*Not in My Book* by Katie Holt is a refreshing and witty exploration of love, relationships, and self-worth. Through the protagonist's journey, Holt examines the complexities of modern romance with humor and honesty. The narrative is both heartwarming and empowering, with well-drawn characters that feel real and relatable. The dialogue is sharp, and the pacing keeps you engaged from start to finish. Holt’s writing style effortlessly blends lighthearted moments with deeper reflections on what it means to truly value oneself in a relationship. This book is a delightful and thought-provoking read for anyone navigating the ups and downs of love.

Well, this book exemplifies perfectly the enemies to lovers concept.
That burning fire and heat we get that slowly starts to shift as their relationship starts to grow and when the lines beguin to blur and at one moment they don't really know if it's hate, love, passion or even how to name that enormous feeling.
I really enjoyed both characters, and it was really something seeing them evolve and grow. To learn whay they acted that way, and what made them change.
I guess big feelings can do that! Make us question owr life choices and go forward to new and scary things.. like love.
The world building was spot on and I love the author's writing and I also loves the side characters!.

Not in My Book was such a cute read! Definitely a great option for those that enjoyed the Hating Game. I did feel like some of the tropes were overdone, but overall it was so fun to follow along with Rosie and Aiden (plus Max and Hunter).

Thank you to Netgalley, the publisher, and the author for providing me with a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review! All opinions here are my own.

What a ride this book was. I was so annoyed by Rosie's impulsiveness (probably because it is one of my weaknesses), which only speaks to how well the author wrote her character.

Both MCs are very well written, and their character growth is realistic. I loved all the supporting characters as well.

It is very rare for a book to make me tear up, swoon, and cheer for the characters all at the same time.

Wonderfully written with all the makings of a romance but also self-growth.

I can't wait to read more by Katie Holt.

Thank you, NetGalley, for the ARC.

this story was unlike anything ive ever read!! my first from this author and will not be my last. wonderful story that tugged at your heart strings. likeable characters and great pacing! would recommend this one!!

☆ ☆ ☆ ☆ (4 stars)

Thank you NetGalley and the author for this ARC!

I should start by saying that romance isn't a genre that I usually go for, so, I started this book with not great expectations, but almost immediately I had to reconsider my thoughts. I'm delighted to say that this book is one of the best romances I've read in the last years or so. Without further do let's dig into the pros and the cons!

PROS:

•It's a great choice if you want to read something different from a classic or non-fiction without sacrificing your poor eyes and your money for some ugly piece of writing. +1 point because the conflict between romances and "serious literature" is one of the main themes.

•Finally a proper enemies-to-lovers trope, where the characters actually have a reason to be enemies, not hating each other just because they hate the colour of their shirts.

•Aiden has an ugly past like a lot of other male protagonists that crowd this genre, but at least he doesn't bully her for the entire book, making me want to call the book police...

CONS:

•I'm sorry, but I have to put the sex scenes in the cons. Even though I loved the first one (that co-write smut was really great, especially because I was waiting for one of them to make a mistake), with the others I cringed a bit.

•At the end I felt like the whole point of their break-up was lost and the topic of their argument was a lot different from the start.

What a fun debut!! Kudos to Katie Holt for pouring her heart into this. I loved that we got to see 2 characters struggle with being open and vulnerable but for different reasons. Rosie acknowledging the fact that Aiden is her opposite but gets her like no one else is really true love right there. The bickering and the banter was truly top tier, both funny and believable. I had some issues with the pacing, I felt like some scenes were too long and others should have just been brushed over. It would’ve been nice to see Aiden open up to Josie more, not just hear about it. Still not sure if I believe in love, but I believe in Aiden and Rosie. This is a perfect read if you loved The Hating Game, The Spanish Love Deception, Beach Read, Nora Ephron movies.


ARC was provided by the publisher via Netgalley in exchange for an honest review

Rosie moves to NYC to take a creative writing course, but she is constantly criticized by another student, Aiden who is a self professed romance hater.

When the bickering escalates, their professor, and mentor, Ida, suggests they collaborate on a literary fiction/romance book… or she will ask they both to leave her class. They only reason Rosie moved from Tennessee to NYC is to take Ida’s class, so she and Aiden reluctantly agree.

Will their romantic writing spill over into real life? And why does Aiden dislike romance so much? Read this in May 2024, but the Christmas scenes ( on sale December 10th/24) and the springtime in NYC made me want to go back for a visit.

Overall, this book was pretty good but I wanted more and I was expecting more. Firstly, the FMC was this naive girl who only really cared about romance and HEAs. I just wish she had more of a personality than just being a romance writer in a world full of literary fiction. Also while I did like the idea of the main characters writing a book-in-a-book the execution just wasn't great. It just felt like I was reading the book again... also I was a difference between Aiden's voice and Rosie's since they do write in different genres. Authors stop mentioning other authors or any pop culture references in books, it just makes the reader cringe even more. I thought both main characters fell flat and they didn't have anything besides their love for writing (that isn't really a bad thing but it did make me feel distant to the characters). How did none of the students in the class find out the the characters of Max and Hunter were so similar to Rosie and Aiden??? It was so obvious... I also think the book felt a bit too 'tropey'. I wanted it to be a bit more unique especially since the book was about a romance writer.
But on the bright side, I absolutely loved their banter and that was so fun to read it! I also thought the side characters were interesting and brought some humour to the story.

Thank you NetGalley , Alcove Press and Katie Holt for the opportunity to read an ARC of this book and review it! ❤️

I enjoyed this book a lot. I think the enemies to lovers aspect of this book was definitely what intrigued me in the beginning but I came to really enjoy the characters more than anything along the way.

There were definitely points where I worried that the dynamic between Rosie and Aiden were too cruel to bounce back from ultimately I think it went okay. I would have liked to have seen a bit more of a development from cruelty to understanding but ultimately I enjoyed their dynamic enough that it didn’t stop me from enjoying their love story.

I really enjoyed the friends and family side characters we got to meet and I think they did a great job rounding out the story.


On a formatting level, I think it would have helped to have the end of chapter project snippets separated more distinctly. Especially in later chapters when they’re writing in the actual chapters it got a bit difficult to remember they’re separate.

Katie made this book feel just like an Emily Henry read in the best way. Once I started, I finished the book in two days and had to pull myself away. I appreciated getting both characters points of view but in a more non conventional way. The use of the book writing project made learning about the characters fun. And it was always a bit of a project to separate book writing from reality.

I enjoyed this book for the most part. I just felt like there was far too much angst and anger in it at times. I did love the parts of the manuscript that we got to see because I felt it showed his point of view but more so disgusting it as the character. The middle got kind of long but overall, it was a good read.

Thank you to the author, the publisher and Netgalley for letting me review an ARC of the audiobook version of this book!

I loved the setting in this book, the New York City in autumn environment was very atmospheric. I also really loved Rosie’s character, I could definitely relate to many aspects of her, like her love of books and homesickness. I liked Aiden as well, once they were together he was really sweet and thoughtful with her - however, his criticism of romance books and Rosie’s writing at the beginning threw me off a bit and felt pretty misogynistic to me.

One aspect I disliked was the hatred between the two characters at first. I understand the whole enemies to lovers trope attempted here, but I find that for me the reason for their hatred wasn’t realistic enough. Being truly enemies as adults just doesn’t happen so I found that a bit hard to believe, but I did enjoy how they came to like each other. I also thought that the spice dragged on quite a bit, but that’s just personal preference.

Overall, I really enjoyed the emotional depth of this book alongside the sweet romance, and would recommend this to any adult romance reader!

I wasn't wowed but this was entertaining enough.

I had a hard time getting over the pretext of why the FMC and MMC had to write a book together and found the FMC pretty frustrating. Her attitude towards romance (and his too honestly) was pretty juvenile which was disappointing since she likens herself to a romance advocate. The book within a book premise was a good way to sneak in a dual POV and it was much needed to get a get a break from the FMC. The reasoning to the fights was silly at best and I was ready to give up on them by the third-act breakup.

It was hard to believe the FMC was in her mid-20s. The behavior of the FMC and MMC in their graduate-level writing workshop class was nuts and I was mortified for them. The initial meanness of the MMC being blamed on him liking her felt really elementary school. I think setting them as 19 or 20 and in college might make more sense.

It's a pretty easy read, and, if you suspend your disbelief better than I did about the premise, you'll likely have more fun.

Thank you Alcove Press for the arc!

5⭐️

Rosie, a small town Tennessean writer moves to the Big Apple to take a chance on herself while going to Grad school at NYU. Her nemesis and literary fiction writer, Aiden, is unfortunately in her workshop course and never has anything good to say about her writing. After a lot of public back and forth fighting, their professor makes them to work together or drop the class. Forced to partner with her enemy to create a love story without a happily ever after, they have to learn how to put their differences aside and open up to each other to finish their book. Rosie and Aiden will need to let down their walls or risk leaving their love story in the books.

It’s a rom com within a rom com! Enemies to Lovers isn’t my favorite trope, but wow did this one make me think otherwise! I couldn’t get enough and refused to put this one down. I LOVE the witty banter between Rosie and Aiden, it was absolutely hilarious. This book had me giggling and smiling throughout. I appreciated how realistic the characters felt, especially their defensiveness in fights. Neither was a perfect person and said the right thing all the time and it felt more relatable. I also loved that the format of the book was divided into seasons! It was such a cozy and romantic read. Including excerpts from their book as they are writing it was such a great inclusion, I truly felt their growing romance and it built up so much anticipation for what was to come for them.

A few times there were some things that happened that you definitely need to suspend your disbelief for, ie Christmas Eve, but I enjoyed this book so much I didn’t care.

Thank you to NetGalley and Alcove Press for providing me with an early ARC in exchange for my honest review!

not in my book / katie holt
✰✰✰✰✰ 🌶️🌶️🌶️

oh my gosh y’all i ATE this one right up!! i can’t believe how good this one was, the slow-burn, enemies-to-lovers, second-chance. ALL OF IT!! rosie and aiden getting stuck co-writing that novel was the best thing ever given to them (shoutout to you ida). learning more and more about aiden’s past really kind of gives you a soft spot for the guy. i mean really, how could you not love him?? the ending sort of shocked me, i think that it could’ve gone a different route but it did cause for a HEA which was rosie’s entire purpose in life!! i would say this is probably my favorites where the characters are also writers and talk so heavily about their writing and novels, etc.

thank you netgalley, alcove press & katie holt for this arc🤍

Oh boy.. I really wanted to enjoy this book based on the premise. It had everything I wanted to read about; academic rivals-to-lovers, forced proximity, slow burn. Sadly, the 3rd act conflict pretty much ruined it for me. Up to that point, I actually had fun. I liked the banter, the whole process, and the writing was good. Although, I have to admit that I found the FMC annoying from the get go and some of the interactions between the characters felt childish. But that last part... just no. I really wish the story had developed differently.

Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for giving me the eARC in exchange for my honest review.

Let me get started with saying there is absolutely spoilers up ahead.

This book was stunning. It had such a grip on me that I was trying to sneak a read of it when I was at work.

I fell for Rosie and Aiden as they fell for each other. It had me crying, and I mean sobbing towards then end. I knew there had to be a HEA but I was suddenly so scared there wouldn't be, alas my sad tears ceased and my happy tears fell.

I LOVED the fact that Ida tells them that the characters should at least kiss by half way, and at exactly 50% through we get that from these two. Oh and don't get me started on when she wrote his name when they were trying to write the sex scene.


LOVED LOVED LOVED
10/10 would read, and will read again.

Honestly its perfect.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for the ARC of this book in exchange for honest feedback.

This one is for my book girlies!!!

Absolutely loved this book. For once it was refreshing to read a book where the transition from enemies to lovers felt natural. It always bothers me when authors go from “I hate your guts” to “you’re the love of my life” in 5 chapters and expects us to believe they hash out every little issue between them in that timeframe.

Rosie and Aiden were both very easy to root for. I think Rosie really captured the essence of what most romance readers like about romance books without being too cheesy. And while we don’t Aiden’s perspective in the book per se, with the excerpts from their book at the end of each chapter so you can see that he’s not as icy as he seems.

4 stars overall. Comes out in December so make sure to take a break from your holiday romances to squeeze this one in.

I'm obsessed with this book. That all I need

book nerd, I hate you more, mean to work together.
She is all about hope, love, romance. He is opposite - true fiction is general fiction, romance is bullshit.

I LOVED reading their banter!!!!
And book in a Book!! Adore.

pefrect book.
but the ending. I'm not sure if I could forgive that, but it's a love story so let it be)