This book felt like reading two books at the same time, with way too much of a "book within a book" aspect. It was packed with an overwhelming number of trope references. I know how romance works; I don't need it spelled out for me. The constant commentary on the romance genre and how it's perceived was redundant. It was clear that the author had some unresolved feelings about being a romance writer and tried to bring it up at every turn.

Both characters are frustrating: Aiden for his initial belittlement of Rosie's dream (very much like her ex-boyfriend Simon) and Rosie for her immature behaviour at the end.

Also, I couldn't care less about the book they were writing together and the fact that it was used to basically make them communicate was so annoying. If I wanted to read that story, I would have. The conflict at the end is confusing and childish. Her reaction to him winning something over her was toxic and proved his point about not telling her because she reacted with such jealousy. The idea that he was not meant for her because he won a contest over her was absurd. Her assumption that he was pretending just because he submitted a story is delusional.
The resolution, crammed into a few chapters of another book, is infuriating. And, the fact that everything was all right just because he wrote a happily ever after, is utterly ridiculous. This book is a waste of time.

3.75

Their interactions and banter were really sweet. And I loved that the side characters from her workshop had her back and when her family met him, they saw right through them.

Thank you to NetGalley and Alcove Press for the ARC.

I LOVED THIS BOOK! When I think of romance as a genre, I think of it as the genre that you come to for comfortable troops and knowing what you will get. This book leans hard into that and gives you exactly what you want from enemies to lovers while exploring why you love that trope and providing a story that feels super original. While the story is told from Rosie's perspective, using their book to show Aiden's perspective was a great device that worked so well in this story. If you are a romance reader at all, please read this book!! Every time I had to put it down, I couldn't wait to get back to Aiden and Rosie and Hunter and Max again!

It officially releases in December and I will be reading it again because it feels like the perfect Christmas read.

A very cute and sweet romance. While I believe Holt didn’t completely resolve the ending bit between Aidan and Rosie, I loved their chemistry.

Aidan and Rosie are grad students who disagree about everything. Aidan writes literary fiction and Rosie writes romance. After a spectacular fight during the feedback portion of workshop, their professor gives them an ultimatum, write their final novel project together (and learn to get along) or drop her class. Both would do anything to avoid dropping her class and they agree to work together. As you can imagine, chaos ensues as Aidan and Rosie fight in out on paper and in person to write their novel. But as time progresses, Aidan and Rosie’s relationship morphs into a swoon-worthy romance.

Holt did an amazing job with her characterization and the vast majority of the plot was well thought out and flowed nicely. The only critique is the rushed ending to resolve the remaining conflict between the Aidan and Rosie. I feel like I needed more than expressions of love between them. I needed some actual conversation about what went wrong and how they are going to get past it and therefore avoid anything like that happening in the future. Sorry for the vagueness but I don’t want to spoil the ending for anyone. Overall, I really loved this novel. I’m just being a bit nit-picky.

The premise of this book was promising. Enemies to collaborators to lovers? Sign me up. And the fact that Rosie and Aiden are in the writing industry? Bonus brownie points. What I absolutely enjoyed were the excerpts of the book they were writing together within this book, as it really allowed me to be immersed in each of their perspectives by knowing what was going on in their hearts. The banter was so fun to read, and the scene where they (or Maxine and Hunter) first opened up to each other during dinner was really well-written!
One of my main concerns from the start of the novel was Rosie’s inner monologue being so redundant. There were only two thoughts that crossed her mind every time she was near Aiden: "Omg, I’m so short next to him!" and "Omg, he’s so broad and hot!" This continued until the end of the novel, and every time she described how petite she was, I felt a little removed from the reading experience.
I also feel like there’s a major misconception about the genre in which Aiden specializes. Literary fiction isn’t just about sad, flawed people being awful and evil and sad together. There can be a love story told through fanciful, elaborate, florid prose that explores themes and characters in depth, without necessarily giving them troubled pasts, but still being reflective and giving the reader a chance to dissect them. The way it was described in the book seemed a bit one-dimensional to me. Understandably so, if the notions came from Rosie and were later cleared up, but they weren’t.
The third-act breakup also just came out of the blue. Rosie being mad about her mentor mentoring another student felt immature, and I expected Aiden’s character to have matured a bit through everything they had gone through, so the breakup dialogue felt a bit childish to me.
This was still a very entertaining read, and I finished it pretty quickly. The steamy scenes were steamy!!! I loved how Rosie spoke about romance and was pretty optimistic throughout, and I loved the conversations about her culture and learning about a lot of food! I also relate to Aiden quite a bit in his love for litfic (and him being a sort of jaded pessimist, oops). All in all, I flew through this book and enjoyed my experience, and the issues I have with it are only something I picked up on because I’m quite picky with my romances in the first place.
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3.25/5 stars!

Summary:

Rosie can’t stand the pompous writer in her grad school class, Aiden; he always critiques her writing more than anyone else’s and has some vendetta against romance writing. When their professor assigns them to co-write a romance novel, can they stop bickering enough to write a worthwhile story? Or is their chemistry something deeper than just nemeses?

Title: Not In My Book
Author: Katie Holt
@readinromance
Rating: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ 5/5
Spice: 🌶️🌶️ 2/5


Tropes:
Enemies to Lovers
Forced Proximity
Opposites Attract
HEA


Triggers:
Complicated parent/child relationship
Emotionally abusive parent
Bully-ish romance


Whitney’s Thoughts:
A book about enemies to lovers writing a book together?? Sign me up! I read this book in less than 24 hours long into the night and loved it. The banter, the spice, the sweetness, the inner workings of writing—it was so compelling and a great read!

Thank you to Netgalley, the author and the publisher, for giving me a free ebook in exchange for an honest review.

Wow. I did not know how much I needed a romance book between two writers until the minute I started reading this exact book.

When Aiden and Rosie, arch nemesis' and pretending there is no tension, get into one fight too many in their writing class their tutor offers them an ultimatum: write a book together or drop the class. They choose to write the book. However, with Rosie as a romance writer and Aiden as a LitFic writer who thinks himself above romance, the tension will inevitably break, both on page and off page.

"I wished I could tell her I wasn't mad at her but for her."

This was such an entertaining read. I read it in one sitting and honestly spent so much time giggling and trying not to scream. I had so much fun.

There is so much that worked with this book. I loved the literary element, the way books and writing were such an important part of the story itself. I loved that Aiden came from literary royalty and yet didn't tell anyone about it. I loved seeing Rosie and Aiden go from enemies to friends to lovers to enemies and back to lovers. This might be the first book I've read where a third act breakup actually affected me. I loved that they were blending two of my favourite genres and the arguments and tension between them. Seeing that tension break, from that first kiss to the final one, watching them muddle through their feelings was so beautiful. I loved that their love story wasn't perfect. I loved that they fought and made mistakes and learnt how to love each other.

Aiden was truly a beautiful character. There were so many sides to him - his family, his writing, how he treated his students, and Rosie. Every page there was something new to learn and love about him. I loved seeing him work his way through his anxiety and uncomfortable situations because Rosie wanted or needed him to. And he bought her books!? Be still my heart.

I loved how Rosie spoke about romance. The way she drew Aiden out his shell, her match making abilities, her belief that love always wins. Her endless optimism was really refreshing in a book character. I also loved how much of her culture she kept, remaining true to herself even when people were telling her not to. I loved every interaction they had. The sexual tension and build up was slow, but oh, so sweet. Aiden has a dirty mouth (shocker), and Rosie needs him to. I also really like how Aiden immediately started treating her to what she never got in her previous relationship. There was a beautiful found family element, especially with Rosie's friends who loved and protected her fiercly.

There were a couple of things that didn't work. I think the author was trying to create a starting point of tension for Aiden and Rosie, but Rosie came across as immature quite a lot. The way she felt about her teacher mentoring someone other than her to the way she would lose her temper the minute someone said something negative about her writing made her very irritating at times. her general naivety mixed with how over cautious she was with relationships didn't quoite mesh properly.

That being said, this was a joy to read. I would recommend this to anyone looking for a romance book about books.

4 stars.

i have been in a horrible reading slump the past few months but i flew through this book! although it is technically a single pov, i really enjoyed getting a glimpse into aiden’s thoughts with the little book excerpts at the end of each chapter. this is definitely more of a slowburn, with some push and pull and miscommunication. although this had miscommunication, i do love how the author had them communicate through their writing. i think that was a creative way to dip your toes into the miscommunication trope without it being too unbearable for the reader. the spice scenes were written so well! i find myself losing interest in most spice scenes lately but i was locked in for these. thank you so much to netgalley and alcove press for the arc!

This was really good if you loved beach read I think this book is a good option. I would describe it as January Gus if it was in their college days. Good romance and overall good book. I’m not a big romance reader so I do feel like I need to say a 3.5 is very good.

3.75!

i absolutely loved the first half, but for some reason this felt simultaneously like a really slow burn but then when they became more open about their affection/crushes towards each other, i feel like it went from 0 to 100?

i strongly dislike epilogues having anything to do with engagement/wedding/pregnancy so i wish that the epilogue were different but it is a common choice for the genre for sure.

overall, i had a good time with this. i just didn't love the third act conflict and the way it was resolved, along with how the relationship was paced.

i enjoyed the setting immensely and the characters and all the surrounding characters. would recommend this for sure!

Thank you to NetGalley and Alcove Press for the ARC

Oh how I loved this novel. It was an enemies-to-lovers romance with spice and cute moments in a perfect blend. I was intrigued by the concept because it reminded my of Beach Read by Emily Henry and I really like when the mc is a writer and here I got it times two. Their interactions and banter was fabulous. It was a great development and just a fantastic, enjoyable book

I just devoured this book! I absolutely could not put this down. It was a REAL enemies to lovers with the best slow burn. I loved how it was a book in a book, it was very interesting. I feel like the ending was a bit rushed but it still made sense. Overall, it was such a fun read!

Thank you NetGalley and Katie Holt for the ARC 💕

What happens when the rivals are expected to co-write a romance novel together?

Rosie is a helpless romantic. She's an optimist who always wants to see the good in other people, while Hunter is the complete opposite. He's cold, arrogant, a firm disbeliever in romance.

Both of them dream of becoming authors and were in the same writing workshop class. While Rosie had a passion for writing romance with happy endings, Hunter had an obsession with literary fiction featuring tragic endings/stories.

Due to their differences, they're always fighting and insulting each other during the writing workshop sessions to the point where they're disturbing the class. Until one day, their mentor had enough of them and told them to drop the class and join any other courses instead. However, after successfully convincing their mentor, both Rosie and Hunter were given a chance to continue taking the workshop with the condition that they need to write a romance novel together. And that is where the rivalry becomes more interesting *evil laugh*.

Overall, I could easily devour this book in one sitting, finding it a fun and engaging read. There are many memorable scenes throughout this book, with Winter standing out as my favorite chapter. The interactions between Jess, Logan, and Tyler are incredibly enjoyable; they're downright hilarious. I wish I could read an entire book filled with just their conversations. Overall, despite being a debut novel, I think the author did a really good job of keeping me invested in the story until the end. I will definitely read another book written by her.

Whenever I see the word book in a title of a book I am immediately drawn to it (don't ask me why, I have no idea!) Katie Holt did not disappoint. Our story follows Rosie, a hopelessly romantic writer and her literary fiction- loving nemesis Aiden. The two are grad students at NYU in the same writing workshop and they bicker- A LOT! After months of enduring their antics, their professor forces them to work together and co-write a romance novel with a tragic ending for their thesis.
Our story was a sloooow burn and it made it all the better. Of course Rosie and Aiden start spending more time together as they write their novel and they soon learn there is a fine line between love and hate. I absolutely loved watching them exchange secret messages in their writing- saying all the things they were both too scared to say out loud to each other. If you love enemies to lovers and have a penchant for men who buy their ladies books add this one to the tbr friends!

Rosie and Aiden have been tasked with writing a romance (for her) without a HEA (for him). Why? Because their bickering and insults have completely disrupted their NYU writer's workshop and their professor has had enough. As the two trade chapters and barbs, it becomes evident that they are living out their own frustrations and feelings in their novel through their characters Max and Hunter.

On the plus side, it's fun to read a book within a book. However, the pacing of this book felt a bit off - it seemed like the characters in their novel were leagues ahead in their storyline and communication which didn't sit right since R & A were the ones writing the dialogue. Also, I felt like Rosie had some really unrealistic expectations of how people should communicated with her considering how she kept many things to herself - it was a bit annoying, but that is a personal take.

FYI There is another book coming out later this year with this same enemies to lovers writing a romance together plot, though that book has a different backstory. It even has a holiday component as well, so this book felt a bit like deja vu to me through no fault of this author.

Thanks to NetGalley for the digital advanced copy.

I loved it. I did get a little confused but the book in a book situation. Main trope was enemies to lovers which so amazing, but like with flair.

A very cute enemies to lovers book. 2 students forced to write together but instead have to accept true feelings for each other.

Thank you to NetGalley for providing me an ARC of this book. This is one of the best cute romance books I’ve read this year. 4.5 stars.

Not in My Book follows Aidan and Rosie, two students in a writing class who do not get along. Every class they banter back and forth and disrupt the class to the point that Ida, their teacher, has to put a stop to it. She gives them an ultimatum: they either drop her class or they write a story together. Rosie can’t afford to drop the class, so they agree to the story. Naturally being forced to come together to write this book also forces them to confront their real feelings for each other.

This book was the perfect enemies to lovers book. It was a swooooooon fest with them writing their feelings through their characters. I loved the entire thing and the vibe of the book. The end felt a little rushed and Aidan’s reasoning for wronging Rosie felt a little lame, but otherwise I absolutely loved this book. Will definitely be one I recommend over and over again!

I have learned that books where the MC is an author or writer aren't my favourite but putting that aside Rosie and Aiden's relationship was so delicious so it really didn't matter. Roise was incredibly relatable and I saw a lot of myself in her. Isn't that all that you can ask for when your readign - maybe not for some but for me its a definite plus. Shoutout to the scenes during christmas because that got me so kiddy (I absolutely love Christmas and I can read winter-y books all year round).

I was completely captivated by every single word of this story. I found myself unable to put it down, eagerly reaching for my kindle at every opportunity.

The story follows Rosie's dream of attending NYU in NYC and pursuing a writing masters degree has become a reality. Although the cost of living in the bustling city is significantly higher than her Tennessee hometown, Rosie is determined to find a way to finance her education. However, her journey is not without its challenges. In one of her writing workshops, she constantly finds herself at odds with Aiden, who despises romance as a genre. Aiden, being a lover of literary fiction, believes that if a story lacks sadness, it simply isn't worth his time. Their conflicting views on writing often lead to heated debates and clashes.

To their surprise, their professor assigns them a special project that requires them to collaborate closely. At first, Rosie and Aiden are skeptical about working together, considering their stark differences in writing styles. However, this project becomes an opportunity for them to truly understand each other. As they delve deeper into the project, they begin to realize that there is a fine line between love and hate. This realization brings them closer, blurring the boundaries that once divided them.

Despite their initial reservations, Rosie and Aiden discover that their contrasting perspectives can actually complement each other. Through their collaboration, they learn to appreciate the beauty in both romance and literary fiction. This project not only helps them grow as writers but also allows them to develop a newfound respect for each other's work.

The characters were incredibly well-developed and the overall structure of the book was masterfully done. I wholeheartedly recommend it to anyone who enjoys the enemies-to-lovers trope, forced proximity, the classic "only one bed" scenario, as well as a healthy dose of angst and entertaining banter. Aiden and Rosie's dynamic had me hooked from the very beginning. I especially loved how the author incorporated snippets of the book they were co-writing, adding a special touch to the romance. It felt both romantic and realistic, and I could really relate to their shared fears about love. I definitely recommend giving this book a read. However, I do feel that it could have been slightly shorter to improve the pacing. With the story spanning over a couple of months, the time jumps occasionally disrupted the flow of the narrative. Either way, a pretty good read!

Thanks to Netgalley and the publisher for the arc!