Not in Love

By: Ali Hazelwood

Narrated by: Callie Dalton, Jason Clarke

An Indie Next and a Hall of Fame LibraryReads Pick!

A forbidden, secret affair proves that all’s fair in love and science—from New York Times bestselling author Ali Hazelwood.

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.

©2024 Ali Hazelwood (P)2024 Penguin Audio

Hated the male narrator and couldn’t get past chapter 3.

Love the female narrator, hated the male.
Unfortunate bc I’ve been waiting for this book to come out.

The narrators made listening hard

I have read nearly all of Ali’s books so far and I really had high hopes for this book but it’s just to much sex I feel that the plot takes a major back seat and honestly feels like the characters only fall for each other due to the amount of sex they have. I am not a fan of this narration style of the constant switching and jumping in for speaking parts, it made finishing the book very difficult especially with how breathy and raspy they both sound. Overall too much sex scenes for my taste and while interesting to get both perspectives, the narration was tough. Plot is okay but moves slow for obvious previously stated reasons.

Too graphic

The graphic details of every sexual encounter they had were not needed. I get that it’s a “romance”, but this was too much. Skipped through, what felt like, half the book. Not what I expected. If I knew prior, I would NOT have spent $16 on it!

unmatching male narration

the male narrator sounds far too old for an early 30s character, (while the book cover shows a younger male). In some parts, he should sound romantic/ attractive, but sounds like a psycho.
the whole story is not as interesting as hazelwood's early books, although I thought it had an interesting plot at the beginning.

Loved it

Big Ali Hazelwood. She never disappoints. Really loved this new story and the narators. I was hooked from the start.

3/5

Love all her books!!! This one story wise left me kind of struggling to keep going (who knew I’d ever complain of too much spice)

Spicy and Perfect

another great book that is great with content and plot. I can never get enough!

Disappointed

I was pretty disappointed in this book. That being said, I have loved everything Ali has written so I had really high expectations for this. It lacked her normal charm. I know some people think she is too light hearted but I for one enjoy those books from time to time! This book felt like she was trying to hit some darker themes but it just didn’t draw me in like her other books. There didn’t feel like much chemistry or a connection with the two main character. Also, this book had a lot of- I mean ALOT of steamy scenes. I can definitely handle spicy scenes but I hate it when it’s just there and adds no value to the story. I didn’t even feel like they were well written. Instead of romantic, the spicy scenes came off as cheesy erotica that I needed up skipping cause it was so cringey. Unfortunately there were so many scenes that I had to skip half of the book. The male narrator also really did not fit this character. On the plus side , I did enjoy the business drama that went on in the book and wish she had dug more into that. Save your time and listen to any of Ali’s other books! Way better use of a credit!

Trying too hard? Sex fatigue? Boring? Not sure which best describes my reaction.

Ali Hazelwood really won me over early with The Love Hypothesis and Love, Theoretically....I was eagerly anticipating the release of Not in Love. But I have to say, I'm disappointed. The entire story is basically a verbose pornography set in academia between a borderline cringey guy and a most-definitely-on-the-spectrum gal. Their love story is based entirely on their awkward, but voracious sexcapades and while a bumbling plot is somewhere in there, it's meandering at best.
The sex was explicit (and I typically am very pleased by some extra spicy, extra steamy scenes!) and so dominant in the storyline that I found myself fatigued by the over abundance of coitus. The author made several references to racier, more "fringe" sex acts but the characters never actually commit any of those acts so the fantasy falls apart. Honestly, it has the same vibe as someone who has never done the acts trying to talk about them without the experience. It felt forced and performative.
The bottomline: the love story is not convincing at all and the spive/steam/sex stuff was boring even when it was trying not to be.

And a final note: in my personal opinion, it's the least romantic thing to refer to the female genitalia as c&nt. I truly wish romance writers would stop that. It's profane and not romantic or sexy. In fact it cheapens any illusion of romance or love, if you ask me.

Spicy

On-brand Ali Hazelwood story with the usual "big misunderstanding" thing going on. Except with more spice this time.
🌶️🌶️🌶️🌶️ Muy caliente!

I like it, but it's not my favorite.