⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️.25
🌶️🌶️

What a fantastic debut novel! This was like a cross between The Hating Game and Beach Read, featuring a sunny FMC, Rosie, and grumpy MMC, Aiden. After their writer’s workshop class rivalry becomes too explosive, they’re forced to write a book together. And obvs these enemies become lovers along the way, and use their writing to express feelings they’re not yet comfortable to say out loud 🥹

I loved the hilarious and savage digs they threw at each other. The writing was excellent and truly did not feel like a debut novel. To me, Katie Holt’s writing had a similar ease to it as Emily Henry or Abby Jimenez, and was filled with humor and heart. The tension between the MCs was delicious, and the slow build up and progression from enemies to friends to lovers felt so natural and unrushed, with every little touch holding so much weight. And I loved that it was set at NYU, my alma mater.

Even though Rosie was a sunshiney romantic optimist, she was not afraid to cut him down and I found it very refreshing. I also loved that she had stretch marks on her thighs, and most of her physical descriptions focused on her wide smile and curly hair. I really enjoyed her group of friends, especially Logan. Would definitely read a book with him as the MMC. Another big plus…Aiden’s dirty talk game was *chef’s kiss* 😚👌🏻

I will say, Aiden does not make book boyfriend status. I do love a grump because when you see how sweet and thoughtful and absolutely gone for the FMC they really are, it just hits harder. All this was true for Aiden, but his defensiveness and mean words cut me too hard. And I needed MUCH more groveling to make up for it.

I was so happy to get this arc from NetGalley and Alcove Press in exchange for my honest review. I would 100% recommend and am very excited to read future Katie Holt books!

I thought this was a good read! It was full of angst! Rivals to lovers and slow burn was great! I feel like I started to get bored later in the book but overall was able to push through and enjoy it anyways

I am absolutely in love. The characters were relatable, the spice was THE SPICIEST, and the conflict felt natural and real. I don't usually read contemporary romances, since I prefer fantasy or historical, but this one?? Too good to put down. Literally. I was up until 4am and I have the eye bags to prove it. I can't wait to recommend it to literally everyone I know.

ALSO, THE FEMINISM!!!! The absolute perfect timing, all the respectful attitude, and the CONSENT???!!! This right here is my new gold standard.

Cute and easy read.

Started off very strong with great enemies to lovers vibes, a nice meta of a romance within romance, all the New York settings, and engaging storytelling.

After a third I was very surprised I still had to read two thirds of a book- to quote that TikTok sound, “is it ever this serious”?, with which I mean, it could have done with some strict editing while still leaving the story intact.
The layers of Rosie as Maxine and Aiden as Hunter but at the same time not, also got a bit stale after a while. Taking away some bits could really tighten things up.

The third act breakup was one of my least favourites I have read. Rosie at times got on my nerves, but the absolute GALL of Aiden to first lie then shrug about never finding the right time (how about every time you jumped into bed with her?) then pretend it was not a big deal??? Even I was ready to never speak to him again. Honestly I did not see how they could back together after this.

Some things that raised my eyebrows:
- please do not say “noodles” about pasta (spaghetti)
- the way Rosie and Aiden kept taking over their class and Ida barely stepping up… girl just kick them out for their disruptive main character syndrome
- the amount of “baby” used in their dirty talk really gave me the ick

At the same time, all the applause to Logan, asking “did you hear that? (…) sounds like a whiny bitch.” YASSSS.

So. Quite a few negatives but still there was something there that made this an enjoyable read!

3.5 stars rounded up for the cover, the punny title, and the romance book about a romance book aspect.

I received an ARC of this book (thanks!) and these are my own opinions.

I thought this was a really sweet book! I fell in love with the main characters and would highly recommend

Loved it. Enemies lovers set in a true literary backdrop with excerpts from the MCs co-written novel that made it feel really special. It didn't go too deep with any of the side characters or the plot, but the romance development was solid.

Set in an MFA program in NYC, Rosie and Aiden argue and fight in their creating writing workshop. Rosie writes romances, while Aiden writes literary fiction and hates romances. After a particularly bad class, their professor gives them an ultimatum: they have to co-write their class project together, a romantic story without a HEA, or leave the class.

While on vacation, I got to read this in one day and loved it. Since they base their characters on themselves, the story they are writing propels the plot in fun and interesting ways. The love of romance novels comes through as well.

Tropes / themes:
Dual POV
Rivals to lovers
A book within a book
New York City at Christmas
Slow burn
Grumpy x sunshine
One bed

Rating: 5 / 5

Open door / spicy!

Thank you NetGalley and Alcove Press for allowing me to review this ARC!

Cliché book tropes will hook me every time because the promise of a grumpy mmc x sunshine fmc who hate each other but are forced to work together? Yesss please! Also, the cover is super cute so how could I resist🤭

‘Not In My Book’ tells the story of Rosie Maxwell (a romance writer) & Aiden Huntington (a litfic writer), two NYU students who share a creative writing class. Given their dislike for the other person’s preferred genre, the two are constantly bickering; and after an ultimatum from their professor, they agree to cowrite a book that blends both of their tastes. The plot intrigued me and things started off strong, but unfortunately began to fizzle out for me around the halfway mark.

Rosie was ambitious, strong-willed, and enthusiastic about what she did; however, I didn’t see much development from her over the course of the book. Her character felt 2D and her whole personality seemed to revolve around Aiden. All her thoughts and most of her conversations led back to him, and it got annoying as I struggled to connect to her. I kept forgetting that she was 26 y/o because her actions and inner dialogue made her come off as much younger. As for Aiden, I wasn’t the biggest fan. He’s rough around the edges—which is fine—except he was unnecessarily mean for no good reason. I didn’t understand his reasoning for acting so cold towards Rosie… Sure he doesn’t like romance, but did he really have to be so harsh just because she did? I’ve always felt weird about the “I liked you and was only mean to get your attention” thing.

My favourite component of the book was probably Rosie & Aiden’s cowriting experience! It was a great idea to have excerpts from Rosie & Aiden’s book at the end of each chapter; it was like an outlet for them to express their feelings, and I liked how we got an idea of what was going on in Aiden’s head through the whole thing. It facilitated a lot of cute moments (the restaurant date, bookstore run-in, Christmas), but also, since Rosie & Aiden were basically “roleplaying” the characters they were writing, some scenes got repetitive. When it comes to the actual romance, I felt like Rosie & Aiden had more chemistry as enemies than they did as lovers. The instant lust they felt after “hating” each other for so long was unrealistic. There were many moments that I know were meant to be swoony, but for some reason didn’t feel genuine.

The third act was incredibly rushed, and Rosie & Aiden’s breakup is what really got me. Long story short, Rosie applied for an opportunity to win some much needed money and Aiden essentially blindsided her by stealing that opportunity (despite being well off). And instead of taking responsibility and apologizing, what does he do? He gaslights Rosie, accuses her of being jealous, and goes back to degrading her love for romance. Character development where? Straight out the window! The worst part was his sad excuse for an apology. It was lowkey narcissistic.

Overall, this was a pretty solid debut novel! Definitely one to pick up if you’re looking for an easy, lighthearted read💕

This was so cute. It had a little Hating Game vibe but I loved Hating Game so I didn’t mind that. I do hate third act breakups and they do have one.

Thank you to the author and NetGalley for the complimentary copy of this ebook. Opinions expressed in this review are completely my own.

I loved this! Such a cute romance and so well written, I absolutely flew through it! So easy to read and so enjoyable.

3.5 stars

I love books where the characters are writers or involved in the publishing industry, so when I read the blurb, I was looking forward to reading this book.
Rosie and Aidan are rival Grad students who are forced to write a book together for their writing class. Rosie has always loved romance and dreams of being a romance author. Aidan on the other hand writes LitFic and doesn't take the romance genre seriously.

I enjoyed the enemies to lovers and academic rivals aspects to the book and feel they were done well. I also really liked the way in which the author incorporated the character's manuscript into the book.

I did find that the book felt really long, which I think was due to some pacing issues (It's not an especially long book, just probably longer than it needed to be). I also didn't enjoy the third act breakup/conflict. I don't usually mind this in books and obviously they are more often than not a given in romance books, but I feel this one just felt a bit forced and unauthentic to the characters.

Overall this was an enjoyable read for me. Not quite a 4 star read for me, but definitely better than a 3 star. I would definitely recommend this book to others and am keen to read any future books by the author.

Sadly, Not in My Book didn’t work for me. I felt it lacked chemistry between Rosie and Aiden, the two main leads. (In fact, I felt there was more tension between the side characters Jess and Tyler…and they’re hardly present in the book.) There didn’t seem to be any true character grown in Rosie, either, which made me dislike her from beginning to end. And the relationship between Aiden and her is what I would classify as toxic. I couldn’t see anything good coming from them being together.
The writing style was very simple, though, which might be perfect for those who aren’t big readers or those who are learning English as a second language and want to read an adult romance.
Thank you NetGalley for providing me with a digital copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

A book within a book? Sign me up!

Hands down my favorite romance book! I was glued to this right from the start!! I didn’t want to stop reading and as I was nearing the end of it I was so sad to say goodbye. It’s really unique, I’ve never read one like it before!
Safe to say I’ll be recommending this book to EVERYONE!

Aiden is imperfectly perfect. It was so refreshing to have his character who isn’t perfect and can be an ass at times but is willing to try and do whatever to make the relationship work even when he doesn’t love romance and isn’t good at it(so he thinks). Then you have Rosie who is the romance guru and thinks everything should be a certain way learning that true love isn’t always rainbows and sunshine but it’s still worth having and fighting for. Also that the perfect guy isn’t perfect.

I love both characters so much. The tension, chemistry and banter was done so so well! Opposites really do attract to each other.

The part where they write a spicy scene TOGETHER will forever live rent free in my head.

I was shocked to learn this is the authors first book and I will be reading everything she puts out!

"But know that every single time I fuck up, I'll come home to you. We'll work together to make it better because we won't abandon each other. We'll make mistakes, we'll learn lessons, and we'll be tested. But we'll come out so much stronger on the other side."

Thank you NetGalley, Alcove Press and Katie Holt for the advanced reader copy of this book

Thanks to Netgalley for sending me a digital ARC of Not In My Book by Katie Holt!

I soooo wanted to rate this one higher than a two stars, but I went back and forth my whole way through the book and decided there were just too many things that irked me about it to rate it any higher than a two stars.

The enemies to lovers in this book seemed far too childish for me. Rosie was definitely a bit much with it. Or a LOT much with it.
I DID really like Aiden for the most part, until the spicy scenes. Those were somewhat meh. They went TOO hard too fast and the subtleties weren't there to amp up the romantic tension.

It was cute, parts of it I really enjoyed, but there was too much I didn't enjoy.

When I saw that this book was an academic rivals, enemies to lovers story, I immediately knew I had to read it. Rosie, a Peruvian-American aspiring writer from Tennessee, moves to New York to pursue her dreams but faces a major setback when she's paired with her ex-crush and rival, Aiden, in a writing class. Forced to collaborate on a novel that blends their genres (romance and literary fiction, respectively), they fill the story with their personalities and attraction, but their rivalry flares up again when a career-changing opportunity pits them against each other.

One of the things I enjoyed most about this book were the short excerpts of the novel that Rosie and Aiden were working on together, included at the end of each chapter. Since the book was narrated from Rosie's perspective, these short excerpts allowed us to see Aiden's true feelings and showed how much he yearned for her. This made the book a little more special.

The only criticism I have is that sometimes the characters acted more like teenagers than 25/26-year-old adults. Other than that, I loved it.

Thank you, NetGalley, for the ARC in exchange for an honest review!

—

Cuando vi que este libro era una historia de rivales académicos, enemies to lovers, inmediatamente supe que tenía que leerlo. Rosie, una aspirante a escritora peruano-estadounidense de Tennessee, se muda a Nueva York para perseguir sus sueños, pero enfrenta un gran obstáculo cuando la emparejan con su ex-crush y rival, Aiden, en una clase de escritura. Obligados a colaborar en una novela que mezcla sus géneros (romance y ficción literaria, respectivamente), infunden la historia con sus personalidades y su atracción, pero su rivalidad resurge cuando una oportunidad que podría cambiar sus carreras los enfrenta.

Una de las cosas que más disfruté de este libro fueron los pequeños extractos de la novela en la que Rosie y Aiden estaban trabajando juntos, incluidos al final de cada capitulo. Como el libro estaba narrado desde la perspectiva de Rosie, estos pequeños extractos nos permitían ver los sentimientos reales de Aiden y mostraban cuánto la deseaba. Esto hizo que el libro fuera un poco más especial.

La única crítica que tengo es que algunas veces los personajes actuaban más como adolescentes que como adultos de 25/26 años. Aparte de eso, me encantó.

¡Gracias NetGalley por el ARC a cambio de una reseña honesta!

The cheese was real in this one. I found myself trying to start this book a couple of times, but once I was in it, it was a quick read. As a former NYU student and Creative Writing minor, I found the dynamic to be totally believable but I found the punishment of them having to write a book together to be a little farfetched, but it worked in the story. Both Rosie and Aiden had to go outside of their comfort as writers and challenge their voice, which helped their novel, and while writing these characters they say things they can't in real life. Sometimes their relationship felt a little forced, and the conflict was a bit contrived, but it made sense in terms of the characters that Holt was writing.

Thank you to netgalley and Alcove press for a free copy of this E-ARC in exchange for an honest review.

Rating: 3.75 (rounded to 4)

I’m incredibly torn on how to rate this book. I’ve been waffling between a 4 and 3.75 for most of the book, and had nearly settled on a 4 until the last 15% or so, for reasons I’ll get into in my criticisms. But before that, as a romance loving genre fiction writer who once had something with a highbrow litfic poet man that I met in a workshop class, I feel like this book was made for me.

To start with what I liked: I LOVED the characters. Rosie and Aiden felt very fleshed out and real and their banter had me giggling and kicking my feet in public. Aiden’s mouth during ~those~ scenes had me reducing the font size and turning down the brightness on my kindle. I also really liked Rosie’s friend group and how, despite being relatively minor characters, all felt tangible. This book was truly adorable, I literally had to hide my face bc I was reading this on a plane and smiling so hard. I also quite liked the atmosphere and the setting.

The biggest thing that stands out in my criticisms is the final conflict. On top of being incredibly predictable (I guessed what it would be at 43%), it just felt very contrived. Rosie’s reaction was incredibly dramatic and unrealistic in a way that didn’t feel true to her character. I won’t get into spoilers, but that really bothered me, especially because Rosie’s confidence and security is one of the things I loved about her character. The final conflict was the driving force behind the lower rating choice. Although, the ending ending was quite cute.

Now, I have a love hate relationship with their book. At first, I was cringing when they named the characters after each other and had terrible second hand embarrassment from their workshop scenes, having been in many a workshop myself. For the first half or so, their book felt more like a convenient plot device for them to develop their relationship rather than what it was pitched as, which was the main objective of the book. Maybe it’s because I’ve been in so many workshops but I couldn’t get fully behind it because of how unprofessional it felt. Like, at times, they weren’t even writing the book they were just writing their diaries to each other and making their classmates read it. It ended up feeling like Ida only gave them the assignment for the purpose of matchmaking. HOWEVER, the book as a plot device did lend itself to some great moments. The scene where they’re writing the spicy scene together on the phone had me blushing. There were times that I did enjoy the development being explored through the book, specifically where Aiden would write things he wasn’t comfortable saying, and when they wrote the first draft of love confessions in bed. So I’m torn.

Apologies that was a really long review. This book was fun, I enjoyed it, and despite my criticisms, I do recommend it.

TL;DR
Read if you like
✅ rivals to lovers
✅ hispanic rep
✅ ros(ie)-colored glasses
✅ NYC at Christmas
✅ BANTER !
✅ HEA
✅ fourth wall breaks
✅ writers in love

Actual rating // 3,75 stars

This was such an enjoyable read! Its been a while since I’ve read a good and fun haters-to-lovers romance and I just loved it. Definitely a book I want to put on my shelves when it releases, so I’ll be putting in a pre-order for it.

I liked the setting of this book a lot with the MC’s meeting each other in Writing Class, forming a somewhat hateful vibe between one another so that you get that nice push and pull - while they secretly felt that insta lust/love the moment they met but neither dared giving into it so they went with a hateful setting. Seeing that all unravel was a joy, especially with How it was written down; The characters need to write a romance story for an assessment with one of them being a romantic at heart and the other one keeping clear of all things romantic due to a difficult past and seeing the lines blurr more and more between them and seeing them grow as characters was very well done. A solid developing romance, with a nice build up to the sexy stuff and with more than enough depth.

I definitely recommend picking up this book when it releases! It had me feeling the feels!

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!

Not in My Book is a slow burn, enemies-to-lovers romance. I enjoyed the spice! The pacing wasn’t always consistent, and I really wish there was more depth and development to Rosie. Overall it was a lighthearted, enjoyable read.

|| 4.0 stars ||

This was a true rivals-to-lovers slow-burn with all the feels and angst!

<b><blockquote>”There hasn’t been a second where I wasn’t wondering what you were thinking and if it was of me.”</b></blockquote>

The story is about two upcoming authors who are both opposites in the type of genre they like to write and spend most of their college workshops hurling insults at each other. They’re genuinely <i>mean</i> and <i>rude</i> towards each other, and do not hold back. I honestly struggled with this a little bit at first, because aside from her inner monologue acknowledging how handsome he was from the start, I truly could not feel any romantic tension or feelings between them at all. I was afraid their romance was going to fall flat for me. However, I shouldn’t have feared, because once I saw their relationship slowly develop and blossom, I actually appreciated that they started out with so much animosity. They genuinely acted like rivals at first and it was a true slow-burn.

<b><blockquote>”I know you prefer what’s in your books, and I pretend I don’t want to be like them, but I do. I want to be the person you picture when you’re reading and dreaming because you’re who I picture every single time. I love you. In the light and dark, in romance and litfic. In this lifetime and the next.”</b></blockquote>

This was not the only reason I appreciated this romance so much though. It was so much more than just that! It was the way I genuinely got so invested in their relationship that I literally felt my heart pang or beat rapidly in my chest whenever something happened between them, good or bad. You know that feeling, when you are so into it that you genuinely have physical reactions to the story? It could be your gut dropping or cramping, or maybe your chest feeling tight, or perhaps even full-blown butterflies in your stomach? Those were the feelings I got whenever one of them said something that really hurt the other person, or if one of them felt deep pain or sadness, but also when they were being insanely gentle and vulnerable and sweet to each other. Their dynamic was so organic and their interactions felt so real to me that I couldn’t help but feel intense emotional (and physical) reactions to all of it!

<b><blockquote>”I’m not yours anymore.”
“Fine. If you’re not mine, then know that I’m yours.”</b></blockquote>

And I don’t mean all this in a way like everything was constantly angsty or emotional between them, because they actually had a lot of really cute and sweet moments as well. I’m honestly pretty hard to please when it comes to domestic scenes, because I tend to find them a little uneventful or even boring quite easily, so you must really believe me when I tell you these scenes were adorable and felt really authentic. It never felt forced or over-the-top; I genuinely felt like these two were having these gentle or cutesy moments together because they loved each other deeply and were the perfect fit for each other, which simply made it incredibly sweet to read. Especially since all of those moments were so nicely written too!

<b><blockquote>”I’ll wait for you, Rosie. I swear it. I’m in it for the long haul. I want all your tomorrows. Every single one you’re willing to give me.”</b></blockquote>

Moreover, I also really liked the unique premise this book presented where we saw fragments of the book that the two characters were writing together throughout this story. The actual book is written from the heroine’s POV, but these fragments gave us a lot of insight into what the hero was thinking too and it was often incredibly swoon-worthy. I always love seeing the parts in a romance where the hero is pining for the heroine, and these fragments gave us that (albeit second-handedly) in a very refreshing and powerful way!

<b><blockquote>The truth was I liked her no matter what she did, no matter what she said.</b></blockquote>

All in all, I was honestly surprised by how much I ended up loving this book. I have to admit that I thought this book would be kind of silly and perhaps even superficial (I’m not sure why, really), yet it felt much deeper and more emotional than that to me. Whether it was the pretty and easy writing, the pleasant pacing, the well-rounded characters, or the angsty, well-developed, beautiful romance; I loved it all!