⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️.25
🌶️🌶️

I thought this book was completely genius! I love how we get to read some of Rosie and Aiden’s book and that we get a chance to witness them writing together. In all seriousness, the spicy scene they write together just might be the best smut I’ve ever read!

I always appreciate when a romance novel has a strong plot, and while nothing is too serious or high-stakes, I love that this book has realistic pacing and a thoughtfully developed connection between our MMC and FMC.

The banter is top tier. I found myself giggling and laughing out loud multiple times during this read. Overall, I’m highly impressed and would certainly recommend Not In My Book to any romance reader.

Disclaimer: I received this arc with the mindset that I would give an honest review. Thank you so much!!

I felt that the enemies-to-lovers portion of this book was done well and so full circle with the connection to their own book that readers really connect to both the characters and their own book.

Rosie was by far my favorite character in this book! I loved how Katie connected the Peruvian and Tennessean mannerisms. I really connected with Rosie throughout this story and actually felt emotions along with her. I don’t want to give anything away but just know that Rosie is my favorite. Aiden’s character had to grow on me because he frustrated me. However, that was the point to his character after having connected so well with Rosie. That just shows you how amazing Katie did with writing the characters in this book.

The banter between the two was great but really the best thing about this book was the eventual romance. This book had a theme of personal growth and surrounding yourself with people who value and appreciate you and also challenge you.

Overall, this book was a win and I highly recommend that you read this book.

Thank you so much to Katie Holt, Alcove Press, and NetGalley for the chance to read this book.

I REFUSE TO BELIEVE THAT THIS IS HOLT’S DEBUT! this book was stunning. essentially, rosie and aiden are put to work together on a literary piece that has equal parts of the genres that they respectively write for the workshop that they both attend so there were plenty of enjoyable tropes such as academic rivals to lovers (they express their feelings for each other through their writing), forced proximity, small town fmc x city mmc (it has a nyc back drop), and more!

the setting (especially the incorporation of seasonal change) and storyline were great, but rosie and aiden just elevated the story! they were such lovable characters. rosie was absolutely hilarious, receptive, and had a great resolve to her meanwhile aiden was resilient and perceptive. i felt that the progression of their relationship was realistic to them and the obvious distain that they previously had for each other. i love characters that you would befriend if they were real and that is exactly how they were written.

The premise of this book hooked me right away to request it ! Unfortunately it was a miss for me. The banter was fun, the story was fun, but I just did not feel the relationship between them, and Aiden was such a jerk. The third act breakup was also completely unnecessary and very childish !

I actually enjoyed this book so much! This book was about Rosie Maxwell and Aiden Huntington. They are both in a creative writing progran and Rosie likes writing Romance while Aiden is into literary fiction. They argue during class because of their critiques on each other's works and so their professor asked them to write a manuscript together which I think is so cool. I loved the banter and chemistry between them and it was just such an amazing book. I recommend it to anyone looking for a good rival writers, one bed, slow burn, opposites attract, grumpy x sunshine, and set in new york! This book releases December 10th. 2024. (I know it's a long time from when I'm writing this review but I think the book is worth the wait.

Thank you Netgalley, Alcove press, and Katie Holt for this lovely ARC.

Academic rivals (a romance writer and a literary fiction writer) act childish (yelling, calling each other names) during a writing workshop for their MFA program. Instead of reprimanding them like she should do, the professor forces them to write their novel together. Naturally they fall in love, and obviously one of them has to mess it up.

This had all the potential and none of the pay off. At times I felt like I was reading a YA novel - the character behavior was something I’d expect from a middle schooler not a 26 year old. Other times I felt like I was sitting in a lecture hall being taught the fundamentals of writing a novel. This book felt long winded and over-written in so many places. I am still dumbfounded that this is only 320 pages, how small is the printed font going to be, because I felt like I was reading a 400+ page book.

I wanted a quick, cute, rivals-to-lovers and what I got was a lesson on how to write a romance novel and how not to act in public.

Thank you NetGalley and Alcove Press for sending this book (eARC) for review consideration. All opinions are my own.

Thank you to NetGalley for providing me with this ARC. Honestly loved all of the banter, I am a sucker for good banter and this book’s banter is *chefs kiss*. I didn’t love the conflict and how Aiden handled it, otherwise this was a fun read!

This this debut was a fun and cute read with a lot of potential! There were a few things I liked vs didn’t like. I enjoyed the incorporation of excerpts from the “book” that Rosie and Aiden wrote together. Including those excerpts at the end of the chapters was absolutely genius because it felt like I was reading a book WITHIN a book (while having a look into Aiden’s thoughts too). And the title reveal was insane.

Their book-writing scenes were actually pretty enjoyable and it was interesting seeing the writing process of MFA students who write opposite genres. In general, I appreciate books with characters who are writers. Their banter was hilarious. The pacing of their chemistry and the spice was also amazing. The book had me giggling at times because I loved them together. Aiden was so swoony and for quiet broody guy like him, I was not expecting that satisfying dirty-talk.

The pacing at the beginning was a little weird with abrupt scene changes. But it improved as the book went on. And the third act conflict was extremely really annoying because Rosie was a frustrating character at times with her choices and mindset. The conflict resolution and the ending was satisfying, though. I think I would have loved this even more if it also weren’t for some of the cliche and predictable language that I couldn’t overlook.

The depictions of NYC through all the familiar restaurants, sights and the daily lives of a NYer were so accurate and as an NYC native, it’s something that I surprisingly appreciated. It made sense when I realized the author was a New Yorker because the language she used was pretty spot on. Overall, this was a pretty cute read and a great debut! I would love to read this author’s future works.
3.5/5 rounded up

SO SO GOOD!!! i love katie & have followed her journey on booksta and to see her grow & write this book was beautiful. the start was a bit slow, but it really kicked up and i loved the tension, the banter, EVERYTHING! her writing was definitely a little young and wattpad vibes, but i think it worked well for this sort of romcom style book. the characters were well developed and i loved their chemistry. such a fun book and excited to see more from katie!

Let me tell you about the book first. It’s a book lover's dream. In the book the author mentioned -"The Hating Game meets Beach Read", which is very true.

Rosie and Aiden regularly go to verbal battle in their writing workshop in nyc. It gets to a point where their professor reaches her breaking point and almsot kicked them out of the workshop. She allows them to stay in her class on one condition: they must co-write a novel that blends their genres, romance and literary fiction.

After reading some chapters, i fall in love with the characters. Aiden and Rosie, both were super adorable, almost grumpy and sunshine tropes, where sunshine discovers our grumpy's sunflower side.
And then the blow came! I was almost okay with it, for the sake of story. But then, he didn’t admit to his wrong doing, even covered that up with classic asshole act! Up untill then, i was okay with storyline. The author gave a reason, obviously! But Daddy issues can't be reason enough to hurt someone where it burns and crashes. And "i love you" isn’t solution for every mistake!

Love shouldn’t be something that makes you miserable. The author made a choice with Aiden, and with that my love for him went out the window and so did the story.
But before that, book was a romcom heaven for me. Every dream date, every romance scenes were just there, out of my imagination. But fries in milkshake, i would never, ever sign up for that.

I loved the premise of this one and the way the author incorporated some of the characters’ writing into each of the chapters so we got to read all the stuff they thought about each other but didn’t say. Rosie and Aiden were so cute and the enemies to lovers vibe they had going on built up all the tension I wanted to see between them! the steam was perfect and overall I would definitely recommend :)

📖enemies to lovers
📖writing partners
📖grumpy/sunshine

I have so much gushing to do over this book and don't quite know where to start. The writing was absolutely phenomenal; it felt like the author labored over every single sentence. I was struck by the layered conversations that Rosie and Aiden had about storytelling, writing, and their respective genres (romance and literary fiction). The humor came at JUST the right moments and threaded throughout the entire book was this slow-building, delicious tension that was WORTH. THE. WAIT!

I've also NEVER read anything quite this meta, where the characters are cowriting a novel with fictional versions of themselves on the page, doing and saying things that Rosie and Aiden aren't brave enough to say to each other yet.

The spicy scenes were GIVING, and the romantic moments were so tender. Katie Holt is a new favorite author of mine and I can't wait to scream about this book when it releases!

i loooooooooooved this!! it was so fun and it was so cute and i would definitely read this again and again

Where to begin? There is SO much to unpack in this review.

Aiden and Rosie are such lovable characters. They both share a competitiveness that is undeniable throughout the whole book. Their identities felt so fully formed and I loved how much of Rosie's Peruvian culture was referenced. The balance between different personalities but then also this commonality they shared of initially despising each other was such a good mix!

Aiden's character is one of my favourite MMCs I've ever read. He is not a grand gesture guy, he is a quiet love kinda guy who shows his interest and care through small gestures. The scene where he offers her some of his pasta and the scene where he remembers her coffee order just made the inner romantic in me swoon. The chocolate cake scene felt super indulgent, in fact I love how much food there was in this book altogether. I felt like I was exploring NYC with Aiden & Rosie through almost a food tour! Eventhough this wasn't central to the plot, it was a nice consistent thread.

Katie has cracked the ultimate way of storytelling. It is SUCH a clever device to have them write a book together and it felt like a show and tell of their own diaries to each other at points. What a wonderful way of blurring the lines between fact & fiction and capturing the reality of falling in love. This anxious/ exciting feeling of not knowing if the reality you're experiencing is being reciprocated in the eyes of someone you like is executed perfectly in this book!

The kiss scene honestly exceeded my expectations. It felt really well paced and super satisfying once we started to get some of the spice trickling in. My only critique is that when Aiden calls her 'baby' it just felt a bit random initially and kind of made me do a double take. It felt kind of unrealistic that he graduated from calling her 'Rosie Rosie' to 'baby' without anything in between that. Having a bridge of some sort between how Aiden sees Rosie (regarding intimacy) would have made it a bit more seamless I think.

The ending was really good, felt like eating a warm chocolate chip cookie (it was that satisfying). On reflection, it would've been nice to get some of Aiden's culture in the character development as it felt like whilst we got his backstory I didn't feel as attached to it. This is obviously hard because it was told from Rosie's POV but still!

I honestly really enjoyed this! It was cute but had some depth that I really enjoy in my romance books. Excited to see more from this author!

Books about books is kinda my Achilles Heel, so I was so excited about this book. I loved <i>The Hating Game</i>, and always dig a good enemies to lovers, and this definitely fit the bill.

Pros:
-There was heat in this book. The fights and enemies parts made for real good tension, which easily translated to sexual tension. This part was spot on.
-Rosie had a nice quirky side to her, being Peruvian from Tennessee, you definitely could see it shining through with slips of accents, how she talked about her family, etc. It added depth to her.
-The concept of co-writing a book was a new idea to me, and I loved to see it play out. It was well written and interspersed throughout the book as a growing, evolving beast, much as their connection evolved as well.
-The ending fight, the hurt Rosie felt so real to me that I did actually tear up reading it. It was the most emotional depth the book had. Even if there were parts about the fight I didn't like, the hurt was so good.

Cons:
-For a book about epic romances, their story felt a little flat. Not even that it was missing grand gestures, it just felt like everything that went on in the book were ordinary things, nothing that made their story any more special than any other couple.
-Aiden didn't have as much depth to him, and by the end, I don't feel he really had any character growth. In a sense, I was hoping for Rosie to find someone better.
-I had Kindle read aloud to me for portions of the book, and it doesn't distinguish between the main story and the story they're writing together. Besides font, it felt like this transition could have been done better.

Overall, I enjoyed the book! Thanks to Goodreads and the publisher for allowing me to read a digital advanced reader copy in exchange for an honest review.

An enemies-to-lovers, where the enemies write an enemies-to-lovers, and then become friends, briefly slip back to enemies, and eventually... become lovers. This book was *chef's kiss* delightful!!

It's like somehow Katie went inside my brain and wrote a book just for me. This has Taylor Swift and classic RomCom references, it's a book about writing a book (a favorite of mine!), aaaaand is the first book I've ever read that mentions Inca Kola and alfajores. Swoon, swoon, swoon.

The way it feels like the characters were almost writing their own story was really well done, and they are so easy to root for! This story had just the right amount of spice, too. Was the ending a little predictable, sure, but gosh this was just a book that makes you happy. And then where you walk away a little sad because you aren't ready to say goodbye to the characters. <3

I'm officially a Katie Holt fan, that's for sure!

Thank you to NetGallet and the publisher for this eARC in exchange for my honest review!

So glad I got to read this ARC! I immediately connect to Rosie the FMC because she was from TN like me. But then even more because of her Peruvian heritage because my bff married a man from Peru. So I was very invested. But also I’m a huge fan of enemies to lovers and was all ready for it when Aiden the MMC was rude and snarky to her about her romance writing. They ended up having to work together to write a book with both their styles. Oh boy I was like holy crap this hot as was reading their writing. And I couldn’t wait until they got together too! I thoroughly enjoyed this book! Definitely, would read more by this author.

Thank you @alcovepress for this ARC of Not in My Book by @readinromance !!!

This was so cute and clever and fun and distressing and wonderful and infuriating!!! I had a blast and you will too 😌

You know we love when it switches to his POV and he’s yearning. But I raise you this: they are forced to write a romance together and he does the yearning RIGHT THERE ON THE PAGE BEFORE HER VERY EYES.

🌟🌟🌟🌟🌟

Rosie and Aiden have absolutely nothing in common except that they are both writers. And they’re both in the same small college course. And they’re both passionate. And they both hate each other.

Rosie writes romance, which Aiden turns up his nose at. And Aiden writes sad-boy lit fic, which Rosie wouldn’t normally turn her nose up except that it’s Aiden w it.

When the two are unable to keep their verbal sparring constructive and get into a vicious spat that spiral far beyond chapter criticism, their professor offers them two choices: get dropped from her class, or… write their final project together, cohesively. And it has to be a love story.

Their attempts to keep each other on their toes by writing each other into the story takes a (not unexpected) twist, and the two find they’re able to be much more vulnerable with each other on the pages. And the more they learn about each other, the less hateful the heat between them starts to feel.

But when an opportunity arises that could change their lives, and the two find themselves at a crossroads, that rage and indignation is brought back to the forefront with a vengeance. And it seems less and less likely that their story - or they themselves - will get a happy ending.

This was so cute. It you enjoyed Beach Reach or The Roughest Draft, this book is for you. Rosie and Aiden are a new staple in the rivals-to-lovers, co-writers genre and I loved every second of it. Such a wonderful debut. Will definitely keep an eye out for future Katie Holt stories.