✔️Single POV (except the epilogue)
✔️Set in Australia
✔️Contemporary romance
✔️Friends to lovers

This book follows two friends about 15 years out of high school. Zac and Josie have missed their chance to become more than friends many times. Now, they live in two different places, and Zac is dating someone else. Josie is batting hypochondria about developing cancer. Her fear of death has been developing since Zac’s college girlfriend died in a car accident — with Zac in the passenger seat.

The health anxiety takes center stage in the last third of the book. Josie finds a lump in her breast, and she is also assigned multiple breast cancer awareness stories in her work as a TV reporter. When her career and anxiety meet, she continues to mess up advancement opportunities with on-air panic attacks.

Starting a story in high school is not my favorite plotting device. It immediately makes the characters seem too juvenile for real romance. The non-chronological time jumps continue throughout the book. Leaps back in time can take you away from the building suspense and don’t always add to the story or character development. Editing these down could have make this 400+ page book tighter.

The love confession was truly beautiful, and there were a couple of exquisitely spicy scenes that made the wait worthwhile!

Rating: 4 stars!

Content warnings: Health anxiety; breast cancer

ARC copy acquired through Net Galley with approval from Allen & Unwin.

Thank you net galley and publisher for this ARC. A cute story in Australia and the first book I've read by this author.

The basic lack of self-awareness in this MC left me rolling my eyes more than once. She basically had to make the same mistake 3 times before it occurred to her that she should do something about her problem, which, like...right.

Thanks to NetGalley for the ARC of this book in exchange for my honest review.

Josie and Zac are friends. Best friends. The kind of friend you're lucky to find in life.

Zac also is love with Josie. He has been since they were teens and he's harbored the feelings his whole life.

Josie wants to read the news on T.V. When an opportunity arises that allows her that for her to do just that and also brings her closer to Zac, after a 2-year gap in their friendship, she takes it.

What happens when they come together again is beautiful and painful at the same time. You never know when you'll meet the person you're meant to be with.

Thank you Netgalley for the chance to read this!
Josie and Zac are life-long best friends, brought back together after a few years apart in a forced-proximity trope, forced to finally confront the lingering attraction between them and decide if the potential romance between them is worth jeopardizing their friendship. Told in a dual timeline narrative, you get a beautiful insight into the friendship these two share in the past. The B story lines are dripping with some heavy trigger warnings (alcoholism, medical anxiety, cancer, car accidents, death, grief) but I thought done in a way that was really respectful. You really could feel how heavy these topics weighed on both leads and shaped their interiority (particularly Josie's). This is incredibly steamy as well...the burn is a bit slow but the spice is sizzling.
I enjoyed this a ton. The dialogue between Josie and Zac reminded me of Joey/Pacey in Dawson's Creek: it has a bit of that long-winded 90's romance style to it. But I didn't mind: I LOVED how connected Zac was with his emotions. As someone who has been in a 'will they wont they' with a best friend, this hit every single one of those emotional challenges so well.

An above-average romance from a new Australian writer.

As a 50-something who's been married to the same man for 20 years, I'm probably not the target audience for a novel about two 28-year-olds finding love. I did, however, find their relationship touching and understood how both of them might want to protect their friendship above all else. The explanation of how her health anxiety operated helped to ease some of the anxiety I felt at her lack of action.

~ Two best friends. One missed chance. Six months that change everything ~

This was a beautiful romance, but also a really beautiful story.

Josie and Zac are childhood friends who have drifted apart after uni and various life events. Josie moves to the town that Zac now lives in - Newcastle NSW (also my hometown, so that was a cute bonus), and we get to see them rekindle their friendship through Josie's POV.

These characters felt very real and were relatable, and the dialogue was realistic and conversational. This story had its share of beautiful heartwarming moments and also gut-wrenching ones. At times I honestly could not put it down.

This book dealt with so many big issues; grief, trauma, anxiety (particularly health anxiety), and I think they were done really well, with tact, respect, and realism. Especially the health anxiety.

I highly recommend this book and thanks to Netgalley and Allen and Unwin for the eARC in exchange for an honest review 🌼

Love, Just In comes out January 3rd 2024 - put it on your wishlist.

Natalie is a gifted writer and I've not been disappointed once with her books. The characters feel real and it's such a great love story!

This was overall a good story, but I struggled to get into it. Her anxiety was difficult to read and while people really deal with it this, reading the same line three times over because the protagonist is struggling isn't really for me.

Thanks Netgalley for allowing me to read this book. Josie is back in her hometown after being gone awhile. She sees her Zac who she hasn't seen in ages. This book was a quick read.

4.25/5

This was a really enjoyable book with two incredibly likable main characters. The story follows Josie Larsen an aspiring TV news reporter and her best friend since high school, Zac Jameson. As Josie moves to Newcastle, where Zac lives, she dreams of returning to Sydney and anchoring for the news station she works for. Unexpectedly, she grows to love the sleepy seaside town of Newcastle over the hustle and bustle of Sydney.

I think this book does an excellent job in tackling real life issues and topics that are important in relationships and are, sadly, unavoidable in real life. A lot of romance novels avoid things like grief, anxiety, and panic attacks, but this story takes them head on and makes the characters and story more realistic.

Pros: likable and relatable main characters, friends to lovers trope, realistic struggles and challenges that both main characters face

Cons: lack of communication between the main characters, a lot of conflict could’ve been resolved by them just talking to each other

Overall, I’d recommend this book to anyone looking for a beach read that delves into real life issues and is grounded in reality. I loved the relationship between Josie and Zac, but really appreciated that the author had them dealing with their individual struggles together.

Thank you NetGalley and Allen & Unwin for this ARC in exchange for an honest review.

This was an incredibly sweet book with a very believable friends to lovers trope. It's not often you read books where you can feel that secret longing from both sides but this book does it. I think it was also great to read from only the FMC instead of switching POVs like many do. I don't believe the flashbacks were necessary and often ruined the pace of the book for me.

This book is a real punch in the guts, in a good way… obviously. Love, just in is a second chance story about two best friends who grew up together and, until two years ago, they were inseparable. We go back and forth between flash back and current day as we try to work out exactly what happened.

I could really feel Josie’s health anxiety and o feel like a lot of people can relate, especially post covid. Terrified of every little symptom but also too scared to actually go and get it checked out because ignorance is bliss! You were right there inside Zac’s grief and guilt and both of their confusion on how to move forward. I definitely shed some tears during this story.

I feel like Natalie could be on the board for Newy’s tourism cause she really made me wanna visit. She also made me very glad that I never had roommates like those…

Thanks to #NetGallery and the publisher. I voluntarily read and reviewed an advanced copy of this book. All thoughts and opinions are my own.

Genre: Romance
Format: Digital
POV: Single
Spice: 🌶️🌶️/5
Age suggestion: 18+

Thank you to NetGalley and Allen and Unwin for the ARC of this book! I expected a lighthearted romcom and thus this book was definitely not what I expected! That being said, I truly loved every minute of this book and I binged it in 1 day! Following along while Josie and Zac navigate their 14 year long friendship that could be something more was a delightful. I enjoyed the time jumps back and forth and loved that the author tackled bigger/heavier topics amidst the light romantic ones! This was a beautiful book and I can't wait to read others by this author!

BOOK REVIEW:
Title: Love Just In.
Author: @Natalie Murray, Romance Author
Pub Date: January 4th 2024.
Publisher: @allenandunwin

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

This was such a cute read I really loved the characters Josie and Zac such a fun and adorable read!

This book hit all the same notes you would get picking up an Emily Henry or Ali Hazelwood book.

Love, Just In follows Josie as she ventures to Newcastle for six months on a temporary assignment for her job. Who happens to be in Newcastle? Zac, her childhood best friend, who hasn't exactly spoken to her in the past two years. Now that they're in the same city again, they are navigating their lost friendship, new experiences and feelings, as well as their personal struggles.

Both Josie and Zac are likable, but extremely complicated characters. Josie is struggling with moving up in her career following a panic attack live on-air. Like anyone with anxiety, she tries so hard to put on a "front" and pretend everything is fine. Even with the rekindled friendship with Zac, she tries to brush over the two-year friendship gap instead of addressing the issue - ignoring the feelings and the past.

Zac is dealing with his own struggles as well. There is a very good reason he lost touch with Josie, but he didn't know how to communicate that to her. You can tell how much he cares about her throughout the book, but wants to guard himself.

Throughout the book, we get short, sweet chapters of Josie and Zac from their early teens to the two-years prior to present time. These chapters were so enjoyable and we really got to see Josie and Zac's relationship evolution.

Natalie Murray also includes fantastic mental health representation. Both Josie and Zac suffer from different types of anxiety, and their anxieties are addressed properly and appropriately throughout the book.

Overall, this was a wonderful, emotional, heart-warming read. I would recommend this to anyone looking for a beautiful feel-good love story.

Star Rating:
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️.25 / ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

Spice Rating:
🌶🌶 / 🌶🌶🌶🌶🌶

Thank you NetGalley and Allen & Unwin for this eARC.

Josie is a reporter with a dream of becoming a news caster. She has been recently transferred from the larger Sydney office to the quieter Newcastle office with a hope of getting her foot in the door and a seat at the news desk. In Newcastle, she rekindles her long time friendship with Zac, who, for the last two years, has ghosted her.

Overall this is a friends to lovers trope romance that at its heart, has all the makings for a great book. It has the heat between the two main characters, backstory, conflict and touches on some heavier themes. But the execution missed the mark for me. The main characters, who were supposed to be 28-30, acted and spoke in ways that felt way younger than they were supposed to be. The dual timelines felt a little scattered and because of this you didn’t get a cohesive development of the heavier themes and character development. I was rooting for both of these characters in the end and was engaged throughout, but this could have been a better book with another round of editing.

Not a fan. There was way too much going on in this book and the writing was a bit on the cringe side for me.

I'm torn how to rate this one.
On the one hand, I really enjoyed it! This had Josie Alibrandi all grown up vibes. It felt nostalgic without me knowing the characters.
On the other hand, there's just so much drama keeping these two gorgeous humans apart. Way too much. Just let these beautiful people fall in love and be happy together, no need to keep spinning it out.

How can you not be in love with hunky, damaged Zac and his secret long term thing for Josie?

Love, Just In is an adorable take on friends-to-lovers (and somewhat second-chance romance) that will have your heart doing somersaults!

Josie is starting over in a new city and is dealing with anxiety. The only person she knows in the city is her oldest friend Zac, whom she hasn't seen or really spoken to in two years after he experienced the horrible tragedy of his fiancee dying in a car accident. Before that, the pair were inseparable through high school and college. But now, things are much different for them as they begin to navigate their lost friendship and feelings that there could be more between them than they have ever truly let on.

This story had lots of pain throughout and I truly ached for the characters with their experiences with anxiety, loss, and grief. However, the character development was inspiring as we get to see how each of the main characters overcame their struggles together. I loved the dual-timeline aspect of the story and the glimpses into the past helped tie together so many things that happened in the future. I felt that the two main characters had a lot of trouble communicating with each other, which they worked on throughout the story. Ultimately, it ends with a happy ending which I loved!

If you love a friends-to-lovers trope, this is definitely a book you'll want to pick up in January!

Special thanks to NetGalley, Allen & Unwin, and Natalie Murray for sharing an early reader copy so I could give my feedback!