Not in Love by Ali Hazelwood

Not in Love by Ali Hazelwood – 384 pages 

ARC from Berkley and PRH audio for honest review 

Book Blurb:

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.

My Review: 3.5 stars

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Not in Love by Ali Hazelwood is a mashup between a viscerally charged romance and a biotech engineering company that is facing a potential buyout. The glitch, the two that are mad for each other are on opposing sides of the buyout.   

Like all of Hazelwood’s books, this one reads quickly and keeps you engaged. That’s always a pro for me. The characters seemed realistic, and I loved the dynamic between the three female scientists that are each other’s ride or die. I also liked Eli Killgore, even though the author gave him a terrible last name. All of Hazelwood’s books have had open door steam and somewhat graphic sex, but this one was way too much. Like over the top, I’ve had enough, and please stop. So, obviously, that was a con for me.

I still enjoyed the book as I was curious as how it would wrap up. This book explores who you can truly trust and how it feels to be duped by those you kept close. Maya was a great minor character and I’d love to see her trajectory in a novella or follow up novel.

Hazelwood is a pro at putting her female characters into STEM (science, technology, engineering and mathematics) careers. I think this is so important to open minds of both young and old readers!

Quotes I liked:

And then, Rue, I met you. And you casually cracked my life into before and after you.”

“Is it true?” “According to my lawyer, yes.” “Who’s your lawyer?” “Google.”

“My very few friends were the best people I knew, and I was ready to cut a bitch.”

“Do you think that maybe there’s another version of us, somewhere in another timeline? Where we’re not just a messed-up lump of scar tissue, and we’re whole enough to be capable of loving others the way they want to be loved?”