noelle_madison 's review for:

Not in Love by Ali Hazelwood

3.75

medium-paced

Plot or Character Driven: A mix

Strong character development: Yes

Loveable characters: Complicated

Diverse cast of characters: No

Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

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Not in Love by Ali Hazelwood is written from the POVs of Rue and Eli. Rue is a biotech engineer at Kline. She meets Eli on an app, but the next day finds out that he is part of the company that is pushing a deal to takeover Kline. They shouldn’t be thinking about each other, and they definitely shouldn’t be together. Rue and Eli decide to have a secret, no-strings-attached relationship. However, things don’t always work out how they are supposed to, do they?

Not in Love does come with a warning at the beginning saying it is more of an erotica romance than rom-com, and I definitely agree. While there is definitely a plot, a lot of the time it felt like it was just filled with spice. 🌶️ I did enjoy the second half of the book much more than first. Altogether, I ended up rating this book 3.75 stars ⭐️. 

The reason I decided to read this book was that I wanted to read Problematic Summer Romance and people on #booktok said I should read this one first. I did get three messages on IG saying that I didn’t need to read Not in Love first, but I actually really appreciated reading it before PSR. It gave much more depth to the story.