Not in Love

Starred review from April 1, 2024
Bestseller Hazelwood’s raucous latest STEMinist rom-com (after Love, Theoretically) turns up the heat. Rue Siebert doesn’t want romance. She’s perfectly content with her dream job working as a biotech engineer for a food science company alongside her lifelong best friend, Tisha, and using dating apps for impromptu hookups. Vigilant about protecting herself from vulnerability and heartbreak, she has a strict “no repeats” rule. But her most recent date with gorgeous businessman Eli Killgore is interrupted by her volatile brother before it can really begin. The next day, a frustrated Rue’s life is turned upside down by an aggressive takeover of her company. Leading the charge? Eli and his partners. Though across corporate enemy lines, neither Eli nor Rue can stop thinking about their aborted date. Their tension becomes so distracting, that, with a work deadline looming over their heads, they decide on a no strings attached tryst to get it out of their system. But soon they’re both coming back for more. The chemistry leaps off the page and Eli’s intelligence and thoughtfulness toward Rue will have readers swooning. Crafting a relationship that is both raunchy and emotionally nuanced, this is Hazelwood at her best.

April 1, 2024
Two people meet for a hookup before discovering they're on opposite sides of a hostile business takeover. Rue Siebert is used to approaching everything the same way--at a distance. Though she has good friends and professional success as a biotech engineer at Kline, a food science startup, her dating life is nonexistent. Meeting guys on apps for the occasional hookup keeps things uncomplicated, but it also means she's never opened herself up to the possibility of a deeper connection. Enter Eli Killgore, whom Rue initially views as another one-and-done--except that he looks at her like she's the best thing he's ever seen. Just as Rue begins to reconsider her approach to dating, she discovers a problem she could never have anticipated. It turns out that Eli is leading a hostile takeover of Kline, and he has personal reasons for wanting to see this deal through to the bitter end. Neither expects to run into the other in the Kline office the morning after an unforgettable date, and Rue's first instinct is to tell Eli to lose her number. Yet the harder they try to fight their mutual attraction, the more Rue and Eli keep giving in to it at the worst possible moments. Agreeing to a no-strings-attached affair is supposed to be a compromise, a way for them to get each other out of their systems, and other complications could throw a wrench into even the possibility of something deeper and more lasting. Hazelwood shows every indication of continually outdoing herself with this latest romance, her lush, evocative prose making Rue and Eli's shared scenes dynamic and engrossing. While the story is set at a science company, allowing the author to incorporate her usual STEM backdrop, the plot is rooted more in boardroom warfare than in the lab. Dual perspectives also provide a change of pace from Hazelwood's previous books, though having Rue's sections narrated in the first person and Eli's in a close third can feel incongruous. Still, this is a stirring romance. Business and personal proposals collide in Hazelwood's strongest book yet.

COPYRIGHT(2024) Kirkus Reviews, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.

April 15, 2024
Socially challenged biotech engineer Rue Siebert works with her best and only friend at a company founded by their mentor. A private equity firm is now investigating and may take over, putting Rue's research, as well as her job, in peril. To Rue's shock, she recognizes a man on the team. She and Eli had met at a hotel the previous evening for casual sex after finding each other on a hookup app. After he saved her from a man harassing her in the lobby, they experienced a night of blazingly hot, thoroughly satisfying, and somewhat kinky sex. Rue never wanted or expected to see her one-and-done hookup again; that's her policy. She doesn't do relationships. When he shows up in her lab, he demonstrates that he knows his way around science as well as finance. While she tries to hate him for working to steal the company, they discover a shared childhood mentor and sibling issues. The politics of scientific and engineering development along with the rewards and piracy of intellectual property provide a fascinating backdrop for Hazelwood's (Bride, 2024) latest smart and sexy page-turner. The queen of STEMinist rom-coms is at the top of her game.

COPYRIGHT(2024) Booklist, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.

May 10, 2024

Hazelwood blends business and STEM after her paranormal Bride. Rue works as a biotech engineer at Kline, a hot start-up born, so she thinks, from the mind of a woman she has long admired. She has built a good life doing good work, and that focus has gone a long way to help her overcome challenging childhood issues--even as her brother's distressing and dangerous behavior casts a pall. Meanwhile, Eli, along with an avenging and motivated group of friends, have designs on Kline and strong reasons to take Rue's boss down. The couple first meet via an anonymous hook-up that gets derailed and then again as Eli and his friends begin to take over the company. Tossed together as antagonists, their chemistry supports both a steamy-tense relationship and a business showdown. As Rue learns more about Eli and his plans, and Eli makes multiple moves, they face a difficult reality: few outcomes are going to be harm-free. VERDICT Hazelwood fills the plot with tension and stress and employs a dual point-of-view that allows intimate access to both Rue and Eli's roller-coasting emotions. It is less quirky-charming than some of her past work but showcases much of what her readers love.--Neal Wyatt

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