4.5 star!

Enemies to lovers is literally my favourite trope ever and this book did it so much justice!
Loved the banter between Rosie and Aiden, their chemistry was so evident from the very beginning.

Highly recommend,

4.5 stars

QUICK GLANCE-
My format- eARC
Other formats 📖Physical (320 pages) 🎧Audio (10 hrs 30 min)
Spice: 🌶️🌶️🌶️🌶️(closed door modifications skip Ch 17, 24, 26, and 27)
Language: 🤐🤐🤐

My THOUGHTS
I absolutely loved Not in My Book by @readinromance from the start! It had amazing banter and chemistry. The main characters were also realistic and relatable, and their backgrounds felt fully fleshed out. I rooted for both of them from start to finish. I would say the book's first half was 5 stars for me. The second half was a bit predictable but I still ATE it up!! I will definitely be reading more by this author in the future!

Books about Books
Enemies to Lovers
Taylor Swift and Christina Lauren Shout Outs
Forced Proximity
New York City Setting
Grumpy/Sunshine

QOTD: What’s your favorite romance trope??

Thank you to @netgalley and @alcovepress for this eARC in exchange for an honest review
Pub Date: 10 December 2024

Rosie left her Tennessee town to live in New York and attempts to make her dream of being an author come true. But her arch nemesis is in her class: obnoxious Aiden Huntington, who always picks her work to pieces in workshops and who is unfairly attractive. An(other) argument in class leads to ultimatum from the lecturer: work on a novel together, or drop out.

I ABSOLUTELY loved this!

It was such a fun romance. There is a great dynamic between Rosie, who believes in romance novels and happily ever afters despite never finding one, and Aiden, who is more of a literary fiction realist.

I loved the parallel between their developing relationship and the relationship of their characters in the novel; and that spicy scene they wrote! Phew! The fact that we also got snippets of their novel at the end of each chapter was so adorable too.

This was definitely one of the best romances I've read so far this year!

Thank you to Alcove Press for the e-arc of Not in my Book! All opinions are my own.

Rating: 4/5
Spiciness: 3/5

The way this book had me screaming out loud, giggling and kicking my feet, it was crazy. Ok picture this, you're a romance girlie, you love it so much you decide to be a romance writer and you're getting your masters at NYU. Your dreams are happening except there's this guy in one of your classes that rips every piece you present to shreds all because its a romance and he's too good for them as a sad boy lit-fit writer. But you go tit for tat with him and you don't miss a chance to give it right back to him. But things get a lil out of hand and your professor informs you she is sick of your guys lil spats and taking over her class. She decides you either write together or you get out of her class. And thus begins a quarrelsome coauthor relationship.

This book is sooooo good! The fun and tension when Rosie and Aiden write as their book's characters Maxine and Hunter is crazy. I love how they use their characters to express themselves as two people who find more comfort in written word. I also like how Aiden wasn't your typically cold and confident guy. The more we got to know him, the more we say his nerves and caution. This was a beautiful story about two people trying to open themselves up to each other and be what the other needs.

Thank you NetGalley for providing me a copy of this arc! All thoughts in this review are my own.

I thoroughly enjoyed this book! It was so engaging, and the premise of the entire book was super fun.

I was worried reading some of the scenes be repeated, pretty much word-for-word, would be boring, but I actually didn't mind! The parallels between the book and the story Aiden and Rosie were writing was such an interesting way to tell a story. There wasn't much reading between the lines needed, but it definitely helped to build the tension between the two characters.

The scene where they were writing next to each other in Aiden's house, and over the phone had me losing my mind!!

All of the side characters were unique enough that they could be told apart, and I enjoyed that they had sideplots without becoming distracting. The relationships all felt genuine. I wished there was more interaction between Rosie and her friends during the workshops though, because with a big group of friends like that, I think there would've been more constant interactions between them all. It felt like Rosie ignored her friends for almost all the workshops and only focused on Aiden.

Definitely such a great read, and a cool take on a romance novel!

It is honestly hard to pinpoint what exactly about this book didn’t work for me but I’ll give it a shot.

First off, the plot was basically Beach Read but in NYC and then I just struggled to not compare. I found the MC pretty immature and it was hard to root for her. The book within a book thing didn’t work for me either, I found it repetitive and I sometimes skipped those parts.

I think the author has promise and I would give her another try but this one just wasn’t for me.

Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for the arc.

Not in my book follows a pair of rivals in a graduate writing workshop. Rosie is a romance author who is incredibly passionate about her genre, and Aiden is a lit fic author who hates romance. When they can’t stop fighting in class, their teacher gives them two options: either write a book together, or get kicked out of the class entirely.

Overall I thought this was a pretty fun read. If you’re a big romance fan, this book will absolutely give you what you want. It’s packed with the tropes we all know and love. I really enjoyed the slow burn aspect and thought Rosie was such a fun, strong character.

Where it loses some points for me is the reliance on miscommunication. It felt a little unbelievable that two graduate writing students couldn’t find words to express their feelings to each other’s faces. The third act break up also did nothing for me. It felt like a pretty flimsy reason to push them apart.


I think this was a great debut though! I’ll be interested to see what Holt writes next.


Thank you to NetGalley and Alcove Press for the arc!!

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for the ARC in return for an honest review!

My, oh my!! What a fun little enemies to lovers romance. This book was a slow burn and so, so cute! I loved the way Rosie and Aiden were both authors. I felt that they had such a good dynamic, first being almost rivals in a sense, and then working together to create a book. This was definitely. binge-able and I felt myself unable to stop reading. I felt like both of the characters were going through such realistic things and had a great, healthy dynamic. Rosie was really relatable and Aiden was down bad for her. I'm always a fan of forced proximity, so what a great way to force two characters to be together than to write a book!! This was created for book lovers. Really enjoyed it!!

This story is one of the best romantic stories I've ever read! I really enjoyed the dynamic of the characters, two completely different characters full of passion. The dialogues between them are delightful and so you just can't stop reading! I highly recommend it!

Beautiful! I am a sucker for stories about writers, and for enemies to lovers, and for romance. This book delivers all my favorite things - so many great tropes used so artfully that sometimes it took me a minute to realize another one had snuck in. Rosie is so passionate about not just writing, but writing romance and I love her not-rose-but-Rosie-tinted view of life. In perfect contrast, Aiden’s more serious and down-to-earth approach tempers her well as they are forced to write together. I adore the inclusion of excerpts from the characters writing; since we don’t get a full dual point of view, it’s a perfect snippet of a glance into Aiden’s thoughts. And the scenes where they fully collaborate, writing line by line rather than chapter by chapter, are some of my favorites as it shows how well they fit. I positively devoured this story!

"Not in my book" is a nice romance novel about two post grad writers: Rosie, a romance author, and Aiden, a litfic author. They cannot but argue every class and they are forced to write a novel together not to get excluded from the program.
The book is basically a set of well-known romance tropes like rivals to lovers (which by the way was a little weaker than I expected), forced proximity, one bed, etc. And I personally liked how Katie Holt used these tropes both on Rosie and Aiden and on the characters of their own book - Max and Hunter.
I'm not a huge fan of romance, though I do love a good cute story from time to time. I'm giving this one a 3-star rating because I did like it on the whole, especially the first 60%-ish of it, but the last third was a bit disappointing.
A couple points I’m thinking of:
- The third act conflict was very weak and I barely felt anything when it was presented.
- I guess we can consider this novel a slow burn, but after the aforementioned conflict the pace of the plot seemed broken, it was very rushed and chaotic and the little flash forward as the very end didn’t fix much (I would even say it made everything worse, it was really unnecessary).
- I know no one really wants to read books about healthy people who go to therapy and can actually talk to each other but with Rosie and Aiden it sometimes was just… too much. They are postgrad students, meaning they’re somewhere in their late 20s but I felt like if they were college freshmen or even highschool students practically nothing would change in terms of their behavior.
- The spicy scenes felt like they were pasted from some other text because the characters felt totally different and were acting weird. BUT I’m not a tiniest bit of an expert here, I very rarely read something spicy. I loved that the general romantic-cute-cozy atmosphere prevailed though, it felt more natural for the setting and the characters.
All in all, I liked the idea of the story and the initial atmosphere of studentship and this winter-fall coziness reminding me of my favorite early 2000s rom-coms. The rest caused a lot of questions but I do see how it can easily be a few nice evenings with a pretty good romance novel for the right audience, maybe just not exactly for someone like me.

Thanks Netgalley, Alcove Press and Katie Holt for the opportunity to get a copy of “Not in my book” in exchange for an honest review.

I just got an email for a physical ARC, and would like to read it that way instead, so I can annotate it! I’m so excited though, I love seeing a POC main characters, and based on the inspired titles and the plot it seems like it will be a great romance read!

Not in My Book by Katie Holt is an irresistible, sexy, and spicy romance that hooked me from the first page! The characters are amazing, and Aiden Huntington is the perfect leading man—broody, sexy, and so much more. The chemistry between him and the heroine is electric, and their fiery banter kept me flipping pages well into the night.

Set in New York City, the city itself plays a vivid, dynamic role, adding to the magic of the story. Both Aiden and Rosie are students in an MFA program, and the tension between them is palpable, especially with the rivals-to-lovers trope in full effect. Aiden despises the romance genre, while Rosie is a passionate advocate for it. Sparks fly when they’re forced to work together on a project, and their rivalry turns into something much deeper.

This book feels like a true love letter to romance and the genre itself. It’s full of swoon-worthy moments, sizzling tension, and heartfelt reflections on love, writing, and passion. If you love witty banter, slow-burn romance, and spicey-sexy-fun, Not in My Book is a five-star must-read!

Not in My Book is a spectacular exploration of creativity, friendship, love, and unexpected ways people can find each other. Rosie and Aiden are forced into an unlikely pairing to co-write a novel together, setting them up for growth and conflict. As they work through their differences, their relationship blossoms into a truly beautiful friendship, which turns into a beautiful love story between Rosie and Aiden. I think the best work in this novel is their dynamic. They are such different characters who are so uniquely themselves, and I adore and relate to both of them. I loved reading their story, and this lovely take on the romance genre. It shows their growth as individuals and as partners, reminding readers that destination is only as good as the journey.

This was FANTASTIC. The banter between the characters and the depth of their relationship was beautifully obvious. The slow-burn romance made the whole thing better. The interplay between the real storyline and their book was fun. The book was spicy but it was well-done and didn't overtake the plot. This won't be the only book I read by this author.

This was what romcom dreams are made of! I loved the tension, the opposites attract, the build it! It was so cute and I bet would make a great audiobook!

Ugh. I loved it. So swoony, so enemy meets lovers. If I had to describe my fav book, it would be a book like this

Not in My Book by Katie Holt @readinromance

Romance author 🤝 Swifties unite

This book stars Rosie, a romance author vs Aiden, a litfic author, they are in a writing class, a true enemies to lovers with fantastic banter! They critique each other for the better and even argue about whether Pride & Prejudice is actually a romance 😭. I love a NYC setting, especially over Christmas with The Strand bookstore as a focal point was just uhh 🫶🏼. High-key very jealous I am not in NYC for the release to get myself a signed copy but a girl can dream.

Not in My Book is sprinkled with feminist values, I read most it with a grin on my face, I was embarrassed when Rosie got embarrassed, I even fist pumped the air at certain scenes. I love Rosie’s Peruvian background, she is stubborn and a little immature for a 25yo with the mention of tears 49x (I looked it up on my ebook) and she isn’t confident with Aiden’s intentions. In saying this, the character traits were well thought-out and in line with her story so nothing was taken away from enjoying the book. There’s a bit of Spanish which I cannot comment on because I don’t know the language but all of the comfort food talk only made me want to try some too.

Now we all know how much I appreciate details on the book cover to character description, not only am I not disappointed, but the choice of name for the MMC being none other than the most heartbreaking story in NYC;- AIDEN from SATC was so on point 👌🏼.

Overall, Not in My Book is written for every romance reader & writer, there are so many lines I will continue to quote to justify why romances are good for the soul. Not in My Book is everything I want in a romance novel and more. I loved Rosie and Aiden’s story and I am looking forward to whatever Katie Holt comes out with next.

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

Book releases JAN 2025. Thank you @alcovepress @penguinbooksaus and @netgalley for my review copy. All opinions are my own 🫶🏼

4.5/5 stars
2.5/5 spice

Tropes:
Enemies to friends to lovers
Work together
Writer MCs
Forced proximity
Protective MMC
Grumpy/sunshine
He Falls first
One Bed
Banter/ tension
Latinx representation 🇵🇪
Single POV

Boy did I have fun with this one. Couldn't put it down! The banter, the tension, the writing they did together... OMG. So many great moments it's hard to choose my favorite. Highly recommend for fans of enemies to lovers and forced proximity. This was my first book from this author but won't be my last.

Thank you to Netgalley and Alcove Press for the ARC. All thoughts and opinions are my own and offered voluntarily.

I’m not using a fan of enemies to lovers but wow this book handled it great. Rosie and Aiden had great chemistry and their relationship seemed realistic and I loved watching it grow. I found myself hoping they would end up together through the twists and turns.

I got this book from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review!