I really enjoyed this fun romance. I thought it was very comical as well. Frankie Corzo as always does a great job with the audiobook narration. Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for the arc and alc.

2.5 ⭐️⭐️

Thank you NetGalley & Publisher for an early audio. All opinions are honest & my own.

I wanted to love this so much, it’s got a lot of things I love but something was off. There were some pacing issues, the FMC mildly annoyed me, and I didn’t like the 3rd act break up. I’m totally open to reading some others by this author but this wasn’t the one for me sadly

I believe this is a debut author, so let me first say, Brava! What a debut! This story has everything I love in a romance. Tension, banter, character growth, and it made me fall in love. You know what I mean, there’s nothing like a book that allows you to be inside the character’s head that you experience falling in love alongside them. And also the book is about writers, any character related to the publishing industry is my catnip.

I wan to ad that I loved the hispanic representation in the book. The FMC has a Peruvian mother, I’m from Ecuador a neighboring country to Peru and this book made this Latina very happy.

This was an audiobook for me and I loved the tidbits of their novel in the last part of each chapter.

This book is for you if you like:
⭐️Rivals to lovers
⭐️They aspire to be writters
⭐️NYC in Christmas
⭐️Sprinkles of latin culture

Thanks to NetGalley for the opportunity to listen and review this audiobook.

I’m really disappointed in this book. I expected a fun and cute grumpy/sunshine story and while I kinda got that I also got an extreme slow burn with poor narration. Everything felt extremely cliche and worthy of the biggest eye rolls. Also the female narrator? Don’t do any more male voices

I’m sorry, but I couldn’t finish this audiobook. The story just didn’t catch me and the voice of the narrator was… too soothing? If that makes any sense. I couldn’t keep my mind from wandering off while listening. I think I would have enjoyed the story though if I had read it instead of listening to it.

Rosie and Aiden are aspiring writers. She writes romance while he prefers literary fiction. They constantly argue in their writing class. In fact, they are so disruptive that their professor insists they either leave the class or agree to work together to write a novel.

The bickering doesn’t stop but they agree to work on a book together. What results is a novel based upon their own situation. The sexual tension is ramped up and they reveal their lust through their characters. But a betrayal may prevent them from following their fictional characters and ending with a real connection.

There was anticipation that this would rise above many of the romance tales of enemies to lovers. It seems like Holt wanted to showcase the steamy side by using the invented character plot to full effect. Somehow the story of the real characters seemed too superficial and didn’t quite work and the reliance on writing sex scenes was too heavy-handed. Center’s The Rom-Commers covers a similar plot and handles it with more success.

The audio was tricky because of the racy parts but Frankie Corzo does an admirable job of reading the book.

4 Stars
Really enjoyed the plot of the book and the audiobook was great! However, I am not a fan of miscommunication (or no communication at all) which kinda is what happens with the writing contest and his sneaky behaviour... but as a book lover the idea of two enemies writing a romance together was so perfect, Although I haven't yet read beach read, this book seems to be super similar so I think if you liked that one you will also enjoy this one :) Thank you NetGalley for the audio ARC!!!

** spoiler alert ** First thing’s first: thank you Netgalley for the ALC of this book!
Not In My Book by Katie Holt was an enemies to lovers story about Rosie and Aiden, two NYU writers who are forced to work together on their final project.

Things I liked about this book:
-getting to know the characters while they reluctantly got to know each other
-the conversations Rosie and Aiden had through their collaborative text document
-the general idea of this book

Things I didn’t like about this book:
-the way Rosie’s southern side was portrayed. I found it to be incredibly cliche and I rolled my eyes at the immediate note about how NYC is so fast compared to her TN town where everything is slow and everyone stops to talk to each other!!! (Babes have you ever been to the south? It’s not all tiny backwoods towns and I’m so tired of hearing it portrayed as such). And then the mention that she’s not able to get the same type of Peruvian products that she had access to at home??? You’re telling me NEW YORK CITY has less selection for IMPORTED PERUVIAN PRODUCTS than your small TN town???? Please be so fucking for real.
-the terrible southern accent the narrator only occasionally remembered to use
-the general way the two main characters interacted. It seemed…incredibly immature and juvenile. I get that they’re college students but their behavior seemed far fetched even for that age range.
-the reasoning behind why Aiden was so rude and terrible to her. Like you don’t have to be venomously mean and cruel to her just because you like her and think you’re not good enough for her??? Wtf???
-the third act breakup. Oh my GOD this was so annoying.
-Rosie leaving NYC and dropping out of NYU because she feels so betrayed by her boyfriend and PROFESSOR?? Like??? You hated this man three months ago, girl GET UP. And you feel so betrayed because he also entered a contest and beat you??? I just couldn’t wrap my head around this


Overall, I really wanted to like this book. I didn’t. I felt like it had really great potential but very poor execution.
2⭐️

This was so good. So good that it had me listening to it at all hours! Like 5 star good! The enemies to lovers aspect was fantastic. I loved the book within a book aspect. The narrator, Frankie Corzo, was excellent. It was also how this book shined a light and showed love for romance as literature. Yes they are real books and romance is a legitimate genre. I also loved the Peruvian and New York aspects. This brought an additional element to the book that worked really well. The third act break up scene or the build up to the third act break up scene was a little weak. Maybe there was not enough emphasis on why the third act break up was as bad as it was? But the make up was fabulous! I hope to read/listen to many, many Katie Holt books in the future. You HAVE to put this on your TBR - right now, like, RIGHT NOW!!

Big thanks to Netgalley, RB Media and Katie Holt for a copy of this book. This is my honest opinion.

I really enjoyed this book. I read mainly as an audiobook and really enjoyed the narrators as well. Definitely would recommend.

A Top Favorite for Me

Audiobook Narration:

Frankie Corzo-She had a great delivery with her inflection and tones. I personally found the default speed very slow and preferred to push the speed to a minimum of 1.50. I would definitely listen to her narrate a book again.

Not in My Book:

Realistically incorporated referencing tropes and present day pop culture. Is this art imitating life or life imitating art? A must read to assess.

I definitely felt Rosie’s desperation around the cost of tuition and needing to make the most of undesirable circumstances. Aiden drew me into him. He is masculine in the way carried himself, yet gave Rosie so much grace.

Throughout the story I was visualizing the RomCom movie of this book. I had my own commentary and squeaks at the undeniable chemistry they had. An instant top favorite for me.

I received a free copy of this book from Katie Holt and RBmedia. I am voluntarily leaving a review. All opinions are my own.

this was so fun and funny!!! my very first audio book and i couldn't stop listening! wonder why i would think smth like that tho....

Enjoyed the watching the two characters learn to work together and better understand each other over time before becoming friends and falling in love. My biggest qualm was that they were both supposed to be late 20s and that just seemed too old for you they were acting a lot of times towards the beginning. In the end though it was a cute story and it was an interesting look at the MFA world.

The constant grumpy man being portrayed as an outright awful human being who verbally abuses the fmc is getting so old. The character should develop, not be a completely different person in the second half of the book. It's been a while since I read this and l've forgotten some of the details but I was shocked for the first half of this book about how terrible this man was. Also simple issues like saying she knows him so well, then not a minute later saying she doesn't know him at all? It made no sense.

I liked this book. It was a quick read and a bit of a slow burn. It was also slightly grumpy and sunshine dynamics. I'm not sure how much I loved the female narrator, though, because she did a robotic male voice compared to her animated female voice.

Love the academic rivals to lovers story. The characters are well written and the story line was overall so much fun to read!

Not in my book by Katie Holt

Really solid audiobook. Narration was excellent! No complaints.

Rosie and Aiden spend most of the time in their writing workshop griping at each other. The other students are used to their antics but their professor has had enough.. She tells them to write a book together, blending their genres together. They both want to stay in the group so they reluctantly do as they are told. The more time they spend together, the more they have to confront their feelings and they seem to be doing just that on the pages of the book they are writing together…. Everything seems to be moving forward until a career changing opportunity reignites the animosity.


I really enjoyed this one. I thought the grumpy/sunshine, enemies to lovers was done really well. I really liked Rosie… I wasn’t a fan of Aiden. I thought he was one of the major problems throughout the book. I don’t feel he was in the right when the fight happened and his personality isn’t enough to make up for how horrible I still think he is. (sorry)
All in all though the book was great, I was really entertained. It was clever and fun with some really heartfelt moments. I think it did a great job of proving that just because you are very different from someone else, there is always common ground and it’s all about give and take. Some excellent writing here and it kept a really solid pace.
It wasn’t as romancey as I thought it would be and that was actually ok 🙂
4 stars

Not in My Book is a sweet and spicy Romance that also has a feel of Women's Fiction. This is such a feel good story, with lots of character development as the heroine learns to navigate situations she didn't anticipate. The heroine is a fantastic, strong willed, independent woman who is relatable and inspiring. The hero is a surly man who is so easy to love.

I absolutely loved the exploration of several Romance tropes in this story, and getting to read for pleasure while the author also informed the reader on the structure and expectations of the Romance genre. The story is told from the perspective of the heroine, but I felt so connected and close to both the heroine and hero throughout due to the way the author wrote the book, and the details that are given throughout. The supporting characters were also well done, which made me feel immersed in the story and the heroine's life.

There are some sexy scenes in this story (which I absolutely love), so be prepared for the spice that sneaks through the sweet.

I listened to the audiobook version of this story, which was well done by a single narrator. I listened at 1.75x speed (my typical audiobook listening speed is 1.75x).

Thank you NetGalley and RBMedia for this advanced listening copy.

Such a wonderful book, you can see the inspiration for the story and I loved how the relationship was being handled through the last paragraphs of each chapter, it gave the reader a good inside knowledge of how both of them were feeling, which was a unique way to expose information.
Loved the cover and had the opportunity of having the audiobook and the ebook, which was just so wonderful reading the parts that were from their book and what was actually happening, also the narrator did a good job with the Spanish parts and the male dialogue.
It was refreshing to see their relationship and the representation of Latin American culture, being from Latin America myself, it was interesting learning about some traditions that Peru and my country share, so you can clearly see that the author is putting her experiences in this and it was good book throughout, it was a 4,5 for me but it was sooo close to five, I don't really like it when couples fight, but it was necessary even I felt so sad.
Thanks to NetGalley, the publisher and the author for this book and audiobook I hope to read more from this author in the future

I went into this thinking it was going to be a light hearted cutesy romance...hahaha. What an emotional bus I was hit with!

Not in My Book is about two writers in a workshop that are enemies beyond enemies. Things get so bad that their mentor forces them to work on a piece together or face both of them getting kicked out of the workshop. Rosie and Aiden slowly start to reveal themselves to each other through their co-writing and it was so heart meting. The book they are writing is basically a carbon copy of their story and journey together but as two other people. Sometimes I did get a bit annoyed that the things they were saying to each other through writing were RIGHT there and other other person was just oblivious as to what was going on but I still loved these two idiots. Their spicy scenes were on point, Aiden does have a mouth on him lol. The ending was hard, I just wanted to cry for Rosie and her feelings and then also yell at her to give him a chance ugh I was a mess!

Overall it was a really cute and any romance fans should give it a go. The audio version was okay. The narrator, Frankie Corzo, was good...I just got annoyed with her Aiden voice sometimes...I was imagining a more masculine voice than what she could produce and that does sometimes happen with just one narrator doing both voices so that's okay. And then sometimes she would give Rosie her southern accent and then two seconds later use her Peruvian accent. It was a bit confusing. But the pacing and inflections were good so no issues there. I will still give other titles she narrates a chance.

Thank you so much to Recorded Books for gifting me an ALC in exchange for an honest review!