I loved Zac and Josie’s relationship! Their past was a rollercoaster of being friend-zoned and wrong timing. After the traumatic loss of a partner, Zac had put a hold on his friendship with Josie. Now thrust into a life of close proximity, they can’t deny the spark of attraction that they’ve always chosen to ignore. Their chemistry on-page was amazing, and I loved that the author dove into some very real emotions and situations. Great read!

Thank you to Natalie Murray, Allen & Unwin, and NetGalley for the advanced copy in exchange for my honest review.

It was a cute read. I enjoyed the way they approached health anxiety and healing from trauma. I am here for all of the representation. It's so needed. Miscommunication isn't my favorite trope but I feel it was done well here. All in all, cute story about a sweet couple.

I could not put this book down. At midnight I told the husband I was going to sleep. At 2am, once I'd finished the book, I actually did.

This is the story of Zac and Josie, best friends since high school, but some life altering things have put a damper in the past two years of their friendship. Josie ends up moving to the town where Zac is living and she is really hoping to rekindle their closeness.

Josie is a newscaster, Zac is a paramedic, and their careers seem to be what keeps them moving one foot in front of the other. Antics ensue because apparently Newcastle is the secret homeland to nudists, and Josie ends up having to stay with Zac for a few weeks.

Of course this is in the best friends to lovers trope, but it is SO MUCH MORE. The tension was palpable, and I could not go to sleep not knowing how this ended. Highly recommend this book, and will be pestering all my friends that like this genre to read it.

It takes Josie long enough to figure out a major part of the book and then she almost messes it up.
I did think she took Zac too much for granted and then gave him very mixed signals.
I understand the worry and apprehension she faced but she had him all along.
It’s a good story but it also shows that one shouldn’t wait to grab life with both hands and just live.

*4.5

This was really slow but it worked for these characters. He was still getting over his fiancees death and needed that time to process. They were so obviously in love with each other, it was kind of funny. It was new to her so I enjoyed seeing her question having these types of feelings for her best friend. I do wish that we saw more of them actually together.

I received an arc through netgalley.

Jodie Larsen is a reporter for a busy news station in Sydney and is being sent to a station in a smaller city for six months to cover an absence, following a gaff during a live report. Her best friend Zac moved there after his fiancé died in a car accident two years ago and he cut off contact. She is hoping to rebuild their friendship while she proves her worth at the station. Without giving any spoilers, this is a well written story about friendship. I would give it 4.5 stars.

This was SUCH a cute read, and I really really enjoyed it. Friends-to-lovers, second chance romance? Sign me up!

Love, Just In follows Josie, a woman who is quickly approaching 30 and feels like she is behind on everything in life. She is single, alone since all of her family has left Australia, and most recently feeling like she royally messed up her career by having a panic attack on live TV. So, when she is shipped off to Newcastle from Sydney to cover another reporter who is on leave for 6 months, she sees it as a punishment. But, in reality, it’s an opportunity in more ways then one. She is given the chance to prove herself to the higher ups at the network, and she is given the chance to reconnect with her childhood best friend, Zac. What Josie isn’t expecting is for sparks to fly and for her to have to navigate the attraction that she feels on top of everything else in her life.

I really enjoyed the relationship between Zac and Josie. Granted, I really like friends-to-lovers and second chance romance in general, but something about their relationship was really excellent. I think it might have been how they both were navigating their own forms of anxiety, and supporting each other through that. Granted, I don’t LOVE miscommunication trope, and I feel like there was also quite a bit of that, as they just didn’t talk to each other about their emotions quite often. However, I think overall their relationship was very enjoyable.

However, I think the thing that genuinely was the biggest selling point for me, was Josie’s health anxiety. I have quite a few people in my life with varying levels of health anxiety, and I feel like that isn’t something that you see represented in romance noels very often, especially in a good way. I think that Natalie did a wonderful job portraying health anxiety and the way it can really affect someone’s life. Because at the end of the day, it isn’t just “stop worrying about it, you’re fine”, because you genuinely find a way to attribute every little thing that is wrong to something more serious, and a lot of time the stress and anxiety can then manifest into physical, and just make everything worse.

Overall, I really enjoyed this book and highly recommend it. It was a solid 4.5 stars for me!

I really enjoyed this read. I liked watching Zac and Josie's friendship blossom throughout the years. I also liked that the story switched between present and past years to help show that friendship growth. It was a nice happy ending

Josephine & Zac have been best friends for 14 years, until Zac moved away 2 years ago after a traumatic loss. Josephine has temporarily relocated to where Zac now lives, and they’re trying to put their friendship back together.

✅ set in Australia
✅ they’re both late 20s
✅dual timelines give you a look at their friendship over the years
✅ childhood friends to lovers
🌶️: slowish burn (2/3rd of the way through)

There are some content warnings (an off-page death from cancer and another off-page death in a car accident), so please read with care if you have triggers.

Well, this story was not what I expected.

With this cover, blurb and quotes saying "hilarious, sexy and heart-warming", similar to" Emily Henry, Sally Thorne and Ali Hazelwood", I expected something fun and light. But it wasn't really all that. I didn't expect to be so heavy.

The subjects addressed are very delicate, deep and emotional. Which wasn't a bad thing, just not the romcom I expected and needed to read at the time. Being a mood reader, I'll admit it kind of threw me for a loop lol.

It is a good story, the writing is fun and the characters relatable and realistic. I have a lot of respect and appreciation for the themes discussed here, the reality and bravery of it. But the tone is a bit depressing at times which left me emotionally drained.

The plot was very similar to Emily's People we meet on Vacation, so if you enjoy that traveling and flash backs and getting to see the characters through their life until they reconnect and have that "it's always been you" moment, you will enjoy it.

The good part is there is a redemption arc, character growth and HEA eventually. It's a touching, beautiful story that has that effect, that makes you think about life, love and appreciate the people and occasions more.

So, overall, 3.5 stars.

Thank you for the ARC!

Best friends for nearly half their life, Josie and Zac reconnect after two years apart. Zac has sheltered himself away in Newcastle after a life-changing tragedy. Josie, a local newscaster, finds herself on assignment for the next three months in the town Zac is now calling home.

Zac, at the age of fourteen, declared his love for Josie only she turned him down breaking his heart. He's constantly harbored feelings and now he knows life is too short not to go after what he desires.

This slow burn, second chance romance was enjoyable. The only drawback was the that the love interests felt a bit immature for their lifestyles. Also, some of the flashbacks were unnecessary to the story. The romance needed an infusion to make it believable, as I might've been ok with them being just friends.

Thank you Allen & Unwin for the complimentary copy.

Thank you to NetGalley for the ARC of this book.

Josie is a reporter for a renowned television station in Australia and is reassigned to another town, which is punishment for having an on-air panic attack during one of her reports. This town is also where her best friend has been living for the last couple of years. They haven't talked for a couple of years because of a tragic event that her friend faced that has changed him in many ways. Josie and her friend, Zac, meet up again and begin to work through what has been missing in their lives the last couple of years in addition to their budding (or rekindled feelings) for one another.

I'm so glad that I got to read this before everyone else. Words can't describe how much I liked this book. Josie's personal and professional woes, specifically those about her mental health and anxiety, were so relatable and I love that the author included mental illness representation in this book. The pacing of this story was great as well in terms of Josie and Zac's relationship and Josie's career trajectory. The tension broke at just the right spot and I was interested in the outcome of their relationship the entire time.

The description of this story compared itself to "People We Meet on Vacation" (or "You and Me on Vacation" for those of you outside of the United States) by Emily Henry. While I saw some similarities, this book held its own among many of the contemporary romance books on the market. I'm excited for everyone else to find this book because I foresee this being a big hit.

After an on-air blunder has Josie Larson still yearning for her dream job as a news reporter, she gets an assignment in a smaller city where her former best friend Zac lives. Their paths have been separate for a few years - ever since Zac lost his fiancée in a tragic accident. Zac has had a lifelong crush on Josie even thing she turned him down years ago, but now when they’re reunited will their friendship blossom or will other long lost feelings come through?

This book was a very, very slow burn that took a while for me to get into. I liked the idea but I felt that in the end there was just too much struggle - Josie and Zac’s back and forth, Josie’s career issues, and her health anxiety/cancer scares. Like it was always something, and it got a bit tiring. I didn’t love the 3rd act breakup and thought the resolution felt a bit rushed. Overall Josie wasn’t really my favorite character, I found her deeply flawed and not super likable.

Despite all of this I thought the development of Josie and Zac’s feelings for each other was really sweet and I liked seeing those as the story went along. I liked the secondary characters and thought they added something good to the story.

Through its flaws, I thought that Love, Just In was still a sweet, friends to lovers story that others will love.

Thank you to Allen & Unwin, Natalie Murray, and NetGalley for the eARC!

Thank you so much to Allen & Unwin and Netgalley for a free digital ARC in exchange for an honest review.

I didn’t hate this book but I also really struggled to connect with it. Josie and Zac seemed like they would have been better off remaining friends rather than jumping into a relationship together.

The anxiety representation was well done, but both characters still came off as selfish and childish in so many situations. They were also TERRIBLE at communicating with each other. Plus the constant flirting and touching while in relationships with other people was not cute.

Other questions: Did anyone else keep forgetting that Zac had a dog? What was with Zac’s weird obsession with weird novelty t-shirts???

Love, Just in is mostly a romantic comedy, with some serious aspects, mainly concerning medical anxiety. Josie is a news reporter in Sydney who takes a 6 month assignment to Newcastle, which happens to be where her former best friend lives. Once they reconnect, the sparks fly between them, but he is still dealing with the death of his fiancee, and she is dealing with a lot as well. It's a cute story, well written, and has a serious edge to it.

Josie has two great loves in her life. The first is Zac, her best friend for 14 years. The other is her career as a news reporter and she has a goal to become a news reader. But she also has a great fear - dying of cancer. Breast cancer has taken her grandmother and her aunt. When she messes up on a live broadcast, while interviewing a cancer patient, she gets reassigned to a smaller affiliate of her news station. The one shining light in the forced 6 month relocation is that it brings her geographically closer to Zac. He relocated 2 years before because of a hugely traumatic incident.

This story is the story of their relationship, with chapters moving between current time and their relationship. They clearly love each other as friends, but their friendship has withstood each other's love relationships with others.

Both characters have developed fears from experiences in their lives. Each has struggled with their feelings and their abilities to cope.

I loved this angsty story about two people who love, but aren't necessarily "in love." It's the story of their struggles with physical, mental, and emotional health challenges. My heart went out to both characters and I so wanted them to find their happily ever after.

This was a book I didn’t know I needed. Love, Just In follows the story of Josie. Josie is a TV news reporter in Sydney when she makes a mistake on national TV causing her to be sent to Newcastle for six months to cover another reporter's spot while they are on leave. Lucky for Josie her best friend since highschool lives in Newcastle but they haven't properly spoken to each other for a few years. Zac picks up Josie from the train station. They now need to navigate the friendship lost.

This was such a beautiful book and one I absolutely enjoyed reading 100%. From the very beginning I loved Zac's character - an absolute sweetheart. Throughout the book I was cheering on from the sidelines hoping that Zac and Josie would get together after everything they've been through. I really enjoyed the before chapters giving us a much needed background on the story of Zac and Josie.

Please note book navigates mental health including health anxiety and also a loss of a partner.

Thank you Allen and Unwin and Netgalley for a gifted copy of this e-book for my honest book review.

Josie Larsen, a TV reporter looking for her big break, gets an assignment working at the Newcastle station for six months. It just so happens that her best friend who she’s lost touch with is living in Newcastle as well. Josie is excited and nervous to get this chance to reconnect with Zac, her best friend and sometimes crush. Both Zac and Josie have a lot to overcome in their own personal lives, but they might be able to help each other along the way.

I usually like the friends to lovers trope, but this one was too slow burning and had too much internal drama for me. I never really connected with the characters and the whole health anxiety thing bothered me most of the time. I do think the health anxiety was an interesting angle to bring out in this book, but it just wasn’t for me. There is some much in this book that I wanted to question and so many things that rubbed me the wrong way. Anyway, it was a fast read, but I felt like the relationship between the two best friends was toxic. My opinion on this book doesn’t seem to be the popular one, so there is a good chance you will like it, but it wasn’t for me.

Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for an ARC of this book!

Here we have a story of two best friends for whom the stars never quite align to become something more. Josie hasn’t seen her former BFF Zac in two years, ever since his fiancé died and he moved away. But after a disaster on air filling in as a newsreader on Sydney TV, Josie gets shipped off to the minors in Newcastle – which just happens to be the same place Zac has been living. She hopes they can rekindle their best friendship and go back to like they always were. But after two years apart, perhaps long-buried feelings won’t stay hidden forever…

[book:Love, Just In] was a perfectly enjoyable reading experience while I was in it, though in hindsight, I was slightly annoyed with Zac, who’s carried a torch for Josie forever but went off and got engaged to someone else (to say more is a big spoiler but suffice to say I wish he’d just said something earlier! A LOT earlier!). It’s not quite “idiots to lovers” but nearly. Nor did the story trigger <i>too</i> many of my journalism-related pet peeves, so I count that as win.

CW: Death of a partner (told in flashbacks), death of loved ones from cancer, health anxiety-induced panic attacks

⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️ 💫 3.5 stars rounded down

<i>Thanks to NetGalley and Allen & Unwin for a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.</i>

This is the type of book that makes you feel like the characters are your friends and you are invested in the outcome. It had me smiling and getting so frustrated I wanted to shake the characters and smiling again. This is one of my favorite type of books.

Josie and Zac, now approaching 30, have been best friends since high school. But after a tragedy they have lost touch. Josie is a news reporter and after an on air mistake has been sent to a smaller market that just so happens to be where Zac now lives. Slowly they try to get their friendship back on track as they deal with mental health challenges. There is also an undeniable spark that is so much more than friendship. Will they find a way to take a chance on this spark?

I so, so identified with Josie's medical anxiety. I suffer from this and this book handled it well.