Not in Love by Ali Hazelwood – A Book Review

Spoiler-Free Overview

Rue and Eli meet up for a bang-date (that’s what I’m calling it), but they get interrupted when Rue’s brother creates a scene in the middle of the hotel bar. The night ends with their attraction unrealized and their time together a miss.

Only, Eli’s company is taking over the place where Rue works – owned by one of her best friends, Florence – and they see each other the next day. Their attraction still lingers. Now Eli shouldn’t get with Rue, because it’s a conflict of interest at work. And Rue shouldn’t get with Eli, because he’s trying to steal her friend’s company. Only, they can’t stay away from each other.

Several forbidden sexual encounters turn to wanting more. Eli grapples with telling her his secret past with Florence while wanting to protect her. Rue grapples with her loyalty to her friend and an undeniable need for this man.

Liz’s Thoughts and Feelings

I listened to the audiobook, and I think that both helped my rating and hurt it. The male narrator was delightful. I’ve listened to the female narrator in a few books, and I don’t like her voice and inflections. I’m confident that it’s a personal preference, so please don’t let that color your perception.

The main problem with the narration mostly comes down to how the book was written. There’s introspection galore. Too much of it! And it made it difficult to distinguish between the dialog and internal monologue in the audiobook.

It also hurt the pacing of the book. A lot of the internal monologue was repetitive. I’m not sure why an editor didn’t flag that. And, a lot of it should have been dialogue. That’s way more interesting than a block of text detailing the character’s inner thoughts.

Now, on to the characters. Rue is refreshing. She’s distant to most people but codependent with the few in her inner circle. She’s impatient, clinical, and passionate about her work. I want this woman as a friend, to be honest. 

Her backstory is interesting. There are two major components of her life and trauma that impact how she acts – food insecurity from childhood and her detached demeanor. That hit a little too close to home for me. But all the best books do! 

Unfortunately, neither of those pieces of trauma had satisfying resolutions. Now, I know trauma doesn’t truly get resolved or go away in real life. But books need arcs. The food insecurity played a part in why she was so passionate about her biotech engineering work and in a few scenes with Eli when they were eating. But it should have been so much bigger between Eli and Rue. It could have led to some wonderful conversations around food or eating habits. Yet, we get rushed conversations which leave me feeling like we skipped the ‘getting to know you’ and romance aspects of their relationship.

In fact, that’s a good representation of the romance overall. I was excited to learn this book ramped up the normal amount of spice than a usual Ali Hazelwood book. Especially when it’s related to character choices, like Rue being more comfortable with sex than with emotion. But, I think it took away from romance. I’m all for insta-lust, and Eli has it bad! But the plot was very jarring when the characters, especially Eli, moved from lust to love.

Why? Why does Eli like Rue? I can understand Rue’s attraction to him. He’s patient with her in a way not a lot of people have been. Eli, though, went from “I want to fuck her” to “I want to be with her” in a blink of an eye. No reasoning.

The sex between Rue and Eli came across as ‘magical’. As in, Rue actually enjoyed penetrative sex with him, and Eli came as soon as his tip was inside her. Rue I understand. She’s never had repeats, and it does take awhile to know someone’s body. Eli – I don’t know. He’s not my favorite character for a number of reasons, mostly including his absolute obsession with Rue.

Most of the side characters were enjoyable. Tish, Rue’s ‘good’ best friend, is funny and ride-or-die, which we love. Florence felt uncomfortably real. She justifies her bad actions as survival and ain’t that how some people are. The Harkness people (Eli’s friends) were unique and each had their motivations. I felt bad for Connor and just wanted to cuddle him.

The conflict with Rue’s brother was unnecessary. It didn’t add to the plot or character arcs. At best, it gave us a little more information about who Rue is, but it could have been just another story that she tells Eli instead. There was no reason to add the legal discourse around the cabin the two inherited from their estranged father.

I said a lot of negative things about this book, but it’s still 3.5 stars. I enjoyed it, even if it didn’t get me excited. The way Rue and Eli communicated through their sad stories and trauma dumping helped their connection. There just needed to be romance overall.