Below Zero by Ali Hazelwood - Book Review

The one downside of travelling is not being able to continuously read new books in actual book form. However, thank god for technology as it means I can carry on reading even when I’m on the other side of the world.

Every iPhone has a books app, that sometimes put out free books. I have heard about Ali Hazelwood on TikTok, some good, some bad. With Below Zero being a free novella that I was able to read, I thought why not get it?

The novel is about Hannah and Ian, and I believe this is the final book of the three novellas. The other two are about Hannah’s two friends, whom you do see, and the two men they end up with.
We begin with Hannah trapped during this project she was doing for her work with NASA. On the other side of the radio, we hear Ian, and learn that she actually doesn’t like him. Jumping back five years, we see these two meet and the terms of leaving were left mainly on the good side. We then jump four years later to Hannah joining NASA and bumping into him again, only six months later the event which made her hate him occurs.
Once we understand the background story we are brought back to the start of the book, with Hannah confused as to why her enemy is helping out. But is there more to the story?

I’m going, to be honest, this novella felt very Wattpaddy which is nothing wrong with it but it missed an essence of character. Now, I am happy to have a woman in a STEM job, as too often we are taught that either it’s all about your career or a man, you can’t have both. But I am happy that Hazelwood stripped this stereotype and made people know you can still have love even if you are invested in your career.

However, saying all of this, this is not a book I would read again. Last year, I saw a tweet about how romance books had lost touch and how authors were now picking a trope and that was it, no plot was added. Every romance novel will have a trope whether it’s a second chance or a friend to lovers, but what creates the true magic is the plot, it’s what makes the story flow from the start to the end.
Now, the trope for this novel was enemies to lovers. To be truthful, I don’t understand the enemy area of this novel. It didn’t seem strong enough, and when the climatic scene happened, Ian explained again why he did what he did, for Hannah to be all understanding, even though he told her this before. To me, the novella was very much about these two people, something bad happened between them, something dangerous occurred and then they had sex.
There was no magic and I could not connect with these characters due to their actions not being relatable.

Saying all of this. I do believe as long as a book makes someone forget about the real world and it pulls the reader in, then it has done its job.
This is why I will be giving this novella 2/5 stars.