Got to love me a book that’s set in Australia! This is the perfect friends to lovers romance, set in Newcastle.
Josie reconnects with childhood friend Zac as their friendship gathers momentum during all stages of their life.

I loved the setting here and I loved the friends to lovers storyline. What I didn't love were the poor decisions some of these characters made. It irked me and I kind of lost interest after awhile. The story had a lot of depth, but maybe too much because I think this could've been a lot shorter.

Love, Just In is a decades spanning story of friendship, heartbreak, and long awaited love. At the center are Zac and Josie, best friends whose paths diverged after college. Years later, fate brings them back together because Josie returns home for a temporary TV news reporting gig, while Zac is now a high stress paramedic.

Their reunion is anything but smooth. Awkwardness simmers beneath the surface as they both date other people, unsure of how to navigate the emotions neither of them fully buried. Josie is privately grappling with intense health anxiety, fearing she might have cancer. Meanwhile, Zac is still reeling from the loss of his ex fiancée, a trauma linked to drunk driving that continues to haunt him.

As they face their individual struggles, Zac and Josie slowly begin to lean on each other again, offering comfort, healing, and eventually love. Spoiler alert: After 14 years of missed chances, they finally find their way to each other.

If you enjoy slow burn romance and a strong “right person, wrong time” dynamic, this book is for you.

Rating: 3/5

Thank you to NetGalley for the advance copy!

Firstly, this cover is absolutely adorable!

A contemporary friends-t0-lovers romance full of heart, emotional depth, extremely important mental health representation, and so much more. Josie and Zac's story throughout is so moving, and I felt the author does a great job of showing their past and present, how one affects the other, and how things develop, change, and deepen as well.

I highly recommend this book, and can't wait to read what Ms. Murray writes next!

Thank you so much to NetGalley and Allen & Unwin for the e-ARC of this novel, it is incredible! All opinions expressed in this review are my own.

Just finished Love, Just In by Natalie Murray, and I really enjoyed it. It’s a heartfelt friends-to-lovers romance that dives deep into real-life struggles.

Josie Larsen, a Sydney TV reporter, is sent to Newcastle after a live on-air panic attack. There, she reconnects with Zac Jameson, her childhood best friend who’s been distant since a tragic event two years ago. As they navigate their renewed friendship and unspoken feelings, the story explores themes of grief, health anxiety, and personal growth.

The alternating timelines between past and present provide a rich backstory, showing how their bond evolved over the years. The slow-burn romance is sweet, with plenty of emotional depth. Josie’s health anxiety is portrayed with sensitivity, making her journey relatable and impactful.

If you’re into stories about rekindled friendships, personal challenges, and finding love in unexpected places, Love, Just In is worth picking up.

OMG! I loved my time with this book! Can definitely hold their own next to the Ali HAzelwood’s and Emily Henry’s on the shelf!

I really struggled to get into this book. The writing felt quite superficial and I didn’t get a lot of emotional depth from the characters. The story was sweet if predictable but not a stand out romance for me

Love, Just In | Natalie Murray
Friends to lovers in breezy Newcastle NSW

Full of all the tension we expect from trauma and history. I fell in love with Newcastle and all its charm and laid-back nature. Sweet connections, true feelings, Aussie character and steamy spice will have me coming back for more!

5/5 stars!
Big thanks to Allen & Unwin, NetGalley and Natalie Murray for the ARC for review!

I found this book very enjoyable. I loved the banter between the characters and absolutely adored the friends to lovers trope in this.
I will say it took me a little while to get hooked in, but once my attention was caught I was all in!

This was such a fun and exciting read! Ooh and the tension? Amazing. I could not put this down! Cannot recommend enough!

Not a huge fan of this book. I typically really like rom coms because they are easy to read and fun, but this was not it. I was stressed out by the main character and their banter was toxic at times.

DNF - I attempted to start this book and it just did not hold my interest. This may be a book I come back to in the future.

This was such a great story that centers around Josie and Zac and their career.

WHAT TO EXPECT
-friends to lovers
-TV newsroom
-health anxiety

*many thanks to Allen & Unwin and Netgalley for the gifted copy for review

This book definitely had me hooked, there were definitely scenes that had me going for a tissue.. it had emotional moments and the character development was well written and it was overall a great read

This book was a nice surprise for me. The anticipation that was built up between Josie and Zac was great and filled with so much tension. There are some books where I find the time jumps to take away from the storyline, but I thought that Natalie Murray did a great job weaving back and forth between the past and the present to give context to the present relationship and what went wrong in the past.

The concept of health anxiety that was described here was something that I don't think I have seen in any other book that I have read, and was something I immediately connected to, and never really thought was something people discussed. I found this to click so strongly with me and I really could elate to how Josie was feeling. I also enjoyed how Zac was unconditionally there for his friend for this part of her life, no matter how awkward things were between them. Romance aside, there is something to be said for a strong friendship, and theirs was so lovely to see.

For me, this was definitely a 4.5 star read, if I was allowed to do that. :)

Many many thanks to Allen & Unwin and NetGalley for providing me with this ARC in exchange for my honest review!

Thank you for an early edition of Love, Just In. What a sweet friends to lovers romance book. I loved this one!

Thank you, Netgalley for the opportunity to read and review this.

I'm not sure what to say about this book. I loved it, and at the same time I was frustrated with it. Maybe the frustration was more to do with main character Josie Larsen.

Josie and Zac Jameson are childhood friends. From the start, it is shown that Zac has been in love with Josie, but she straight away puts him in the friend zone. When they meet up again, when Josie is transferred to Newcastle where Zac is based.

I really enjoyed the way Zac was written, but found the chemistry between him and Josie lacking, but despite my feelings for Josie, it was very interesting reading a book that not only covers mental health, both of which Josie and Zac overcome with their own personal demons, but also Josie's anxiety that bleeds not only into her career but also her personal life and relationships.

Still wonderfully written and will still recomend people to read.

I liked this so much more than i thought i would, to the point that i finished it in an afternoon. I loved the friends-to stranger-to lovers romance and that it also included flashbacks to the past throughout the book to understand how their friendship evolved before the current timeline. Super easy, lighthearted read.

Holy anxiety. As someone who doesn’t have health anxiety after reading this I felt myself starting to grow health anxiety. Some of it just seemed unrealistic but who am I to judge? It seemed whenever someone else sneezed in the FMC vicinity she would spiral. It was actually heartbreaking to think people live like this. The book was a good rom-com though and the plot was good.

Thank you to NetGalley and Allen & Unwin for providing me with an ARC of Love, Just In in exchange for an honest review.

This was a solid rom-com with a compelling premise and a relatable protagonist. While it wasn’t my favorite, I can absolutely see it appealing to fans of books like People We Meet on Vacation by Emily Henry. The romance had its sweet and heartfelt moments, and I really appreciated the realistic portrayal of anxiety—Natalie Murray did an excellent job of capturing the way it can impact daily life.

That said, I did feel the book ran a little long, partly due to the internal monologuing of the main character. Some of it didn’t add much to the story and slowed down the pacing rather than driving the plot forward. Still, the chemistry between the leads was engaging, and the writing was charming enough to keep me invested.

Overall, a solid and enjoyable read for rom-com fans looking for something with depth and emotional resonance!