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.

“Love, Just In” follows the path of a friends-to-lovers romance, but this story is multi-layered, emotional and very serious. Josie and Zac aren’t trying to overcome simple disagreements that have kept them apart, but some tragic moments that keep threatening their future. Fourteen years ago, teenaged Zac asked Josie out, but she passed. She didn’t pass on remaining as his loyal friend, though, through university. But the passage of time since their school days has torn them apart: she’s a newscaster with bouts of crippling panic attacks and an irrational fear of getting cancer and dying young. Zac was a successful paramedic until he lost his girlfriend in a car accident — overwhelmed with grief, he moved from Sydney to Newcastle. Newcastle wasn’t in Josie’s plans until it’s the last chance she has to keep her career after an on-air meltdown. She’s there for just six months (still gripped by health anxiety and hypochondria), but she and Zac find themselves re-exploring their friendship as flawed adults.

If you’re drawn to romances with lots of laughter and bantering, this might not be for you. This is a thoughtful, well-written narrative about love, friendship, grief and mental health and it’s guaranteed to produce a few tears. Yet, you’ll be rooting for this couple all the way. 4 stars.

Literary Pet Peeve Checklist:
Green Eyes (only 2% of the real world, yet it seems like 90% of all fictional females): YES Although it’s Zac with the golden-green eyes.
Horticultural Faux Pas (plants out of season or growing zones, like daffodils in autumn or bougainvillea in Alaska): NO Josie’s friend Lola does bring herb a huge bouquet of native flowers.

Thank you to Allen & Unwin and NetGalley for a free advanced reader copy in exchange for an honest review!

This book was so much fun! First, it was great to get lost in a part of Australia that I'm not familiar with. It gave small-town romance but with a little bit of a twist in that, the main characters were best friends who didn't grow up in this particular small town. I also loved that even though the characters knew each other, they seemed to grow together throughout the book. You could see how they grew up as kids, but also grew together as adults. I love the theme of also finding out that maybe that thing you thought you always wanted (or didn't want) can change and turn into new desires that are just as fulfilling as you thought the original ones would be.

✨ 𝐵𝑜𝑜𝓀 𝑅𝑒𝓋𝒾𝑒𝓌 ✨
𝐿𝑜𝓋𝑒, 𝒥𝓊𝓈𝓉 𝐼𝓃
𝐵𝓎: 𝒩𝒶𝓉𝒶𝓁𝒾𝑒 𝑀𝓊𝓇𝓇𝒶𝓎
𝒫𝓊𝒷 𝒟𝒶𝓉𝑒: 𝒥𝒶𝓃𝓊𝒶𝓇𝓎 𝟥, 𝟤𝟢𝟤𝟦
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️/ 𝟧

‘𝐓𝐡𝐞𝐫𝐞’𝐬 𝐬𝐨𝐦𝐞𝐭𝐡𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐚𝐛𝐨𝐮𝐭 𝐲𝐨𝐮, 𝐉𝐨𝐬𝐢𝐞 𝐋𝐚𝐫𝐬𝐞𝐧, 𝐭𝐡𝐚𝐭 𝐈 𝐝𝐨𝐧’𝐭 𝐰𝐚𝐧𝐭 𝐭𝐨 𝐥𝐢𝐯𝐞 𝐰𝐢𝐭𝐡𝐨𝐮𝐭,’ 𝐙𝐚𝐜 𝐬𝐚𝐲𝐬 𝐚𝐠𝐚𝐢𝐧𝐬𝐭 𝐦𝐲 𝐥𝐢𝐩𝐬. ‘𝐀𝐧𝐝 𝐈’𝐯𝐞 𝐭𝐨𝐥𝐝 𝐲𝐨𝐮 𝐚 𝐭𝐡𝐨𝐮𝐬𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐭𝐢𝐦𝐞𝐬 𝐛𝐞𝐟𝐨𝐫𝐞 𝐭𝐡𝐚𝐭 𝐈 𝐥𝐨𝐯𝐞 𝐲𝐨𝐮. 𝐁𝐮𝐭 𝐰𝐡𝐚𝐭 𝐈’𝐯𝐞 𝐧𝐞𝐯𝐞𝐫 𝐭𝐨𝐥𝐝 𝐲𝐨𝐮 𝐢𝐬 𝐭𝐡𝐚𝐭 𝐈’𝐦 𝐡𝐨𝐩𝐞𝐥𝐞𝐬𝐬𝐥𝐲 𝐢𝐧 𝐥𝐨𝐯𝐞 𝐰𝐢𝐭𝐡 𝐲𝐨𝐮. 𝐈𝐭’𝐬 𝐚𝐥𝐰𝐚𝐲𝐬 𝐛𝐞𝐞𝐧 𝐲𝐨𝐮.’

This book.. 😍! While this book being a flirty, fun romcom, it covered much more than that and Natalie Murray handled these subjects so well. It is a single POV although it felt like a dual POV and I really liked that. It made the book work. Josie and Zac have been best friends for fourteen years, but when an unexpected accident happened it caused them to drift apart for two years. Now Josie ends up in the same town as he is and why not finally have a reunion! A reunion filled with tension, angst, and spice.

This friends to lovers book was so heartwarming and I would recommend it to anyone! 🩵

𝒯𝒽𝒶𝓃𝓀 𝓎𝑜𝓊 𝒻𝑜𝓇 𝓉𝒽𝒾𝓈 𝒶𝒹𝓋𝒶𝓃𝒸𝑒 𝓇𝑒𝒶𝒹𝑒𝓇𝓈 𝒸𝑜𝓅𝓎 𝒾𝓃 𝑒𝓍𝒸𝒽𝒶𝓃𝑔𝑒 𝒶𝓃 𝒽𝑜𝓃𝑒𝓈𝓉 𝓇𝑒𝓋𝒾𝑒𝓌.

Josie has health anxiety….she’s convinced that she has cancer even though she never had a positive test. She lives in Sydney and is a tv reporter. She has great friends and her best friend since she was in high school is Zac. He’s moved from Sydney to Newcastle to get away from the trauma of losing his ex fiancé 2 years earlier. The will they won’t they between Josie and Zac is a very slow burn and their story and Josie’s professional and anxiety journey seems like it goes on forever. I never warmed to the characters.

Josie and Zac are old friends that reconnect when Josie, a tv reporter from Sydney, is asked to take a temporary position in Newcastle for six months. Zac had moved there shortly after his fiancé died in a car crash. He and Josie lost touch over the past several years. The story of their friendship/romance is told between the past and the present.
It’s a good mix of fun and flirty, but with the depth of characters dealing with anxiety, health issues, and grief.

Thanks to NetGalley for the chance to read this book.

Overall, I really enjoyed this book! Would definitely recommend for fans of Emily Henry. Although was a flirty and fun romcom, it covered heavier subjects. It made the characters more complex both as individuals and as a couple, which I enjoyed. It was single POV and although I usually like dual POV more, it worked in this story. I didn't enjoy the time jumps throughout the book because it took me out of the moment and paused the building suspense. It also made the book a bit too long!

⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

I genuinely did not anticipate the book tapping into my emotions about mental health and creating a character who shares the same fears as me. Experiencing lapses of anxiety, particularly around the topic of death, is a constant for me. The fact that the author not only crafted a character who feels abnormal for experiencing this but is also hesitant, afraid, and reluctant to communicate these feelings is precisely why I'm awarding this book 5 stars. The author depicts emotions in their purest form, not just about mental health topics but also about grief, commitment, and the struggle of "planning your life out" while deceiving yourself when it's unnecessary.

And did I mention there's romance too and ✨A LOT OF IT✨? Elevating the book even further. Zac and Josie, best friends since high school, had an unexpected hiatus from talking for the last two years. Now, Josie finds herself in the same town as him, so naturally, a meetup is in order. WHAT A PERFECT REUNION, right? Well, nope. It's filled with tension, angst, spice, and everything nice 🔥🥹

The best way I can describe this book is that you'll be in the head of a very anxious girl whose sole desire is to be loved and to find the strength to acknowledge that she will be okay.

If you enjoy these tropes, I highly recommend reading the book:

☀️Best friends to lovers
☀️Forced Proximity (ish)
☀️Mental Health Topics
☀️Slow Burn
☀️He falls first (ish)
☀️News reporter x paramedic
☀️Past and Present Timeline

Spice Rate: 🌶️🌶️.5

Favorite Quote: "I'll see you later, sunbeam." MY HEART, AGH. Such a sentence with so much power.

Thank you NetGalley & Natalie Murray for the e-ARC!

This story was a little tough for me. I didn't enjoy the characters in their moments of growth throughout the book, and I found the main character, Josie, to be a bit of a child, and her ex-best friend Zac to be nothing but an enabler.

Josie is dealing with some major health anxieties, which while I can respect that she is dealing with something hard, it was hard to understand why she kept running away from getting things properly checked out AND why she kept running into the arms of someone who was so CLEARLY bad, not only for her but for women everywhere. She never had a good feeling about him, outside of "oh he smells nice" or something like that, and yet she kept spending time with this jerk, "leading" him on to make Zac jealous, and ultimately got into the car with someone she knew was drunk.

That behavior honestly turned me off from her character altogether.

As someone who has suffered from health anxiety for years, I loved this book. I loved how it treated the protagonist with care and empathy, and that the people around her took her seriously and with love. The romance was well-paced, and the characters were likeable and complex. I would definitely read this book again!

"Love, Just In" was a joy to read! This friends-to-lovers tale was heartwarming and sexy. Josie's inner monologue provided plenty of laugh-out-loud moments. The banter between Josie and Zac was sharp, with lots of flirty humour. More than that, the topic of health anxiety (and anxiety in general) was treated with sensitivity and provided meaningful insight to readers.

Thank you, NetGalley, for the ARC and the opportunity to review.

Thank you so much for the ARC!

I loved this childhood best friends to lovers romance! Josie and Zac were so cute! I really loved their friendship and the romance was top notch. Natalie is a master of angst and pining and she delivered both in this book.

I loved the quirky humor to break up the more serious parts. It's great to read mental health struggles represented and managed in a realistic way. Natalie handled several heavy topics in this novel in a very delicate and beautiful way.

Overall, this book was a great read and I loved the characters and the story!

I just finished Love, Just In and I honestly don’t even have words. It was such a beautiful journey with stellar character development. You won’t regret reading this book. It was so well done, I loved It!