Love, Just in
By Natalie Murray
⭐️4
🌶️3
💧.5

As you all know I live to go in blind. Well colour me surprised when I realised this was an Aussie based book by an Aussie author!!!
This book has some sensitive topics so I do suggest you don’t go in blind as there isn’t a content warning .
I really felt that Josie resonated with me in a lot of ways and a relatable character is always a win!
Zac is such a sweetheart you just want to smoosh him!
Such a great read I really enjoyed this! This book just released today! Go check it out!

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Josie Larsen and Zac Jameson were best friends in high school and university roommates but never anything more after Zac once asked Josie out and was shot down in front of their friends. When Josie takes a long term assignment for work in Newcastle, she and Zac are reunited after many years apart.

Tropes include: 🔄Then & now storytelling 🧍‍♀️🧍‍♂️ friends to lovers 🥹 “it’s always been you” 🌲long term pining

TW: cancer, death of loved ones (past), medical anxiety, death of fiance (past), drunk driving, car crash


Thank you to Netgalley and Allen & Unwin for the advanced copy to read and review. All opinions are my own.

Josie Larsen goes through some trials and tribulations not only in her home life but also in her career. While working as a News Reporter she has a live panic attack and then gets sent to cover for another reporter which is a down grade from her current position. She ends up in Newcastle while Zac Jameson, whom was her interest in high school does too.

What a romantic read whom I would recommend to anyone that loves to read about love.

Thank you NetGalley for the advanced digital copy in exchange for my honest opinion.

A sweet romance that takes place in Australia. Good and sweet concept, an easy and quick read with a great love story !

Took me a while to finally get to this because I was finishing up my 2023 reading list. But I wish I hadnt waited. I read this in 2 days. It got me out of my fantasy genre slump. I didn’t know the author but I’m glad this started that journey. The reading is easy to follow along to and it’s a cute story line.

“It’s like you’ve completely filled my my head, and there’s no room for anything else.”

- Friends to Lovers
- Slow Burn
- First Responder
- It’s always been you vibes
- Miscommunication trope
- Australian setting

It follows along Zac and Josie who have been best friends since they were 13 and they were inseparable until a tragic accident happens and they go without speaking for two years…

I’m not usually a fan of miscommunication tropes but I really enjoyed the two main characters going back and fourth instead of just being upfront with one another. I was enjoying (and internally screaming that they just tell each other how they feel) but it was fun watching them navigate their feelings after every thing they’ve been through.

The book goes back and fourth from the present to the past and in doing so takes you through some tragic events so check trigger warnings or dm me if you need, it’s nothing major but I like to point it out.

I can’t wait to read more of this authors work! Forever grateful that I was gifted not only an e-arc but a physical arc also

What’s not to like with a friends to lovers story?! First book by this author and I loved it, the storyline, the destination, etc. had some important topics about grief and mental health. Definitely one to pick up!

This is a slow build friends to lovers book.

Josie is a news reporter who struggles with anxiety. She feels like she has hit the wall in her life and career, and of course the one time she freezes on air, her boss happens to be watching. Josie is sent to Newcastle to hopefully prove that she deserves to be on air. The fortunate part of this transition is that her best friend Zac live in Newcastle.

Zac has very obviously been in love with Josie for a very long time. But they had remained the closest of friends. He and Josie had become somewhat distant ever since his fiancé died in his arms. But now he is in a better place.

This is a very emotional ride. Josie’s anxiety festers and almost causes her career to crash, not to mention the possibility of losing Zac as a friend forever. But spending all this time with Zac again makes Josie realize that maybe she’s been missing everything that’s been right in front of her this whole time. You should grab this book today.

Entertaining friends-to-lovers story set in Australia. Josie is kind of a mess. She's a talented reporter but can't seem to get her life in any kind of order. She gets transferred to a smaller market where she hopes to kick start her career and win a better tv role back in Sydney. When she gets there, her best childhood friend Zac picks her up and Josie tries to kick start their friendship. I didn't completely buy their chemistry but I liked the story and I liked the subplot that examines mental health issues around health anxiety.
Thanks to the publisher and NetGalley in return for my honest review.

Love, Just In is an entertaining romance about best friends with bad romantic timing. Josie and Zac became instant friends in High School and Zac wanted more than friendship from Josie. Josie wasn't ready for romance with Zac then. Now they are adults and both living in Newcastle, Australia after spending several years apart. Josie is definitely interested in Zac, but worried that a full blown relationship will ruin their friendship. The novel is filled with interesting characters and sub plots that make this a fun read.

This is my first book of 2024, and I loved it so much! I am such a sucker for friends to lovers, especially when they have been best friends since they were in high school. I have a soft spot for when one of them has been pining for years, and that's the case with this book.

Josie is a news reporter in Sydney, but her dream is to be an anchor. When she has a panic attack on air, she is moved to a smaller town to work there. One benefit to being moved to Newcastle is that she will be closer to her best friend, Zac. Zac and Josie met in high school, but they haven't spoken much over the past two years. Tragedy struck for Zac, and he has been picking up the pieces after what happened.

Zac and Josie spend more time together, and she even starts to live with him because her roommate turns out to be a bit too much for her. Zac is a paramedic, and he tries to be there for Josie as she suffers with health anxiety. I hadn't heard a lot about health anxiety before, and the description was handled with care.

Zac and Josie have always been strictly in the friend zone (Except for the one time that he asked her out when they were both 14,) Things start to change as Josie sees him in a new light, and she discovers that maybe Zac's feelings for her have always been there.

This book tugged on my heartstrings and I felt so much with the angst, grief, and heartbreak. This is such an amazing story of the power of love, and I loved the slow burn steaminess too.

3.75 stars

I’ll begin this review by giving the highest of compliments - Love Just In feels like an Abby Jimenez novel. Both the writing style and plot remind me of her stuff. It’s funny, a little vulgar, and most importantly, has substance. By the end of the book, I wanted to just hug it (a phenomenon often observed when a reader finishes an Abby book).

While I loved the last half of the story, the first third was kinda painful to read. It’s a friends to lovers story, but in the first few chapters, I didn’t buy their friendship at all. I get that their relationship is supposed to be a little rocky but I think this portion of the story dragged a bit. The good news is that halfway through it’s like a switch flips and I’m on board, finally “buying” into their friendship. For readers who love a good friends-to-lovers trope, the slow and awkward start is worth it for the second half.

Impt note/content warning: Love Just In deals with some weighty issues, most notably health anxiety. I’d encourage potential readers to review content warnings before diving in

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for the gifted copy. Opinions are my own.

Thank you to the publisher and net galley for the ARC of this book. all opinions are my own.
This was such a fun book! I absolutely loved reading it and I couldn't stop flipping through the pages. Definitely recommend!

I really enjoyed this story. I loved Josie and Zac as main characters and loved both their friendship and romantic relationship. I also really enjoyed the spice and didn’t feel as though it was forced or cringy. I really related to Josie’s struggles with anxiety. I don’t struggle with health anxiety, however I do struggle with other forms of anxiety and felt this depiction of anxiety was realistic and relatable.

I enjoyed this book but had gone in expecting a rom-com and found while there were some elements of that, there was a lot more to the story. I liked the characters and there were several scenes that made me laugh out loud. The history between Josie and Zac was full of a lot of emotions. I found Josie a bit self-centered, but she grew up in the story and on me by the time I got to the end. The book was entertaining and pulled on the heartstrings over missed opportunities. I received an advance copy from NetGalley and am voluntarily leaving a review.

This is a second chance, extremely slow burn romance. Josie Larsen is a television journalist waiting on her big break in the news world. When she gets transferred to Newcastle, she hopes this will be an opportunity to show what she can do. Josie suffers from severe health anxiety. Every time she has an ache or pain or cough, she believes she has a terminal illness. It is no laughing matter for her. It is very real and at times debilitating.

Zac Jameson was Josie's best friend in high school and college. Zac wanted more from her years ago, but she held him in the friend zone. Zac's world was rocked a few years ago when his fiancee was killed in a car accident. He has just gotten back to a somewhat normal lifestyle. When Josie comes back to town, his perfect equilibrium is thrown off.

They both are dating other people, all while ignoring what is right in front of them. They have neglected their friendship for so long that they do not know how to get back to that place.

This was a slow burn romance, maybe a little too slow. I did enjoy the book and the characters, but I think the book could have been shortened and been just as good, or maybe I am just too impatient to wait for the good stuff. Both characters had some real issues that needed to be addressed. Zac was my favorite character. This guy was almost too good to be true. I really wanted to reach into the book and throttle Josie in a few scenes. I guess that old saying that you don't know what you got till it's gone is definitely true in this book. If you like a second chance romance, you will enjoy this one.

Thank you to Allen & Unwin and NetGalley for this ARC. I am leaving this review voluntarily.

I received an ARC via NetGalley for an honest review. This is a friends to lovers trope. I rooted for Josie and Zac throughout the story. At times it felt like their HEA would never happen. There felt like a lot of inconsequential material that dragged the story down some.

Tried to get this one finished up before the ball dropped but it didn't happen, so this became my first finished read of 2024.

I actually really enjoyed this book! Friends to lovers is not normally my thing, but I think Josie and Zac were snarky enough and had enough of the unrequited love vibe to win me over.

Friends forever, teenage Josie shot young Zac down the one time he asked her to be more than friends. Fast forward years later and while their friendship has struggled the last few years due to a traumatic life event for Zac, the two wind up being in the same town again when Josie temporarily relocates for her TV news job. Told from two timelines (the past vs the present) the reader can clearly see that Zac has been pining for Josie for most of their friendship. While Josie has never admitted it, you can see at times she was interested in Zac too, but the timing was never right.

While there are lots of laughs and jokes (Zac's message tee collection is on point) the book does tackle some tough issues too. Drunk driving, loss of a loved one, cancer, and health anxiety are the main ones. I ultimately REALLY enjoyed how the author chose to tackle Josie's health anxiety. It made Josie grow as a character and made her more likable in my eyes. The world of TV is tough, but she was able to shine despite her hiccups. Zac was a gem and perfect in almost every way except for the guilt/shame that had been hanging over his head since the accident. That was the one area that I wished the author would have fleshed out a bit more but I think we were meant to think he had addressed it and was working through it.

Overall it was a cute, fun read that kept me entertained with perfectly imperfect characters that didn't back away from the hard things life threw at them.

If you like tropes, then this book might be right up your alley. It has so many top tropes: friends to lovers, slow burn, childhood friends… it’s tropes on tropes on tropes up in here.

The book is single perspective, and I’m always fascinated by this authorial decision because the standard is dual perspective. That said, there’s usually a GOOD reason for eliminating the love interest’s perspective and providing the reader with only the information the protagonist has. Yes, we—as readers—know that Josie and Zac are going to end up together, but not having that confirmed by Zac’s perspective opens us up to the possibility that he might not feel the same way. Of course, this involves some suspension of disbelief because the couple always ends up together at the end of the romance, but this book does a great job of building the tension with single perspective.

This book also plays around with the timeline. As I mentioned, Josie and Zac have been friends since they were young, and they’ve always had a “will they won’t they” dynamic, but it’s never worked out. Every other chapter is a flashback to some point in the past, pinpointing a moment that provides further context to their complicated dynamic.
I don’t want to give too much away, but I do think I need to share that this book deals with some heavy content; the description hints at some of the issues, but it’s much heavier than the typical romcom/contemporary romance. My ARC contained an Author’s Note that goes into more details, but it’s at the end of the book. I do hope that this Note is moved to the beginning of the book for the published edition.

I would recommend Love, Just In. Despite the heavy content at times, this book is a lot of fun. The banter between Josie and Zac is lively, and the flashbacks give an added layer to the narrative. I don’t want to take away from the effectiveness of the written word, but this would make a perfect series on a streaming Netflix—with the Australian accents, gorgeous settings, and the flashbacks, it would translate beautifully from page to screen!





I received a digital ARC of this book from Allen & Unwin/NetGalley

I thoroughly enjoyed this book! I think I struggled a little bit with the miscommunication trope in this book. However, I think the flashback scenes in the book were done very well, and slowly as the book went on, I continued to be surprised and see more and more character development. This made more of the story makes sense and made it more clear why these two friends were having the issues that they were having. So, while the beginning didn’t grip me as much as I initially thought that it would, I was thoroughly riveted by the end and would really recommend this book!