A fun enemies-to-lovers romance with two headstrong MC’s who are forced to work together on a writing project in their MFA writing course. The tension was believable from the start, but Rosie was a bit more edgy and guarded than Aiden. The writing excerpts added dimension and creativity to the book. A couple parts were steamier than I expected. Overall, a fun read with a satisfying ending.

Our story follows two aspiring writers, Rosie and Aiden. Rosie loves romance and writing, while Aiden despises the genre and makes it very well known. From the start, they can't seem to get along. In every writing workshop, the pair critique the other's work to the point of extreme class disruption. It all comes to a head when they are forced to co-write a book together in order to remain in their required master's class.

This book was such a fun read! I really enjoyed the banter, even when the two main characters were hurling insults back and forth. I also really enjoyed the book within a book piece. It was fun seeing their relationship grow both in real life and within their shared book. Rosies friends were a highlight for me. They were so supportive of her and had their own great moments. I would love to read a spin off of one (or more) of their stories!

My only complaint is that the ending felt a bit rushed. The climax came so late and it felt like everyone was so quick to forgive and move on. Definitely didn't take away from my enjoyment, but was a little bit of a bummer.

Overall, highly recommend to anyone who is a fan of a good rom com!

Thank you to Netgalley and Alcove Press for sending me an advanced copy in return for my honest review!

4 stars ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

Thank you NetGalley for the ARC!

Aiden and Rosie are two graduate students and arch-nemesis forced to write a novel together. As they slowly get to know each other and use their novel to explore their feelings for each other, the lines between reality and fiction start to blur.

This book was SOOO cute and swoon-worthy! I was hooked right from the beginning - the banter, the tension, and the lovable side characters had me devouring this book in one sitting.

It was fun to see their characters mirrored in the novel they were writing and I loved the build up in Rosie and Aiden’s relationship.

If you enjoy rivals-to-lovers with some humor and lots of romantic tropes, this book is for you!

It was a cute romance, good dialogue and sweet scenes however i felt like the writing was mediocre. The author put in a lot of effort and it was very well edited, but the overall style of writing screamed that the author was inexperienced and needed a little more of a je ne se quoi to it.

This book was wonderful! It was so cute. I loved Rosie and Aiden 🥹 Aiden was SWOON WORTHY!! The pacing of this novel was really well done. It reminded me a lot of Emily Henry’s novels.

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

This is filled with well-written slow burn and enemies to lovers, except it is so much more. It goes from enemies to reluctant co-writers, to friends, to lovers, and this was a really profoundly impacting trope that had me giggling at the banter, then crying later on.

I really enjoyed the plot, despite the tropes. I came into the book with very low expectations, but this book shattered them. I loved that the backstories of the characters were carefully crafted, and the plot was romance-based, yet there was more to it. The friendships between characters are also very sweet, and although I wasn't a massive fan of a certain romantic subplot, I do like that the book explored more background beyond the two main characters, as well as the comedy that Katie Holt writes with.

I need to mention how much I enjoyed catching each parallel between the main characters' writing and their 'reality' that really emphasised what was going on, and how they opened up more in their writing to give us a different viewpoint with more details. One small detail I enjoyed was how their excerpts at the end of each chapter was named "Untitled" until the very end.

A little bit of constructive feedback: there are some dialogue exchanges written in basic Spanish, which could potentially be pretty off-putting for readers who have zero foundations in this language. It was a really interesting insight in terms of world-building for the story, and I understand the need to evoke a different language to portray it, but I think many would have appreciated some form of translation, whether it was in brackets, in a footnote, or at the end of the book.
Another point that I didn't understand was the telephone call thing, where Rosie picks up Aiden's phone. I was really confused because Aiden refers to the caller as his mother, yet later mentions that his mother has been dead for years. If it was an attempt at Gen Z humour, it did not work well.

To summarise, it was an enjoyable read, one that made me feel a rollercoaster of emotions, and is perfect for a cozy night!

Overall I enjoyed this book.

In the beginning there were moments that felt a little slow. In the beginning it also felt like they were "enemies" just for the sake of being enemies. But as rhe story progressed I did like that their relationship developed. Their banter was everything! I enjoyed the plot development and the spice.
I thought this book was a cute rom com that definitely met it's mark.

Thank you to the publisher and NetGallery for the ARC is exchange for my honest review.

I really enjoyed the book within a book vibe, it was well written and I enjoyed the story of Aiden and Rosie. I look forward to reading more of Katie’s books!

4.5 stars for a STELLAR small town girl in the big city x grumpy sunshine x christmas vibes delicious romcom. I absolutely LOVED the way the author wove together Aiden + Rosie's story both through the lens of the book they were writing and their relationship in real time. Although entirely expected, the ending big grand gesture was SO GOOD and had me so happy for these two fictional characters.

Thank you so much to Katie Holt + the NetGalley / publishing teams for the ARC!

Super cute! Very Emily Henry vibes, quite a few grammatical errors that I'm sure will be fixed by publication. Two spicy scenes.

If you’re in the mood for a heartfelt, steamy, and fun read then look no further!

This is an academic rivals/enemies to lovers story! I was skeptical in the beginning because there were a lot of similarities to Beach Read but I’m happy to say my worries were all in vein! This story was so much fun to read. The banter was great and the tension between Aiden and Rosie was built perfectly.

I loved that we got to see a sneak peak into Aiden’s POV through the excerpts of the book they were writing together. And just the overall use of their writing to express their feelings to each other was really wonderful.

The only problem I had was the breakup/conflict in this story. I felt like it happened too close to the end and the way it was resolved/forgiven didn’t match the intensity of the conflict itself. But that could just be me!

Overall, I would definitely recommend this book and look forward to reading more from the author.

Thank you so much to NetGalley and Alcove Press for this ARC in exchange for my honest review!

Thanks to NetGalley and Alcove Press for the advanced e-copy in exchange for an honest review.

2 stars
A contemporary romance between two aspiring writers. Rosie loves romance, Aiden is a literary fiction writer and looks down on the romance genre. Their tumultuous relationship is the talk of their class, their rivalry a problem that disrupts the literary workshop. So when their college professor forces them to work together, Rosie and Aiden will have to finally work through their tension and open themselves up to romance.

This book sadly wasn't for me. To be fair, I was branching out, I was trying to pick up a genre I don't usually read and try something new. However, Holt's book felt unoriginal, with pacing issues and bland characters. Rosie, our heroine, was a frustrating main character. She's stubborn to a fault, so much so, that she keeps on sabotaging herself and Aiden's relationship over and over again. She also reads much younger, though she's supposed to be in her mid twenties. Something that really frustrated me about Rosie is that, even though I know this is a romance novel, she's obsessed with Aiden. Rosie is from Tennessee and she has recently moved to New York. She's broke, working as a bartender, she has a group of friends and she misses her family deeply. Yet, her whole life revolves around Aiden. His name is in every page, every conversation she has mentions him. Her friends feel like they are only there to ask about them. She talks about him constantly to her college tutor/professor when she should be revising her own work. Even when her sister tells her huge news about her life, the conversation turns to Rosie and Aiden after a couple of lines. Though this is a love story, I wish these characters had a life outside their relationship, I wish I could have gotten well-rounded characters. Instead, every conversation is about Aiden, and anywhere Rosie decides to go, train station, bookshop, even the restaurant where she works in, he's randomly there.

Holts works out their relationship using excerpts of the fictional book Rosie and Aiden are working on for their college class. Because both Rosie and Aiden are awful communicators, and they are constantly bickering, every chapter they write, they pretty much copy verbatim from their own interactions. However, they use their fictional counterparts, Hunter and Max, to yearn for the other, apologising and explaining their true feelings. But, because we as readers know they are actually in love with each other, the excerpts feel redundant most of the time.

If you are a romance reader that enjoys contemporary stories and are looking for something lighthearted to read, but nothing extraordinary, I say go ahead and pick this one up. If you know the tropes (forced proximity, academic setting rivals-to-lovers, book within a book, only one bed) and enjoy them no matter how many times you read them, then I think you won't get bored like I did. It's not a bad written book by any means, I just found it lacking. I did not like the characters, so I couldn't root for their relationship and because the relationship is everything in this novel, I sadly couldn't enjoy the work.

Okay, so I liked the tension between Rosie & Aiden but they were both immature and Rosie especially was so childish and acted stupid in the end which really annoyed me. This book had all the right tropes, which I usually love but this one just fell flat for me tbh. Aiden was also mean and condensing at times and I failed to see how he was different than Rosie's ex because he constantly belittled her. It was a fun concept to make people read a book within a book and the writing was engaging too but because of the pacing and the behaviour of the characters, I was disappointed. Also, the third act breakup was pretty bad and I didn't know how to feel about Rosie & Aiden together after that, but I liked that Aiden atleast apologised. So, overall the book had potential but the execution was poor so I had a tough time feeling connected with all the characters.

I received an ARC from Netgalley in exchange of an honest review

Not in My Book by Katie Holt is a cute romance read.

I really liked the premise of enemies to lover in academic setting, soo good...
Unfortunately it didn't work for me.
The beginning was interesting, banter was interesting, tension started rising, dialogue was intelligent and then all of a sudden it felt flat.
Somehow it became slightly boring and once they became a couple it was quite flat. I simply felt no sparks and no chemistry.
There was also a very low level of spiciness.
I am sorry but it didn't work for me.

**Thank you to NetGalley for the ARC!**

4.5 stars rounded up to 5!

Oh my god this book was SO good. It's so simple, yet really well done. The author did a great job at creating such an immersive world that I literally binged the entire book in a day despite the fact that I had told myself when I got the ARC that I wouldn't read it until November since the pub day is in December.

Rosie and Aiden are grad students at NYU, taking a creative writing workshop class that is based around writing a novel over the year and sharing chapters each class for critique from classmates. The book starts out with our main two absolutely hating each other and bickering over their genre preferences and writing styles, but because their animosity gets a little bit too out of hand, their professor forces them to work together and combine genres (romance and literary fiction) on their novel. We get snippets of the book they work on while reading the book, and I loved seeing the novel take form.

It's clear the author took a lot of inspiration from The Hating Game, which I don't necessarily mind because so many books have done that nowadays, and it just worked for this book. I loved Aiden and Rosie's interactions (and just Aiden himself <3) and how they still bickered to no end even as a couple. The two of them had some serious character growth individually and as a couple which really shined throughout. Their friend group was endearing and everyone's personalities and individualities really came through. The conflict at the end of the book wasn't needed, in my opinion, but I understand why and I entirely saw it coming. That is the biggest reason why it wasn't an immediate 5 star read for me, but I was willing to round it up because of how much I enjoyed reading this.

I will say, I'm hoping that between now and final printing, the few typos and formatting errors will be fixed. There's also a couple of plot inconsistencies that I noticed just with minor things that didn't really take away from my reading experience and the editor should've pointed out before copy edits were finalized, so it's probably too late for that now.

In the end, though, I'm really looking forward to what Katie Holt puts out next because I'm sure to read it!

Thanks to NetGalley for the ARC.
This story didn’t really do it for me. They were writing the ‘book’ that was essentially their story just with different names. Relatively loooong story for like a really simple plot and The ‘romantic’ scenes gave me the iiiiick
It might be a good book for others with the friends or enemy vibes, but it didn’t hit the mark for me

3,5 ★

“𝙏𝙝𝙚 𝙩𝙧𝙪𝙩𝙝 𝙬𝙖𝙨 𝙄 𝙡𝙞𝙠𝙚𝙙 𝙝𝙚𝙧 𝙣𝙤 𝙢𝙖𝙩𝙩𝙚𝙧 𝙬𝙝𝙖𝙩 𝙨𝙝𝙚 𝙙𝙞𝙙, 𝙣𝙤 𝙢𝙖𝙩𝙩𝙚𝙧 𝙬𝙝𝙖𝙩 𝙨𝙝𝙚 𝙨𝙖𝙞𝙙”

Thank you NetGalley and the author for this ARC!

I was so excited when I got this arc bc the cover looked so cute and the synopsis sounded just like what I needed. This really was a fun read and I have so much to say so get in friends 🚗

“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 𝙡𝙞𝙜𝙝𝙩 𝙖𝙣𝙙 𝙙𝙖𝙧𝙠, 𝙞𝙣 𝙧𝙤𝙢𝙖𝙣𝙘𝙚 𝙖𝙣𝙙 𝙡𝙞𝙩𝙛𝙞𝙘. 𝙄𝙣 𝙩𝙝𝙞𝙨 𝙡𝙞𝙛𝙚𝙩𝙞𝙢𝙚 𝙖𝙣𝙙 𝙩𝙝𝙚 𝙣𝙚𝙭𝙩.”

Pro’s:
▸ the phasing was very well. Not too slow, not too fast. It was just perfect to keep my attention. How the book started, when they started working together, how the relationship progressed and everything! I was worried it would go too fast for me, but the phasing was very nice.

▸ The writing was done very well. It fit perfect with the story and the characters. It read as an easy romance that doesn’t take itself too serieus, the kind of book you want to pick up after a long day and not use your head too much.

▸ I liked how he apologized at the end, had me all🤭🤭🤭 I don’t care what anyone says, Aiden is a cutie patootie

▸ The lil pieces of their book at the end were GENIUS, bc they basically told us what Aiden was feeling even if we didn’t get anything from his perspective. Really cool🥹

▸ The twists were good and simple making this, once again, an easy read- what I really liked since that’s what I was looking for.

"𝙄 𝙬𝙚𝙣𝙩 𝙩𝙤 𝙮𝙤𝙪𝙧 𝙖𝙥𝙖𝙧𝙩𝙢𝙚𝙣𝙩 𝙚𝙫𝙚𝙧𝙮 𝙙𝙖𝙮. 𝙄 𝙝𝙞𝙩 𝙮𝙤𝙪𝙧 𝙗𝙪𝙯𝙯𝙚𝙧 𝙖 𝙢𝙞𝙡𝙡𝙞𝙤𝙣 𝙩𝙞𝙢𝙚𝙨 𝙪𝙣𝙩𝙞𝙡 𝘼𝙡𝙚𝙭𝙖 𝙬𝙤𝙪𝙡𝙙 𝙨𝙚𝙣𝙙 𝙢𝙚 𝙖𝙬𝙖𝙮, 𝙖𝙣𝙙 𝙩𝙝𝙖𝙩 𝙨𝙩𝙪𝙥𝙞𝙙 𝙛𝙪𝙘𝙠𝙞𝙣𝙜 𝙗𝙧𝙞𝙘𝙠 𝙬𝙖𝙨𝙣'𝙩 𝙩𝙝𝙚𝙧𝙚 𝙬𝙝𝙚𝙣 𝙄 𝙣𝙚𝙚𝙙𝙚𝙙 𝙞𝙩 𝙩𝙝𝙚 𝙢𝙤𝙨𝙩. 𝙄 𝙬𝙚𝙣𝙩 𝙩𝙤 𝙏𝙝𝙞𝙣𝙠 𝘾𝙤𝙛𝙛𝙚𝙚 𝙚𝙫𝙚𝙧𝙮 𝙢𝙤𝙧𝙣𝙞𝙣𝙜. 𝙄 𝙖𝙩𝙚 𝙣𝙚𝙖𝙧𝙡𝙮 𝙚𝙫𝙚𝙧𝙮 𝙢𝙚𝙖𝙡 𝙖𝙩 𝙩𝙝𝙚 𝙃𝙞𝙙𝙚𝙤𝙪𝙩, 𝙝𝙤𝙥𝙞𝙣𝙜 𝙩𝙤 𝙨𝙚𝙚 𝙮𝙤𝙪 𝙩𝙝𝙚𝙧𝙚. 𝙄 𝙙𝙞𝙙𝙣'𝙩 𝙟𝙪𝙨𝙩 𝙡𝙞𝙚 𝙙𝙤𝙬𝙣 𝙖𝙣𝙙 𝙙𝙞𝙚, 𝙍𝙤𝙨𝙞𝙚, 𝙄 𝙟𝙪𝙨𝙩 𝙙𝙞𝙙𝙣'𝙩 𝙠𝙣𝙤𝙬."

Con’s:
▸ Rosie was kinda annoying sometimes yk? Being stubborn when she really just could have done the damn task. She also kept getting mad at Aiden when he become distant when she started about his mom and then she goes like “he is so annoying, he can’t be friendly” blah blah like girl, come on, read between the lines. His mom is clearly a sensitive topic, let it go. She also did something that is not okay after the kissing- I’m talking about the way she acted AFTER all that- and then get mad at HIM, girl YOU STARTED IT. She just wasn’t really self aware and it got on my nerves.

▸ SHE FORGOT HER BOOKS AT HIS HOUSE😭😭😭 that broke my heart😔

▸ There were some mistakes like a missing “ in a dialogue and soon instead of spoon. I think I definitely found more than 5 mistakes throughout the whole book.

▸ I needed the Spanish translation so bad😭 I was so confused cz there would be like 3 dialogues back to back in Spanish and I would just be like “😪 no hablo español”

▸ Their fight at the end was kinda… stupid- the scene where she confronted him- Idk how to explain it, it just didn’t feel <i>right</i>, it didn’t feel like <i>them</i>. I really don’t know how to phrase it. The twist was good tho! I just hoped it would have happened a different way.

“𝙄𝙛 𝙮𝙤𝙪'𝙧𝙚 𝙣𝙤𝙩 𝙢𝙞𝙣𝙚, 𝙩𝙝𝙚𝙣 𝙠𝙣𝙤𝙬 𝙩𝙝𝙖𝙩 𝙄'𝙢 𝙮𝙤𝙪𝙧𝙨. 𝙏𝙝𝙚 𝙢𝙞𝙣𝙪𝙩𝙚 𝙄 𝙨𝙖𝙬 𝙮𝙤𝙪, 𝙮𝙤𝙪 𝙝𝙖𝙙 𝙢𝙚 𝙝𝙤𝙤𝙠𝙚𝙙, 𝙖𝙣𝙙 𝙄 𝙣𝙚𝙫𝙚𝙧 𝙬𝙖𝙣𝙩𝙚𝙙 𝙮𝙤𝙪 𝙩𝙤 𝙡𝙚𝙩 𝙜𝙤. 𝙏𝙝𝙚 𝙚𝙣𝙩𝙞𝙧𝙚 𝙩𝙞𝙢𝙚 𝙬𝙚 𝙬𝙚𝙧𝙚 𝙩𝙤𝙜𝙚𝙩𝙝𝙚𝙧 𝙖𝙡𝙡 𝙄 𝙘𝙤𝙪𝙡𝙙 𝙩𝙝𝙞𝙣𝙠 𝙬𝙖𝙨 𝙮𝙤𝙪 𝙬𝙚𝙧𝙚 𝙗𝙚𝙩𝙩𝙚𝙧 𝙩𝙝𝙖𝙣 𝙖𝙣𝙮 𝙙𝙧𝙚𝙖𝙢, 𝙖𝙣𝙮 𝙥𝙞𝙚𝙘𝙚 𝙤𝙛 𝙛𝙞𝙘𝙩𝙞𝙤𝙣 𝙄 𝙘𝙤𝙪𝙡𝙙 𝙚𝙫𝙚𝙧 𝙬𝙧𝙞𝙩𝙚."

I think this is the authors first book and WOW, this is very good for a debut, like, very good. I can’t wait to read more of the authors work 🥹 The book will be out on 10 December 2024!

Smut:
Yes, 4 full scenes and like 2 lil paragraphs. Easy to skip, except the one they wrote, that was a lil tricky 😭

Katie Holt's slow burn, enemies-to-lovers romance between two aspiring writers/MFA students is an addictive read.

Rosalinda and Aiden are two characters you can't help but root for. They are both passionate about their writing - for Rosie, it's romance and for Aiden it's literary fiction. Their teacher and mentor decides that in order to tolerate their constant bickering in class, she must give them an assignment that will bring them together and teach them important life lessons. As Aiden and Rosie start to co-author a romance fiction, based 99.99% on their lives, art imitates life here. Their explosive chemistry impacts Rosie's friend group who are intimately involved in every detail of their budding relationship.

Rosie's a BIPOC character (her mom is from Peru) which added depth and a welcome contrast to Aiden's more austere upbringing - more fraught and a child of divorce.

Highly recommend this. While at times I felt like it was "The Rosie Show," (main character syndrome) and she could have afforded to be a bit more engaged with her friend's lives (and her family's), it also probably accurately reflects the mindset and self-directed orientation of a mid-20-something character.

Thank you to NetGalley and Alcove Press for the ARC.

Not in My Book
Author : Katie Holt

This is the typical Enemies to Lovers genre and it really lived upto the expectations.
Rosie, a Peruvian- American budding Romance writer from Tenessee is passionate about writing her first Romance novel and making people believe in the happily ever after..
Aiden - A New Yorker also a writer but despises Romance to the extent possible. He is a literary fiction writer with amazing writing skills and believes that life has harsh truths and there is nothing called happily ever after.
These two are in the NYU perusing the writing workshop and are constantly into verbal battles in the class giving each other harsh criticism for the pieces that they write.
Tired with their fights, their professor asks them to write a book together , if they want to continue at NYU , but the book should have elements from both the genres.
Their hate builds up, but eventually flattens allowing them to enter into each other’s lives, giving their hearts the safe space to open up.
Soon they realise that it was not hate but an implausible pull which both felt since beginning that binds them.
When Rosie stands for Aiden against his father who was giving him a hard time, she realises that he has never seen that respect or affection that will make him believe in love. And when Aiden understands Rosie’s past relationship and sees her family which is filled with Love, he wants to give her the share of love that she is deserves.
Both these characters are strong and when they realise that they are still competing for a career changing opportunity, will their love survive??? Or will hate reignite??
This book has everything.. from slow burn, to fierce and passionate love.. emotional battles and the anxiety.
Supporting characters are used wisely and banter is fun to read.
Recommend to all the lovers of Romance, Enemies to Lovers, Slow burns..🫶🫶🫶

This was very cute, I had low expectations but I was pleasantly surprised by how much I enjoyed it in the end