I would like to thank the publisher, Netgalley, and the author for the ARC of this book. I read an advanced copy of this book, so the final edition of the book might be slightly different. All thoughts and opinions are my own, as always.

The simplest review I can write is just telling you that I stayed up until 3 am finishing this book, and it was worth every second of lost sleep.

This is, of course, not the first time this has happened for an Ali Hazelwood book, nor will it be the last. There continues to be something so addictive and easy about her writing that keeps me reading, when for other books I’d already have put it down and taken a break. This only continues to be truer as Ali writes more novels and develops her craft further. 

I feel like romance books often get compared to guilty pleasures, or junk food, or other comparisons that seem to situate them as something that’s easily enjoyed but isn’t actually good (for you). Anyone who says that is just plain wrong, of course, and just needs to spend time with the genre, because the depth of human emotion and character-building that happens in some of these romances is just beautiful. For me, there are a few authors who continue to prove the depth of this genre to me, over and over, and Ali is definitely one of them. 

As she’s grown as a writer, her characterization has grown stronger and stronger, to the point where she can leave the ‘crutch’ of Reylo-style characterization behind (though I did enjoy those first books a ton as well). We already saw this a bit with Love, Theoretically, but Not in Love feels like the first book where she’s entirely left that space behind. Don’t get me wrong, I would have read thousands of Reylo fanfiction novels from her, but I also love seeing her spread her wings and apply her style of writing and ability of capturing deep emotions to different types of characters. I loved Rue and Eli with my whole heart, and I loved how much they were not like her previous characters. I love how prickly and closed-off Rue was, and how strong and in love Eli was. I don’t know if I would quite call it grumpy & sunshine, but it definitely has elements of that, except this time the woman was the grump, and I was entirely here for it. 

There’s also a lot of trauma in this book, mainly in the pasts of the main characters, and I loved how their relationship seemed to lean on it but in a way that wasn’t toxic. Most of those events had happened years ago, and the characters had already gone through quite some healing on their own, but that just meant that this story was able to instead focus on the power of feeling seen, and how amazing it is when you find someone you can be entirely open and honest with (and how that path to opening up and being honest with someone else (and yourself) is not a linear one). 

I also really enjoyed the STEM plot in this one. It tackled a new type of problem that people face in these kinds of academic spaces but looked at it from various angles and explored this sort of clash between legality and morality, and how just because something is technically legal does not make it right. There were also layers of power involved, and I loved the exploration of what certain characters thought their goals were worth sacrificing. 

Overall, I adored this book, and love seeing how Ali continues to grow as an author. I’m getting to the point where I’ve loved so many of her books that it’s hard to say which one is my favorite, though maybe it’ll always just end up being the most recent one I’ve read, with the way she keeps getting better and better as an author!