This is a spoiler-free review! You can read my review of Not in Love on my blog, now!
I told myself that I would read more Ali Hazelwood books, and yet this is now only my second one. My first read of hers definitely put a good taste in my mouth, so I was hopeful this novella would live up to the expectations I now have in place. With the upside of me wanting to find something short and quick to read, this was the perfect time to dive into more of her work. Even though my video game knowledge does not go beyond Webkinz or Club Penguin, the premise of this novella gave an enemies to lovers vibe that I simply could not resist.
When Viola discovers the co-lead designing her dream video game is in fact her number one enemy, Jesse, she is faced with confronting the past and figuring out how to move forward in the present in order to design the perfect game. Why does Jesse seem to want nothing to do with her when they basically have only interacted once in the past? I found Jesse to be an interesting character - in contemporary romance books, we see the female lead take on the more "meek" role of not wanting to approach the male lead, but here we see the opposite. I liked the mystery behind Jesse, and while Viola certainly wanted to get to the bottom of things, it was nice to see things play out on their own terms.
The smut is as good as it will get for a novella - it could have been better all things considered, and with the limited pages we did get, it was still enough to leave readers wanting more. Considering we went about over half way through the novella before anything relatively spicier came into play, I was hoping for more to make up for the shorter story. A lot of the dialogue was bordering on being cringy and while I can usually look past it, it was really standing out to me this time around. On that note, I felt as though this novella ended very jarringly - it did not feel tied together and I was unsatisfied with Viola and Jesse's story and relationship. What happens next? This definitely could have been a full-length novel instead of a novella - there was potential for a fully fleshed-out relationship to be explored here.
If you need a little romance to speed along your reading journey, this novella could be the exact filler read you are looking for before tackling a longer book. While this did not deter me from any future reading of Hazelwood's works, it certainly has made me a touch weary of what lies ahead and if I should be lowering my expectations moving forward.
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