This unfortunately was a miss for me. It had all the making of a book of my dreams, angsty enemies to lovers type banter in an academic rivals setting, and a book within a book! However, it just missed the mark for me. The dialogue in the story they were writing, became overwhelming almost immediately. I also wasn’t the biggest fan of the FMC Aiden, he felt actually mean at times.

I did consider DNFing at a few points but stuck with it until the end.

I do however hope to read more of this authors work in the future, the plot was fun!

It would be impossible to overstate how much I loved this book.

I mean, it’s a book within a book - what’s not to love?! It was a real celebration of the romance genre and all of its greatest tropes: enemies to lovers, forced proximity, only one bed, and just a hint of fake dating. Just an all round fun read.

I loved both of the characters and the way their relationship progressed, they were both flawed and grew together. The ending was predictable but I don’t think that’s a bad thing, all romances should have a HEA after all.

Rating: 3 ⭐️
Spice: 1.5 🌶️

This was fun! I’m a sucker for enemies to lovers and boy, were these two enemies!!! The tension between Aiden and Rosie was palpable with Aiden being the guy that hates everyone (but her of course) and Rosie being the girl that just loves everyone. And the story within a story? Fun!!!!

I thought the enemies to lovers buildup was amazing in this one but once they became lovers, the story just fell flat. Some details were conflicting and the romance just seemed instant after having “hated” each other for so long. Otherwise, a quick and fun read!

Thanks NetGalley and the publisher for an ARC!

Not in My Book is a fresh, deliciously tension-filled take on the Rival Writers trope. It follows Daphne, a romance writer, and Aiden, a lit fic writer, who tear each other down in a fiction workshop. Their constant fighting blows up in their faces and leads to them having to work together on a novel— and let me just say, thank you to their mentor for pushing these two together because what happens next is MAGIC.

Daphne and Aiden basically write themselves into the book, and through their characters are able to tell each other things they wouldn't dare say out loud. It's a genius story idea, and I ate every second of it up.

Potentially one of my best romance reads of the year!!!! If you can't already tell: I recommend!

The story is just perfect... Rosie and Aiden, who are academic rivals and can't stand each other, are assigned to co-write a romance book for class. Throughout the book, they exchange messages, like love letters, which gradually brings them closer both in the story and in real life.


Rosie resonated with me so much as a romance enthusiast and a girl from Tennessee. Her enthusiasm for her craft is infectious. Aiden, or should I say, Clark Kent, has become one of my favorite male main characters! His devotion to Rosie is heartwarming. The tension, arguments, and playful banter are top-notch, especially for a debut novel! I'm amazed by Katie's writing. Every scene was fantastic (I particularly loved the Christmas scenes). And Aiden buying Rosie books? It was such a sweet gesture. The setting was so vividly described that it made me want to visit New York immediately.



By the end, tears were streaming down my face. It was just so, so good.

A huge thank you to Alcove Press and Katie Holt for the advanced copy. "Not in My Book" releases on

Thank you Netgalley for the ARC.
This one sadly wasn't for me. I really wanted to love it, but I just had a hard time getting into it, and I kept putting off reading because of that.
I will give it another chance at some point, to see if it's just my mood that ruins the experience though, because that sometimes happens.
So when I do, I'll edit this review

Thanks to Net Galley and Alcove Press for this advanced copy.

WOW. Five hundred stars. This might be my perfect romance novel. Aiden and Rosie were both deeply beautiful, flawed, opinionated, stubborn, etc. Rosie was, is, ME. As a romance reader and writer myself, I understood her insecurities deeply, and her yearning for her own HEA was one I’ve felt at many times in my life. The setting of NYC was rich and lush, exploring the different seasons without shoving them down your throat or making it seem like a travel fic. The novel idea (pun intended) was so cute, and surprisingly steamy. I can’t wait to have this book on my shelf one day for inspiration.

I tried to like this book but it really wasn’t for me. I appreciate banter but Aiden just came off like a condescending jerk. Which could be other peoples vibes. Just not mine. Had to DNF a few chapters in because of this. The writing is captivating though!

If I could rate this infinity stars, I would! I loved every minute of this book! I didn’t want it to end! This author will be an autobuy/download author for me for future books without hesitation!

Likes
First person POV
Fake dating, enemies to friends to lovers, grumpy/sunshine, he falls first, fake dating, only one bed
Text convos and book excerpts in different fonts
Angst is on point
Christina Lauren references
Book within a book/life imitates art
Falling in love on the pages of their book
“I don’t want to be everyone else to you” 😍
That we get to see Aiden/Hunter’s POV in the snippets of the book they’re writing together


Dislikes
Needs more grammatical editing (which doesn’t have any bearing on the above rating)

I loved this so much! Perfect corky romance. It’s basically a book within a book. Such a refreshing and unique story. An enemies to lovers trope and a slow burn love affair. I laughed and cried and felt a hundred other emotions.

Rosie attends NYU’s writing program. Her main genre is romance. She is a sweet, hopeless romantic. Aiden is also in her class but he hates romance. He is snobby, rude, and arrogant. He is especially rude to Rosie. Rosie and Aiden hate each other and can’t help but bicker and banter in class. They are so disruptive that the teacher forces them to write a book together. Rosie and Aiden now must work closely together for the rest of the semester. Will they continue to hate each other or will they get over their differences?

I loved everything about this book and can’t wait to read more from this author.

Thanks to Alcove Press and NetGalley for this ARC in exchange for my honest review.

Alcove Press and NetGalley just sent me an ARC of the best book! Not in my Book is Katie Holt’s debut novel and it’s a stunner! This story features Rosie and Aiden who are both in NYUs graduate writing workshop. Rosie writes romance and Aiden writes literary fiction. They are constantly volleying insults at each other during workshop-throwing jabs at each others preferred writing genres. The insults become so vicious, that Professor Ida threatens to throw them out of her class. When Rosie begs not to be thrown out, Professor Isa says they can remain in her class on one condition. They must co-write a manuscript blending their two genres together. They each have to write one chapter per week to share with the class for critique and at the end of the semester, they will have a completed novel to turn in for a final grade. Let’s the fun begin! This book was a perfect blend of enemies to lovers with a sprinkle of fake dating and a dash of forced proximity. The banter was top tier! You think Aiden is a grumpy guy, but really he’s just a shy sweetheart. I loved the concept of duel writing a manuscript. Everytime they would pull up their shared google doc-I would giggle and smile. The shared manuscript served as an outlet for them to air their true feelings for each other but written as the characters in the book. The steamiest part of the book was when they had to write an intimate scene together. The tension just kept ramping up as each took a turn writing a sentence. The tension was palpable and electric. I want more books written by Katie Holt! This debut was spectacular! 4.5 stars!! Not in my Book releases 12/10. Go out and buy this book when it releases! Don’t sleep on this one!!

'This one was just really forgettable. I honestly forget I had even opened this one until I saw the "marked as read" on my Kindle.

The book's tension between the characters had me a the edge of my seat, I kept reading and waiting for them to FINALLY get together and was NOT disappointed.

this was a rollercoaster ride from being enemies to friends to lovers then back to enemies AGAIN?!? the interactions between rosie and aiden was cute, i liked their back-and-forth banters.

i found the plot very promising and had a lot of potential. i liked the idea of rosie and aiden co-writing a novel and i think the author did a great idea of putting the excerpts of the novel that the leads were writing at the end of every chapter. i think that was refreshing, and through the excerpts the readers can somehow get aiden's pov.

honestly, there were moments at the start when i considered to dnf this because the connection between the characters wasn't resonating with me. i felt like the reason they didn't like each other in the beginning was forced, just for the sake of the plot (or the trope). thankfully, as the story developed, the pace quickened, and the relationship between rosie and aiden started to evolve. however, the pacing of the book dragged towards the end, and it became predictable, too.

overall, this could be perfect for people who loves rom-coms and a cute love story.

not in my book will be out on december 10, 2024.

thank you netgalley, alcove press, and katie holt for the advanced reader's copy in exchange for an honest review.

I loved this read!! I didn't know what to expect from the start of the book, but quickly really started enjoyed how Rosie and Aidens story was in parallel with their books storyline and how the book they were writing was helping to see eachother more than just the "romance girl and litfic guy"
It was so nice to see how both Aiden and Rosie grew as they were working together and making eachother to be better people and writers and that their banter didnt completely fizzle out when they started liking eachother more than just tolerating for the class.
i think only thing i might have enjoyed was to see more Aiden's people because I assume that 20smth guy must have some friends around him, but he just had writing and strained family relationship.

4.5 rounded up to a 5!

Tropes:
rivals-to-lovers
one bed
sloowwww burn
opposites attract
Grumpy/sunshine

The plot was reminiscent of Beach Read by Emily Henry (one of my favorite books). Rosie and Aiden have TONS of chemistry - it's a rivals-to-lovers trope in which they channel all their feelings into their characters in a book that they are forced to co-write, and it's FIRE (AHEM, a certain scene that they write together at the same time). The tension really builds up and it's a definite SLOW burn, and when they get together, it's like "FINALLY!". I think Rosie and Aiden balance each other well in not only the types of fiction that they write, but in their personalities. Rosie is the romance writer who hopes for some proper toe-curling romance of her own in real life, while Aiden is the cynic who doesn't believe in love. I love that when they couldn't express their feelings out loud, they could write it down and let each other read it. Writing was their love language.

This was a lot of fun to read and I liked how we kind of got a book within a book.
Thank you to Alcove Press and NetGalley for the ARC in exchange for an honest review!

Thank you to NetGalley for the advance access!

The great:
I really, really enjoyed reading this book. The tension was great, the enemies-to-lovers was just harsh enough to be real enemies but childish enough to be believably forgivable, and I was smiling or laughing practically the whole time I was reading it due to how cute the romantic parts were or how funny some of the character interactions were.

The good:
The ~spicy~ scenes were pretty normal beach read romance novel stuff, but definitely good enough to not lose my interest. The characters also grew believably and I was invested in the friendships, professional, and romantic storylines in the book.

The bad:
The book ends pretty abruptly - I would have liked to take a little more time on the conclusion/reconciliation, it felt a little forced. I also think we could have fleshed out the family relationships/background a little more, Rosie loved her family but they ultimately played a really small role in relation to how much they seemingly matter to Rosie, and even with Aidan's less-positive family situation it would have been nice to have some closure.

Ultimately, I'd read more by this author and I REALLY enjoyed the "two idiots completely desperate for each other trying to hide it by being mean" trope, and having them writing together was a really inspired way to implement it. Very fun read!

Quick fun read but my main point was a book within a bolk. Every readers dream, forced proxamity,fake dating you name it this books got it! Highly reccomdened

4,5 ⭐️

Book Summary
Rosie is a romance reader and writer, born and raised in Tennessee. She leaves her family and hometown behind and with her southern charm she is ready to conquer New York.

She applies for the MFA programme in NYU and she has the mentor of her dreams. The only problem seems to be Aiden, a fellow student at the workshop, who hates everything about romance and by extension her

Rosie knows how to handle criticism but with Aiden she doesn’t have much control. After a huge fight in the classroom, their professor declares that they have to put their differences aside, work together and write a book or they will have to drop out of the lesson.

How hard and challenging could it be to work with your nemesis? For the rest of the year Rosie will find out.

Review
I loved this book soooooo much! It has everything I want and more in a romance book! It might be one of the best books I have read in 2024 so far!

The tension between the main characters, the actual plot, the element of a book within the book, the character development, THE SPICE, everything worked perfectly well.

Nothing seemed forced or out of place, predictable or cringey.
It was just perfect.

I am really looking forward to read another book by Katie Holt in the future!

Mark your calendars on December 10th!
You won’t regret it!

8.5/10

Review has slight spoilers. Nothing huge.

I had so much fun with this! Finished in two sittings. Total of 5.5 hours.

Loveeee the chemistry of the main leads. This felt like watching a 12 episode tv show, tbh. SO MUCH stuff happens in one book. The concept of them writing together is genius and the tension is insane! I really like how it was focused mainly in them. Sometimes romance novels squeeze in too many subplots with side characters but this one did not, which I prefer. The parts showing her family and her culture, well done. Comedy was also good, I laughed out loud a lot.

Things I did not like as much: Well I am not a fan of romances where they have multiple "low points" like break ups or angst. This one had like three different low points and I wish it was just one. The third one was obvious, I knew it was coming but she overreacted to what happened. It made me wish Rosie was a bit more mature and same with Aiden. I wish they could have communicated more.

Btw, the spice was top tier, especially the chapter where they... Collaborated the writing LOL. I have never seen that in a book. So creative. The spice writing style reminds me of Ali Hazelwood which I also like. The guy is intense.

Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher who gave me an early copy of this book.