Wow, this book hit me with some heavy emotions with all of the topics the main characters were faced with. Overall, I did think this book was well written, there were just a few plot lines that seemed a bit juvenile to me that repeated throughout. Because of that, I found it hard to understand Josie’s transition to realizing she had romantic feelings for Zac.

Oh this book was a lovely little romance! Such a fun read from a great author! I've just started reading contemporary romance, and Natalie was quickly popped to the top of my authors list!

Love, Just In follows Josie and Zac as they work to rebuild their friendship of over 14 years. Josie finds herself in Newcastle for a work assignment, which just happens to be where Zac has settled after tragedy the past two years. This friends to lovers romance will leave you with a smile. As someone who has dealt with health anxiety, it was really cool to see representation as Josie worked through her struggles.

I highly recommend this to anyone look for a childhood friends to lovers romance with some depth!

This friends to lovers trope will interest most readers of this genre. I loved the history of this couple and how they are reacquainted later in life. There are some serious topics in this book as well. The characters face serious challenges and have good emotional depth as a result.

Review of Love, Just In by Natalie Murray

I saved Love, Just In for the summer, and it was the perfect choice! This book is a delightful blend of humor, sweetness, and steam. Josie and Zac’s journey from friends to lovers is heartwarming and utterly charming. Their chemistry is palpable, making every moment between them feel special.

If you’re looking for a fun and lighthearted read, this is the book for you. It’s the perfect companion for a sunny day and a great escape into a sweet romance.

This book isn't a light read by any stretch of the imagination, but it's good. There are so many content warnings here...cancer, health anxiety, car accidents, death. When Josie and her longtime best friend Zac reconnect in a new town, mixed emotions threaten to either ruin their friendship or bring them closer together than ever. This one's a roller coaster of epic proportions. It's heavy, tortured, but a detailed, relatable ride.

Zac was my fav thing out of this book. He was so sweet and cute and deserved the world after everything that happened in his life especially the past two years. I didn’t love Josie. She made stupid decisions without thinking them through and especially when they majorly affected Zac and his feelings so I really didn’t like that. She got better towards the end thankfully. The plot was fun, childhood best friends to lovers is a trope I quite like to that was good.

I really enjoyed this friends to lovers romance! This had really great build up with past and present between them. I'm a big believer in second chance romances so this one didn't disappoint. It was emotional and I enjoyed my time reading it!

Book 85 of 2024: Love, Just In by Natalie Murray

Rating: ⭐️⭐️/⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

Sydney TV news reporter Josie Larsen is approaching thirty and coming dangerously close to failing at life. Josie is perennially single, abandoned by her globetrotting family, and invisible to her boss—except for the one time he tuned in while she was mid-panic-attack on live TV. As punishment, Josie is shipped off to cover another reporter's six-month leave at a regional bureau in Newcastle. But Josie has more waiting for her in Newcastle than yawn-inducing stories; the city is also the domain of Zac Jameson, her best friend since high school. This should be a happy turn of events, but Zac has barely spoken to Josie for the past two years. Now thrown back into each other's lives, Josie and Zac have to navigate their neglected friendship and secret attraction to each other while struggling with their careers and mental health.

Thank you @netgalley for the ARC! Unfortunately, this book just wasn’t for me. I had a really hard time connecting with Josie and Zac throughout the entire book. Their relationship was borderline toxically codependent. While I appreciated the health anxiety storyline, at times it was really quite over-the-top and lacked context. Josie’s panicking and the source of her anxiety over thinking that she had cancer wasn’t really fully explained until about halfway through the book. Josh and Zack both felt like immature characters who could have benefited from some therapy rather than a romantic relationship with each other. Their characters lacked a lot of depth and growth so I spent the entire book just being annoyed with them. There were some nicer moments towards the end, and I really loved the dog, but overall this book was a bit all over the place.

this was ok. i am not the target audience for this. did i enjoy reading this? yea, i guess i did, but it honestly felt like it dragged on for so long. the dynamic between josie and zac had me raising my eyebrows at some point. yea, i get it that it's a friends to lover in which they've been in love the whole time, but in denial. there's so much that happens that i forgot about a character or two. like i got to point where i thought we were hitting the last third of the book, but we were barely at 50%. i got a bit of second-hand embarrasment from josie and i just sat and blinked and power through. it honestly felt like a cookie cutter book with some different aspects, but overall predictable. the book wasn't special or amazing, but it did give me some summer vibes while i read it during a stormy day. thank you for an advanced copy!

I absolutely adore a second chance romance and when you add in childhood friends to lovers, I am all in. This one was great!! You could feel the connection between these old friends and I couldn’t help but root for their happily ever after! It was set in Australia, which was a fun and different backdrop and I really appreciated the mental health rep. An entertaining read that I would highly recommend!

Josie and Zac met when they were teenagers and became fast friends! Their friendship started in high school and continued on through college and now it's some 14 years later. Their story is told in present time as well as in a series of flashbacks to different periods in their friendship. Some of the topics were a bit heavy. The book made me sad which I don’t really like in a book. I do love the setting in Australia.
Thank you to Netgalley and Allen and Unwin Publishing for the advanced copy in exchange for my honest review.

This was another new author for me. I really like this romance book! It was slow burn, second chance, and had mental health rep! I like that the characters had all the feels between them too! It was a great read!

The cyclical back and forth and back and forth of the romance was a drag on what was overall a beautiful story of two people with deep traumas finding their way back to love. Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for the free advance copy.

I had a hard time connecting with the characters in this book and felt it was a very slow read. I had a hard time picking it up. I wanted to be sucked in, but the avoidance of Josie and Zac to discuss their past friendship was somewhat irritating. Unfortunately, this book was just not for me and I was not able to finish it.

we need more books where main characters are on their mid 20s early 30s so me stop having mid life crisis like this book and not matter your age you can always find love

I had a hard time connecting with this book. I was caught off guard by how many times Josie panicked from cancer related incidents but chose a job that is a very high stress where has to report on tragic things. Then on top of that, the car accident trauma that Zac endured and he was an EMT. It felt unrealistic to believe that they were both in jobs that are related to their trauma, but were functioning humans. It took me out of their romance, which felt like it could have been resolved much earlier in the book if they'd just talked to each other.

Love, Just In by Natalie Murray is an interesting rom com. This friends to lovers trope will interest most readers of this genre. I loved the history of this couple and how they are reacquainted later in life. There are some serious topics in this book as well. The characters face serious challenges and have good emotional depth as a result. I received a digital of this book from the publisher with no obligations. These opinions are entirely my own.

Josie and Zac have been best friends for 14 years, but have lost touch in the past couple of years. Josie's job relocates her to Newcastle and they reconnect. This slow burn romance deals with a few heavy topics (health anxiety, cancer, tragic car accidents) while the two try to work out their life issues.

At times, the story can be slow and I liked Zac's character more than Josie's. A lot of backstory on both parts that wasn't always needed. It was nice to see their friendship rekindle and I loved that they were able to work around their issues and be their for each other.

I received this advance review copy from NetGalley & the publisher for my honest review.

“Love Just In" by Natalie Murray is a captivating contemporary romance that follows journalist Libby Fitzgerald as she navigates her career and a rekindled romance with her ex, news anchor Jack Stone.

The story deftly balances professional ambition with personal emotions, offering a heartfelt and engaging read. Perfect for fans of newsroom drama and second-chance love stories, this novel delivers charm and warmth in equal measure.