Not in My Book

September 30, 2024
Holt’s uneven debut revolves around the now familiar trope of a literary fiction writer forced to work with a romance writer. Peruvian American Rosie Maxwell has come a long way from her small-town Tennessean roots and is living her dream at NYU’s MFA program in creative writing. She feels closer to becoming a published romance writer every semester. The only fly in the ointment is Aiden Huntington, her workshop partner, former crush, and current academic rival. Aiden snobbishly turns his nose up at the concept of happily ever after, and his and Rosie’s daily verbal sparring keeps upending class. Frustrated, their professor gives them an ultimatum: they must learn to work together by cowriting a genre-blended novel or they’ll both be kicked out of the program. Excerpts from the slow-burning love story they cocreate reveal their changing feelings for each other as, through working together, they learn they have more in common than either expected. This meta element is fun, but the over-the-top enemies-to-lovers antics, and especially Rosie’s heightened emotions, come across as immature. Readers will have better luck with Beach Read by Emily Henry.