM romances, but this book was more than just STEM, romance, and smut, it's about growth, forgiveness, finding love in the most unexpected places, and learning about yourself and what you are capable of. Not In Love is completely spicy, so if you are uncomfortable with that, then this book is NOT for you. I will say that the smut didn't overpower the plot, there was both smut and plot and both were done so well. I absolutely loved every single minute of this book from beginning to end. The emotional vulnerability was so freaking beautiful, yet utterly heart breaking. I can't recommend this book enough, if you haven't done so already, on June 11th, 2024 go grab yourself a copy of this book immediately. Ali has stolen my heart and soul, is anyone willing to go to therapy with me after this book?
THANK YOU TO NETGALLEY AND BERKLEY PUBLISHING GROUP FOR AN ARC OF THIS BOOK IN EXCHANGE FOR AN HONEST REVIEW!!!!!!!
"💅You need to stop bothering women who ask you to simply fuck off.💅"
"😈You mean, you don't want to go upstairs and fuck a man you don't know minutes after a man you do know verbally assaulted you?😈"
"💔Maybe some people are too broken. Maybe.....maybe things have happened in their lives, in their past, that have damaged them so bad, they are never going to get happy endings with the loves of their lives. Maybe some people are meant to be tragedies.💔"
"😭When my sister was born, my parents kept saying how perfect she was, and I was so resentful, I refused to even look at her for weeks.😭"
"🌺He stared at me like I was a beautiful, exotic flower that had the power to kill him with a pollen drop.🌺"
Dr. Rue Siebert might NOT have it all, but she has enough, a few friends she can count on including her boss, maybe? the financial stability she yearned for as a kid, and a successful career. Dr. Rue Siebert is a biotech engineer at Kline, which is one of the most promising start ups in the food industry. Rue Siebert and Tisha Fuli are the very best of best friends, they work at Kline together, but they also share gossip together, Tisha is like Rue's right hand wingman, but also the person that Rue can confide in when she's doubting herself. Eli Killgore works for Harkness, which is a private equity firm that is trying to crumble the walls of Kline, but for personal reasons alone. For certain reasons, Eli wants to take down Kline to save Rue because the same thing that happened to Eli is happening to Rue right now. Rue and Eli met on an app for hookups, so they decide to have a no strings attached hookup, but soon after spending time together, Eli and Rue are finding themselves falling for one another. When Rue finds out that Eli wants to take down Kline, she's completely speechless, but as they spend time together, Eli starts opening up and sharing his personal reasons for demolishing Kline. The secret no strings attached hookup between Rue and Eli has a deadline: the day one of their companies will prevail.
Not In Love taught me a personal life lesson, don't ALWAYS put your trust in those closest to you because they can back stab you in a heart beat. I absolutely adored Rue and Tisha's friendship, they were like two peas in a pod. For your information, yes, Rue is TALL. I absolutely loved the growth Rue had throughout this book, she went from never speaking what was on her mind, to believing in herself when hard times rolled around the corner. The emotional baggage the Rue and Eli both shared was so heart breaking, but I am so proud of each of them for sharing personal stories and overcoming their damage as a team. Rue was always so hesitant to put one foot in front of the other, but Eli was so patient with her and it made me swoon for him even more. No matter what life throws at you, you are always going to need that one specific person to hold your hand as you navigate life's obstacles, and I truly loved watching Eli be that person for Rue. Rue had a very dry sense of humor, so the banter between Eli and Rue was always hilarious and Rue's dry humor made it a million times better because you just had no clue what was going to come spewing out of her mouth when she was having a conversation with Eli. I just wanted to reach into my kindle and hug both Eli and Rue as they were unpacking their personal life stories full of emotional damage.
THANK YOU TO NETGALLEY AND BERKLEY PUBLISHING GROUP FOR AN ARC OF THIS BOOK IN EXCHANGE FOR AN HONEST REVIEW!!!!!!!
"💅You need to stop bothering women who ask you to simply fuck off.💅"
"😈You mean, you don't want to go upstairs and fuck a man you don't know minutes after a man you do know verbally assaulted you?😈"
"💔Maybe some people are too broken. Maybe.....maybe things have happened in their lives, in their past, that have damaged them so bad, they are never going to get happy endings with the loves of their lives. Maybe some people are meant to be tragedies.💔"
"😭When my sister was born, my parents kept saying how perfect she was, and I was so resentful, I refused to even look at her for weeks.😭"
"🌺He stared at me like I was a beautiful, exotic flower that had the power to kill him with a pollen drop.🌺"
Dr. Rue Siebert might NOT have it all, but she has enough, a few friends she can count on including her boss, maybe? the financial stability she yearned for as a kid, and a successful career. Dr. Rue Siebert is a biotech engineer at Kline, which is one of the most promising start ups in the food industry. Rue Siebert and Tisha Fuli are the very best of best friends, they work at Kline together, but they also share gossip together, Tisha is like Rue's right hand wingman, but also the person that Rue can confide in when she's doubting herself. Eli Killgore works for Harkness, which is a private equity firm that is trying to crumble the walls of Kline, but for personal reasons alone. For certain reasons, Eli wants to take down Kline to save Rue because the same thing that happened to Eli is happening to Rue right now. Rue and Eli met on an app for hookups, so they decide to have a no strings attached hookup, but soon after spending time together, Eli and Rue are finding themselves falling for one another. When Rue finds out that Eli wants to take down Kline, she's completely speechless, but as they spend time together, Eli starts opening up and sharing his personal reasons for demolishing Kline. The secret no strings attached hookup between Rue and Eli has a deadline: the day one of their companies will prevail.
Not In Love taught me a personal life lesson, don't ALWAYS put your trust in those closest to you because they can back stab you in a heart beat. I absolutely adored Rue and Tisha's friendship, they were like two peas in a pod. For your information, yes, Rue is TALL. I absolutely loved the growth Rue had throughout this book, she went from never speaking what was on her mind, to believing in herself when hard times rolled around the corner. The emotional baggage the Rue and Eli both shared was so heart breaking, but I am so proud of each of them for sharing personal stories and overcoming their damage as a team. Rue was always so hesitant to put one foot in front of the other, but Eli was so patient with her and it made me swoon for him even more. No matter what life throws at you, you are always going to need that one specific person to hold your hand as you navigate life's obstacles, and I truly loved watching Eli be that person for Rue. Rue had a very dry sense of humor, so the banter between Eli and Rue was always hilarious and Rue's dry humor made it a million times better because you just had no clue what was going to come spewing out of her mouth when she was having a conversation with Eli. I just wanted to reach into my kindle and hug both Eli and Rue as they were unpacking their personal life stories full of emotional damage.
June 12, 2024
Reading this book was like bringing a spoon to a knife fight—utterly unprepared and just hoping for the best. It was so bad, it made me wish I could unread things.
July 2, 2024
Ali Hazelwood just gets me, okay? Had a great time with the romance, the plot, the side characters, the humor, loved this. And I think the intimacy in this might be some of Hazelwood’s best.
Also this man is the definition of Down Bad and it’s great the whole time. Absolutely love a pining, pathetic man.
Also this man is the definition of Down Bad and it’s great the whole time. Absolutely love a pining, pathetic man.
June 12, 2024
yup it’s happened, you people officially broke ali hazelwood, got her writing tall fmcs and OW DRAMA. hope yall are real happy
this was easily, undoubtedly ali’s WORST BOOK AND MMC TO DATE!!!!
my ranking of her love interests so far:
-adam carlsen
-nolan (check & mate)
-liam (under one roof)
-adam 2.0 (love on the brain)
-jack (love theoretically)
-lowe (bride)
-ian (below zero)
-erik (also a hoe)
-last and certainly LEAST: this eli hoe (telll me why i’ve read two books just this year with mmcs named eli and hated them both with an extreme passion)
anyway where to start with this i don’t even know. i don’t have the energy to write anything coherent (i usually don’t but even more so than before) this will have to do
as much as ive loved and enjoyed ali’s previous books, they sometimes gave me a headache with all the science stuff but this was less heavy on that which i liked
also at first i thought eli had the most distinct personality out of all of ali’s heroes, and i was like okkk i think im here for this but then i read more 🙂 the more i learned, the less i liked him and wanted to set both myself and the book on fire.
he’d say some nice things like:
“I forget to look at other things, when you’re around.”
“Your damn mouth,” he murmured, “is the most obscenely lovely thing I’ve ever had the burden of seeing.”
“It’s disconcerting.” His breath was hot on my cheek. “But in the past seventy-two hours, I’ve found myself thinking over and over that we could fuck however you wanted. For however long you wanted. Wherever you wanted. I’d consent to any and all demands, and it’d be so good that you’d probably just ruin me for the rest of my life, and I’d just sit there, grateful.” He let out a laugh. “Rue. It’s humbling, how bad I want you.”
He was her servant. Anything she wanted, Eli would do it.
“Come here,” he murmured, and he was half in love with how quickly she complied, how close to him she stopped, how straight her posture. She was within reach. He could touch her wherever he wanted. His fingers twitched with impatience. And yet, Eli found himself lifting his thumb and pressing it into her lips. His true north.
He’d managed not to think of her obsessively for the past week—except when he hadn’t. Which was an embarrassing amount of time. Most of the time. All the fucking time.
Her existence, apparently, did a lot for him. More than an elaborately staged erotic show.
I MEAN COME ON but it came to a point where all the other stuff became too much and i didn’t really gave a shit about any of the nice stuff he’d think or say because of those other things
things like:
He and McKenzie had been talking about marriage, maybe not enthusiastically, but often enough that he’d taken for granted they’d eventually get around to it. They’d live here, and . . . hire a photographer for bucolic family photos, argue over the thermostat, grill every night. Whatever the fuck it was that happy, well-adjusted people did. They’d soak in the peace of the place, since their relationship was all about calm and harmony and restraint.
“Seems kind of puritanical of you, someone whose entire download history is hiking trail maps, solitaire, and sex-forward dating apps.”
“You don’t spend your Friday nights on dinner cruises?” “Do you?” He tut-tutted. “You know where I spend my Friday nights, Rue.”
“Do you really meet a different woman every Friday night?” It was an unexpectedly dismaying idea. What did I care if—
The obvious distraction would be to find someone else. There were apps, or the old-fashioned ways: bars, colleagues, friends of friends, who’d help him exorcize the last woman he should be taking up with.
“I tried to imagine a reality in which she and I had gone through with it. I’m still with her, I love her, we’re a family, and . . . and then I meet you by chance. And this thing between you and me, it’s there.” His eyes roamed the landscape, then landed on me. Contemplative. “I keep thinking about how fucking tragic it would be. For me. For her. IS THIS SUPPOSED TO BE FUCKING ROMANTIC
He’d enjoyed looking at a lot of women, and they were all made different, and they’d all been beautiful,
“My first time was with my high school girlfriend. I was crazy about her, Rue. We were together for two years, and I swear to god, I was ready to marry her. Then one day, when her parents were gone, I walked into her house for a surprise visit and found her having sex with someone else.” THIS IS SOMEONE DIFFERENT FROM THE FIANCÉ
He exhaled a laugh and cupped her cheek, trying to remember the last time someone had given him head. At the start of the year in Seattle, maybe. Or Chicago? Not that long ago.
“I don’t love thinking about you doing this with anyone else,”
THE FUCKING AUDACITY WHEN HE WAS JUST FUCKING THINKING ABOUT THE MOST RECENT TIMES HES GOTTEN HEAD AS THE FMC IS GIVING HIM HEAD
Eli had heard his fair share of dirty talk, and he unabashedly enjoyed having women ask him to spank them, to fuck them in different orifices, to do with them what he wanted.
“Come on, Eli. I’ve seen you with Mac. I’ve seen you with lots of truly amazing girls.”
“That was unexpected,” Hark told him in the parking lot after more racquetball, after Eli pleaded a previous commitment when invited out for dinner, after a shower spent contemplating the severe idiocy of being hung up on Rue Siebert. “Yeah. Really good players.” “I meant, the part where you debuted your monastic endeavors.” “Just tired is all.” Historically, Eli had been the one who got around. Girlfriends, friends, people he barely knew. Dates, relationships, hookups. Hark . . . even before Minami, his sex life had been more circumspect. They hadn’t discussed it much after, because there was little to talk about. THE SECOND TIME HE CONTEMPLATED SLEEPING WITH OTHER WOMEN AND I WANT THIS HANK GUY INSTEAD
“My ex-fiancée was a chef,” he said. Her look was blank. “And?” “She was—is—damn good. And she thought everyone should have at least three signature dishes they could prepare without needing a recipe.” “To impress at dinner parties?” He laughed. McKenzie would, too, at the idea of wanting to impress. “To be able to eat good food. By yourself or with others.” “I’m not sure where you’re going with this.” “There are three dishes I can make. Because a professional Michelin restaurant chef taught me.” Rue blinked, like it still wasn’t clear. “I could feed you well. If you’re still hungry, that is.”
He lived in a charming two-story single-family home, a mid-century construction with reddish bricks and a wide lawn that had me instinctively thinking of his ex-fiancée. Were we going to have sex in a bed he’d bought during a relationship-straining trip to IKEA? how fucking romantic 🙂🙂🙂
“Do you want to know what I’m into?”
“I enjoy . . . calling the shots.”
“Was your fiancée into it?” “She was. We were very well matched in that sense.”
“Did you hurt her? During sex?” He shook his head. “It wasn’t something either of us was interested in. It’s more about control.” “You taking control?” “It would be more appropriate to say that she surrendered hers, within the context of sex. “So, if there was no pain . . . ?” “I’d tie her up. Blindfold her. Hold her down. Tell her what to do. Do you know what orgasm denial is?” “I speak English.” Her look was faintly offended, and he huffed out a laugh.
AHAHA I SURE WISH I DIDNT MORE SO THAN ANYTIME BEFORE ONCE AGAIN FUCK YOU MRS UYEHARA FOR MAKING ME LITERATE AND I INTRODUCING ME TO THESE EVIL EVIL THINGS CALLED BOOKS. i could’ve learned arabic idfk and could be reading beautiful ass poems, and acc understood their beauty cause ik translations don’t do them justice but here i am. ANYTHING BUT THIS. hell i’d honestly rather read an orgo textbook front to back than continue this
this vile shit must really do it for her bc then this dumb bitch goes
She seemed to agree, because she met his eyes squarely. “Would you like to do that with me?”
IT JUST KEPT ON GOING SO MANY FUCKING REMINDERS AND COMPARISONS WITH HIS EXES ALL THE WOMEN HES BEEN WITH AND/OR LIVED WITH WHEN I ASKED FOR A MMC POV THIS ISNT WHAT I MEANT ILL NEVER ASK AGAIN
Cooking with McKenzie had been a lot of fun—McKenzie, who was bright and sunny and made everything turn into banter and kisses flavored with whatever ingredients they’d been using. Rue was nothing like that. She was intense and focused. A real fortress. She spoke little, always relevant questions and the occasional deadpan joke that had Eli biting his cheek to avoid laughing. She rarely volunteered information, and never started sentences with I.
cherry on the fucking cake or ice cream or whatever the fuck the saying is was this:
So while Tisha had boyfriends, friends, high grades, a promising future, I was busy with figure skating and faint hopes of getting the hell out of Texas, soon.
she hooked up with people but UNLIKE HIM, it was never anything serious and she had a no repeats rule. she also avoided penetrative sex because based on her experiences (long long time ago) she didn’t enjoy it but of fucking course his magical dick fixed that for her. don’t get me wrong ik a man his age is gonna have relationships but i want the fmc to be special!!! and it did NOT feel that way whatsoever
this felt more like a coho, chloe walsh, EH with all the fucking double standards and misogynistic bs. I KNOW SOMEONE GHOST WROTE IT CAUSE THERES NO WAY IT WAS ALI im still delusional the signs were there i just was able to overlook them
ON TOP OF ALL THAT their entire relationship was him saying “i want to fuck you” basically more physical/lust driven than something genuine
- - - -
FFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFUCK NO
i’m not done yet but i gotta rate this so i can MAYBE have some peace of mind at least and go to sleep. never thought id rate a AH book 1 star (in this case -838384838) but here we fucking are.
im acc crying im so triggered ali hazelwood or whoever is behind this (i refuse to believe ali would do this to me im in denial THE BETRAYL) count your days 🤭🤭🤭😭 the first thing i do when a fav author lets me down this way is unfollow them everywhere but she’s not a nasty zio (one of the few popular authors to not be one) so she’s staying !
anyway im okay! 🤭 really 🤭😭😭😭
- - - -
amanda and simra, y’all may be happy to know i’m considering joining the club
- - - -
save me ali hazelwood ✋🏻😔🤚🏻 again
- - - -
does this woman ever sleep?
i’m not complaining though keep them coming 🫶🏻🫶🏻 the fact that this is dual pov??? i’ve been waiting for this 😩
this was easily, undoubtedly ali’s WORST BOOK AND MMC TO DATE!!!!
my ranking of her love interests so far:
-adam carlsen
-nolan (check & mate)
-liam (under one roof)
-adam 2.0 (love on the brain)
-jack (love theoretically)
-lowe (bride)
-ian (below zero)
-erik (also a hoe)
-last and certainly LEAST: this eli hoe (telll me why i’ve read two books just this year with mmcs named eli and hated them both with an extreme passion)
anyway where to start with this i don’t even know. i don’t have the energy to write anything coherent (i usually don’t but even more so than before) this will have to do
as much as ive loved and enjoyed ali’s previous books, they sometimes gave me a headache with all the science stuff but this was less heavy on that which i liked
also at first i thought eli had the most distinct personality out of all of ali’s heroes, and i was like okkk i think im here for this but then i read more 🙂 the more i learned, the less i liked him and wanted to set both myself and the book on fire.
he’d say some nice things like:
“I forget to look at other things, when you’re around.”
“Your damn mouth,” he murmured, “is the most obscenely lovely thing I’ve ever had the burden of seeing.”
“It’s disconcerting.” His breath was hot on my cheek. “But in the past seventy-two hours, I’ve found myself thinking over and over that we could fuck however you wanted. For however long you wanted. Wherever you wanted. I’d consent to any and all demands, and it’d be so good that you’d probably just ruin me for the rest of my life, and I’d just sit there, grateful.” He let out a laugh. “Rue. It’s humbling, how bad I want you.”
He was her servant. Anything she wanted, Eli would do it.
“Come here,” he murmured, and he was half in love with how quickly she complied, how close to him she stopped, how straight her posture. She was within reach. He could touch her wherever he wanted. His fingers twitched with impatience. And yet, Eli found himself lifting his thumb and pressing it into her lips. His true north.
He’d managed not to think of her obsessively for the past week—except when he hadn’t. Which was an embarrassing amount of time. Most of the time. All the fucking time.
Her existence, apparently, did a lot for him. More than an elaborately staged erotic show.
I MEAN COME ON but it came to a point where all the other stuff became too much and i didn’t really gave a shit about any of the nice stuff he’d think or say because of those other things
things like:
He and McKenzie had been talking about marriage, maybe not enthusiastically, but often enough that he’d taken for granted they’d eventually get around to it. They’d live here, and . . . hire a photographer for bucolic family photos, argue over the thermostat, grill every night. Whatever the fuck it was that happy, well-adjusted people did. They’d soak in the peace of the place, since their relationship was all about calm and harmony and restraint.
“Seems kind of puritanical of you, someone whose entire download history is hiking trail maps, solitaire, and sex-forward dating apps.”
“You don’t spend your Friday nights on dinner cruises?” “Do you?” He tut-tutted. “You know where I spend my Friday nights, Rue.”
“Do you really meet a different woman every Friday night?” It was an unexpectedly dismaying idea. What did I care if—
The obvious distraction would be to find someone else. There were apps, or the old-fashioned ways: bars, colleagues, friends of friends, who’d help him exorcize the last woman he should be taking up with.
“I tried to imagine a reality in which she and I had gone through with it. I’m still with her, I love her, we’re a family, and . . . and then I meet you by chance. And this thing between you and me, it’s there.” His eyes roamed the landscape, then landed on me. Contemplative. “I keep thinking about how fucking tragic it would be. For me. For her. IS THIS SUPPOSED TO BE FUCKING ROMANTIC
He’d enjoyed looking at a lot of women, and they were all made different, and they’d all been beautiful,
“My first time was with my high school girlfriend. I was crazy about her, Rue. We were together for two years, and I swear to god, I was ready to marry her. Then one day, when her parents were gone, I walked into her house for a surprise visit and found her having sex with someone else.” THIS IS SOMEONE DIFFERENT FROM THE FIANCÉ
He exhaled a laugh and cupped her cheek, trying to remember the last time someone had given him head. At the start of the year in Seattle, maybe. Or Chicago? Not that long ago.
“I don’t love thinking about you doing this with anyone else,”
THE FUCKING AUDACITY WHEN HE WAS JUST FUCKING THINKING ABOUT THE MOST RECENT TIMES HES GOTTEN HEAD AS THE FMC IS GIVING HIM HEAD
Eli had heard his fair share of dirty talk, and he unabashedly enjoyed having women ask him to spank them, to fuck them in different orifices, to do with them what he wanted.
“Come on, Eli. I’ve seen you with Mac. I’ve seen you with lots of truly amazing girls.”
“That was unexpected,” Hark told him in the parking lot after more racquetball, after Eli pleaded a previous commitment when invited out for dinner, after a shower spent contemplating the severe idiocy of being hung up on Rue Siebert. “Yeah. Really good players.” “I meant, the part where you debuted your monastic endeavors.” “Just tired is all.” Historically, Eli had been the one who got around. Girlfriends, friends, people he barely knew. Dates, relationships, hookups. Hark . . . even before Minami, his sex life had been more circumspect. They hadn’t discussed it much after, because there was little to talk about. THE SECOND TIME HE CONTEMPLATED SLEEPING WITH OTHER WOMEN AND I WANT THIS HANK GUY INSTEAD
“My ex-fiancée was a chef,” he said. Her look was blank. “And?” “She was—is—damn good. And she thought everyone should have at least three signature dishes they could prepare without needing a recipe.” “To impress at dinner parties?” He laughed. McKenzie would, too, at the idea of wanting to impress. “To be able to eat good food. By yourself or with others.” “I’m not sure where you’re going with this.” “There are three dishes I can make. Because a professional Michelin restaurant chef taught me.” Rue blinked, like it still wasn’t clear. “I could feed you well. If you’re still hungry, that is.”
He lived in a charming two-story single-family home, a mid-century construction with reddish bricks and a wide lawn that had me instinctively thinking of his ex-fiancée. Were we going to have sex in a bed he’d bought during a relationship-straining trip to IKEA? how fucking romantic 🙂🙂🙂
“Do you want to know what I’m into?”
“I enjoy . . . calling the shots.”
“Was your fiancée into it?” “She was. We were very well matched in that sense.”
“Did you hurt her? During sex?” He shook his head. “It wasn’t something either of us was interested in. It’s more about control.” “You taking control?” “It would be more appropriate to say that she surrendered hers, within the context of sex. “So, if there was no pain . . . ?” “I’d tie her up. Blindfold her. Hold her down. Tell her what to do. Do you know what orgasm denial is?” “I speak English.” Her look was faintly offended, and he huffed out a laugh.
AHAHA I SURE WISH I DIDNT MORE SO THAN ANYTIME BEFORE ONCE AGAIN FUCK YOU MRS UYEHARA FOR MAKING ME LITERATE AND I INTRODUCING ME TO THESE EVIL EVIL THINGS CALLED BOOKS. i could’ve learned arabic idfk and could be reading beautiful ass poems, and acc understood their beauty cause ik translations don’t do them justice but here i am. ANYTHING BUT THIS. hell i’d honestly rather read an orgo textbook front to back than continue this
this vile shit must really do it for her bc then this dumb bitch goes
She seemed to agree, because she met his eyes squarely. “Would you like to do that with me?”
IT JUST KEPT ON GOING SO MANY FUCKING REMINDERS AND COMPARISONS WITH HIS EXES ALL THE WOMEN HES BEEN WITH AND/OR LIVED WITH WHEN I ASKED FOR A MMC POV THIS ISNT WHAT I MEANT ILL NEVER ASK AGAIN
Cooking with McKenzie had been a lot of fun—McKenzie, who was bright and sunny and made everything turn into banter and kisses flavored with whatever ingredients they’d been using. Rue was nothing like that. She was intense and focused. A real fortress. She spoke little, always relevant questions and the occasional deadpan joke that had Eli biting his cheek to avoid laughing. She rarely volunteered information, and never started sentences with I.
cherry on the fucking cake or ice cream or whatever the fuck the saying is was this:
So while Tisha had boyfriends, friends, high grades, a promising future, I was busy with figure skating and faint hopes of getting the hell out of Texas, soon.
she hooked up with people but UNLIKE HIM, it was never anything serious and she had a no repeats rule. she also avoided penetrative sex because based on her experiences (long long time ago) she didn’t enjoy it but of fucking course his magical dick fixed that for her. don’t get me wrong ik a man his age is gonna have relationships but i want the fmc to be special!!! and it did NOT feel that way whatsoever
this felt more like a coho, chloe walsh, EH with all the fucking double standards and misogynistic bs. I KNOW SOMEONE GHOST WROTE IT CAUSE THERES NO WAY IT WAS ALI
ON TOP OF ALL THAT their entire relationship was him saying “i want to fuck you” basically more physical/lust driven than something genuine
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FFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFUCK NO
i’m not done yet but i gotta rate this so i can MAYBE have some peace of mind at least and go to sleep. never thought id rate a AH book 1 star (in this case -838384838) but here we fucking are.
im acc crying im so triggered ali hazelwood or whoever is behind this (i refuse to believe ali would do this to me im in denial THE BETRAYL) count your days 🤭🤭🤭😭 the first thing i do when a fav author lets me down this way is unfollow them everywhere but she’s not a nasty zio (one of the few popular authors to not be one) so she’s staying !
anyway im okay! 🤭 really 🤭😭😭😭
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amanda and simra, y’all may be happy to know i’m considering joining the club
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save me ali hazelwood ✋🏻😔🤚🏻 again
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does this woman ever sleep?
i’m not complaining though keep them coming 🫶🏻🫶🏻 the fact that this is dual pov??? i’ve been waiting for this 😩
June 6, 2024
2.5 ☆
i’m sure others would get more out of this book and the romance but it just didn’t do anything for me. Eli and Rue were a odd pairing that seemed thrown together and i never connected to Rue and Eli as individuals or together. there’s reasonings as to why they behave the way they do which is understandable due to their pasts, but it still didn’t convince me and just came across like two robots mimicking human interactions to be honest.
“She unhinged him. There was something uniquely good about being in her presence.”
even though i was aware their situation would be more sex driven than anything else, that doesn’t mean i want to sit through those scenes when they’re written so bland and both characters finish in 5 minutes. Eli was a bit more present than Rue and he did care for her from the start, while Rue took a minute to adjust due to her lack of socialization skills. i wasn’t a fan of the outer conflict either with Rue’s “friend” Florence and the rivalry between them and Eli’s business partners, so most of the book fell flat for me.
➙ many thanks to NetGalley and Berkley Publishing Group for the arc, all opinions are my own.
i’m sure others would get more out of this book and the romance but it just didn’t do anything for me. Eli and Rue were a odd pairing that seemed thrown together and i never connected to Rue and Eli as individuals or together. there’s reasonings as to why they behave the way they do which is understandable due to their pasts, but it still didn’t convince me and just came across like two robots mimicking human interactions to be honest.
“She unhinged him. There was something uniquely good about being in her presence.”
even though i was aware their situation would be more sex driven than anything else, that doesn’t mean i want to sit through those scenes when they’re written so bland and both characters finish in 5 minutes. Eli was a bit more present than Rue and he did care for her from the start, while Rue took a minute to adjust due to her lack of socialization skills. i wasn’t a fan of the outer conflict either with Rue’s “friend” Florence and the rivalry between them and Eli’s business partners, so most of the book fell flat for me.
➙ many thanks to NetGalley and Berkley Publishing Group for the arc, all opinions are my own.
June 29, 2024
ARC provided by the publisher via Libro.fm
this is the first book by ali that i haven't loved and i am really sad about it. i feel like everyone has been begging for her (and emily henry) to give us that dual point of view, but man oh man i wish ali never did. I think a lot of it is because one of our main character’s povs is 1st person, and then the other is 3rd person, and even though i did find a groove while reading, each time i picked up the book it was jarring getting to that groove again.
but the basic premise of the stem romance is that one of our main characters, rue, is a biotech engineer who has a passion for fermentation and extending the shelf life of foods because of immense poverty trauma in her past. she is currently working with a company she really loves and she is also working on her own patent for food preservation. after a night with an attempted app hookup that kind of goes really wrong (but also really right despite not hooking up), the next day she goes to work and realizes that this mystery guy, eli, is part of another tech company who is going to buy the loan contract of her current company and that leaves a lot of uncertainty for her and her coworkers/friend’s futures.
i see a lot of people disliking this one because of the more explicit sex, so please know that going in, but that truly didn’t bother me. well, maybe it did just because i didn’t love eli in this, so i always would want to be in rue’s head, even during the sex scenes. what i really didn't like (which i didn’t even talk about in the premise because it feels like the only time i was brought up was to further the mc’s love story), is a subplot with rue’s brother that just left a really bad taste in my mouth. i talk in a lot of reviews about how much my little brother means to me, so maybe i was just being extra sensitive, but it just felt really bad to read (and really bad to not really have a conclusion for). and honestly? i felt like the big storyline was done much better in love, theoretically, and felt a lot better for the reader, too.
i really enjoyed seeing rue realize that she doesn’t deserve bad things, and her healing and slowly feeling safe in her vulnerability, but besides that? i just couldn’t connect with the romance of this one, on top of the brother storyline not feeling good to read. I still will very much be picking up deep end , but i hope you all enjoy the reading experience of not in love more than i did.
content warnings from the author (please use caution for potential spoilers): I know genre definitions can be a bit blurry, but I consider Not in Love to be an erotic romance, so… lots of sex scenes, explicit and graphic. More than usual. An unnecessary amount, perhaps. It’s how these two emotionally constipated people communicate, at least at the start. Childhood poverty and food insecurity. Anxiety around food, mostly due to past food insecurity. Mentions of addiction (secondary characters). Social anxiety. Parental death (accidents, illness) (off page, in the past). Parental neglect. Power exchange (pre-negotiated, during sex. Attempted assault of the FMC by her brother (she is unharmed). Pregnancy of a secondary character. Cursing and vulgar language.
other trigger + content warnings i found while reading (ali's books really do have such good tws - i am always so thankful and impressed): grief, infidelity in past mentions (not mcs) but also a weird comment about cheating made my the mc once, childhood abandonment, one sentence mention of an animal dying during animal testing.
blog | instagram | youtube | kofi | spotify | amazon
♡ The Love Hypothesis ★★★★★
♡ Love, Theoretically ★★★★
♡ Bride ★★★★
this is the first book by ali that i haven't loved and i am really sad about it. i feel like everyone has been begging for her (and emily henry) to give us that dual point of view, but man oh man i wish ali never did. I think a lot of it is because one of our main character’s povs is 1st person, and then the other is 3rd person, and even though i did find a groove while reading, each time i picked up the book it was jarring getting to that groove again.
but the basic premise of the stem romance is that one of our main characters, rue, is a biotech engineer who has a passion for fermentation and extending the shelf life of foods because of immense poverty trauma in her past. she is currently working with a company she really loves and she is also working on her own patent for food preservation. after a night with an attempted app hookup that kind of goes really wrong (but also really right despite not hooking up), the next day she goes to work and realizes that this mystery guy, eli, is part of another tech company who is going to buy the loan contract of her current company and that leaves a lot of uncertainty for her and her coworkers/friend’s futures.
i see a lot of people disliking this one because of the more explicit sex, so please know that going in, but that truly didn’t bother me. well, maybe it did just because i didn’t love eli in this, so i always would want to be in rue’s head, even during the sex scenes. what i really didn't like (which i didn’t even talk about in the premise because it feels like the only time i was brought up was to further the mc’s love story), is a subplot with rue’s brother that just left a really bad taste in my mouth. i talk in a lot of reviews about how much my little brother means to me, so maybe i was just being extra sensitive, but it just felt really bad to read (and really bad to not really have a conclusion for). and honestly? i felt like the big storyline was done much better in love, theoretically, and felt a lot better for the reader, too.
i really enjoyed seeing rue realize that she doesn’t deserve bad things, and her healing and slowly feeling safe in her vulnerability, but besides that? i just couldn’t connect with the romance of this one, on top of the brother storyline not feeling good to read. I still will very much be picking up deep end , but i hope you all enjoy the reading experience of not in love more than i did.
content warnings from the author (please use caution for potential spoilers): I know genre definitions can be a bit blurry, but I consider Not in Love to be an erotic romance, so… lots of sex scenes, explicit and graphic. More than usual. An unnecessary amount, perhaps. It’s how these two emotionally constipated people communicate, at least at the start. Childhood poverty and food insecurity. Anxiety around food, mostly due to past food insecurity. Mentions of addiction (secondary characters). Social anxiety. Parental death (accidents, illness) (off page, in the past). Parental neglect. Power exchange (pre-negotiated, during sex. Attempted assault of the FMC by her brother (she is unharmed). Pregnancy of a secondary character. Cursing and vulgar language.
other trigger + content warnings i found while reading (ali's books really do have such good tws - i am always so thankful and impressed): grief, infidelity in past mentions (not mcs) but also a weird comment about cheating made my the mc once, childhood abandonment, one sentence mention of an animal dying during animal testing.
blog | instagram | youtube | kofi | spotify | amazon
♡ The Love Hypothesis ★★★★★
♡ Love, Theoretically ★★★★
♡ Bride ★★★★
June 28, 2024
"If her heart has to be broken, I'd rather it be me. That way I can help her pick up the pieces."I finally finished it! Well what a whiplash this book was for me! I love Ali Hazelwood so I went into this with such high hopes. I struggled with this book but I don't think its fair to say it was entirely the books fault. I feel that maybe I was not in the mood for a romance at the time I sat down to read this and because of that I almost DNF'd this. With that in mind, I decided to put this on the backburner for a few days and came back to finish it and even found myself enjoying parts of it in the last 50%. However, Id feel this is my least favorite Ali Hazelwood book to date. The characters fell flat for me and I could not connect to them at all. It was unlike anything she has ever written and because of that I feel people are either going to love this one or dislike it.
💕Enemies with Benefits
💕Boy Obsessed
💕Forbidden Romance
💕Office Romance
💕STEM setting
💕Dual POV
“Your damn mouth,” he murmured, “is the most obscenely lovely thing I’ve ever had the burden of seeing.”
“But what if this chemistry between us was a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity? What happened when the person who tore you apart was not the person you’d chosen to cherish? My concept of love was far from idealized, but this still seemed crucifying”
“And then, Rue, I met you. And you casually cracked my life into before and after you.”
Rue, our FMC, Ali Hazelwood has never dissapointed me so I am ready to dive in!💗💜
July 17, 2024
I can't help but wonder if I'm gonna eat up everything Ali writes because that's how my mind is wired, or if so many of the people who said this was their worst book of the year have a little bit exaggerated on the hating front.
Don't get me wrong, if someone else - anyone, really - would have written a book with the same plot, I'd probably have disliked it too.
But Ali’s narration is just so smooth, and it has improved so much from her first book, and sure, this is definitely something different from her previous books, but I don't see how it's worse.
Having a darker narration and being of a different genre didn’t hold me back as much as the main trope, which is the worst and the most senseless of all in my opinion, but I still see how anything that happens is somehow justified.
And probably that's enough for me.
Also, I've found out I'm incapable of hating any of Ali’s men, and this is pathetic men's season after all.
↠ 3.8 stars
Don't get me wrong, if someone else - anyone, really - would have written a book with the same plot, I'd probably have disliked it too.
But Ali’s narration is just so smooth, and it has improved so much from her first book, and sure, this is definitely something different from her previous books, but I don't see how it's worse.
Having a darker narration and being of a different genre didn’t hold me back as much as the main trope, which is the worst and the most senseless of all in my opinion, but I still see how anything that happens is somehow justified.
And probably that's enough for me.
Also, I've found out I'm incapable of hating any of Ali’s men, and this is pathetic men's season after all.
↠ 3.8 stars
June 12, 2024
3.25 stars
Me being a woman in stem who is in the early process of getting her masters degree, reading Ali’s books tend to give me anxiety. All of the talk about stealing someone’s research or ideas in this book and the hardship of being a woman in stem stressed me so freakin bad! As much as I love reading her books, they could be too much for my overthinking mental state.
Now to the romance part of the story. I enjoyed this book. It’s just that I think the physical connection between them overshadowed the emotional one. Also, I’m not a fan of the insta-lust friends with benefits storyline. I agree that sometimes it work, but for the majority of time it doesn’t. I liked Rue so much. And as much as the side plot gave me anxiety, I enjoyed it as well. This wasn’t a bad book, it just wasn’t a personal favourite.
Huge Thanks to NetGalley, the publisher, and the author for providing this copy.
Me being a woman in stem who is in the early process of getting her masters degree, reading Ali’s books tend to give me anxiety. All of the talk about stealing someone’s research or ideas in this book and the hardship of being a woman in stem stressed me so freakin bad! As much as I love reading her books, they could be too much for my overthinking mental state.
Now to the romance part of the story. I enjoyed this book. It’s just that I think the physical connection between them overshadowed the emotional one. Also, I’m not a fan of the insta-lust friends with benefits storyline. I agree that sometimes it work, but for the majority of time it doesn’t. I liked Rue so much. And as much as the side plot gave me anxiety, I enjoyed it as well. This wasn’t a bad book, it just wasn’t a personal favourite.
Huge Thanks to NetGalley, the publisher, and the author for providing this copy.
February 22, 2024
Not only one of Ali’s hottest books yet!! But probably her most emotionally vulnerable , it had me over here tearing up. I also felt like this was a little less sciencey and more romantic , which I personally really really loved!!! I don’t want to say much because it doesn’t come out for a while still but it was PERFECT!!!! The spice had me sweating, truly the Eli the MMC could tie me down any day, the way Ali writes men who are just so caring and understanding but also simps for their women!!! OBSESSED!!! Rue had me crying, my girl has been through it and she needs to be protected at any and all costs!!
My Ali Hazelwood ranking
1. Bride and Not in Love ( I can’t pick okay!!)
2. Love theoretically
3. Love hypothesis
4. Check and mate
5. Love on the brain
My Ali Hazelwood ranking
1. Bride and Not in Love ( I can’t pick okay!!)
2. Love theoretically
3. Love hypothesis
4. Check and mate
5. Love on the brain
July 10, 2024
Watch my full review HERE.
"Not in love" is an apt description for how I felt about this nuclear bomb of an "erotic romance." But will my ass be sat for her 2025 college sports romance? Without a doubt yes.
"Not in love" is an apt description for how I felt about this nuclear bomb of an "erotic romance." But will my ass be sat for her 2025 college sports romance? Without a doubt yes.
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