this may be a bold statement, but i think this has been my favorite book by ali hazelwood so far. 🫢 typically, her books aren’t usually the biggest standouts to me but i still very much enjoy them. also this cover is GORGEOUS!!

for me personally, this one felt a lot heavier to read than her previous works. topics such as grief, food insecurity, child neglect, social anxiety and feelings of inadequacy were touched on and i think they were all handled nicely. always check tw’s!!

one of the things i loved most about this book was rue. while i love my confident and extroverted fmc’s, it is so refreshing to get to read about a character who is seen as “aloof” and “detached” when in reality she just has a hard time communicating with others which causes her to self isolate. if this sounds like you, you are going to love her!! she’s my girl. eli was a such a sweetheart (definitely not in the sheets lol🧎🏻‍♀️), and was highkey obsessed with rue (as he should)!

i will say there is a lot more smut/spice in this book than her previous ones, but it didn’t overwhelm the romance for me. with the issues/topics involved in this story, it makes sense how the characters went about their physical relationship and why. 

i don’t want to give too much away, but this was definitely a great and heartfelt read for me!!
thank you netgalley and berkley publishing group for this arc! 💐

3.5/5

This is a very spicy forbidden romance, that is rich with more unique characters, and a new kind of story from Ali Hazelwood. Both Eli and Rue felt very different to the typical characters Hazelwood writes. They have immediate chemistry, and this is evident and a bit in your face for the entirely of the book. I cannot stress that this book is HEAVY on the sex scenes, sometimes over the top, but I feel like it is important to note how prevalent the physicality of their relationship is.

I had a difficult time getting into the story, the characters didn't feel as though they were sharing much about themselves for quite awhile. This changed and I began to really know them by the middle of the story! However, despite the dual POV (which I enjoyed) I still wasn't the biggest fan of the way Eli expressed his connection to Rue, it felt at times as though his obsession with her was only sexual. I did enjoy Rue's character a lot, she felt so confident in being herself, and I loved her and I appreciated the way she was written to be loyal and honest with who she was.

I wasn't sold on the plot at the start but became quickly obsessed with the corporate storyline and the conflict, it was what kept my attention the most throughout the book. I even cried at the end when it all came together, the friendships and conflicts became my favorite part! I will say this book is very sexy, however it may just not have been what I was expecting and for that reason some of the spice felt overwhelming at times. I did still really enjoy reading this, especially the last 3rd of the book which was my favorite part of the book.

Thank you Berkley for the Advanced Reader Copy.

I know a lot of people will ding Ali Hazelwood for following a pretty similar formula in her novel writing, but the formula works for me and is changed just enough each book that I vibe with it. However, Not in Love feels like it builds upon all of her former works. There are notes of her go to story elements: STEM/academic setting, miscommunication/misunderstanding, a secret or forbidden relationship. But we also get dual POV (finally), more spice (it's possible!), and she's grumpy/he's sunshine. I thoroughly enjoyed the story and I can't wait to read the next one! Maybe we'll get a romance sort of hinted at in this book as the next one!

Ali Hazelwood continues to amaze me! This story has a different vibe from the other AH books I've read, steamier and more emotionally vulnerable, and I love it.

I adore Rue, an emotionally unavailable, shy scientist who presents as aloof to all. She lets herself have near-anonymous hookups every once in a while, and this time she picks Eli. When he shows up to meet her, she's being harassed by a guy (later confirmed to be her brother). Rue and Eli don't hook up but are stunned by their instant mutual attraction. Later, when Eli arrives at her office to take over the biofuel company from one of Rue's friends, we get our conflict! Can they resist each other as they line up on opposite sides of this business struggle? Of course not!

I really love Rue and Eli's connection. They both have baggage from their pasts and realize they mesh together in part because they understand and listen to each other so well. I laughed, I cried, I will continue reading Ali Hazelwood books forever!

Thanks to Netgalley and Berkley for the ARC!

I thought it started out really good, but then it just turned into porn on paper and never really stopped. The plot was fighting for it's life. It was more than I have ever seen from her. I don't know I didn't really like the plot that much. It was beyond predictable. I want more like The Love Hypothesis or Love Theoretically and this just wasn't it. I will still read everything she writes, but this was a bit disappointing. I am grateful for my copy, however. I hope Ali's next book is uber-amazing.

Thank you to Berkeley Publishing and Netgalley for the ARC for an honest review.

Rue's career as a biotech engineer at Kline is rocked by a company takeover that she didn't see coming. Eli and his partners want Kline and are digging into the company, trying to find the leverage they need to win the rights to the company. Rue and Eli have an attraction that neither of them can ignore. Being on opposite sides of this takeover makes their relationship impossible but they can't help but want one another.

This book ROCKED MY WORLD!!! When I finished the book, I was so sad that it was over. I immediately wanted to re-read it so that I could jump back into Rue and Eli's world.

Rue and Eli had an intense and fiery chemistry that I ate up. They had an undeniable attraction and an ease between them that was there from the start. Rue was closed off to most people, but there was something about Eli that made her want to share things with him. They fell hard and fast for one another and life as they knew it would change, whether they were ready for it or not. Their sexual chemistry was EXPLOSIVE. This is Ali Hazelwood's steamiest book yet and I AM HERE FOR IT!!!

What I loved about this book was that the journey that Rue and Eli went on was unexpected. I didn't expect things to play out how they did and I loved that it wasn't predictable. I enjoyed the bit of mystery about Eli's motives for the takeover and how that complicated their relationship.

I cried tears of joy at the end of the book. It was beautiful how Rue and Eli fit together, like yin and yang and complimenting each other perfectly. He knew what she needed and he did everything in his power to give her what she needed.

This book is going on my all-time favorites list. I can't wait to read it again in the near future!

Steam level: 🔥🔥🔥🔥
⚠️: mention of food insecurity and death of a parent

Eil is the definition of man OBSESSED. I loved this book so much, Ali did it again!
I read bride earlier this year and I wondering how 2 releases in the year would go, and it happy to announce that I loved both with all my heart.
Eli and Rues relationship was fast physically and had the perfect slow burn emotionally that I loved

This was exactly what you would expect from an Ali Hazelwood novel. The setting is a tiny bit different than her other novels, but again it revolves heavily around academia and STEM. I did like that Hazelwood diverged slightly from her "not like other girls" quirky main characters, but it almost went too far in the other direction. I liked Rue as a character, but I wish that more time had been spent on giving her a personality aside from her personal struggles. I get that as people we are often defined by our life experiences, but that should not be the entirety of a character's personality. As for the male main character, Eli, he was just okay as well. I didn't like the insta-love aspect of his characterization. He's completely gone for her upon first meeting her, and you hear a lot of his inner dialogue, but you never really understand what he likes about her past her looks and her and her "unattainability."
A large portion of their relationship and the overall plot of the story, relies on the idea of the main characters not considering themselves "good people." Hazelwood spends a lot of time building up to the big bad things that these characters have done and regularly has the characters divulge said "bad things" to each other on the basis of creating an honest relationship. But the build up was unnecessary and honestly anti-climactic. All this to say, if you like Ali Hazelwood's previous novels then you'll probably like this one as well; but don't expect it to be anything different.

Another banger by hazelwood! As much as I enjoyed watching the romantic relationship blossom between them, it was the emotional connection between them, and especially Eli‘ encouragement of Rue to be who and what she wants to be that really took this story to the next level for me.

Ali Hazelwood has done it again! I absolutely adored this adult romance and everything about it was perfection! I know many criticisms of Ali Hazelwood include something about how she writes her books in the style of a ReyLo fanfic, but this is anything but that. Finally, the reylo haters can enjoy an Ali Hazelwood book. This is about a nerdy, quiet, but extremely lovable main character, falling for the most golden retriever, sweetest boy ever. This book is everything a romance novel should be while also leaving the reader surprised and wanting more. Once I started Not In Love, I couldn't put it down. I've heard some other books being called "a book for romance readers who think romance is for everyone but themselves," and I think this book falls firmly in that category. This was so incredible, and truly shows Hazelwood's range and growth as a writer. I can't wait to see what she writes next, because her books just exceed expectations every single time!

This wasn't my favorite Ali Hazelwood, but I still really liked it! Rue Siebert, engineer at a company called Kline, is not into relationships (she actually reminded me quite a bit of the FMC in Hazelwood's YA novel, Check & Mate). She periodically meets one-night stands through a hook-up app, and pretty much never sees them again. That formula is broken with Eli Killgore in more than one way - one, they don't hook up because her brother shows up and kind of ruins the vibe, and two, she runs into Eli again almost immediately. Eli and his business partners have bought a loan owed by Kline (this is where I must admit that there was some financial stuff in this that I fully didn't understand), and there's fear throughout the company that they'll take over operations and lay off employees. So Eli is now a clear enemy of Rue and her friends and colleagues, but she can't seem to stay away from him. Rue and Eli had great chemistry and banter (I laughed out loud a few times), and I liked that these two mains were a bit different than the main characters in Hazelwood's first three steminist novels - she's slightly less naive, he's slightly less alpha. There's still plenty of what I think of as Hazelwood's signatures - representation of women in STEM, a fast-paced plot, solid side characters, complicated character histories, and some scathing commentary on mentoring of women in science and tech.

took me a bit to get into mostly because i was so tired and kept falling asleep but as i’ve said before, ali hazelwood keeps getting better and better with every book she writes. not in love has a very different tone than her other works, but she handles it so well and knows how to ride the emotions all the way to an hea. loved this book and now everything that ali hazelwood writes

OBSESSED.

Am I talking about myself while reading this book or Eli's feelings towards Rue? The world may never know.

Ali Hazelwood said this is her angsty-est novel yet & she did not disappoint. This book made me laugh, it made me cry, and I made me want to hug both of these characters for a long, long time. Who says a venture capitalist and a biochemist can't be the perfect match for each other?

As per usual, Hazelwood has hit it out of the park. I can't wait to see what she writes next.

As a certified Ali stan, getting to read and review her upcoming books never gets old. I was especially excited to receive an early copy of NOT IN LOVE thanks to Berkley Romance + NetGalley and it may just be my favorite release since her first.

Still featuring a steminist focus (I would expect nothing less!) and a smart, attractive male main character that is every bit her match, this book is a little bit different from Ali’s normal writing formula but I was caught up in the story from the start.

Rue knows what she wants in all things, and is not willing to give more than what she knows she can, setting clear boundaries and expectations in all aspects of life that at times may make her seem unfriendly. The qualities that some may think of as unlikeable make her exactly who she is, a fierce and loyal friend who is incredibly intelligent and determined to succeed in her work, that is tied to her past in a big way. I found even the science of her work interesting, and how Ali wrote the interactions between Rue, her childhood and her work made her a character I could not wait to know more for, and who I wanted to have everything she ever wanted and more.

Our love interests have a meet cute that is unique and attention-grabbing, only to wake up and find out they’ll be working together in the worst case scenario possible, setting them off on the wrong foot in every way. After Eli crashes into her life and makes her question what she knows, their forbidden affair becomes everything as he gives her the space to be herself and loves her for it, even as she questions his motives — it had me absolutely swooning.

With plenty of steamy scenes full of mutual consent and joy, I loved every bit of their close proximity workplace romance and their complicated family and friends that make up the rest of the plot line. Their lives are messy and wonderful and this book just gave me so much hope that everyone can find their someone, and choosing love is what’s most important. It was emotional and different and I really enjoyed the couples chemistry and their emotional vulnerability with one another throughout the book.

“Maybe people can be happy and sad. Maybe stories are messy and complicated. Maybe endings don’t always include solutions that tie everything together with a bow. But that doesn’t mean they have to be tragedies.”

Rue meets us with a man she matches with on an app for a hook up, things don’t go as planned and they don’t end up hooking up, but he does drive her home. Then at Rue’s work things have flipped upside down - and suddenly hook up man is the new loan holder of her work company. The 2 try to avoid each other, but there’s too much attraction between the both of them, they just can’t stay away. Rue doesn’t know if she’s betraying her friends or letting herself be happy. But with everything going on Rue doesn’t know who she can trust and who to mistrust.

It did take me a minute to really get into this book. The storyline wasn’t as intriguing/eventful as previous Ali Hazelwood works I’ve read. I felt the storyline was a little flat. There was too much of an emphasis on certain facts that you just KNEW something was going to go wrong with it, and once you discover the ‘truth’ you could already tell a potential repeat was going to happen. Both Rue and Eli were a little annoying/repetitive with their continuous ‘we shouldn’t but we will’ and ‘I know it’s not what I/you want but I’ll take what I can get and I’ll give you anything you want’

Thank you to NetGalley and Berkley Publishing Group for an eARC of this book in exchange for an honest review.

Ali Hazelwood, the woman you are.

I knew this was going to be another win for her and to no one's surprise, it was. Rue and Eli bring us another STEM romance and I was hooked from the start. We got a little bit more of a slow burn in this one as our main characters and love interests are very right person, wrong time kind of vibes and I LOVE a slow burn, no matter how big or small. Rue is determined to protect her best friend, mentor, and the reason why she ended up where she is now in food preservation. Kline has been the best experience for her but when the people who are here to basically audit their loan coincidentally overlap with the most recent attempted hookup of Rue's, she is less determined to work off some tension and redirects all focus to protecting her job and her friend.

Eli is part of the organization that has purchased the loan that Kline needed and are using this time to do some digging. Eli didn't expect to walk into any room after the night he had, coming face to face with a woman he can't stop thinking about. Enamoured is probably the best word to use when referring to Eli's feelings to Rue. He sees this woman as everything she was when he met her last night and so much more now that he's seen her at work. But the two can't get their wires crossed no matter how much they feel for the other.

DENY, DENY, DENY!! That's what they DO

I loved it. I ate it up. It was sweet, Eli was wonderful even when he wasn't, Rue was great. Soooo saucy ;). There was no point in this where I felt it wasn't going to be as great as a typical Hazelwood release is. I love this woman.

Thanks to NetGalley and Berkley Publishing Group for sending me an ARC of Not in Love in exchange for an honest review.

Rue Siebert is a biotech engineer at Kline, a food science start-up. She’s a “serious, distant girl” who has trouble reading and being read by others. She’s also uncompromising, with a dating app profile that reads “only casual—no relationships or repeat meetings.” She plans a casual hookup with Eli, a man she met on an app, but circumstances conspire against them. The next day, Rue learns that Kline is at risk of being taken over by Harkness Group, a tech-focused private equity firm, and that Eli is one of Harkness’s partners. Rue wants to save Kline and its founder, Florence, from Harkness. Eli wants control of Kline for his own reasons. But Rue and Eli want each other too, and when one night is not enough, they both try to have it all even though there’s no way they can both get everything they want….

Not in Love hits similar beats as Ali Hazelwood’s first three books, but in a consistently better way. Because there are multiple potential antagonists, the plot is a bit less predictable. It’s still a STEM story, but setting the characters in the private sector rather than academia put a fresh spin on things. My past reviews of Ali Hazelwood’s first three books commented (with increasing emphasis) that each one tells the love story between a pretty, smallish woman and a giant, strong man where the woman cannot stop think and talking about how giant and strong he is. So, is Not in Love, as I once requested, “a romance between two characters of unremarkable height?” Not quite, but Rue is … also tall … not quite as tall as Eli, but tall enough that his being tall and broad is rarely commented upon. The absence of the constant “he’s so big” commentary really does give Not in Love a very different feel and tone.

But the best part is probably this: each of Ms Hazelwood’s earlier novels have been positioned as enemies-to-lovers. But, as I’ve asked before, is it really an “enemies-to-lovers” story if one of the characters has been in love with the other one the entire time and the other one somehow didn’t see it? What sets Not in Love apart and above is that Eli and Rue really are enemies, fighting for or against Harkness’s hostile takeover of Kline. They each have complicated pasts that draws the other in, and their chemistry is crackling, like two live wires. Even though they know they shouldn’t, they just can’t stop themselves from getting closer and closer. It’s intense and, I’m not sure there’s another way to say it, just plain hot.

I enjoyed Ali Hazelwood’s first three books, especially The Love Hypothesis, but Not in Love is easily my favorite. 4.5 stars rounded up to 5. Highly recommended.

Is it crack? Is it crack that she puts in these books? Because that’s the only explanation for how bingeable and amazing it feels to read these. And in all honesty, this is her best book yet. It’s also by far her spiciest book yet (which I LOVED).

If you were previously put off by certain things in Ali’s previous books, let me tell you what is NOT in this one:
-No big man-tiny girl
-no fake enemies to lovers
-no incessant miscommunication
-no 3rd act BS that comes out of nowhere
-no weird s3x scene that makes you go wtf

Instead, what we do get is:
-Two very damaged MCs who are actually self aware and communicate
-Open communication around boundaries and limits and stories that reveal inner truths
-Actually really well written spicy scenes (and lots of them!)
-Angst that actually makes sense within the story
-An incredibly well done confession scene that brought me to tears

So yeah, I loved this and highly recommend it.

Many thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for the preview. All opinions are my own.

First, thank you for the opportunity to read this advance copy. I've enjoyed Ali Hazelwood's book but I think this one might be my favorite so far. An excellent story with really great characters. I can't speak to the accuracy of the science or working in a lab but characters working out their issues and finding happiness is always a wonderful read.

Ali Hazelwood solidifies herself as an auto-buy author for me with every single book that she releases and Not in Love is no exception. While this book is very different from Ali's previous books, it still has that Ali Hazelwood touch and flare that makes it an instant favorite. This book put me through the ringer emotionally and left me relating to it a lot more than I had originally anticipated. But just like every other one of Ali Hazelwood's books, I walk away feeling nothing but satisfaction and an excitment to have a physical copy to add to my shelf.

I do want to preface everything by saying Ali Hazelwood has provided Trigger and Content Warnings for this particular book on her website and I will include them below because this book does deal with heavier topics!

The premise of a hostile takeover with people falling for each other on opposing sides is the perfect concoction for a modern rivals-to-lovers and Ali Hazelwood did a phenomenal job breathing that trope to life with Rue and Eli. Their chemistry was off the charts and I am obsessed with this particular "meet-cute" and how everything progressed relationship-wise throughout the story. This book, from start to finish, was a complete joy and I devoured it. The tension, the banter, the depth both individually and together was so great and I really think Ali shined with this book. I hope that we get more dual POV books from her in the future because it was honestly such a delight.

Rue, the fmc, is a biotech engineer working at Kline (the start-up company that Eli is trying to essentially take over). I appreciated how her background was discussed and how that part of her past really drove her to pursue the job that she has and develop the stuff that she does in this book. While this is another woman in STEM, I feel like it wasn't as technical as all of Ali's previous books so if that was something you didn't enjoy in her other novels, I'd still suggest giving this one a chance. Rue had so much depth as a character and I related to her on a lot of levels (which is probably why I ended up crying on multiple occassions). I honestly would take on the world for her and just appreciate her overall as a character and loved her as the main character of this book.

I don't think I've seen anyone talk about this particular aspect yet and I would love clarification from Ali Hazelwood herself but Rue, to me (a neurodivergent person) felt like she was also neurodivergent but I haven't seen it confirmed anywhere.

Eli, the mmc, was impossible not to fall for from the very first moment we are introduced to him and it only becomes more impossible as the book continues. This man was swoon-worthy, down-bad, a dirty-talker who looks at Rue in such an awe-inspiring sort of way. His personality was a lot different, I think, from Ali's other male leads. He was super charming, charismatic, and laid-back. When I say it's impossible not to like him, I really mean it. He also has a giant dog named Tiny and he has curly hair and was a hockey player. So . . . honestly what's not to love? He is so opposite of Rue and I think that was really endearing in this particular context, especially because he never felt like Rue needed changing or to be anything other than exactly who she is.

The supporting cast of characters are really wonderful and I loved the chemistry and flow that we saw within all of the different relationships throughout the book. There's a lot of depth to everyone on the page and we get to see more of that as the book goes on instead of just keeping it surface level. I just really love how real this one felt with everyone's quirks and baggage regardless of whether they were the main characters or just background characters.

The overarching conflict and plot was enjoyable. However, Ali's books definitely have me wondering (as someone who has never been in STEM in any capacity) if people are really as untrustworthy and cut-throat as they are in her books. So someone will have to share that information with me because wow. LOL

I want to say thank you to Berkley Romance for sending me an e-ARC of Not in Love by Ali Hazelwood. This book is one of my most anticipated releases for 2024 and it was phenomenal being given the opportunity to read it before it's release date.

TWs/CWs: (taken from Ali Hazelwood's website) a lot more graphic explicit scenes. childhood poverty and food insecurity, anxiety around food, mentions of addiction (secondary characters), social anxiety, parental death (accidents, illness / off page, in the past), parental neglect, power exchange, attempted assault of the fmc by her brother (she is unharmed), pregnancy of a secondary character (only mentioned briefly)

- dual pov
- "let's get it out of our system"
- she's grumpy / he's sunshine
- STEM (but the least out of Ali's books)
- forbidden romance
- insta lust
- angsty
- difficult familes
- traumatic pasts
- he's obsessed
- rivals with benefits
- secret entanglements
- he falls first
- found family
- slow burn romance but fast burn spice
- rivals to friends to lovers

My Ali Hazelwood Ranking:
Love, Theoretically
Not In Love
Bride / The Love Hypothesis
Check & Mate
Love on the Brain
Loathe to Love You Novellas