This book just drove me nuts … not in a good way!
Rachel has loved her stepbrother for years. Janosh is completely self absorbed and arrogant.
As soon as she starts to get a life, he pushes her buttons. And she runs back to him! AARRGGHHHHH!
I wanted to smack her. This belief that her life is on hold until he reaches out made me furious.
Sorry, but this misfired on so many levels for me.
Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for providing an ARC in exchange for my honest opinion.

This book had all the feels of a taboo forbidden romance. The slow burn/unrequited love on Rahel's side was full of angst. I found the progress of their relationship to be realistic and reasonable considering they lived 13 years as siblings.

The story was not overly complex nor was there much character development nor growth outside of the progress of the relationship between Rahel and Janosh.

I enjoyed having a couple of chapters from Janosh's pov as most of the story was from Rahel's pov.

I felt the book could have gone without the epilogue or that it could have been set a few years after rather than months.

I would have also liked a little bit more on the secondary characters and I really took to them.

Overall I give this book 4 stars, I enjoyed the story line but for me it just didn't have that wow for the final star but I would recommend for anyone looking for a romance that is a little bit different.

This was a Netgalley read in exchange for an honest review

Thank you to NetGalley, BooksGoSocial, and Zarah Bentley for the opportunity to read If It's Not You in exchange for an honest review.

Rahel was only five when her step-father and step-brother entered her life. It wasn't until she was fourteen that she realized that she was in love with Janosh, but one cannot be with their step-brother because society deems it inappropriate or taboo. But they are step-siblings, not blood related. Would it really be so bad?

For years, Rahel planned to follow Janosh to a school only a few hours away by train. she wants to go to medical school, and the choice was strategic in more than one way. When Rahel learns Janosh might be moving out of the country to study abroad with his girlfriend, she is devastated and heart-broken because not only does that go against their plan, but Janosh would be far out of reach in another country with another girl.

Giving him the cold shoulder, Rahel tried to push aside her feelings for her step-brother and dates someone else for a while, but a first love is hard to shake off.

This book is listed as young adult, but based on the current age of Rahel (eighteen) and Janosh) twenty-one) and the premise of events that take place, I would consider this more along the lines of new adult genre instead. The talk of college and planning the near (and far) future is a driving force for the plot. There are also some slightly more detailed intimate scenes that would be worded a bit differently when being delivered to a young adult audience. I love the idea of a "forbidden" romance, and it is very clear from the start that Janosh loves his sister too, but the crawl to get to the romance was just very, very slow in a bit of a frustrating way.

Either way, I thought this novel was, overall, well-written and easy to read. I didn't really care mush about Rahel as a character, but found Janosh to be more interesting. Perhaps it is because most of the novel (with the exception of two intermission chapters) is told in a third person limited perspective from Rahel, so Janosh is then shrouded in a bit more of a mysterious air. I would recommend this for older teens and those looking for a slow burn romance with a relatively satisfying conclusion.

It was hard at first to get into this book. The names were really weird. And the conversations were so boring. The ending was meh. I wasn't really satisfied with it. All the main characters did, was avoid each other throughout the most parts of the book. By the way, I have two copies of this book. One from NetGalley and the other one from the author. NetGalley version contains an epilogue but the other one doesn't. I have no idea if there's any other differences or not. Anyway, it was an okay read for me. But nothing in this book actually was special enough to remember or something.😬

Thank you NetGalley, author Zarah Bentley, and publisher for giving me a free copy of this book in exchange for an honest review. All thoughts and opinions are my own.
4 stars
This book is about Rahel who has spent the last 4 years being in love with her stepbrother, Janosh. After he moves away to attend university and has plans to study abroad, Rahel decides it is time to move on and find someone new to date and fall in love with. How hard can it be? Harder than she thought, as he moves back to their house for the next few months and is convinced to fix their relationship. But can she confront him with her real feelings or does he just have brotherly intensions towards Rahel?
This book had all the feels of a taboo forbidden romance. For a lot of the book, the reader is subjected to Rahel's internal monologue about how much she loves Janosh as more than her older stepbrother and how his actions towards make it harder for her to move on to someone else. The slow burn/unrequited love on Rahel's side was full of angst. I found the progress of their relationship to be realistic and reasonable considering they lived 13 years as siblings. The secondary characters were also great especially Yannick. He was very supportive of Rahel throughout the story. The story was not overly complex nor was there much character development nor growth outside of the progress of the relationship between Rahel and Janosh.
Overall, I enjoyed this book and would recommend it to those who ever found themselves having feelings for someone that was not altogether right for them.

Slow burn step-siblings romance

Rahel has been in love with Janosh since she was 14. Too bad he's her step-brother and therefore off-limits ... but the heart wants what the heart wants. Just before her 18th birthday, her two best friends talk her into forgetting about Janosh and being at his beck'n call. So Rahel takes steps to distance herself from Janosh and get on with her life. But Janosh just won't let her go.

This is a very slow burn romance ... in fact, too slow. I found myself skimming the pages ... then the ending seemed rushed. Although I liked the characters, I just didn't love them.

I received an early copy courtesy of BooksGoSocial through NetGalley in exchange for a honest review.

I started reading this story but soon discovered it was not for me.

The writing is fine, but the friendships and love story that are the center of this book did not sit well with me, so I will not be finishing it.

I would like to thank the author, the publisher and NetGalley for the chance to read this book in exchange for an honest review.

Rahel who has spent the last 4 years being in love with her stepbrother , decides it's time to move forward. His away at the university and has plans to study abroad, so how hard can it be? More than she thought, as he moves back to their house for the next few months and he is convinced to fix their relationship..

A slow-burn, friends to lovers/unrequited love story with great secondary characters (can Yannick have his story, could be fun), that leaves you with a smile on the face.

PS: I could live without the epilogue though, maybe it would be better set in 5 or maybe 10 years, I found it a bit awkward.

I received an ARC from the author for an honest review..

Good book and an easy read. This book is aimed at a younger audience and keeps you interested throughout.

I'll be honest. I've never really been into the step sibling romance kind of books because I've always been somewhat uncomfortable? I guess?
But this one is different. It's not cringey or entirely inappropriate. It's fairly innocent about it (no spoilers). Rahel and Janosh grew up together and there's a lot of pining and angst from Rahel. At first It was difficult for me to get into, so for about 35-40% of the book I was bored. But as I got further in, about halfway, I started to enjoy it.
The only reason I'm not giving this 5 stars is because it's not really my genre. The characters are okay, I think Yannick is my favorite.

I'm all for more mature YA but If It's Not You definitely feels more New Adult. I really wanted to like this book because of the forbidden romance. One of my favorite tropes. But the writing needs a lot of work. It felt stiff and forced and cringy. I am DNFing this one but I very much appreciate Books Go Social for giving me the review opportunity and for helping self-pubbed authors find an audience.

The cover is adorable and is the reason I wanted to pick this up, but I'm sorry I wasn't the audience for this book. I strongly believe this belongs in the "new adult" category and I really wish it had been tagged as such, as I wouldn't have requested it because I know I do not warm to the genre. I don't feel this is YA. The crude humour, profanity, constant alcohol consumption and the graphic sex scene.. the first main character is in the transitional phase between high school graduation and college and the second is in college.. it missed the "high school crush" element that it promised.

As far as the romance goes, I'm sorry but it wasn't for me. I felt like the author tried so hard to make the romance feel forbidden and wrong, so that's exactly how it ended up feeling. The constant reminders and referring to each other as brother and sister, the inappropriate jokes.. the first thing we hear from the brother is a comment about his "little sister's" breasts. I'm sorry but it was awkward and it felt unclean.

This book wasn't for me but I'm sure there are others who might enjoy it.

*Thank you to BooksGoSocial, the author and NetGalley for granting me access to an e-arc in exchange for an honest review.