What a delightful read. Although both lead characters struggle with their own demons, this book was thoroughly enjoyable. Light hearted and totally relatable while also exploring mental health, grief and the joys of dating and relationships. I struggled to put it down. I look forward to reading more by Natalie Murray.

Love, Just In is the first book I have read written by Natalie Murray. It has smart likable characters who have been childhood friends. However, the daily grind and the trauma in their lives have taken their toil on these two. This “Friends to Forever More” story is written with care, love and all the feels.

Life can be difficult for all as this story reminds us. Friends help and so does love. It is not always easy but worth the work. You will love Josie and Zac who learn not to give up on friendship, love and hope.

An ARC of the book was provided by the publisher through NetGalley which I voluntarily chose to read and review. All thoughts and opinions are my own.

This was a really sweet tale of friendship and second chances at getting love right. There were some sad themes but they were handled well and it was comforting to read.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for the opportunity for this arc.

I think the author did a good job covering health anxiety in this book. This is a book for best friend to lovers troupe readers. This book was a slow burn and I struggled to get into the characters which made it a long read for me.

Thank you Netgalley for allowing me to read and enjoy this book. I had a wonderful time going through the motions with these characters and watching them navigate through their friendship / relationship.

Thank you Netgally for the ARC of this one. I *loved* it.

Rounding down to 4 because everything wraps up a little too neatly, and sometimes the characters were a little cheesy but it was the love story I didn’t know that I needed.

I relate SO WELL with the main character who is a hypochondriac to the Nth degree and convinced everything is cancer.

And the love story had me hooked from the very beginning, rooting for Zac and Josie to get together and screaming at them when they were being idiots.

So good & a little spicy warning at ~ 60% 😅

Initially I was drawn to this book because of the cover, I'm a sucker for a cartoon cover and this is so bright it just draws you in.
Love, Just In is set in Newcastle, Australia which is my hometown! I was born in Newcastle and have always lived within an hours drive. I love seeing all the local suburbs pop up in this book, it make it super sentimental.
The FMC Josie suffers from major health anxiety which is something I can closely relate to. I feel like I was honestly MEANT to read this book!
This book made me feel less alien and that's an incredible feeling when your mind wanders off and you feel alone in your anxiety.
One of my favourite tropes is friends-to-lovers and this book hit that brief HARD. It was a beautiful journey that Josie and Zac went on, it made turning pages super easy and enjoyable.
This is a book that I will always recommend.
Thankyou to NetGalley, Allen & Unwin and Natalie Murray for an ARC of this book in exchange for an honest review.
I can't wait to buy it and re-read it again!

Really liked this friends-to-lovers story! The flashbacks weren’t sequential but worked because they flowed with the present. I thought Josie and Zac were great main characters. They were well written and you could see why each was acting/thinking the way they were. It was more of a slow burn but really worked.

There are some heavier topics in this like grief and health anxiety. The author did a great job tackling them both and it added to the story.

Thanks to the publisher and NetGalley for an ARC!

This books is a sweet best friends to lovers romance with flashbacks! It also tackles some pretty heavy things.

Sometimes with this trope I feel like the backstory can be really underdeveloped, but I think this author did such a good job of capturing emotions and explaining the why behind them. I loved both the MCs because of it.

I laughed. I cried. Loved it!

This was such a nice friends-to-lovers read. Josie is a news reporter in Sydney who is sent on a long-term assignment to Newcastle, which just so happens to be the place where her longtime best friend lives (who she hasn’t seen or really heard from in years). On the verge of a promotion opportunity, Josie is determined to soar at the Newcastle news station, but is plagued by a variety of worries and issues, including her own health scares AND the reunion and further relationship development with her best friend Zac. There’s so much more to this story than just a small blurb, but it was super cute and had a really natural style of writing that was easy to relate to, super digestible, and exciting to read. There were a few heavy topics with grief and illness and loss and loneliness, but it was handled in a really graceful way. And the friends-to-lovers arc was executed wonderfully. Definitely recommend.

And a huge thank you to Natalie Murray, Allen & Unwin, and NetGalley for the advanced copy!

I really liked this story - a slow burn, childhood friends-to-lovers (one of my favorite tropes) romance. Josie and Zac are likable and fun, but the author does a good job of weaving some serious issues into the plot. The chapters alternate from present day to different points in the past, which I thought was effective at giving the reader just enough information to understand where Josie and Zac are coming from and explain their actions. I would like to read more from this new-to-me author and would definitely recommend this book.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for the ARC.

I thoroughly enjoyed reading this book. The friends to lovers trope was done so well. Emily Henry's "People We Meet on Vacation" was my intro to contemporary romance literature, so when this book was compared to it, I had to get the ARC 😍 It did not disappoint, and there were things I thought were done even better than PWMOV.

The flashbacks of Josie and Zac meeting and growing up together were so pivotal. I love how Murray picked specific past stories, not always in chronological order, to set up the story for the current time period chapters, it was such a great way of learning about the characters' then and now.

Zac and Josie had such amazing chemistry, but their friendship was so good too. There was so much tension around how important their friendship is, it was such an interesting take on the trope. The third act breakup was one that actually made sense, which never happens 🤣.

Not only was the book a funny, swoony, 🥵 romance, but it dealt with some heavy topics, specifically around mental health and anxiety. Murray was not shy about including these into the story, but it elevated the story to something so unique.

Friends to lovers is one of my favorite tropes, especially if he falls first, and this was a pleasure to read.

I thought the representations of anxiety and grief were very well done in this book, but ultimately the chemistry between the two main characters fell flat for me.

-friends to lovers
-navigating grief
-anxiety rep
-Australia setting

Josie and Zac were written incredibly well and had such depth to their characters, it was a very enjoyable read. Very slow burn and had scenes taking place in the past and present which showed the development of their feelings. Seeing Zac and Josie deal with more complex traumas and events added to the depth of their characters and helped me understand more of their personalities. I really enjoyed the epilogue but wish we got to see a little more of them together after the conflicts were resolved.

TW: grief, health anxiety, car accidents, cancer

Thank you to NetGallary and Allen and Unwin for the arc in exchange for a honest review!

Love, Just In by Natalie Murray

Friends to lovers | Second Chance | Mental Health | Australian Author | Slow Burn

•Sydney TV News Reporter, Josie Larsen, thinks her life is at a standstill until she covers another reporters six month leave in Newcastle. Zac Jameson her best friend since high school also lives in Newcastle who she hasn’t spoken to in 2 years. Will this move to Newcastle bring Josie and Zac together?
•I enjoyed the beginning of this book but it then seem to drag in the middle. I am a firm believer of “he wanted to then he would”. I didn’t buy the chemistry between Josie and Zac. I felt like there were too many tropes that it took away some depth and heart from the storyline. I liked how the book switched between past and present. I’m on the fence with this one.

*I received an ARC of this book from Netgalley.

Normally books set across the pond don't work for me. The cultural nuances that are so important for building a likable storyline often get missed by me. This one, however, didn't! So yeah for that!

If you like slow burn and best friends to lovers, you'll like this. Unfortunately neither of those are my favorite troupes so whomp whomp. I didn't love either main character and the back and forth timeline seemed unneccasary for building a good plot.

Not bad, just not a must read on my shelf.

Josie and Zac have been friends since high school. They were each other's person up until Zac pulled away, after his fiancee died in a car accident. Two years on and Josie gets transferred through her workplace to where Zac is now located. Messaging him to let him know she's moving, she is surprised when Zac says he'll pick her up from the train station. Can the two rebuild their friendship and possibly even more?

You guys know me, I'm not a slow burn reader but with this book, I appreciated getting to know our characters and their backstories. I liked watching them rebuild their friendship again. It felt so real, like I was sitting on the sidelines. When the possibility of being something more than friends (c'mon, you knew it was going to happen!) came up, I'm not going to lie, I did get a little annoyed with Josie's constant back and forth. She knew what she wanted but when it was given to her, she'd back away. All in all though, this book was heartfelt, slightly steamy and gave me all the feels. Romcom lovers, be sure to get your hands on a copy!

3.5 stars - I love a good friends to lovers story and this one was great! One thing not story related was since this is Australia based, all the speaking quotes had ‘’ instead of “” which was hard for me to follow. However, this story really warmed my heart at first following Josie and Zac. I cared about their past traumas and was rooting for them. Once I got about 75% done it was hard to finish. The end really dragged out the storyline to where I was racing to the last page so I could mark this as done. Overall, I liked the characters but the ending was not my favorite.

One of my new favourite friends to lovers romance books. Love, Just In follows Josie as she moves from Sydney to Newcastle for her job as a reporter and finds herself back in the orbit of her former best friend of 14 years, Zac. Despite being out of touch for two years following a tragic event, the question looms: can they reignite their former friendship, or is the rift between them permanent?

This book effortlessly rivals the works of acclaimed authors Emily Henry and Christina Lauren. Josie and Zac emerge as relatable and multidimensional characters. Well-placed and meaningful flashback scenes are included that enrich their personalities as the narrative unfolds.

A delightful surprise was the inclusion of the theme of health anxiety, skillfully handled with tact. The novel's Australian setting provided an extra layer of enjoyment, making the reading experience all the more immersive.

Thank you to #NetGalley, the author and publisher for allowing me a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review. I look forward to future books by Natalie Murray.

I didn't know if I was going to love this book when I first started it but I did! I love Josie and Zac's story. Thanks to NetGalley and publisher for the ARC.