Not in Love

Ali Hazelwood's Not in Love, published in 2024, is set inside a small food science company. Rue is a brilliant but socially awkward food scientist at Kline, and the company has been her working home. Eli is one of the founders of the group that is trying to buy Kline, which means the deal he is working on could change her job and the working life of her friend and mentor Florence, who runs the place. Rue's loyalty to Florence leaves her conflicted about the transaction she is caught up in.

The two of them are drawn to each other and neither of them wants to be, so what they do about the attraction runs alongside the argument about the company rather than replacing it. Rue and Eli have to keep talking about the deal, and the negotiation keeps putting them in the same rooms while the takeover moves forward.

Not in Love is one of Hazelwood's novels set outside academic science, with a company takeover rather than a laboratory providing the workplace at the centre of the story. Kline has been Rue's working home, and the group trying to buy it is led by a number of founders, of whom Eli is one.