Review: Not In Love by Ali Hazelwood

Title: Not In Love

Author: Ali Hazelwood

A forbidden, secret affair proves that all’s fair in love and science.

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.

A scientist and a financier walk into a hotel lobby….

No this isn’t the start of a joke ala the 80s, it’s the 2 main characters from Ali Hazelwood’s new book!

Rue and Eli, both with past issues that bleed into present, meet. They should be enemies as Eli is part of the hostile takeover on the company Rue works for…..or is there something we (and Rue) don’t know?!

I really liked Eli. He actually was very sweet and he was obsessed with Rue from the get go and I loved that!

‘I would do this a million more times. I would spend a million more hours like this. With you.’

It was Rue I didn’t gel with. I didn’t dislike her, she was just meh. And let me tell you my opinion got me hate in my book group!

I found this book darker and a bit more saucier than her others and I was totally here for that!

TTT – Ten Things I Loved About The Infernal Devices by Cassandra Clare!

Top Ten Tuesday is featured by That Artsy Reader Girl. It was born of a love of lists, a love of books, and a desire to bring bookish friends together.

Topic: Ten Things I Loved About The Infernal Devices by Cassandra Clare!

I could reread this series over and over….and I have!

Anyway, here’s my 10 things!

1) Will Herondale
2) Victorian era setting
3) Machines that come to life
4) London setting
5) Will Herondale
6) Parabatai
7) Demons, warlocks, vampires, werewolves 
8) Found family
9) Will Herondale
10) The only love triangle I will accept!

There is a theme here……🤣

What are yours?

The Sunday Post! Good news arrived!

The Sunday Post is a blog news meme hosted by Caffeinated Reviewer  It’s a chance to share news, a post to recap the past week on your blog and showcase books and things we have received.

Hope you’ve had a good week?

Had some good news this week, I got the project manager job I applied for (have been doing it for 10 months though!)

I got my hair cut, booked my dental check up and had a letter to book a smear test (sorry!!)

Another slow reading week for me but I did buddy read The Spellshop which got me back into the swing of things!



New Arrivals

Nothing this week!


What I’ve Read

🎧 The Sky on Fire by Jenn Lyons
⭐️⭐️⭐️.5

The Spellshop by Sarah Beth Durst
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

Look out for my review soon!


You might have missed…..

Review – Twelth Knight by Alexene Farol Follmuth
Unboxing – Fairyloot YA June 2024


What have you read lately?

Fairyloot YA: June 24 – DECADENT DESIRES!

Fairyloot YA – June 2024

DECADENT DESIRES!

Items inspired by Poison Study, A Court of Thorns and Roses, The Crimson Moth, Shatter Me and the featured book of the month.

🖤 Poison Study Scrunchie designed by @duckhymn
🖤 Darkness Within Us Water Bottle by @annguyenart
🖤 City of Starlight Bookends designed by @jezhawk
🖤 Crimson Moth Embroidery Kit designed by @forensicsandflowers
🖤 Shatter Me Foiled Bookmarks designed by @palinlineart

🖤 BOOK OF THE MONTH 🖤

The Darkness Within Us by Tricia Levenseller

🖤 An EXCLUSIVE COVER COLOURWAY
🖤 A REVERSIBLE DUST JACKET by @sashac_art
🖤 A DIGITALLY SPRAYED EDGE with a solid sprayed top and bottom edge
🖤 FOIL ON THE HARDCOVER by @micaelaalcainodesign and @sashac_art
🖤 FOILED CHARACTER ART ON THE ENDPAPERS by @sashac_art (different front and back)
🖤 EXCLUSIVE BONUS CONTENT with author letter with a digital signature bound into the book.

Review: Twelfth Knight by Alexene Farol Follmuth

Title: Twelfth Knight

Author: Alexene Farol Follmuth

Viola Reyes is annoyed.

Her painstakingly crafted tabletop game campaign was shot down, her best friend is suggesting she try being more “likable,” and school running back Jack Orsino is the most lackadaisical Student Body President she’s ever seen, which makes her job as VP that much harder. Vi’s favorite escape from the world is the MMORPG Twelfth Knight, but online spaces aren’t exactly kind to girls like her―girls who are extremely competent and have the swagger to prove it. So Vi creates a masculine alter ego, choosing to play as a knight named Cesario to create a safe haven for herself.

But when a football injury leads Jack Orsino to the world of Twelfth Knight, Vi is alarmed to discover their online alter egos―Cesario and Duke Orsino―are surprisingly well-matched.

As the long nights of game-play turn into discussions about life and love, Vi and Jack soon realise they’ve become more than just weapon-wielding characters in an online game. But Vi has been concealing her true identity from Jack, and Jack might just be falling for her offline…

Jack gets injured playing football and then his gf dumps him so he’s not having the best time! He’s also bored so his friend gets him into a role playing game called Twelfth Knight.

A player he teams up with is actually his arch nemesis, Viola, but he thinks it’s Viola’s brother he’s playing with…..and it all goes from there!

I would say this book is perfect apart from Viola. She got on my nerves with her attitude but then I realised she is actually more like me than I care to admit!!

A few bits I need to mention:

~ Jack is AMAZING!
~ That injury was brutal, I hope karma gets that boy
~ I love the gaming element
~ Grumpy sunshine reversed
~ THE best side characters, Bash and Olivia

This was a great read (the audio was fab too!) And would defo recommend it!

TTT – Throwback Freebie: Books I could reread forever!

Top Ten Tuesday is featured by That Artsy Reader Girl. It was born of a love of lists, a love of books, and a desire to bring bookish friends together.

Topic: Throwback Freebie: Books I could reread forever

The Cruel Prince by Holly Black
Thorn by Intisar Khanani
Gideon the Ninth by Tamsyn Muir
Red, White and Royal Blue by Casey McQuiston
Zodiac Academy by Caroline Peckham

The Foxhole Court by Nora Sakavic
The Extraordinaires by TJ Klune
With Everything I Am by Kristen Ashley
Rock Chicks by Kristen Ashley
Ride Steady by Kristen Ashley

What would you have picked?

The Sunday Post! July already?!

The Sunday Post is a blog news meme hosted by Caffeinated Reviewer  It’s a chance to share news, a post to recap the past week on your blog and showcase books and things we have received.

Hope you’ve had a good week?

Happy July! It feels like this year has flown by already!

Such a busy week, am tired! Work was busy, busier than ever and my Dad fell ill so have been helping my Mum look after him as well.

I think, because of the above, I’m a bit slumpy. I’ve listened to 2 audiobooks this week but can’t seem to bring myself to pick up a physical or ebook!



New Arrivals

Nothing this week!


What I’ve Read

🎧Peregrine Quinn and the Cosmic Realm by Ash Bond
⭐️⭐️⭐️.75

🎧 Novel Love Story by Ashley Poston
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

Look out for my review soon!


You might have missed…..

Review – The Temptation of Magic by Megan Scott


What have you read lately?

Review: The Temptation of Magic by Megan Scott

Title: The Temptation of Magic

Series: Empyreal #1

Author: Megan Scott

As an Empyreal, Nicole has the ability to kill any deadly supernatural. But if her power ever awakened, the Wake—the organisation that governs supernaturals—would force her to be their loyal huntress. Or kill her, like they did her mother.

To stay safe, Nicole hides in a small university town, convinced the mythological art collection at a local manor contains a final message from her mother. But before she can study it, Kyan McCarter, the Wake’s most skilled Empyreal, arrives on his own hunt. When they discover his prey has stolen a painting for leverage, they’re forced to work together.

As the creature threatens to expose Nicole’s powers, her tenuous alliance with Kyan threatens her heart. If her true identity is revealed, Kyan will hunt her next. No one disobeys The Wake and survives. Especially when the art they’re seeking unveils a conspiracy that would change the lives of creatures and humans forever…

But Nicole may only be able to resist one: her wicked impulses, or a love that could repaint their world. And after a life of hiding her true nature, who could resist the temptation of magic…

Well what a gem this book is!

~ Forbidden romance
~ Sort of enemies to lovers
~ Hidden powers
~ Prophecies
~ Cypher breaking
~ Hidden codes in art
~ Set in Cornwall, UK

Oh this world, this magic system, these fully developed, likeable characters, the romance, everything really! 

Loved Nicole but….Kyan…..oh Kyan…..I love him! I know, strange for me!!! And when he says ‘Mo gra’ I nearly cried! That steamy bit at the end had me fanning myself!

This is a debut? No way! Total 5 stars.