I found this book to be ok, but didn’t like the jumping around in the timeline for the backstory.
It was a nice enough childhood friends to lovers romance.

Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for an advance copy of this book in exchange for an honest review,

This was a slow burn friends to lovers, and I really enjoyed the characters. This story focuses on Josie Larsen, a woman navigating through her late twenties, trying to climb in her dream career, while dealing with singleness, abandonment, and health anxiety issues. The book’s chapters alternate between the past and the present, beginning with introducing us to Josie and Zac (her guy best friend), in high school, and then coming back to present day.

This contemporary romance ties in trauma, death, mental health, sisterhood, corporate growth, love, and family relationships really well. I thoroughly enjoyed watching all of the characters grow, and realistically deal with tough situations.

Also, Josie is just funny, she uses her humor to cope with a lot of situations, but her dialogue made me chuckle the whole time I was reading.

As a millennial dealing with the same things, I loved this book. #LoveJustIn #NetGalley

Love, Just In by Natalie Murray is much more than your typical friends to lovers story. The main characters have a strong friendship that began as children and while they have grown apart over the years those tight and meaningful connections cannot be easily severed. They both have had trauma in their lives that have affected them deeply and it was refreshing to see this presented so directly. The anxiety they both experience is part of who they are and woven into the fabric of their being, but they both are working hard to make sure it does not completely define them and their future. It could be a bit jarring jumping back and forth between non-sequential time periods, but once I got used to it I found it to be quite effective as the steps back in time each directly informed a current situation.

2.5 maybe 3

I love the premise of this book but the jumping timeline did my head it. I really wish authors would stop doing this. Just as you are getting into the story line you are pulled out for some boring back history. I think that in this case it did more harm than good to this particular story.

Love, Just In is a good slow burn romance . Josie and Zac have been best friends since high school until life throws them some pretty bad curve balls and their relationship withers. Josie's job temporarily moves her to the city where Zac currently lives and we get a front seat view of what unfolds. I enjoyed Natalie Murray's dialogue and her supporting characters and the setting in Australia. But…there were some pretty heavy topics that, for me, kept this from being just a fun to read rom com. These topics, especially health anxiety and panic attacks were handled well. Just be aware going in if those are triggers for you.

Josie and Zac have been best friends over a decade, never becoming romantically involved. They shared secrets and dreams, by each other through everything. When Zac goes through a traumatic event and drops out of Josie’s life, she thinks she might never get her best friend back. Then she ends up in his city, as his roommate, and things start to turn around. But between Josie’s health anxiety and Zac’s grief, things between them may end before they ever truly begin…

I truly adored this little book! Told in dual timelines, you get a well-rounded tale of Zac and Josie’s friendship over the years and how their years apart affected them. There was just enough angst to be enjoyable, but I loved all of the sweet moments that could only be shared between the best of friends as they fell into something more.

As someone with clinical OCD (and a lot of OCD triggers surrounding health/health anxiety), I thought the depiction of Josie’s health anxiety was very well done and accurate to life. There is no logic that can be said to talk your brain out of those thoughts, so I loved that the author stayed true to that with Josie instead of having the love interest be able to talk her out of her thoughts.

Overall, I literally couldn’t put this book down. I finished it in a day, swooning the entire time. Big thanks to NetGalley and Allen&Unwin for the advance copy in exchange for an honest review!

I was skeptical when I kept seeing this book being compared to Emily Henry, but I ended up loving it. As you get deeper in, it becomes more and more heart crushing and follows through with the HEA.

Thanks to Netgalley and the publisher for an ARC in exchange for an honest review!
Josie and Zac have been best friends for 14 years, but have lost touch in the past 2 years due to living in different cities (Josie lives in Sydney and Zac in Newcastle). When Josie has to go to Newcastle for work, the 2 friends reconnect and catch up on what's been going on in each of their lives.
This is a very slow burn romance that deals with a few heavy topics (health anxiety, cancer, tragic car accidents). The story was enjoyable enough but it felt like it was a little too long. I understand going back and forth between the past and present to give the main characters a more detailed back story, but in my opinion a few of the chapters that dealt with the past could have been omitted without negatively affecting the storyline.
I also really wish the author would have had a character (any character!) mention that light beer doesn't mean light/less buzz (if you read the story you'll know what I'm talking about).
Overall a decent read.

What a fun and heartfelt romance. It was so refreshing to see these characters navigate real life issues, making it much easier to relate to them.

It was especially enjoyable to read a book in this genre set in Australia!

You really can’t go wrong with the friends-to-lovers trope. Definitely a perfect read for fans of Emily Henry or those who enjoy a charming yet meaningful romance.

Thank you to Netgalley for the opportunity to read this book for my honest review.
An incredibly beautiful, funny, heartfelt story that also opens the readers eyes to two important issues. Highly recommend to all.

Love, Just In, is a contemporary adult romance, set in beautiful Newcastle, It cleverly combines the modern day dramas of a Sydney newsreader and her long term best friend, a paramedic who now lives in Newcastle, where she is sent to work in the newsroom. The usual will they, won't they goes between the 90's and modern times, showing when they first met as 14 year olds, and where they stand now. What is slowly revealed is what happened in between, and why is there now friction between them. An easy to read novel which explores a variety of more hard hitting issues, this book will be easy to recommend to lovers of contemporary romance.

This novel is so much more than a love story, so much more than an enduring friendship. This is about life .. the things that make us and also the things that break us. It shows us hope, it gives us hope, and how we all should have belief in ourselves.

The story of Josie and Zac, is very heartfelt, with both of them enduring their own issues and problems. I really enjoyed their journey together, it was brilliant the way the story went back in time to fill in the background and then came forward again to their lives now.

In the world today, mental health is a very real issue for more people than the world can even imagine. It can be extremely debilitating and very did to come to terms with, but the healthcare professionals are amazing these days.

This was a brilliant story about love, loss, friendship, reconnecting, personal growth but above all else it was a joy to read.

If you enjoy Emily Henry, Abbey Jimenez & Ali Hazelwood books I have no doubt that you’ll enjoy this.

Josie & Zac have been best friends since they are 13 years old. They have shared everything from first kisses to most embarrassing moments & everything in between.

Josie has stood firm that they are best friends and nothing more even when she gets unexplained jolts in her heart once in awhile.

After Zac tragically loses his fiance he pulls away from Josie and literally moves to put distance between them and Josie doesn’t know why.

When her job brings her closer to him 2 years later they finally face each other, their feelings and the truth.

All of this emotional turmoil takes place while Josie fights her own mental health & anxiety struggles. She constantly thinks she is dying due to previous loss of loved ones and her own PTSD.

To some, Josie & her wild health anxiety might seem over the top. But I relate too closely to her & this one hits hard right now.

I went for a mammogram this week & today received a call that they want me back to take a closer look at some things. This isn’t the first time. I’ve had 2 biopsies already. But this is for something different. And instantly I’m panicking. The struggle to stay off Google is incredibly difficult because someone online has the answers, right? Wrong…

As Natalie Murray says in her author notes “Stay off Google because I’m pretty sure that not all the five billion people on the internet went to medical school.”

The amount of times I have turned to my husband and said “I’m dying” because of A, B or C is countless.

I haven’t had specific therapy just for this but for anxiety in general and as bad as I can still be it’s nothing like it was.

So stay off Google and WebMD, get real answers from medical professionals & read more love stories!

Josie is moving down to Newcastle for a temporary reporter job for six months after an on-air panic attack. Her best friend, Zac just so happens to live in Newcastle and she asks him to show her around the area. The thing is, she hasn’t seen or spoken to Zac for two years since he moved down there after his fiancé passed away in a car accident. Zac and Josie try to build their friendship back and hide their attraction from each other while working through their mental health and careers.

I loved, loved this book. I did mark it down one star since the beginning was hard to get into because each chapter switched between the present and a past event of their lives. Fans of Emily Henry will love this book and I will be recommending this book for all my romance lovers.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for an ARC in exchange for an honest review.

Many thanks to NetGalley and the Publisher for an ARC in exchange for an honest review.

As much as I love a BFF to lovers romance, this one just didn't do it for me. The timeline jumped back and forth between too many time periods...8 years ago, 2 years ago, 15 years ago....it was so distracting trying to keep up. I also couldn't connect with the female lead character. I really liked the the guy, but I just didn't find her likable at all.

This book deals with some serious issues. There were tears of sadness and tears of joy. I thought the author did a great job of navigating the difficult topics and I loved the positive female support depicted. It would've been easy for some of the characters to be catty. Overall a good read!

Thanks NetGalley for the arc in exchange for my honest review.

Thank you for the opportunity to read this early! I’m always a fan of friends-to-lovers troupe and this one didn’t disappoint. Josie and Zac have known each other since school days and are now in their late 20s. She is a reporter trying to move up the ladder. He is a paramedic. She suffers from health anxiety and he is very understanding of it (as a reader, you can’t help but feel for her and everything she goes through). One part I didn’t understand: she’s dating a guy who exhibits alcoholic traits and she still gets in car and allows him to drive her home after he’s been drinking with her. For a character with anxiety, it surprised me she would find this “safe.” Especially since he causes an accident that ends up hurting her, but thankfully us the catalyst for making her notice what he’s really all about.

My favorite trope to read about is the friends to lovers mainly because of the slow burn, the whip smart banter and those ""just between us" looks and knowing experiences. I think what I love about this particular storyline is how we see how the chemistry was always brewing under the surface between Josie and Zac in the flashback scenes. The slow-burn is delicious if not out-right frustrating at times (which I secretly love). Zac is the perfect cinnamon roll MMC and the pain he goes through feels very real. Josie, at times was difficult to understand. She has severe anxiety and doesn't even talk to her best friend about it. Since almost all the book is told through her POV, we hear a lot of her thoughts. If she said any one of the many things out loud to those around her that love her.... there would be so much less conflict in her life but then we wouldn't have this story, now would we? Overall, I really felt that these two had some major chemistry on the page and I was rooting for them the whole time. I have a weakness for Australian accents so I hope this one gets an audiobook. I would listen in a heartbeat. I think there are two themes that this book is doing a wonderful job of shining a light on; anxiety and grief. The author provided two characters who didn't always make the right choices but you felt like it wasn't just for the sake of having a "conflict" to resolve but rather a real life reaction. I look forward to more from this author and I also want to thank NetGalley for the ARC to review for my honest feedback.

OMG I feel so seen.
And I might finally have a name for the fear of a bad diagnosis. Health Anxiety. Coupled with chronic catastrophising. Josie and I could totes be BFF's.
Every time I lose someone close to me, I go through everything Josie went through. I have even found lumps that I have catastrophised over.
I absolutely, thoroughly enjoyed reading this.
I loved the friends-to-lovers trope and I loved Josie as a character. She's funny and sweet and looks like so much fun.
Zac is just lovely.
If I had one criticism, it would be Josie's penchant for getting into cars with Lindsay after everything she and Zac went through. Yes, Zac lost Tara, but so did Josie to an extent and that's only touched on as a catalyst for Josie's anxiety.
The spicy scenes were well done and the right amount of heat for the people involved.
Zac's texting afterward was one of my favourite things.
I received a copy via NetGalley and I'm so happy I requested to review this. All opinions are my own.

This was a cute read! Emily Henry fans will enjoy this!
If you're looking for a really sweet friends to lovers/second chance romance, but also depictions of mental health struggles, dealing with grief and a cute puppy, this may just be your new book bestie.
I was honestly expecting a fluffy contemporary romance but was so surprised how great this ended up being.