AHHHH I LOVED THIS. FINALLY SOMETHING THAT SPOKE TO ME !!

Thank you so much NetGallery & Alcove Press for this ARC!! I LOVED IT!!

Okay first of all - VERY much giving The Hating Game vibes. I was thinking that the whole time but then when I finished and read the description to discover it was inspired by that book, it alllll made sense. A true enemies to lovers & forced proximity romance and i ate it all up. Plus the author is a swiftie!!!!! So that obviously won me over.

As for the plot - Rosie & Aiden are both aspiring authors of differing genres. They’re in a NYU writing workshop together and for some reason unbeknownst to both of them - they hate each other. Their distaste for each other begins to disrupt the class so they’re threatened to be kicked out, unless they write a book together moving both of their genres - romance & lit fiction. Obviously - though out their writing journey they become closer and even become friends. You see the characters from their book are clearly a mirror image of themselves and they basically communicate to each other through the book. The enemies to lovers pipeline really sets in and they have their first kiss & start dating. Then, of course, the twist happens which rips them apart - Aiden got a scholarship position that Rosie had wanted and he didn’t tell her he applied. They fight - they’re back to enemies - Aiden finishes the book and basically expresses all his feelings & apology in the book & they get their HEA. DUH!

I will never fault a romance for being predictable bc they’re supposed to be!! They’re supposed to follow their trope & get together & have a big twist and break up then get their HEA!! I eat it up every time! And this didn’t stray from that. I loved the duality of reading their story but ALSO reading their novel - I thought that was so creative and i’d never seen that before!

I loved the characters she grew attached to both and was genuinely rooting for them the whole way
I loved the romanticism of NEW YORK - but i’m biased and love new york. Everything she felt and said about New York is exactly how I feel.
I loved the banter ugh. I truly believe if a romance had good banter then it automatically is good. I found myself laughing out loud at work reading this literally.

I have nothing but good things to say!!
I loved it and would absolutely purchase & reread

This is such a good debut book and Im very excited to see what Katie Holt does next

The story doesn't quite reach its full potential. The pacing feels uneven, with some sections dragging, particularly as their relationship builds. While the characters are likable enough, their personalities can sometimes feel one-dimensional, making it hard to fully invest in their journey. The "accidentally steamy" novel-within-the-novel is a nice touch, but it doesn't always feel as pivotal to their romance as it could.

Despite its flaws, this debut has a lot of heart and humor, and readers who love a good enemies-to-lovers trope with a splash of creativity will likely enjoy the ride, even if it doesn't fully break new ground.

I thought this was such a cute story, I loved the banter between Rosie and Aiden as well as the general plot of the book. However it lost me in the second half when it started to get a little boring, there was just a lot of story building and not a lot of actual progression in their relationship. I also think the ending conflict kind of ruined Aiden’s character for me.

DNF @ 10%. This book is very intriguing to me, but I think I personally will have a better time with it in audiobook format. I look forward to trying it again at a later date.

Despite the very unrealistic setting for this one (it's a romance, okay? just go with it) I really enjoyed this book. Great banter, spicy chemistry, everything you want in an academic enemies to lovers!

Rosie and Aiden end up in a class together but they find it hard to get long. Their professor has had enough of their fighting and has decided to make they work together on a project. While working together their relationship starts to heals.

Thank you to the publisher and Netgalley for allowing me to read this book. I seriously loved this book so much.. all the Taylor swift references were amazing!! Ugh i couldn’t get enough it was so cute. We love a good slow burn!! I loved the characters so much!! 😍😍😍

Excellent banter and fun, romantic characters. Their love story was believable and filled with heart.

I thought this was a cute book and you can feel all the emotions in this book. I fall in love with characters. I highly recommend this book.

I wasn’t expecting this novel to be so heart warming and cute! I’m a good fan of well told rivals to lovers stories, and this novel has managed to accomplish the trope perfectly! I loved the characters, the pacing of the story, the setting… it had me giggling and kicking my feet in the air! Thanks so much for the arc! Will definitely be buying it once it’s out!

I absolutely LOVED Not in My Book by Katie Holt. It was a slow burn, enemies to lovers story and it was riveting. The dialogue between Rosie and Aiden was fun and intelligent. I liked the third wall aspect of them writing a novel inside a novel, and seeing their creative processes while they did it.

There was mild spice, but it wasn’t full out smut.

Highly recommend!

This was great. I liked both the premise and the characters. Romance is an easy sell at my library, so looking forward to purchasing this and sharing with readers.

This was my first Katie holt book and I really enjoyed it! Although some aspects of the plot were a little far fetched I could quickly overlook this because of how much I enjoyed immersing myself in this fantasy world! I found this book very cute and reading it was a total rollercoaster of emotions. This is definitely a book I can see myself re reading in the future, very much a feel good book! I would recommend this to anyone who enjoys a good spicy romance!

hot hot hot! i really liked it 🥹 a roller coaster of a slow burn and unique read. their communication could go a long way to make less issues for them but i really loved it! would be great to read around the holidays when it releases. thanks netgalley for the ARC!

4.5⭐️ rounded up!

I was hooked on this story right away, and couldn't put it down all the way through to the very end. I can't believe this is this author's first book, and every book after will be a must read for me!

Their banter was so good and so fun to read. For a while, it didn't always feel like what it was, banter that covered up their true feelings, but I loved that the end of each chapter had excerpts of the untitled book Aiden and Rosie were writing together. Those excerpts from Aiden helped to get into his head a bit and see how he felt about Rosie. He was guarded and rude to her for a long time, so reading how he felt about her in his words was a really cool and unique way to help their story, which I loved since this isn’t a dual POV book.

The emotions were so well written, I FELT every one. During the [very predictable] third act break up, my heart hurt like it was me going through it. I felt the anticipation with their banter, and the love during all the good moments.

Parts were a bit unrealistic, like how they didn't admit, or acted like they didn't realize, how the story they were writing was identical to their relationship. As well as using similar names and their classmates not calling them out on any of it.

But when they wrote together (especially when they wrote that spicy scene together 🥵), the chemistry was incredible. I loved these two a lot and really rooted for them from the beginning. I loved every detail that came out by the end- about why he was a jerk, his difficult past, how she loved that coat, how she had a crush on him from the first reading, etc. Every detail was addressed and the book is wrapped up in a perfect little bow. The side characters were also a big compliment to the story, and I appreciate that there weren't too many to keep track of. Lastly, I loved the detail that Ida had involvement in them fixing their relationship. She was a catalyst for their relationship, after all.

Thank you to NetGalley and Alcove Press for this ARC! 🤍 All opinions are my own.

Absolutely adored this book! This was my first Katie Holt and I quite enjoyed this book. ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️character development was on point and I loved the dynamic between the MMCs

I absolutely adored this book. Loved all the characters. The premise was a bit far-fetched (it would be more likely that a professor would make one of them switch to another seminar), but I loved watching the relationship unfold as the main characters wrote their book together. And the ending was perfect.

This book was incredibly far-fetched. A college professor forcing two feuding students to work together and go on fake dates? Come on.

The characters were okay. Neither of them very likeable or easy to connect with.

I couldn't get over how ridiculous the story line was to enjoy it.

Have you ever wished that the bridge from The Way I Loved You by Taylor Swift were a book? Because boy do I have good news to you. Rosie and Aiden despise each other and take any opportunity for a dig at each other's writing. Their arguments in class are so bad that their professor asks them to write together or they can get out of her class. They start writing together only to realize how much they actually like each other.

This book has everything! Enemies to lovers, really good cheesiness, slow burn, sexual tension, classroom romance, New York, Tennessee, cozy vibes, holidays, a plot within a plot, Taylor Swift, a peacoat, I'm telling you, it has everything! I was eating this book up the whole time. The entire book is sexual tension and a slow burn. While I love tension sometimes, I hate slow burn and I hate third act breakups but this one made me like them. I think this book altered my brain chemistry because I genuinely don't understand how tropes that make me so angry work absolutely perfectly here. I had a fantabulous time reading this book. I am so mad that it is over because I want to read a 600 extended edition of this book. Is the book perfect though? Yes, because what works, works so well that I don't see anything else. I will hear no criticism, thank you very much.

I recommend this book to everyone. I cannot express how much I want people to read this book. I will be campaigning now to get this book on everyone's TBR. This book is Katie Holt's first book, I cannot wait to read what she will write next.

Thank you to NetGalley, Alcove Press, and Katie Holt for giving me the opportunity to review this advanced reader copy. All opinions are my own.

Academic rivals, enemies to lovers, and wow did this create so much tension. It was fun and different to read about two characters writing about two people who don’t like each other or do they, as we’re reading about two people who may or may not like each other (they do). I loved everything about it, the banter is everything, and I was giggling and kicking my feet the entire time. Aiden is this obsessed loser who can’t help but argue with Rosie, and Rosie has this little crush on Aiden (it’s not that small) but can’t stand him because she thinks he doesn’t like her. The kiss scene, that was everything. Rosie is a lot better than me because I would have kissed that man from the very start. The tension, oh my god, I felt the tension every time they argued, which was always, but especially when they were writing the chapters for their book. The sexual tension in that one part in chapter seventeen, woah I was fanning myself. Making them write about two people who don’t like each other falling in love made everything interesting, it wasn’t just the characters in their story going and doing all of this it’s them too. Or at least what they wish they could do.
Thank you NetGalley and Alcove Press for giving me an arc in exchange for an honest review.