This book was so good! It had me kicking my feet, giggling, swooning, and blushing. It felt like a mix of Ali Hazelwood and Emily Henry, and I absolutely adored it! If academic rivals who can’t stand each other, but are forced to write a book together sounds like something you’d enjoy, this is the one for you. Rosie and Aiden can’t say what they want to say to each other, so they communicate through their characters. The tension, chemistry, banter, and verbal sparring were all top tier. Rosie is feisty and lovable. I adore how passionate she is about writing romance. And Aiden was everything you could ever want in a book boyfriend. He’s grumpy, overprotective, damaged, a little nerdy, and has a filthy mouth. I loved the “story within a story” aspect of the book, and would totally read the romance book Aiden and Rosie co-wrote. I was lucky enough to receive an ALC, and Frankie Corzo did such a good job with it! Her Southern accent and Spanish pronunciations brought Rosie to life, and it was a pleasure to listen to. I loved everything about this book and highly recommend it!
✍🏻
My rating: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
Spice level: 🌶️🌶️🌶️
✍🏻
Read if you like:
▫️sassy Peruvian heroine
▫️rivals to friends to lovers
▫️they’re in writing classes together
▫️they hate each other
▫️fighting as flirting
▫️forced proximity
▫️slow burn
▫️opposites attract
▫️grumpy x sunshine
✍🏻
Thank you to Alcove Press, RB Media, Katie Holt, and NetGalley for the ARC. I received an advanced copy for free, and am leaving this review voluntarily.

Four stars for the book, three for the audiobook. You can’t read a southerner with a So-Cal “t” drop (think “wri-in” for “written”).

The book was compelling, and the writing kept me engaged, but the conflict was, unfortunately, predictable and made me dislike the FMC for her selfishness and short-sightedness.

I received a copy of this audiobook through Netgalley, and this is my unsolicited review.
Blurb:
Description
Rosie writes romance novels and listens to Taylor Swift on loop. Aiden is a literary fiction writer who doesn't believe in happy endings. They're about to write a book together—what could go wrong?
The Hating Game meets Beach Read in this sexy and hilarious enemies-to-lovers romance from a debut Peruvian-Tennessean voice.
Rosie, an idealistic and passionate Peruvian American, leaves her Tennessee hometown to pursue her dream of making it in New York as a writer. But her plan is derailed when she ends up in class with her archnemesis and ex-crush, Aiden Huntington—an obnoxious, surly, and gorgeous literary fiction writer who doesn’t have much patience for the romance genre or for Rosie.
Rosie and Aiden regularly go to verbal battle in workshop until their professor reaches her breaking point. She allows them to stay in her class on one condition: they must cowrite a novel that blends their genres.
The reluctant writing duo can’t help but put pieces of themselves into their accidentally steamy novel, and their manuscript-in-progress provides an outlet for them to confess their feelings—and explore their attraction toward each other.
When Rosie and Aiden find themselves competing against each other for a potentially career-changing opportunity, the flames of old rivalry reignite, and their once-in-a-lifetime love story is once again at risk of being shelved—unless they can find a way to end the book on their own terms.
Review, spoilers!!!:
This is an Enemy’s to lovers story
Rosie, a romance novelist and Aiden, a literary fiction novelist dislike each other at first. But I think that is just s…tension. In their workshop they bicker and argue a lot. Their professor get`s fed up with them and makes them write together. You understand that this wil go GREAT!!
Not!! They make it work however, if they don`t they get thrown out of this class. They get to know each other better through the book they are writing and start a relationship. Bliss follows.
Aiden unfortunately screws up and the romantic Rosie goes home to Tennessee to wallow in self-pity. But out Hero follows her and eventually wins her over.
What I liked:
All the side characters and the fact that it is a sweet story.
What I didn`t like:
I put the speed on this book at 1.25. I didn`t like the the voice of the female. Her words are spread lohoooong.

This book was absolutely everything and I will be shouting about it from the rooftops.
I will be honest, I generally shy away from single point of view books because I like to have both sides of the relationship. However, I really enjoyed how the book played out with the chapters of the book being written intertwined with the chapters.

I also try to shy away from single narrated books because I have had multiple scenarios where I had a hard time staying within the story. It worked really well for this book.

It was sweet and spicy. I loved the peeks into her culture.

This was such a great debut! Aiden and Rosie were so cute and the rivals to lovers pipeline was done so well. I loved that you got to hear excerpts from their book as they wrote them and in a way got to hear how each of them felt. The grand gesture at the end was so sweet and true to their characters!

When he buys books for her. GIRL. I.AM.SAT. Such a cute, funny romance book with great characterisation that just hooked me from the beginning. However, the beginning of this book was a bit ruff and tumble. I just feel like there were a lot of cliche elements in the book. It was also very long and waffly at times. I did enjoy the embedding of Rosie and Aiden's novel throughout the book which elevated it. But their banter and tension were really cute too.
3.5

i LOVED this audiobook! such a good debut novel full of heart and angst. this definitely had alot of hating game vibes with their angst and banter. their 3rd act breakup was brutal and I saw it coming but the way it resolved was beautiful. the story definitely has its flaws and alot of the time I found aiden hard to relate to but he won me over in the end. rosie was so great and i really found her to be so delightful and relatable. all i wanted was for her to be happy. overall such a great and strong story. I cant wait to see what katie does next!

This was such a light and refreshing romcom! It was so quick and enjoyable. I’m a sucker for rivals to lovers, and forced proximity relationships.

The tension was delicious and since both FMC and MMC are writers forced to write a romance together, the sexual tension….is THERE.

This almost felt like a fun nostalgic 90’s romcom...and your girl was here for it.

I really enjoyed the audiobook. I listened to this last weekend while batching content and the audio had me distracted from my tasks because I was so invested in the story.

I laughed, was frustrated when the characters were, and kicked my feet when THE moment finally happened.

If you love:
💕90’s romcom vibes
🙅🏻‍♀️Rivals to Lovers
🔥Slow Burn
🫂Forced Proximity
🤺Verbal Sparring
😠Surly anti-love MMC
🦋T-Swift romance obsessed FMC
📚Books about books

Read this book!

I would even consider this a semi holiday book since it does have a nice Christmas moment. So if you want to dip your toes into the holiday spirit but don’t want to go full force Christmas tree farm – this is a great one and can be read all year round.

#romcom #bookreview #rivalstolovers #forcedproximity #slowburn #bookreview #bookrecommendations #reader #readmorebooks #advancedreaderscopy #alc #arc #netgalley #notinmybook #katieholt

Rosie and Aiden are gradstudents and they do not like each other at all. Rosie is a romance writer who only believes in happy endings, while Aiden is all about putting his characters through nothing but pain. They personalities obviously crash, they critique each others work. After one very heated argument their professor gives them an ultimatum - write a romance novel without a happy ending together, or get kicked out of the class permanently.

This book is such a wonderful read! Rosie and Aiden's relationship is fun and adorable. Aiden might stray from love, but he sure is a swoony love interest.

I haven't read anything like this before, a romance within a romance. It's such an interesting choice. I dig it. I'll need more.

My favorite scene has got to be when they are both on a google doc working on a steamy scene in real time, all that build up frustration ahh. I also loved bits with Rosie's friendgroup, their GC had me cracking up!

A guy who doesn't believe in love and a hopeless romantic are always a great pairing!

So I think this may be one of my favorite Rom-Com books ever. And I have read A LOT of rom-com contemporary romance.

-Rosie and Aiden are class mates in their MFA program. They are both writers, but Rosie writes romance and Aiden writes Lit-fic. And he HATES romance, so naturally he takes that hatred out on Rosie. Their academic feud lead their professor to assign them a joint project. They have to write a story together, rather than alone like everyone else in the class.-

This story so perfectly blends Rosie and Aiden story, with the story of Max and Hunter; the characters in the story they are writing together. It has been a long time since I have stayed up until 2-3am in order to read, but this one made me do it. I didn't;t want to stop, I couldn't put it down. Rosie and Aiden are addicting. The banter between them is perfect. It's set from Rosie POV, but Aidens POV comes in through his writing, using Hunter to share how he feels about Rosie, so that we still get his POV, without having dual POV. Quite frankly, it's genius.

This is this kind of book that makes me wish I could write like this. I have always said that if I were to write a book I would want to write like Ali Hazelwood and Emily Henry. But I think Katie Holt has Taken the top spot.

If you are looking for a 'kicking my feet and giggle' book, a 'look at the ceiling and squeeze your eyes shut' book, this is it. 10/10. Please read this.

I had the privilege of listing to the audio book, as well as reading a digital download of this story thanks to Net-Galley and Alcove Press.

I absolutely loved this story!
I love the enemies to lovers trope, and the way it was portrayed in this story was so different! I knew I had to read/listen to this book as soon as I saw the cover and read the blurb. I immediately signed up for an ARC!
I am so glad I was chosen for the audiobook ARC! Thank you NetGalley and Katie Holt!
The narrator chosen fit so well with this story! I loved her voice and the way she read, it was so perfect! I've listened to other audio books where the voice of the narrator didn't quite fit or was simply annoying and it ruined an otherwise great story, but not this time! I loved it so much I may seek out if Frankie Corzo has narrated any other novels.
With that Katie's book was so unique, Rosie and Aiden were both writers in the same class at NYU. They bickered constantly during class until they were forced to write a book together. Their book became a mirror of their own growing relationship and it was so fun, and a touch spicy lol. These two characters were so deep and I loved them..
Until the end, I wasn't a fan of their third act break up at all and it made Rosie seem a bit ridiculous. Without it, it would have been a 5 star read for me.
All in all this was a very well written story, and I loved it so much! 4.5 stars for sure!

The book was really cute as well as a fast read
I really loved how the characters they wrote in the book resembled themselves and how they did a plot twist in the ending ♥️

Thank you so much for the arc 🫶🏼

When I first learned about Katie Holt’s debut, Not in My Book, I was instantly intrigued. Not only do I love books about books, I’m also drawn to anything with Peruvian culture. (My husband is Peruvian and I lived in Lima for a year!) With an enemies-to-lovers romance arc and plenty of discussions around writing, I was sure I’d love this novel.

Rosie Maxwell is an MFA student at New York University, writing the genre she most loves: romance. But the cute, annoying literary fiction guy in her class, Aiden Huntington, always critiques her writing too harshly, and she’s always ready to throw it right back at him. At risk of being kicked out of their class due to the frequent arguments, Rosie and Aiden are assigned to write a novel together. How can they agree on anything, from genre to character names to how it all ends? As Aiden and Rosie spend the school year writing together and getting to know each other, their relationship starts to mirror that of their characters. But can they have their own happily ever after despite their differences?

Tropes & Narrative Devices:
• Enemies to friends to lovers
• Forced proximity
• College romance (grad students)
• Fake dating… for research!
• Book excerpts!
• First-person POV (Rosie)

What I Liked:

• Blurring lines between reality and fiction. As Rosie and Aiden get started on writing a novel together, they quickly find that they need to get better acquainted and learn to work with each other. Their advisor suggests they go on fake dates as their characters. They’re effectively getting to know each other via their characters. But how much is real and how much is their own creativity?

• Writing discussions! Romance vs. literary fiction! Rosie is a romance writer who loves happily ever afters; Aiden is a literary fiction writer who doesn’t believe in happy endings or true love. They butt heads a lot, and even more so when they have to write a book together. I loved getting to hear their different reasons for liking their preferred genres and learning how they draft together. I’d love to be an author someday myself, so these peeks into the writing process are so fascinating for me.

• Playlist for books! I was so giddy to learn that Aiden makes playlists with perfect transitions between songs… and that he makes them for the books he reads, too. I’ve been doing this for years! He went up a few points just by discovering this about him!

• Peruvian culture! One of the biggest reasons I was interested in this book is because the main character is Peruvian American. I have a personal connection to Peru: My husband is from Lima! As such, I always love reading about Peruvian characters. Here, Rosie’s mom is from Peru, and that culture is represented throughout the novel. From various foods (papas a la huancaína, lomo saltado, ceviche, alfajores, chicha morada, and so on) to restaurants (Pio Pio; I’ve eaten there!) to their Christmas traditions, so much here felt familiar and real to me.

• Their rival dynamic. Whether as enemy classmates or a couple in love, these two are argumentative to the end! They have chemistry from the beginning, and I enjoy seeing how they never fully get over their stubborn, slightly quarrelsome ways. They’re so silly.

• Excerpts from their WIP! As Rosie and Aiden work on their novel together, we get to see snippets of what their characters are up to. Those characters’ lives greatly mirror what’s happening with Rosie and Aiden, offering an extra layer through which to view their relationship. I love that it remains untitled… until the end.

Audiobook
Frankie Corzo narrates Not in My Book, primarily from Rosie’s first-person POV, but also as her and Aiden’s characters, Maxine and Hunter. The narration is full of personality, making Rosie really come to life. I also appreciate the pronunciation of Spanish words throughout. (A big pet peeve of mine is when narrators don’t do secondary languages justice! Thankfully that’s not an issue here.) This whole audiobook is wonderfully done and amplifies the story beautifully.

Final Thoughts
I absolutely loved Not in My Book. As excited as I was to read it, it exceeded my expectations. This is an enemies-to-lovers romance done perfectly! This is one of my favorite contemporary romances ever and is sure to be a novel I return to again and again. I already bought the paperback and look forward to revisiting these characters. Not in My Book is a fabulous debut and I can’t wait to read Katie Holt’s next novel!

I’M GOING TO THROW UP THIS BOOK HAD ME SOBBING AT WORK LIKE A BABY AND I NEED THE PHYSICAL COPY IN MY HANDS TO RE-READ IT AND ANNOTATE IT. THIS HURT MY HEART AND THEN PUT IT BACK TOGETHER AGAIN.

This was such a great debut! Not in My Book has by far become one of my favorite books of the year. Rosie and Aidan are truly beautiful together and it was so great seeing their relationship develop throughout the book. This rivals to lovers novel starts off with Rosie and Aidan constantly bickering in their graduate writing workshops since Aidan specializes in literary fiction and Rosie’s focus is romance. The professor ended up telling them that in order to not kicked out of this class, they have to develop a romance novel that suits both of their interests.

This was such a refreshing listen that was well done. A rival to lovers romance that plays out because of how fleshed the characters are while writing their manuscript.. The incredible banter, the yearning, and memorable moments they have within each other brought the audio to life. It was so nice seeing the dynamic between Rosie’s MFA cohort becoming her backbone. The cameos of New York City that makes the story shine. Katie Holt curated a story that’s relatable on so many fronts and I can’t wait for her next work.

Thank you NetGalley and RBmedia for this ALC!

This one was super cute and fun. It took me a bit to get into, but once I got into it, I was hooked. This was a very fun enemies to lovers with great banter and conflict! Definitely a slow burn. Great writing. Well developed characters. Great connection between the H/h. Rosie and Aiden are in the same class together. She writes romance and he writes literary fiction. Both characters kind of think their writing is the better genre. They have to co-write a book. So much fun! I really enjoyed this one. Huge thanks to Netgalley and RB media for allowing me to listen and review this book!

5⭐️’s
3🌶️’s
-Enemies to Lovers
-Forced Proximity
-Opposites Attract
-Slow Burn
-Academic Rivals
-One Bed

“I've never second guessed what I feel for you. I know you prefer what's in your books, and I pretend I don't want to be like them, but I do. I want to be the person you picture when you're reading and dreaming because you're who I picture every single time. I love you. In light and dark, in romance and litfic. In this lifetime and the next” 😩😩♥️♥️

Awww,I did not expect to enjoy this book as much as I did. I was hesitant because of the narration. I prefer Dual instead of female voice changing to male but the story was beautifully written. The Banter in this book omfg😩🤭. Two Academic Rivals in the NYU Creative Writing Program unexpectedly falling in love is the perfect book for me. Rosie and Aiden both are Writers, Rosie is a hopeless Romantic whose in love with love , fun , vibrant and sometimes a bit immature, Aiden the opposite, serious, arrogant , hates romance and will bicker with Rosie any chance he gets! The two of them can’t get along to save their lives so as the final straw their professor makes them team up to write a novel to remain in the MFA program. Often I found their arguments to be juvenile at times,but I could sense their attraction towards each other (the tension). Just imagine having to write a love story and ending up writing your very own. I loved sooo many quotes in this book the author truly knows how to get a romance snob like me with her words. Reading this book my emotions were all over the place, I was laughing, heart was heavy, I was annoyed (the bickering and three act breakup) antsy because of the spice lol…but I enjoyed it all. Love when a book can make me feel a range of emotions with a great HEA! It was my pleasure reading and reviewing this book. Thank you NetGalley & Alcove for the opportunity and thank you & Congratulations to Katie Holt for this exceptional read

I LOVED this book. It was SOOO sweet, I am obsessed with Rosie & Aiden.

I could not stop listening to it and in my book that is a 5 star audiobook for me.

I loved the snippets we got at the end of each chapter of the book Rosie and Aiden wrote together. I also LOVED the latinX representation, and how the author tied in the Peruvian culture.

I am not a fan of third act break-ups but felt as though it worked with this story.

I found both MC's relatable and LOVED the Taylor Swift references.

All in all, this was a GREAT debut, and look forward to more from Katie.

As a half-Latina Southerner, I immediately connected with Rosie. Her spunky personality and witty banter with Noah had me laughing out loud. The enemy-to-lovers trope was executed flawlessly, and the pacing was perfect. I loved the pop culture references and the overall vibe of this book. Rosie felt like a real friend, and I was rooting for her every step of the way. If you're looking for a fun, heartwarming rom-com, look no further!

I don't know what made me select this ARC, but I'm so glad I did. This charming love story captivated me from start to finish. There were so many times I wished I had a text copy so that I could annotate all the tender moments. That being said, the narration was very good and extremely immersive for the multiple points of view.

The author skillfully weaved together some of my favorite tropes and writing styles. The dual point of view was enhanced by the characters being written in the story within the story, offering a heartfelt glimpse into the main characters' thoughts and feelings.

If you're looking for a fun, feel good romance, I recommend picking this one up. It's also got a festive flair making it the perfect book for the season.