Breakaway Books

Authored by Ali Hazelwood; Published June 2024; Romance

⭐️⭐️⭐️ / 🏖️🏖️🏖️🏖️

Not in Love is the second novel by Ali Hazelwood that I have read, and really, I shouldn’t have been surprised by the spice level. Like Bride, it’s *very* spicy.

In Not in Love, scientist Rue is working at a biotech company that has recently been taken over by a private equity firm. Eli, one of the firm’s founders, is immediately attracted to Rue, but, in addition to the fact that she has no interest in a relationship with anyone at all, Rue is absolutely convinced that any flirtation with Eli would be equivalent to fraternizing with the enemy. But something seems amiss with the firm’s interest in Rue’s company and its CEO, and Rue quickly discovers a personal history between the firm’s partners and her company’s CEO. She has to decide where her loyalties lie, and if any of the people around her truly care about her best interests.

I’m not sure what to say about the novel, except that, to me, it seemed like a lot of spice strung together with a few scenes of traditional romance. I was surprised that so many of the blurbs on the front and the back described the novel as appealing to women in the STEM field, because I couldn’t quite tell why, apart from the fact that the female lead is a scientist. There was an amount of discussion about women not getting credit for their achievements, but I still wouldn’t describe it as designed particularly for STEM women. Rue is definitely not an archetypal heroine, socially awkward almost to the point of painful, and in some ways, I think the novel is more fitting for women who simply feel like they never fit in and are always operating on a different wavelength when it comes to social situations.

An element that stood out in this novel was the sensitive way in which the author described the effect of childhood food insecurity on Rue. While both Eli and Rue have their share of childhood trauma, it’s Rue who seems to continue to struggle with the after effects in her everyday life, and some of the more heartwarming moments in the novel are when Eli begins to understand her and learn how to take care of her more in light of what she went through. Both Rue and Eli’s siblings play a role in the novel, and Rue’s brother provides more of the drama than I was expecting, both because of how Rue took responsibility for him as a child and how he interacts with her in the present. These features combine to give the novel slightly more realism—and perhaps more sadness?—than other romances.

Not in Love is sure to give you your daily (Weekly? Monthly?) dose of spice. If you’re looking for something a little more mild, I’d steer clear of this one.