Book Review: "If Not You" by Ellen O'Clover

Now THIS is how you do a former coworkers/rivals romance. I was hooked from the very start and enjoyed these characters—both the mains and the supporting ones—so much. With her second book, Ellen O’Clover is fully ensconced on my auto-buy authors list.

Mattie and Campbell are summer interns vying for one copywriter job. They’re both tremendously talented but Campbell, with his Phi Beta Kappa from Vanderbilt, always seems to come out just ahead of Mattie. And when he wins the job at the end of the summer, Mattie is back to square one again.

Now, 5 years later, Mattie is on the verge of becoming a senior copywriter at her new agency. While she and Campbell seem to see each other at every industry event—and he still seems to come out ahead—Mattie always seems to see red whenever he’s around.

When both of their agencies are finalists for a luxury resort account, they’re going to be in close proximity for a month. Mattie tries her hardest not to let Campbell agitate her, but he knows what buttons of hers to push. Every. Single. Time.

Yet as their teams spend four weeks together at two resorts, both start to see the other in a new light. Mattie discovers that all of her assumptions about Campbell aren’t correct, and he’s far more vulnerable than she would have ever thought. And he starts to understand what’s behind her constant need for oneupmanship.

The book alternates between the present and five years ago when their rivalry first began. It definitely helps explain Mattie’s animosity and her desire to beat Campbell at his own game. The romance is slow burn but really lovely, and their banter is hilarious and sometimes very sweet.