Natalie Murray's latest, LOVE, JUST IN, is a sweet, (very) slow burn, friends-to-lovers contemporary romance set in Australia. Almost thirty, Josie Larsen is trying to achieve her dream job as a new reader (news anchor) in Sydney when she experiences an on-air hiccup. She hopes a temporary assignment in Newcastle can put her back on track and allow her to reconnect with Zac, her childhood best friend. She and Zac drifted apart two years prior after a tragedy caused him to uproot from Sydney to sleepy Newcastle. Throughout their decades-long friendship, they flirted with attraction but an obstacle was always present that kept them from acting on it. Will this new experience together lead them back to their close friendship or is the time right for something more?
LOVE, JUST IN is told with non-linear flashbacks to their high school, college, and post-college days. Natalie Murray does a great job handling and highlighting a condition called medical anxiety where Josie is excessively obsessed with premature death or developing a deadly illness. Please note: trigger warning for anyone sensitive to impaired driving.
In the vein of Emily Henry's You and Me On Vacation, Love, Just In is a friends-to-lovers romance with just enough spice to heat up the summer.
Sydney TV news reporter Josephine "Josie" Larsen is approaching 30 and coming dangerously close to failing at life. Lost in a vortex of other people's career milestones, engagement parties, and baby showers, Josie is perennially single, abandoned by her globetrotting family, and invisible to her boss - except for the one time he tuned in while she was mid-panic attack on live TV. As a punishment, Josie is shipped off to cover another reporter's six-month leave at a regional bureau in Newcastle.
But Josie has more waiting for her in Newcastle than yawn-inducing stories about bicycle lane protests. The city is also the domain of Zac Jameson – her best friend since high school. This should be a happy turn of events, but Zac has barely spoken to Josie for the past two years. Not since his fiancée tragically died in his arms in a car accident and he left Sydney to try and cope with his grief.
Now thrown back into each other's lives, Josie and Zac have to navigate their neglected friendship and secret attraction to each other while struggling with their careers and mental health.
Hilarious, sexy and heart-warming, this is the perfect romcom to sit on the shelves alongside Emily Henry, Sally Thorne and Ali Hazelwood.
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