Not in Love – 5/5 ✩
What CAN’T Ali Hazelwood do? She is an absolute powerhouse.
Not in Love is a forbidden romance that follows Rue and Eli, two individuals who can’t fight their chemistry no matter how hard they try. The only problem is that they really shouldn’t be together. Rue works for a promising start-up started by one of her best friends and Eli works for the company that’s attempting a hostile takeover. As time goes on though, they realize that it’s not worth fighting the sparks between them and that it might not even be worth pretending that they’re not in love.
Believe it or not, I think this book was spicier than any of Ali’s previous books (and her books are always spicy!). I think this one was so well done though because the chemistry between Rue and Eli was so palpable and these characters were so fleshed out that it made sense that the level of spicy was upped a few (hundred) notches from her other books.
I think Ali’s writing style has improved immensely and these characters are the prime example. Even though Not In Love maintained her typical fun, playful tones, there was also a seriousness to this novel and its characters that I don’t feel like we’ve seen from Ali before. I laughed, I got teary eyed, and I was insanely invested in this story.
And let me just state this for the record here: If my boyfriend/husband doesn’t love me the way that Eli loves Rue, then I. Don’t. Want. Him. I think I found my new, top tier book boyfriend in Not in Love and I will forever be comparing real life men to him now (thanks Ali). The way he loved her so purely and so deeply was magic on the page and I LOVE that he FELL FIRST and was so willing and open to loving her, even though he knew everything had to be on her terms.
Anchored Musings 