Well, this story was not what I expected.

With this cover, blurb and quotes saying "hilarious, sexy and heart-warming", similar to" Emily Henry, Sally Thorne and Ali Hazelwood", I expected something fun and light. But it wasn't really all that. I didn't expect to be so heavy.

The subjects addressed are very delicate, deep and emotional. Which wasn't a bad thing, just not the romcom I expected and needed to read at the time. Being a mood reader, I'll admit it kind of threw me for a loop lol.

It is a good story, the writing is fun and the characters relatable and realistic. I have a lot of respect and appreciation for the themes discussed here, the reality and bravery of it. But the tone is a bit depressing at times which left me emotionally drained.

The plot was very similar to Emily's People we meet on Vacation, so if you enjoy that traveling and flash backs and getting to see the characters through their life until they reconnect and have that "it's always been you" moment, you will enjoy it.

The good part is there is a redemption arc, character growth and HEA eventually. It's a touching, beautiful story that has that effect, that makes you think about life, love and appreciate the people and occasions more.

So, overall, 3.5 stars.

Thank you for the ARC!

Best friends for nearly half their life, Josie and Zac reconnect after two years apart. Zac has sheltered himself away in Newcastle after a life-changing tragedy. Josie, a local newscaster, finds herself on assignment for the next three months in the town Zac is now calling home.

Zac, at the age of fourteen, declared his love for Josie only she turned him down breaking his heart. He's constantly harbored feelings and now he knows life is too short not to go after what he desires.

This slow burn, second chance romance was enjoyable. The only drawback was the that the love interests felt a bit immature for their lifestyles. Also, some of the flashbacks were unnecessary to the story. The romance needed an infusion to make it believable, as I might've been ok with them being just friends.

Thank you Allen & Unwin for the complimentary copy.

Thank you to NetGalley for the ARC of this book.

Josie is a reporter for a renowned television station in Australia and is reassigned to another town, which is punishment for having an on-air panic attack during one of her reports. This town is also where her best friend has been living for the last couple of years. They haven't talked for a couple of years because of a tragic event that her friend faced that has changed him in many ways. Josie and her friend, Zac, meet up again and begin to work through what has been missing in their lives the last couple of years in addition to their budding (or rekindled feelings) for one another.

I'm so glad that I got to read this before everyone else. Words can't describe how much I liked this book. Josie's personal and professional woes, specifically those about her mental health and anxiety, were so relatable and I love that the author included mental illness representation in this book. The pacing of this story was great as well in terms of Josie and Zac's relationship and Josie's career trajectory. The tension broke at just the right spot and I was interested in the outcome of their relationship the entire time.

The description of this story compared itself to "People We Meet on Vacation" (or "You and Me on Vacation" for those of you outside of the United States) by Emily Henry. While I saw some similarities, this book held its own among many of the contemporary romance books on the market. I'm excited for everyone else to find this book because I foresee this being a big hit.

After an on-air blunder has Josie Larson still yearning for her dream job as a news reporter, she gets an assignment in a smaller city where her former best friend Zac lives. Their paths have been separate for a few years - ever since Zac lost his fiancée in a tragic accident. Zac has had a lifelong crush on Josie even thing she turned him down years ago, but now when they’re reunited will their friendship blossom or will other long lost feelings come through?

This book was a very, very slow burn that took a while for me to get into. I liked the idea but I felt that in the end there was just too much struggle - Josie and Zac’s back and forth, Josie’s career issues, and her health anxiety/cancer scares. Like it was always something, and it got a bit tiring. I didn’t love the 3rd act breakup and thought the resolution felt a bit rushed. Overall Josie wasn’t really my favorite character, I found her deeply flawed and not super likable.

Despite all of this I thought the development of Josie and Zac’s feelings for each other was really sweet and I liked seeing those as the story went along. I liked the secondary characters and thought they added something good to the story.

Through its flaws, I thought that Love, Just In was still a sweet, friends to lovers story that others will love.

Thank you to Allen & Unwin, Natalie Murray, and NetGalley for the eARC!

Thank you so much to Allen & Unwin and Netgalley for a free digital ARC in exchange for an honest review.

I didn’t hate this book but I also really struggled to connect with it. Josie and Zac seemed like they would have been better off remaining friends rather than jumping into a relationship together.

The anxiety representation was well done, but both characters still came off as selfish and childish in so many situations. They were also TERRIBLE at communicating with each other. Plus the constant flirting and touching while in relationships with other people was not cute.

Other questions: Did anyone else keep forgetting that Zac had a dog? What was with Zac’s weird obsession with weird novelty t-shirts???

Love, Just in is mostly a romantic comedy, with some serious aspects, mainly concerning medical anxiety. Josie is a news reporter in Sydney who takes a 6 month assignment to Newcastle, which happens to be where her former best friend lives. Once they reconnect, the sparks fly between them, but he is still dealing with the death of his fiancee, and she is dealing with a lot as well. It's a cute story, well written, and has a serious edge to it.

Josie has two great loves in her life. The first is Zac, her best friend for 14 years. The other is her career as a news reporter and she has a goal to become a news reader. But she also has a great fear - dying of cancer. Breast cancer has taken her grandmother and her aunt. When she messes up on a live broadcast, while interviewing a cancer patient, she gets reassigned to a smaller affiliate of her news station. The one shining light in the forced 6 month relocation is that it brings her geographically closer to Zac. He relocated 2 years before because of a hugely traumatic incident.

This story is the story of their relationship, with chapters moving between current time and their relationship. They clearly love each other as friends, but their friendship has withstood each other's love relationships with others.

Both characters have developed fears from experiences in their lives. Each has struggled with their feelings and their abilities to cope.

I loved this angsty story about two people who love, but aren't necessarily "in love." It's the story of their struggles with physical, mental, and emotional health challenges. My heart went out to both characters and I so wanted them to find their happily ever after.

This was a book I didn’t know I needed. Love, Just In follows the story of Josie. Josie is a TV news reporter in Sydney when she makes a mistake on national TV causing her to be sent to Newcastle for six months to cover another reporter's spot while they are on leave. Lucky for Josie her best friend since highschool lives in Newcastle but they haven't properly spoken to each other for a few years. Zac picks up Josie from the train station. They now need to navigate the friendship lost.

This was such a beautiful book and one I absolutely enjoyed reading 100%. From the very beginning I loved Zac's character - an absolute sweetheart. Throughout the book I was cheering on from the sidelines hoping that Zac and Josie would get together after everything they've been through. I really enjoyed the before chapters giving us a much needed background on the story of Zac and Josie.

Please note book navigates mental health including health anxiety and also a loss of a partner.

Thank you Allen and Unwin and Netgalley for a gifted copy of this e-book for my honest book review.

Josie Larsen, a TV reporter looking for her big break, gets an assignment working at the Newcastle station for six months. It just so happens that her best friend who she’s lost touch with is living in Newcastle as well. Josie is excited and nervous to get this chance to reconnect with Zac, her best friend and sometimes crush. Both Zac and Josie have a lot to overcome in their own personal lives, but they might be able to help each other along the way.

I usually like the friends to lovers trope, but this one was too slow burning and had too much internal drama for me. I never really connected with the characters and the whole health anxiety thing bothered me most of the time. I do think the health anxiety was an interesting angle to bring out in this book, but it just wasn’t for me. There is some much in this book that I wanted to question and so many things that rubbed me the wrong way. Anyway, it was a fast read, but I felt like the relationship between the two best friends was toxic. My opinion on this book doesn’t seem to be the popular one, so there is a good chance you will like it, but it wasn’t for me.

Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for an ARC of this book!

Here we have a story of two best friends for whom the stars never quite align to become something more. Josie hasn’t seen her former BFF Zac in two years, ever since his fiancé died and he moved away. But after a disaster on air filling in as a newsreader on Sydney TV, Josie gets shipped off to the minors in Newcastle – which just happens to be the same place Zac has been living. She hopes they can rekindle their best friendship and go back to like they always were. But after two years apart, perhaps long-buried feelings won’t stay hidden forever…

[book:Love, Just In] was a perfectly enjoyable reading experience while I was in it, though in hindsight, I was slightly annoyed with Zac, who’s carried a torch for Josie forever but went off and got engaged to someone else (to say more is a big spoiler but suffice to say I wish he’d just said something earlier! A LOT earlier!). It’s not quite “idiots to lovers” but nearly. Nor did the story trigger <i>too</i> many of my journalism-related pet peeves, so I count that as win.

CW: Death of a partner (told in flashbacks), death of loved ones from cancer, health anxiety-induced panic attacks

⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️ 💫 3.5 stars rounded down

<i>Thanks to NetGalley and Allen & Unwin for a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.</i>

This is the type of book that makes you feel like the characters are your friends and you are invested in the outcome. It had me smiling and getting so frustrated I wanted to shake the characters and smiling again. This is one of my favorite type of books.

Josie and Zac, now approaching 30, have been best friends since high school. But after a tragedy they have lost touch. Josie is a news reporter and after an on air mistake has been sent to a smaller market that just so happens to be where Zac now lives. Slowly they try to get their friendship back on track as they deal with mental health challenges. There is also an undeniable spark that is so much more than friendship. Will they find a way to take a chance on this spark?

I so, so identified with Josie's medical anxiety. I suffer from this and this book handled it well.

Sydney TV news reporter Josephine "Josie" Larsen is approaching 30 and coming dangerously close to failing at life She is ignored and unseen by practically everyone in her life. Then she has a panic attack live on TV. As a result she is shipped off to report on the 6 month journey is another reporter. This bring her back in contact with an old friend who is putting his life back together as well. Can they help each other find their way back to the lives that they want to lead?

I really loved this book. I loved Josie and Zac and Christina and Natasha. I loved the emphasis across both the romance, work, and health storylines taking place. I liked how everything didn’t feel too perfect, it felt incredibly real. A perfect read for fans of Emily Henry.

I LOVED this story! I got accepted to read the ARC months ago and I’m kicking myself that I waited so long to read it. The book is filled with swoon, heartache, great banter and a beautiful friendship that I devoured in less than a day. There is so much awkwardness when Josie and Zac reconnect after two years apart. Murray does a great job at drip feeding information about the pair that keeps the reader well fed and engaged. I liked that throughout the story we visited the past as we learn more about the main character’s friendship (and love). Some things in this book may be triggering for some people – healing from trauma (death/car accident), health scare (cancer). I admire Murray for exploring health anxiety in her book and showing how it can affect so many aspects of your life. I’ve never read that in a romance novel before and I could definitely relate. I loved the character of Zac straight away. He was a sweetheart. A great book boyfriend with plenty of layers. I liked Josie and grew to love her as the story progressed. There were some great open door love scenes that will leave the reader satisfied. I would like to note that it was such a treat to read a book set in my hometown (that never happens!). When familiar places or suburbs would pop up it had me grinning like a little kid haha. Highly recommended read! Thank you NetGalley and Allen & Unwin for this arc in exchange for an honest review.

I just wasn’t really invested in these characters if I’m honest… blurb compared with to Emily Henry’s Me and You on Vacation and I don’t think it’s comparable at all other than the two main characters being best friends. I needed more from their past POVS. It didn’t feel like we really got to see their connection form/grow. Took me weeks and weeks to finish this because I wasn’t rooting for them and overall wasn’t interested in the story. I don’t think I loved the huge overarching discussion of health anxiety - while I think important to have characters representing what so many go through, it felt like it overpowered the main character without letting her true self shine through it? I wish we had seen more of her journey overcoming it/communicating with those around her about what she was going through (it’s briefly discussed but not in depth). I also just didn’t believe the chemistry between them. I don’t know just really wasn’t a great childhood best friends to lovers compared to those I’ve read in the past.

Natalie Murray's latest Love, Just In is a sweet and slow, slow burn friends to lovers set in Australia. Approaching thirty, Josie Larsen is trying to achieve her dream job as an new reader (news anchor) in Sydney when she experiences an on-air hiccup. She hopes a temporary assignment in Newcastle can bring her back on track and allow her to reconnect with Zac, her childhood best friend. She and Zac drifted apart two years prior after a tragedy caused him to uproot from Sydney to sleepy Newcastle. Throughout their decades long friendship, they flirted with attraction but an obstacle was always present that kept them from acting on it. Will this experience together lead them back to their close friendship or is the time right for something more ? The main story is told interspersed with non-linear flashback to their college, post college, and high school days. Author does a great job handling and highlighting a condition called medical anxiety where Josie is excessively obsessed with pre-mature death or developing a deadly illness.. Trigger for anyone sensitive to impaired driving.

I was hooked from the beginning in this multilayered, emotional read. I stayed up far too late for someone with a baby to finish this last night.

Josie and Zac were both such amazing characters, and while sometimes I may have wanted to shake them both into sense, I really did love and relate to them so much. I think there are very few people who won’t relate to either of them as they navigate through their trauma, depression, anxiety, grief, and even their complicated feelings for one another.

There were so many profound elements in this book, but as someone who struggles themselves with the same crippling affliction, Josie’s health anxiety was so important to me. This type of mental health representation is not something I had read prior to this, so the validation and sense of “feeling seen” has left me so grateful to Natalie Murray.

I really loved falling in love with Josie and Zac as they fell in love with each other over and over. This was an incredibly cute book full of heartwarming moments, not only romantic, but in the platonic moments between friends as well. Everybody deserves the love Josie and Zac share for each other.
Natalie Murray did a wonderful job crafting this deeply intricate, heartfelt love story and I enjoyed every moment of it, from the laughter it brought in true romcom style, to the heartbreak I felt during some scenes, to the exquisite spicy scenes we tensely built up to. This was a delight to read!

Thank you to NetGalley, Allen & Unwin, and the author for this ARC.
Publication date 1/3/24

This book was so cute and emotional. I loved how it flipped back and forth between post and present. It really allowed the reader to experience all the ways Josie and Zac's relationship changed over the years. I found Josie's medical anxiety to be extremely relatable. While the romance in this one was slow to build up, it was so worth it.

Thanks to NetGalley for this arc. Love, Just In surprised me so many times, and I ended up really enjoying this book. At first, the character of Josie was truly insufferable to me, but I loved Zach. However — major kudos to this author, because between the friends to not friends to roommates to lovers of it all, the secret pining sucked me in, and I’m so glad I kept reading. Josie has so much character development, and while I was paranoid and annoyed at first with the health topics, I am grateful that I found out more about health anxiety and got to the end. This didn’t feel like too light of a rom com — it had purpose but also fun romance, which is always a great combo!

Josie and Zak were two characters that I truly did want to like but the more I read this book the more I did not care about them. I could not connect at all with them. The story did not hold my attention even with the friends to lovers’ concept which is one of my favorite storylines in a book.
I want a book like this to make me care about the people this one just left me with flat emotions.
Thank you NetGalley, Natalie Murray and Allen & Unwin for the book
Love, Just In. This is my personal review.