This is a cute rom com that I absolutely adored! At times I did want to shake Kate, but her inner dialogue made me laugh...

Fifteen years ago Kate met her friend Andy and they have been close ever since. So when Andy goes radio silent, Kate is concerned. Enough so that she meets up with Daniel, a friend of Andy's and a former friend of hers (flashbacks go into more detail about this). They find recent pictures of Andy in Turkey, so they decide to go find him.

Although they bicker endlessly, they finally decide on a truce while they look for Andy. They locate him recovering and get the story that led to his silence. They assure him they will stay until he is able to go home.

Sometime in that fortnight, Daniel and Kate reach a sort of friendship and Kate becomes aware of her attraction to him, which is a terrible idea. There's no way any type of relationship could work, right?

Not In a Million Years is definitely not your typical enemies to lovers book. When I read the description I thought I was in for a light read but I was wrong.

Kate is quick-witted, afraid of heights and a steadfast friend. Daniel is charming, thoughtful and a sucker for cats. Then there’s Andy, the friend with an intense addiction.

Kate and Daniel travel to Turkey to find their friend after days of being unable to get in touch with him. They stay until Andy is able to return home but this is just half of the book. The addiction is the second half and takes you through the life of trying to love or be there for an addict.

I enjoyed the slow burn of Kate and Daniel’s relationship but I felt at times she was a bit mean to him. (Though the aloe did help her simmer down on all fronts - pun intended.) Without any spoilers, I did enjoy some of the twists along the way.

I would recommend this if you’re looking for a little cheeky banter bit you can also handle addiction and relapse.

Thank you NetGalley and Bookouture for the e-ARC in exchange for an honest review.

A huge thanks to Bookouture for my complimentary copy and all opinions expressed are entirely my own.

Not in a million years is an enemies to lovers romance that is just so adorable. The book follows Kate who reminds me of myself . Kate is a successful woman who bakes an awful lot but also struggles with insomnia . In a quest to find her friend Andy she heads to Turkey with her arch nemesis Daniel. Like every good rom-com there is a thin line between hate and love. Oh mayn, I ate up this romance book.

I was laughing out loud. That was just what my soul needed. Sometimes we just need to read a book that makes us smile and laugh and not take life so seriously. This book is the answer for that. There are other books with similar plot lines, this one was different and hit the spot.

I loved this enemies to lovers troupe. Andy has disappeared and two of his friends set out to find him. The story deals with serious issues of substance abuse so be aware if this is a trigger for you.it is always fun to watch two people who hate each other be put together for a common cause. This cause was their friend Andy. A large portion of the book was set in Turkey in the summer. I loved this setting as the heat played into the book in a big way. I love when authors make the setting part of the story. Great read.

thank you to bookouture & netgalley for this arc in exchange for an honest review!

i love sophie ranald’s books and this is another enjoyable one! it follows kate and daniel as they travel to turkey to find their friend who has seemingly fallen off the face of the earth.

the story includes flashbacks of the past to help explain why daniel and kate fell out and how andy’s actions impacted them both.

i would definitely recommend reading some of sophie ranald’s earlier published books to understand the background characters!

First of all, thank you NetGalley and Bookouture for this e-ARC in exchange for an honest review.

The description of this book had everything I wanted in a cute beach read, and while I did spend most of my time giggling along at the sarcastic and blunt humour, I found myself thrown off by the Andy situation. It just felt a little too intense compared to the “enemies to lovers” vibe that was going on.

I do, however, think that Ranald did a very good job describing addiction and relapses and how easy it is to enable someone because you love them - that same love somehow driving our main characters apart and back together again.

Kate was witty, smart, stubborn and sometimes too risk-averse, and Daniel was a charming, caring, cat lover … and may have been the only person able to dish it back to our main girl Kate.

I did like watching them slowly come together again, although it was easy to see Daniel was a good match for her right away (I was 100% sold when he bought her Aloe for her sunburn). When you take their little rendezvous to find Turkey and separate it from the darker sadder side with Andy’s addiction, you have a really cute rom com. I just wish the book as a whole could stay light- but I may just be biased as I say and read from the sunny poolside.

Overall it was still a super cute read, and would recommend if you like a cheeky bit of London humour and are able to handle topics covering addiction, drug use, relapse, car accidents, and theft.

3 ⭐️

I thought this would be a lighthearted read but it’s actually quite dramatic.
Kate and Daniel fly to Turkey attempting to find their friend Andy.
Kate has continuously struck out on love but has a complicated relationship with both Andy and Daniel.
I thought they both enabled Andy too much.
There are serious themes running through the book, but in the end the right people end up together.

If you love an enemies to lovers with forced proximity this is the one. Two enemies go on holiday together for a shared mission.

The book explored topics such as sexuality and addiction.

I found that this book could have been condensed and it would have made it more fast paced. However I loved the storyline.

Book: Not in a Million Years by Sophie Ranald
Rating:⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
Trope: Enemies to lovers, romantic comedy
Publication: 22nd February 2023

I honestly don’t know where to stay apart from saying I think is book is absolutely delightful as well as truly heartfelt. Kate is such a strong force of nature as the main character who is determined to make it on her own and at her terms, although quirky with the endless amount of baking, she is that friend you always want by your side and she truly is amazing. When her friend Andy finds himself is trouble, Kate drops everything to be with her friend but along tags Daniel who is also Andy’s friend and as late quotes her “worst nightmare”.

This book is very relatable and also so very different despite being a rom-com, enemies to lovers. The way the plot was written and the banter and the angst kept me up all night and I finished this book in one single setting. What a fun quick read.

Thank you NetGalley and Bookouture for the ARC copy.

Not in a Million Years by Sophie Ranald was a miss for me. I love this author and high expectations. I was hoping for the happy, laugh out loud rom com but it was anything but. The beginning was so entertaining. I did love the characters as their dynamic was enjoyable. After the first few chapters, it turned into a completely different book and was hard to follow and enjoy. Now this might be great for others, but missed the mark for me.

Oh my god, this is a shitshow. I don't know where to begin...

But I will try anyway. First of all, the cover and synopsis suggests a fun enemies-to-lovers romcom - to be fair the book starts just like that, but after a couple of chapters the whole story starts to fall apart. This story is definitely not the one you would expect based on the first few chapters and the light, funny cover.

It would have been nice to put some trigger warnings somewhere, because the book talks A LOT about drug addiction, living with secrets and alcohol problems -- which is everything but fun, in my opinion.

The characters are funny and likable at the beginning, but as the plot progresses, to be frank everyone becomes unlikable as fuck.

And the story is very slow paced as well. I find it important to emphasize it, because I'm a huge fan of the slowburn trope, but this was just such a drag.

As said, the characters became unlikable, our female main character actually is a bitchy narcissist, who seems to hate Daniel for no apparent reason but just for the sake of it. Splendid. Andy, about who the whole plot is circling, behaves like an awful dog with really bad manners, always on the loose. It's actually pathetic and borderline pitiful.

Some descriptions are too long and most of the dialogues feel unnecessary.

As cherry on top the shit-cake, sometimes not just the descriptions are unnecessarily prolonged, but it mentions UK-specific things (some metro station game for example), which is absolutely unenjoyable without having a deep knowledge about UK city structures and cultural things.

I definitely won't read anything else from this author because I legit feel misled. One-star.

It is not the light romance the book cover is hinting at.

It starts quite light and funny. Very "Unhoneymooners" vibes. Dynamic between characters promising high entertainment. But then the book took a very different turn from what I was expecting, and I ended up feeling that I read two very different stories in one book. While both narratives intervened, I think they "ate" each other. In the end, it was neither this nor that. Somewhere between pages the romance got lost, and by the end chapters, I was wondering why the heck these two characters would even want to be together.

There are some weighty topics covered in the story. If you are sensitive towards any, I suggest you check out trigger warnings.

I think I had a different idea of what I thought this book was going to be and it ended up being completely different. But I enjoyed my time reading this!

I wouldn’t say this was funny or even darkly humorous. The story is sad, people trying to cope with a loved one living with addiction and secrets. No real humor implied here. Kate wasn’t exactly a catch, but neither was Daniel or Andy. Kates friends seemed to just be fair weather friends to gossip with instead of people who cared about her.

I adored her baking to help her pass hours during her bouts of insomnia and I can relate to the insomnia and I absolutely loved the cats! I'm a cat person, and I love cats in books. Daniel being handy (woodwork) and being a cat man was delightful.
The Turkish scenes were stunning and I found Ash to be likable.
Kate and Daniel did have some banter but something was missing.

I do think that most (If not all the characters) acted far younger than they were said to be, and I found Kate quite self centered and vain. Her redeeming quality is that she donated the cakes she bakes to a senior citizen community centre.
She's terrified of everything, but it could be because her job is a risk assessor.
Andy was not a likeable character, he was mean, definitely selfish and arrogant. There were lots of toxic scenes and situations with addiction ranging from drugs, alcohol and sex ( I count a certain relationship toxic and addictive.)
The enemies to lovers was never fully explained, how did they get from being friends to enemies?
This was not the light hearted romcom I anticipated, and not quite the book for me.

Perfect amount of wit, cuteness and spice! I loved the characters, I loved the story and I truly couldn't put it down!

Firstly, thank you to bookouture and netgalley for this e-ARC. It was such a great little romance, perfect for this time of year 💘

I found myself gravitating towards this book, always wanting to pick it up and it was such an easy read 🤩

I really enjoyed Kate and Daniel’s story, it was an enemies to lovers but with a bit of a difference which was a nice change from the usual 🌷

It was funny, it was spicy, it was everything you’d want from a romance 💕

I was unsure where this book was going at the start and it took a little whilst for me to get into but in the end I really enjoyed it. I wish there was more of Daniel and Kate though, and maybe less of Andy (not a big fan of him 😂).

There seems to be a disconnect in this and Sophie Ranald's last book in what the subject matter is vs. how they are designed and presented. This wasn't what I was expecting, though I liked the insomniac baking scene. I might persist with it but with so many other good options out there, it's likelier that this will be a DNF.

I chose to DNF this book at 10%, because I honestly didn't feel invested in the story. I could also tell that the plot was going to be different than I expected going into it. I'm choosing to give 2 stars just because I like British characters and the friend group dynamic.