Book Review: Not in Love by Ali Hazelwood

Not in Love by Ali Hazelwood
Publisher: Berkley
Publication Date: June 11, 2024
My rating: 5  out of 5 stars

Publisher’s Description:

Rue Siebert might not have it all, but she has enough: a few friends she can always count on, the financial stability she yearned for as a kid, and a successful career as a biotech engineer at Kline, one of the most promising start-ups in the field of food science. Her world is stable, pleasant, and hard-fought. Until a hostile takeover and its offensively attractive front man threatens to bring it all crumbling down.

Eli Killgore and his business partners want Kline, period. Eli has his own reasons for pushing this deal through—and he’s a man who gets what he wants. With one burning exception: Rue. The woman he can’t stop thinking about. The woman who’s off-limits to him.

Torn between loyalty and an undeniable attraction, Rue and Eli throw caution out the lab and the boardroom windows. Their affair is secret, no-strings-attached, and has a built-in deadline: the day one of their companies will prevail. But the heart is risky business—one that plays for keeps.

Rue works as a biotech engineer at Kline, a food science corporation that has become the target of a hostile takeover attempt. Eli works for the private equity firm trying to take over Kline. When he meets Rue, he feels an instant, intense attraction. Rue feels it too, but she doesn’t want to betray the owner of Kline, who is also a close friend by doing anything with Eli. But they can’t help themselves and end up having a secret, passionate affair.

Not in Love has a different tone from Ali Hazelwood’s other books. She states in a note in the front of the book that Not in Love is less a rom-com and more erotica or dark romance. It is darker – both Eli and Rue come from troubled childhoods and have issues because of that. The spicy scenes are on the dark side, but nothing compared to some of the dark romance that’s out there! Ali Hazelwood knows how to write a love scene. They don’t have any of the cringy language that I’ve seen in some other romance books.

I loved Not in Love. Rue and Eli’s chemistry was palpable. I liked that Rue was a strong woman who knows what she wants and doesn’t have any problems communicating it. Her dry humor was fantastic – she had some great lines. And there was a callback to Check & Mate. It’s fun when authors put Easter eggs in their books.

Ali Hazelwood continues her streak of writing fantastic romance books with Not in Love. She can do no wrong. Highly recommended.

Other books by Ali Hazelwood I’ve reviewed:

The Love Hypothosis
Love, Theoretically
Check & Mate