Book Review: Not In Love
For those who read the special edition of The Love Hypothesis or Loathe to Love You and wondered why Ali Hazelwood doesn’t write in dual POV more often, your prayers have been answered. Her latest, Not In Love, is classic Ali Hazelwood - sweet cinnamon roll MMC, women in STEM, corporate and academia hijinks - but now in glorious dual POV.
I love a dual POV, if you couldn’t tell.
The story follows Rue Siebert, a food scientist working for a biotech firm that is at risk of being bought out by a venture capitalist firm run by four business partners, one of whom is Eli Killgore, the man she met on a dating app and very nearly hooked up with. Despite being on opposite sides of the acquisition, Rue and Eli feel so drawn to each other that they start having an affair in secret.
This means that yes, Not In Love is by far the steamiest of Hazelwood’s books so far, with the spicier moments full of the kind of intimate partner communication that I love to see in my romance novels, and which have always stood out to me about her writing.
As for the rest of the plot, I always enjoy a good corporate/academia drama, and romance aside, this sort of drama is Hazelwood’s bread and butter, touching on a niche reality of life that I don’t see in this genre too often. Even if the beats feel a bit familiar, they’re no less interesting, as romance to me is always about the why and the how, and less about the what. In that case, Not In Love satisfies on those fronts. Of all of Hazelwood’s work, despite the STEM setting (and all the steam) this one, to me, felt the most like her Young Adult debut Check & Mate in the way it combined rivalry, romance, and heavier topics surrounding the leads home lives.
All this to say, Not In Love is a perfect next addition to the Ali-verse: just different enough to feel fresh, while remaining familiar enough to feel cozy.
Not In Love hits shelves on June 11. Special thank you to Berkley for the advance copy for review purposes.
