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gwenswoons 's review for:
Not in Love
by Ali Hazelwood
dark
emotional
funny
sad
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
Loved this — I always enjoy Ali Hazelwood and it had been a while. The STEM- and academia-set romances really work for me, as someone who does not work in math/science but IS in a very high-pressure field (and has, as one part of that work, been in and out of academia for many years) — I love that her female main characters are really good at their jobs, passionate and ambitious, and that they have real-life complexities and struggles with mental health, being taken seriously in their careers (hello accurate world-building), and all else. I also love a romance that has deep and fully-realized secondary relationships; and the friendships here were so detailed in their dynamics even though they didn’t pull focus away from the primary story.
This novel is heavier in some ways than other romances and rom-coms, and I loved Hazelwood’s note at the beginning of this one that the two MCs are both still processing pretty major childhood traumas; and that that ongoing processing would be part of this story, despite the fact that we could of course look forward to a happy ending. I thought the traumas and the way they continue to resonate and ripple outward were so sensitively and accurately managed, and I loved that the arc of the story didn’t try to correct them (which…yuck, and also it’s not like a rom-com has enough time and space for the people inside it to go to the many decades of therapy they need, so…). I love Ali Hazelwood’s sex writing and thought it was especially amazing here, though it’s also possible I’ve just been reading slightly more closed-door romance lately and was just bowled over by the sheer AMOUNT of it, haha! But it really is so good, and I loved these characters and their chemistry in particular. The audio narrators for this one were great — Callie Dalton and Jason Clarke! Sweet and the right amount smutty, haha. I haven’t read her last couple of releases in YA romance and the fantasy/sci-fi romance(?!) — I always pre-order with her because her writing really works for me, despite those genres not being faves most often — but she’s so prolific that I started with this one and I’ll work my way back to the other ones in my Libro.fm library. Anyway!! So good! Loved it and it made a couple long car trips fly by.
This novel is heavier in some ways than other romances and rom-coms, and I loved Hazelwood’s note at the beginning of this one that the two MCs are both still processing pretty major childhood traumas; and that that ongoing processing would be part of this story, despite the fact that we could of course look forward to a happy ending. I thought the traumas and the way they continue to resonate and ripple outward were so sensitively and accurately managed, and I loved that the arc of the story didn’t try to correct them (which…yuck, and also it’s not like a rom-com has enough time and space for the people inside it to go to the many decades of therapy they need, so…). I love Ali Hazelwood’s sex writing and thought it was especially amazing here, though it’s also possible I’ve just been reading slightly more closed-door romance lately and was just bowled over by the sheer AMOUNT of it, haha! But it really is so good, and I loved these characters and their chemistry in particular. The audio narrators for this one were great — Callie Dalton and Jason Clarke! Sweet and the right amount smutty, haha. I haven’t read her last couple of releases in YA romance and the fantasy/sci-fi romance(?!) — I always pre-order with her because her writing really works for me, despite those genres not being faves most often — but she’s so prolific that I started with this one and I’ll work my way back to the other ones in my Libro.fm library. Anyway!! So good! Loved it and it made a couple long car trips fly by.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Addiction, Bullying, Child abuse, Chronic illness, Cursing, Death, Domestic abuse, Eating disorder, Emotional abuse, Mental illness, Panic attacks/disorders, Sexual content, Violence, Grief, Car accident, Death of parent, Pregnancy, Gaslighting, Toxic friendship, Abandonment, Alcohol, Classism