Josie and Zac have been since high school, but have been out of touch for two years. When Josie
returns to Newcastle to work at the local news station, the two reconnect. Josie deals with high
anxiety over health issues due to the effect cancer has had on her life. Zac is dealing with the grief
and trauma of having his fiancée die in his arms. Slow burn romance.
#LoveJustIn #NetGalley

Australia. Cute. Best friends to lovers. Cute. Time hops for context. Cute! “Doesn’t know what went wrong”??? Not at all cute.

This was a faaast read and pretty average because the problems weren’t problems. But their chemistry and long-time friendship was fun.

Love love loved this one! From the start, I was invested in Josie and Zac's story. With so much history and them clearly being the perfect match, I was rooting for them from the beginning. The story covers topics such as health anxiety, loss, and past trauma and I loved how you really got to know the characters and see how they worked to overcome their issues. Thoroughly enjoyed this one and would absolutely recommend!

This was a slow burn friends to lovers romance which was pretty easy to read and get through. I also liked the health anxiety rep and focus on mental health which was well executed.

Unfortunately, this book wasn’t for me and I found myself a bit confused with the alternating timelines and didn’t really see myself connecting with the characters.
But overall, a fast and easy read nonetheless. <3

Thank you to Net Galley and Allen & Unwin for letting me read this book for an honest review. This book was a feel good read. There’s the two main characters, Zac and Josey who have been friends since high school but as grown adults don’t really know where they stand with each other. They’ve been apart for a while then life brings them back together with a host of external characters including the nudist housemate who shows way more than anyone wants to see or hear, a boyfriend who likes one or two drinks too many and a girlfriend in the same career. But underneath the relationship story of Zac and Josey was a more serious story which unfolded as the story went backwards and forwards through time. A glorious read which was thoroughly enjoyable.

I absolutely adored this book and couldn’t get enough. It felt like watching a good old fashioned romantic movie that Nancy Myers would be proud of. I have always been an enemies to lovers die hard fan but after reading ‘Love, Just In’ I can now say I’m a massive fan of friends to lovers.

‘Love, Just In’ is set in Newcastle (Whoohoo finally a book set someplace I’ve been!) and we follow the story of Josie as she navigates her job as a news reporter, her growing health anxiety and her relationship with her bff Zac (new book boyfriend alert!). Filled with heartfelt moments and sexual tension (the spice is SO hot), this book is perfect for Emily Henry fans and readers who love a well written romance story with a whole lotta heart.

Do yourself a favour and add this book to your ur tbr asap!

Life seems to be turning into one big angsty vibe for TV news reporter Josephine Larsen. After an on air melt down panic attack, Josie is sent to work at a smaller market in the Australian town of Newcastle for six months. She is worried that being in the hinterlands will derail her career further. Not only is her job stress maxing out, but Josie’s family has decamped to foreign shores, all her friends seem to be getting married and having children, and her Sydney boss seems less than impressed with her reporting skills.

While Josie did not want to leave the Sydney market, she is nervous and excited about reconnecting with the man who was her best friend since her youth, Zac Jameson, who until two years ago was a constant in Josie’s life. After the loss of his fiancee in terrible car wreck, Zac left Sydney and essentially shut down their line of communication, to say that his feelings for Josie are complicated is an understatement.

As Zac and Josie try to reconnect, their story is told in a then and now fashion which at times seems disruptive to the narrative. They are each dating someone else while ending up living together because of Josie’s fail in finding a decent temporary roommate. Josie is a bundle of nerves and ball of anxiety for just about everything in her life including an extreme obsession about her health. Zac is an EMT who is still getting over his own trauma while facing people in difficult situations every day. Neither one seems to be able to be honest about their feelings, or in Josie’s case, explain them very well.

Josie is one of those FMC's who caused me a lot of angst. Some of the things she does including dating Zac’s recently ex-roommate who seems like a real loser while making poor choices with him, to ignoring possibly serious health issues while she is constantly obsessed with them get old fast. Zac is so forgiving of her hot and cold, push me, pull attitude, certainly more than she deserves. One of the taglines says “hilarious” rom-com, but I did not see much of that feeling at all in the book. Clearly these two were meant for each other from the very start; however, Josie never did seem to get a clue until nearly too much irreparable damage was done to their relationship.

3.5, rounded up bc inflation :)

Love, Just In is a well-written rom com with a few serious topics sprinkled in, to give it depth. It felt slightly too long, though I'm not sure whether it was the slow burn nature of the romance or if it was just 25% too long. I liked that the female protagonist was struggling with her mental health, as it made her relatable in a way that many protagonists aren't. I also enjoyed the Australian setting and the friends-to-lovers of it all, both of which made this feel very Emily Henry-esque. This book isn't full of silly tropes or pointless misunderstandings (i.e. communication issues in order to further the plot), which is notable in the genre. While it wouldn't make my 'must read' list, it was an enjoyable read and I'd recommend it to fans of the genre.

Josie Larsen is a Sydney news reporter hoping to become a news anchor in the high-stakes world of Sydney broadcast news. When she has a panic attack on live TV, Josie is sent off to a regional office in Newcastle on a short-term assignment. Enter the friend-to-lover. Zac Jameson, her best friend, lives in Newcastle. After he lost his fiancé in an accident he and Josie had fallen out of touch, but now they are back in each other’s lives and things are getting…complicated. Sexy complicated.

This sounds like a simple story, but it’s so much more. Both are dealing with mental health issues and relationship issues and baggage, and Natalie Murray takes all of this on, making this so gratifying. A romance novel about real people with issues and complicated interior lives.

What if People We Meet On Vacation had a lot of cancer talk, an Australian news anchor drama, and discussed the dangers of drunk driving?? You get Love, Just In!

This one took me a little bit to get into and I can't say by the end it was my all-time favorite, but it was a cute read! I really enjoyed the portrayal of health anxiety, I was not expecting it going in but it was a welcome touch of character to the romcom genre. The Australia setting was fun too! I don't think I've ever read an aussie romance book so it was a lil culture shocky for me. but I liked it.

Now to the negatives, it took me much longer to get really interested in these characters than usual. I think that is just personal taste rather than writing style though. I wasn't a big fan of the spicy scenes, they just didn't hit the same for me as other romance novels.

Overall, this was a decent read but I'm not sure I will reread it.

Thank you to NetGalley for supplying the ARC in exchange for an honest review :)

TW: Cancer. car accident, grief, strong language, open door scenes.

I found this book to be ok, but didn’t like the jumping around in the timeline for the backstory.
It was a nice enough childhood friends to lovers romance.

Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for an advance copy of this book in exchange for an honest review,

This was a slow burn friends to lovers, and I really enjoyed the characters. This story focuses on Josie Larsen, a woman navigating through her late twenties, trying to climb in her dream career, while dealing with singleness, abandonment, and health anxiety issues. The book’s chapters alternate between the past and the present, beginning with introducing us to Josie and Zac (her guy best friend), in high school, and then coming back to present day.

This contemporary romance ties in trauma, death, mental health, sisterhood, corporate growth, love, and family relationships really well. I thoroughly enjoyed watching all of the characters grow, and realistically deal with tough situations.

Also, Josie is just funny, she uses her humor to cope with a lot of situations, but her dialogue made me chuckle the whole time I was reading.

As a millennial dealing with the same things, I loved this book. #LoveJustIn #NetGalley

Love, Just In by Natalie Murray is much more than your typical friends to lovers story. The main characters have a strong friendship that began as children and while they have grown apart over the years those tight and meaningful connections cannot be easily severed. They both have had trauma in their lives that have affected them deeply and it was refreshing to see this presented so directly. The anxiety they both experience is part of who they are and woven into the fabric of their being, but they both are working hard to make sure it does not completely define them and their future. It could be a bit jarring jumping back and forth between non-sequential time periods, but once I got used to it I found it to be quite effective as the steps back in time each directly informed a current situation.

2.5 maybe 3

I love the premise of this book but the jumping timeline did my head it. I really wish authors would stop doing this. Just as you are getting into the story line you are pulled out for some boring back history. I think that in this case it did more harm than good to this particular story.

Love, Just In is a good slow burn romance . Josie and Zac have been best friends since high school until life throws them some pretty bad curve balls and their relationship withers. Josie's job temporarily moves her to the city where Zac currently lives and we get a front seat view of what unfolds. I enjoyed Natalie Murray's dialogue and her supporting characters and the setting in Australia. But…there were some pretty heavy topics that, for me, kept this from being just a fun to read rom com. These topics, especially health anxiety and panic attacks were handled well. Just be aware going in if those are triggers for you.

Josie and Zac have been best friends over a decade, never becoming romantically involved. They shared secrets and dreams, by each other through everything. When Zac goes through a traumatic event and drops out of Josie’s life, she thinks she might never get her best friend back. Then she ends up in his city, as his roommate, and things start to turn around. But between Josie’s health anxiety and Zac’s grief, things between them may end before they ever truly begin…

I truly adored this little book! Told in dual timelines, you get a well-rounded tale of Zac and Josie’s friendship over the years and how their years apart affected them. There was just enough angst to be enjoyable, but I loved all of the sweet moments that could only be shared between the best of friends as they fell into something more.

As someone with clinical OCD (and a lot of OCD triggers surrounding health/health anxiety), I thought the depiction of Josie’s health anxiety was very well done and accurate to life. There is no logic that can be said to talk your brain out of those thoughts, so I loved that the author stayed true to that with Josie instead of having the love interest be able to talk her out of her thoughts.

Overall, I literally couldn’t put this book down. I finished it in a day, swooning the entire time. Big thanks to NetGalley and Allen&Unwin for the advance copy in exchange for an honest review!

I was skeptical when I kept seeing this book being compared to Emily Henry, but I ended up loving it. As you get deeper in, it becomes more and more heart crushing and follows through with the HEA.

Thanks to Netgalley and the publisher for an ARC in exchange for an honest review!
Josie and Zac have been best friends for 14 years, but have lost touch in the past 2 years due to living in different cities (Josie lives in Sydney and Zac in Newcastle). When Josie has to go to Newcastle for work, the 2 friends reconnect and catch up on what's been going on in each of their lives.
This is a very slow burn romance that deals with a few heavy topics (health anxiety, cancer, tragic car accidents). The story was enjoyable enough but it felt like it was a little too long. I understand going back and forth between the past and present to give the main characters a more detailed back story, but in my opinion a few of the chapters that dealt with the past could have been omitted without negatively affecting the storyline.
I also really wish the author would have had a character (any character!) mention that light beer doesn't mean light/less buzz (if you read the story you'll know what I'm talking about).
Overall a decent read.

What a fun and heartfelt romance. It was so refreshing to see these characters navigate real life issues, making it much easier to relate to them.

It was especially enjoyable to read a book in this genre set in Australia!

You really can’t go wrong with the friends-to-lovers trope. Definitely a perfect read for fans of Emily Henry or those who enjoy a charming yet meaningful romance.

Thank you to Netgalley for the opportunity to read this book for my honest review.
An incredibly beautiful, funny, heartfelt story that also opens the readers eyes to two important issues. Highly recommend to all.