Although I’m not sure exactly what I was expecting, this story, although a friends to lovers trope was so much more than just that. It is not a rom com but it does have rom com parts. And it is not just a romance but something much deeper. To me the true basis of this book was Josie’s health anxiety and that is what made this book so readable. I truly enjoyed Zac and Josie’s friendship that ended up being so much more. There were times I felt as if the story dragged just a little,but realized that we needed to know all the parameters of this story to appreciate it.and I did appreciate this HEA. It happened organically and for that I can give this book 4 stars. I voluntarily read and reviewed an advanced copy of this book. All thoughts and opinions are my own.

Such a cute read! I love how everything played out. This is my first time reading a book by this author, and it won’t be my last!

3.5 Stars

Nate inherits the property next to Becca’s and they get off on the wrong foot when he proposes to buy her farmstand and she has no intention of selling. Of course, there’s a romance brewing that neither wants to acknowledge. Both are grieving the death of their mates, and Nate’s also struggling to raise his younger teenage brother. They end up helping each other, growing close along the way.

I enjoyed seeing Becca and Nate’s feelings grow, and each helping each other without taking over. Becca needed that with her mother’s doubts over her handling the orchard on her own and Nate needed to realize he could do a good job with his brother. Nate’s doubts over letting love back in and his ability to care for his brother were a bit repetitive, and I wished the romance was developed more instead of one minute they’re reluctant friends/neighbors and then they’re together. I did enjoy the added bits of mystery and suspense surrounding fires and destruction in their town. The story was easy going and heartwarming with supportive family, friends, and community.

I alternately read and listened to Thanksgiving Blessing. Lauren Pedersen did a wonderful job narrating. I listened at my usual 1.5x normal speed.

I really enjoyed this friends to lovers story by Aussie author Natalie Murray. And as the major setting was Newcastle in NSW I felt connected, as this is where I spent my teens after arriving in Australia, and both my family and in-laws still live there.

Josie is a TV journalist in Sydney, she gets the chance to read the evening news but has a panic attack triggered by one of the interviews while the show is being aired live. She gets sent to the Newcastle branch in Newcastle as punishment.

Here she reconnects with her best friend from High School, Zac. Zac is a paramedic but despite their long friendship, he has barely spoken to Josie for the last few years. Two years previous to the start of the novel his fiancee tragically died in his arms in a car accident, the reason he left Sydney for Newcastle - to escape the memories.

Josie soon realises that picking up their friendship is not a forgone conclusion. With his trauma experience, and her personal health anxiety there is a lot to keep them apart. Health anxiety is a real thing - and some of the symptoms made me stop and think - always a good thing in a novel.

The romance part of the story was slow burn, as was the friendship rebuild because neither Josie or Zac realised how far their friendship had broken down, or how to mend it. They obviously still care for each other but there is a lot of angst on both sides - and plenty of miscommunication. There are also plenty of light-hearted and laugh out loud moments to break up the tension.

My only gripe was all the flash backs to previous times to help explain how the past is influencing the future. I’m not a fan of flash backs - but I realise sometimes they are a necessary evil. Overall though, Love, just in was an above average read, with a great friends to lover trope and I really recommend it.

Thank you NetGalley and Natalie Murray for sending me this ARC! This book was filled with romance, heartbreak, spice, “It’s Always Been You” vibes, trauma, comedy, and discussion about important mental health issues. I could not put this book down, such a great start to the new year!

Josie is a TV reporter, playful, loves op shops, and very single. She feels like she is behind on accomplishing her goals. She also deals with health anxiety which I was able to relate to and I’m sure others were as well. Although this topic is relatable, it is very heavy so be prepared about reading some serious health topics. But I adored her bubbly personality and her friendship with Zac. They complemented each other so well and I loved reading all their inside jokes, their nicknames for each other, and how they truly knew each other inside out. A friendship of 14 years that, although they went through some tough times, nothing really changed between them. Zac is the most adorable, caring, funny, dreamy guy in this book! He’s a paramedic, enjoys cooking, loves to surf, and has the most adorable dog. He is so loyal and loving. He cares deeply about Josie as a best friend and will do just about anything for her.

Although this book is considered a slow burn, and that’s not typically my favorite, it honestly didn’t feel like one! There so much flirtation, angst, and adorable moments that it felt like things moved along in a normal timeframe.

This book does have multiple timelines. I really enjoyed this book but at times the timelines did get a bit confusing because they didn’t follow in numerical order. However Natalie Murray did a good job at kind of introducing the scene or connecting it to the present! So it was easy to pick up on what age they were at or whether it was high school or college, etc.

Thank you NetGalley and publisher for this ARC publication for an honest review.

One of my favorite tropes is best friends who fall in love. There was something about this one that just didn't totally capture my heart. Zac and Josie have been best friends forever. But when young teenage Zac declares more than friendship, Josie shoots him down. He buries those feelings and eventually becomes engaged to someone else. After his fiancée is killed, Zac cuts Josie off for two years... this story is their reunion after the estrangement. There is also a past timeline mixed with the current one.

The writing was fine. The anxiety issues due to legitimate health concerns was an interesting addition to the storyline. I just wasn't convinced of the chemistry/true love connection of our couple. I wanted to feel more, not just be told it was there,

3 stars

Childhood friends-to-lovers is absolutely one of my favorites and this just did it for me! Josie and Zac are great, but I noticed the author does also bring some serious issues into the story, making this more realistic. The chapters go from present to past, which was interesting to see how they got to where they are. This certainly gave off Emily Henry vibes!

I enjoyed this! I haven't read a good friends to lovers in a while and this one hit the spot for me. I liked that it had a good balance of light and flirty mixed with more serious themes around mental health.

Both Josie and Zac have taken some serious hits mentally in the past few years. When fate brings them back together after two years they're both forced to face not only why their friendship dissolved but how both of them will be forced to face their own internal turmoil as well.

The flirty was well done and the spice level was just where I needed it to be. I thought Natalie did a great job of portraying mental health anxiety representation and what one may go through after the death of a loved one. I would recommend to anyone looking for an adult romance, friends to lovers, with a yellow to green spice level.

Love Just In is a heartwarming, well-written novel. It is raw and full of heart. It took me a while to read it, but I found it entertaining and enjoyed it.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for the eBook copy.

I wanted to love this book, but I ended up on the fence in the end. The plot felt unfocused. Where the spotlight needed to be on the romance, it sometimes felt like it was anywhere but. Then, the flashes back in time, although I understand their purpose, kept pulling me out of the story rather than deepening that relationship. On top of all that, her relationship with Lindsey felt like it was really unnecessary, and after the first date kind of gross.

Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for providing me with a copy of this book for review.

This book was a very different read to what I was expecting after reading the blurb and seeing the cover, but I definitely enjoyed it.

I felt like the author handled difficult subjects like mental health and grief well but it did mean that for me the book went from what I thought would be a rom com fun vibe to something more serious.

Josie and Zac’s love story is a friends to lovers, with a slow burn feel and I really loved their HEA.

Being marketed in the vein of Emily Henry, I had high expectations for this book. While it was a cute story, I felt like we spent more time reading about Josie and Zak’s other relationships that it kind of had me disengaged for much of the story. I appreciated the way the author portrayed the deeper topics of mental health, and I enjoyed the friends-to-lovers trope, but the pacing felt too slow for me. I also felt like the characters were well developed; I just wished that we had more of them together.

This is my first by the author, and I look forward to seeing what she has in store next.

Thank you to Natalie Murray, Allen & Unwin, and NetGalley for a digital ARC of this book for an honest review.

Friends to lovers story with all the rom-com tropes plus some heavier issues like anxiety. I feel the overall story and characters are relatable . Not a lot of banter or laughter but a serious look at relationships and mental health issues in today's turbulent world . You may shed a few tears reading.

This was a fun story. I thought Josie was an interesting character representing people with mental health issues. Zac was a good foil for her character. Everyone loves a good friends to lovers trope, and I think this one delivers beautifully.

Thanks to the publisher and NetGalley for advanced copy, and I give my review freely

3.75 rounded up to 4 because I’m feeling generous in 2024! My first book of 2024 didn’t disappoint! While you know friends to lovers is my least favorite trope, I’ll make an exception for Josie and Zac! Gets a yes from me.

Josie and Zac are two friends who have obvious chemistry but never made it happen. As they both come together for the first time in years, sparks fly and yet they seem to misstep a ton along the way.

This was one of the biggest struggles I had when reading... knowing that could these two best friends communicate better they likely would have worked out most of their issues. There was a lot of unresolved tension but also a lot of unresolved pain in their history.

With that being said, I really did love following along on the evolution of their friendship into something more, and the way it was handled was really well done.

Thank you to Allen & Unwin and NetGalley for an eARC in exchange for an honest review.

Love, Just In is a slow burn, friends to lovers story set in Australia (Newcastle and Sydney) which I really enjoyed. It covers the heavy topics of death, cancer and mental health but does it in a well executed way. The story alternates between the present and the past - but the past is a non-linear timeline. I enjoyed the flashbacks of Zac and Josie's lives as they have a long history, and it was great to see their friendship evolve. The additional characters such as Josie's best friend and various flatmates added to the story.
Great read by another great Australian author.

"Love, Just In" is full of heart and heartbreak, friendship and longing, love and loss. It’s essentially a good story, but I had such a hard time getting through it that I thought about not finishing it multiple times.

It started with the main character Josie and then seemed to escalate from there. My first impression of Josie wasn't good. I was 3% in and already didn’t like her. Then and now, I still don’t believe Josie is inherently a bad person. She's kind and gets along easily with most people. She just, in the beginning, had the unfortunate tendency to say the wrong thing that came across as unlikable and at times immature as she attempted to reconnect with and differentiate between Old Zac and New Zac after two years apart. This could stem from the fact that I didn’t understand Josie and Zac’s best friendship or humor, but they clicked and greatly enjoyed each other’s company so that’s all that matters.

Chapters alternate between the past (not in chronological order) and present, so you get a really good insight into where they started and where they are currently. You see a once genuinely happy pair with Zac being secretly in love with Josie who refuses (even in the present) to acknowledge that there may be more between them than “just best friends.” That was frustrating and made me think Zac deserved better, but I get that she didn’t want to ruin what they had (14 years of friendship) if things didn’t work out.

And this is more of a me thing than a quality thing but some of the characters, situations, dialogue exchanges, and lack of real communication were filled with more tension/awkwardness than I liked.

But I kept reading.

It wasn’t until the story was more than halfway over that I started empathizing with Josie. In addition to the Zac situation, it seemed like Josie couldn’t catch a break. I felt bad that she struggled so much under the increasing weight of so many problems.

I also could relate to some of her health anxiety and catastrophic thinking. Whenever Josie hears something health-related (particularly concerning cancer) she has intense panic attacks. She’s terrified of getting cancer because her grandmother and aunt both died young of breast cancer. She’s afraid her life will be cut short too before she can do everything she’s wanted or achieve her goals.

To me, this was the strongest part of the novel as I’d never seen this form of anxiety (or discussion of cancer) done before in books. Anxiety can be a frequent, irrational monster that can occupy your mind and body for what seems like a tortuously endless amount of time. The author did a good job depicting the petrifying chokehold anxiety can have on anyone (yes, anyone).

I liked that Josie is a reporter and how passionate she is about her job. That was a new-to-me occupation for any main character to have. It was interesting and I felt grounded in the world of news. Josie’s definitely the kind of reporter we need more of.

I liked that the story takes place in Australia. I liked the cute nicknames Josie and Zac had for each other: he calls her “sunbeam” and she calls him “favorite.” The epilogue was very swoon-worthy and parts of the acknowledgments made me laugh.

This story and I got off on the wrong foot in a way that I almost couldn’t recover from. Contrary to my experience, I do think the author wrote a good story and it’s already well-liked by many readers. The author’s research and experience really showed in this story. So if "Love, Just In" sounds interesting to you, I say go for it. I really do hope you enjoy it.

Thanks again Allen & Unwin and NetGalley for the e-ARC to read in exchange for an honest review!

Love, Just In is a second chance romance that will give you all the feels. The writing style of Natalie Murray pulls you in and keeps you wanting to know what happens next. I couldn’t put it down because I found myself cheering for Zac and Josie and wanting them to overcome all those traumas.

This is just the book I needed to start 2024 off on the right foot! This Aussie friends to lovers romance plucked the strings of my heart. Perfectly imperfect characters trying to make their way in their careers while dealing with loss, anxiety, embarrassment, and repressed feelings. Josie and Zac were adorable in their teen flashbacks and grew up to be likeable and quirky humans. One couldn't help but hope they found their way back to each other whether in friendship or something more. Overall Love, Just In is a feel-good story with just the right amount of spice.

Thank you to NetGalley and Allen & Unwin for the opportunity to read and review this ARC.