Okay, I know nothing in terms of "Reylo" but I know a bit about feeling not worthy (in life, relationships, kinda everything) and I loved the shift in the characters portrayed in this book.
I don't like to read reviews about books till after I read them and even then, I try to avoid them. So I was surprised to see that some people struggled with the romance in this book. But all that says to me is that they wanted a low stakes, cookie cutter rom-com and this is definitely not that. Maybe having a past with complicated relationships made me appreciate and understand Hazelwood's angle with this one all the more.

Thank you to the author, the publisher, and NetGalley for providing this advance reader's copy for an honest review.

Oh. My. God.

Some people asked for something a little different in her STEM romances and she said ok fine and blessed us with Rue and Eli. This book has pulled me from the depths of my eternally tragic reading slump.

Their story felt more vulnerable and I loved reading how they navigated their relationship and their past - I thought it was beautiful.

*This is DEFINITELY NOT a book for readers who prefer closed door romance

This was very different from Ali Hazelwood's other books. I loved how the MFC wasn't portrayed as awkward and timid but confident and sure of herself. This also was a slow and fluffy rom com. Don't get me wrong, I love my rom coms. This just had a faster pace and was just different than the rest of her books. I guess less YA and more adult. It has more grit.

Eli and Rue didn't seem to have much chemistry for me other than thrown into their sex scenes. Also, let's talk about being theorem into things? I feel like we were just kind of thrown into the storyline without being told what's going on at first.

Rue has her dream job and is living a great life despite a traumatic childhood. She has one night stands and prefers it that way so she can prevent heartbreak so dating apps with for her. That is until she meets Eli. She has what she thinks will be a one Night stand until she realizes Eli and his buddies partners want to take over her company. Eli falls hard.

I'll keep it spoiler free, but I just couldn't seem to deal with the manipulation and lack of chemistry even with the sex scenes.

I.adore Ali Hazelwood, but just not this book. Thanks to Netgalley and the publishers

I adooooooored this book. I know it's not for everyone, but truly I think it's my favorite romance of the year.

I loved their chemistry and not only sexually but also intellectually and emotionally. They both gave each other the space to be their own people and accepted their flaws.

And I found the plot to be Ali's best yet with a lot of gray morality it wasn't so obvious who the bad guy was here. And Rue is my favorite Ali heroine by farrrr and Eli is my second favorite dude after Adam.

How fun how fun how fun!

If Ali Hazelwood writes it, I'm going to read it. That being said, this was an interesting read for me - it was the first of her books that I feel like I enjoyed conditionally. Conditionally, as in if I hadn't been in the mood I was in while I read this for the first time, I am not sure I would have enjoyed it as much. What I did really enjoy was having dual POV - I hope some of her future books have it too. Rue and Eli's physical chemistry was off the charts! Eli was a man obsessed - and I ate it up. I think the core of my knocking a star off my review is that while Eli and Rue had a lot of chemistry - I'm a little iffy on whether they would last much past the end of this book.

Ali Hazelwood’s spiciest novel to date, Not in Love breaks away from the STEMinist series Hazelwood has established for herself and moves closer to the erotica genre, featuring explicit sex scenes and NSFW content. While narrator Rue is still a women in STEM and the male love interest is still an abnormally tall, grumpy yet misunderstood, Adonis of a man, Hazelwood strays father from the feminist undertone prevalent in her previous novels to focus more on the relationship between Rue and Eli. While this is not necessarily a bad thing, I do prefer Hazelwood’s lighter romances and the steamy yet sweet relationships that come from workplace rivalry and college misunderstandings rather than frantic hookups and ruthless business strategies. However, for fans who prefer the spicy to the sweet scenes, Not in Love is the perfect page turner, and will attract fans of Lana Ferguson, Helen Hoang, Ana Huang, and Katee Robert.

classic Ali can do NO wrong. I am gonna eat her books up every single time. and I stand by that!!!! this was such a fun read and I'm grateful I was able tor read it early!! the writing style was different than her previous books, but still great nonetheless!

thank you Berkley!

I’m a big fan of Ali Hazelwood but honestly this book is the basically the same as all of her others.

Ugh this book didn’t hit in the way that I was hoping it would. I usually love Ali Hazelwood’s books but I just didn’t vibe with this one in the same way.

I really struggled with the first half of the book. It seemed like the plot was getting subdued by their hookups (which seemed unnecessary at times throughout the entire book) and I was struggling to make it through. The second half of the book got better and the plot started to shine through some more. That’s also when I started to see more of a real connection between the characters. The ending was cute and I enjoyed that part. The lead up the the second half of the story was just such a struggle for me.

I also wish that the story delved a little more into the two main characters pasts. I think that could have really deepened the characters and their relationship. I also just felt like I needed more conversations between the characters and more time of them getting to know each other on a personal level.

This one was okay but definitely not my favorite Ali Hazelwood book.

This is not your typical Ali Hazelwood romcom - actually it's not at all. the author’s note at the beginning lets you know that this will be slightly different from her other books, more serious in subject and tone. Which it was, and it was the part that interested me. The romance, however? Eh

This was completely a *me* problem, because I don’t like friends with benefits tropes, anyway, but I thought Ali Hazelwood would be the exception since I love her other work. However, I found myself skipping through it because it was just sex. Most of it. The first dual POV book we get from her, and the guy’s internal monologue is just how much he wants to fuck her (which, sure, okay, but what else is going on in your head, dude? Nothing original from a man, I guess….)

I don’t know. I just saw no chemistry. It was pure lust. I don’t know why this book needed dual POV, anyway, since they hedge over ~real~ reason Eli’s company is trying to buy out her workplace. We don’t learn anything from his perspective when the reader is also kept in the dark until Rue finds out. But whatever. Not the Ali Hazelwood book for me, but others will love it just fine.

3.75 I have mixed thoughts on this one. I absolutely love this author but this one was a bit of a miss for me. While I loved that the characters had a physical attraction and relationship, I was missing the deeper connection. The tropes involved also weren't my favorite but that is just my personal interest I know others are fine with those tropes. I did enjoy both of the main characters separately and how they interacted together. Overall, it was a quick read but could have been better in pacing.

I firmly believe reading Ali Hazelwood's books is like eating Pringles. Once you pop, you can't stop. Is it groundbreaking? No. Is it similar to her other romances? Yes. Is it STEM? Yes. Have I read this all before? Yes. WILL I STILL READ IT? ALSO, YES!!! It's a dose of seratonin, and I think one should fully embrace books that spark joy.

Like all of Hazelwood's books, this was a delightfully fluffy romance based on the enemies to lovers trope. It is similar to her other books in tone and in concept, but that isn't a problem for me. I like the formula of the STEM romance!

Thank you, @berkleypub @berkleyromance, for the opportunity to read and review this one!

I was late to the Ali Hazelwood train and have only read (and loved) The Love Hypothesis so far. When this one came across as an option for a #berkleybuddyread, I jumped at it. I am so glad I did as it was the perfect read for me this week.

I enjoyed the high heat of the spiciness. I liked that the characters both had baggage and childhood traumas that they were coping with. My favorite might have been the blunt honesty/worst secrets sharing that became the main characters thing.

Check this one out if you enjoy enemies to lovers with a lot of spice.

I enjoyed this! I love that there was depth and the characters were complex. I didn’t love the changing POVs because one was first person and the other was third. Other books with dual POVs usually keep it in the same style. I loved the emphasis on communication because that usually ends up bothering me and I’ve always loved how Hazelwood incorporated science but keeps it simple for readers.

The wittiness that Ali Hazelwood tends to fill her books in should be illegal. I accidentally snorted out loud, in public while reading this ☠️ and I’m not mad at it.

We have Rue and Eli, who meet on a hookup app - but their one night goes horribly wrong when her brother shows up. Eli plays the gentleman and gets her home safely. But anything happening afterwards breaks her never more than once rule.

Queue her next day at work, her company finds out it’s being bought - and Eli is one of the members who’s “stealing” the science from her and the team. Enter all the drama that typically exists, but it’s worth it. People you think you can trust, you can’t. A one night thing, that just happens to repeat. A lot.

AND ELI? Eli is literally the best man ever. So patient. Kind. Understanding. Dirty. So swoon worthy in the filthiest of ways. So I don’t think that’s a bad thing.

One thing that kind of took me off guard - Rue’s POV is in first person, but then when we have Eli’s, it’s in third person. The dual perspective books I’ve always read tend to stay in the same POV, so it just threw me off repeatedly.

5⭐️ 4🌶️

HERE LIES FLAVIA, KILLED BY ELI KILLGORE AND ALI HAZELWOOD.

I’m going to write a review because I’ve had two weeks now to sit with my thoughts and I feel I can finally do this without just ferally screaming into the void while on all fours and panting like the animal this book has made me. Ok, starting now.

If you’d like to read a condensed version of this review, let me summarize it for you: this is Ali Hazelwood’s most obsessed men, most “will-float-in-the-air-chasing-your-scent” man, biggest simp man. There, that’s the short review.

The long review entails me screeching that this is the biggest feral animal Ali has ever written and I was clutching my pears and grasping the seat, scratching my nails down my face with every 👏🏻 single 👏🏻 thing that came out this man’s mouth. His very very VERREERY filthy, delicious mouth. I mean, bleach and soap would do nothing to him. Mans was simply gone. ONE SINGLE LOOK at her in a bar and he was so far gone for my girl that really, he would have torn out his own lungs to give to her if she needed.

HE IS SO WHIMPERY AND SUCH A DOM AT THE SAME TIME LIKE HELLOOOOO PLS MAKE IT MAKE SENSE!!!! I don’t know how Ali achieved this but JFC is Rue a lucky lucky girl. The minute his point of view started I was bent in half harder than a Motorola flip phone. The changes in pov from 1st to 3rd were the best!! I know I know, it’s not for everyone but how yall were focusing on that when he was spewing filthy things I’ll never know. I’ve never seen butter melt in the sun harder and faster than I melted into a puddle when he was just resisting so hard to tough her tiny facial scar. Everything he did, how he acted with her, the overprotective and feralness that came over him from the very start of the book?! LORD HAVE MERCY I AM TOO WEAK.

Rue was amazing, as all of Ali’s FMCs are. Baby girl knows what she wants and she is not afraid to say or it list it on a dating app. And I think this is what shocked me most of all because Ali miss ma’am WELCOME TO KINK!! Please stay for a long time and tell us more. I know that brain is a freaky place.

I would worship at Ali’s feet for more of these two. As simple as that.

“Rue Siebert. Changing his cellular makeup, one solemn look at a time.”

“I’d never felt more beautiful than when he looked at me. Like I was the final prototype of someone’s entire fantasy life.”

Ali Hazelwood can do no wrong. Not in Love is a bit different from her other romance books but still just as swoony! I absolutely devoured this story.

I enjoyed the book! It wasn't exactly a romantic comedy, but I was pleasantly surprised by how deep and complex the characters were. The story sucked me in and made me feel like I was part of it.

I loved this story so much. I don’t think I’ve ever read a book about two people whose sexual connection takes precedence over finding an emotional connection, but that emotional connection is found regardless. I think this is such a realistic thing that happens and it made for a great story.