She’s written off more than she can chew…

Romance author Sophie Lyon’s ironic secret just went viral: she’s never been in love. Though her debut novel made readers swoon, Sophie’s having trouble getting her new characters to happily-ever-after, and she blames it on her own uninspired love life. With a manuscript deadline looming, Sophie makes an ambitious plan to overcome her writer’s block: reunite with her exes to learn why she's never fallen in love—and document it all for her millions of new online followers. Which also means facing her ex-girlfriend Carla, the one person Sophie could have loved.

Luckily, Sophie’s reclusive landlord, Dash Montrose—a former teen heartthrob—has social media all figured out and offers to help. But he doesn't mention that he’s an anonymous online crafter, a hobby that helps him maintain his sobriety. No one knows about his complicated relationship with alcohol and he intends to keep it that way. His family is Hollywood royalty, so Dash has to steer clear of scandal.

As Sophie and Dash grow closer, they discover a heat between them that rivals Dash's pottery kiln. But Sophie needs to figure out who she is outside her relationships, and Dash isn’t sure he’s stable enough for the commitment she deserves. So Sophie suggests what any good romance author would: a friends-with-benefits arrangement. Surely a casual relationship won’t cause any trouble…

this was super cute and sweet. i love her confidence in her journey of talking to all of her exes like um no thanks! i love the family drama that this has. i love that the characters have to work on themselves first. i love the friends to lovers trope so much!


i received an ARC of this book from NetGalley and the publisher in exchange for an honest review.

I enjoyed this sweet and sexy romance, which included hints of necessary angst and tackled sensitive subjects such as alcoholism and dysfunctional family relationships, just as much as the author's previous book. The forced proximity and friends-to-lovers tropes were also well-executed.

I enjoyed This adorable story! Overall is was sweet with a hint of spice. I don’t Really enjoy current pop culture in books, the mentions of Tik Tok was too much and I did have to push through to finish. I would Like to check out other books from the author in the future.

While I usually love imperfect people in the books I read, Sophie was absolutely a hot mess that just frustrated me sometimes. Some of her actions I really questioned and shook my head at, but I did still end up rooting for her and Dash. Dash was great and an absolute sweetheart with very complicated family dynamics and drama. I did like the way Rosa handled the heavy topics that were discussed and bonus points for bi-sexual representation and the fact that the main character wore a pacemaker. Things like this need to be normalized in media and this is a very good start.

However, I do feel like La Rosa relied too heavily on romance tropes for Plot Twist. I do wish she would have let her writing shine through more rather than rely on those old cliches. Sophie and Dash did have a lot of chemistry and I am very glad that we did not have to wait too long for that spicy heat to make an appearance, wow was it hot. I also really liked the ending and epilogue as I felt like these characters deserved it.

Overall, a solid romance especially if you're a fan of tropes.

FINALLY! Here we go...

Best friends older brother? Immediately yes, every single time.

Sophie is a romance author, who has never been in love, with The block and Dash is a former actor on the road to recovery. Oh and Sophie's BFF just happens to be Dash's sister who would definitely NOT appreciate them deciding to have feelings for each other. Why? Well because if it all goes wrong she's out a BFF.

It's funny that Dash is Sophie's landlord for how long and they just happily avoid each other until Sophie goes off the deep end in a drunken haze and Dash is recruited to make sure she's okay. I really enjoyed watching Sophie sift through her past relationships trying to figure out why she has never been in love. I also loved Dash's recovery journey. It doesn't all go perfectly but the way they recover together was really nice to read.

Oh my goodness, I just loved the heck out of this book!!! Ever since I read the blurb for this book, I just HAD to read it and was overjoyed when it landed on my kindle.

This author had wrote an incredible combination of romance, an upbeat and fun plot, and also managed to tackled more sensitive topics with the care they deserved. I always love and respect when authors are able to do it all like she did. But also don’t get me wrong and think it was all intense emotion… because damn can Erin write good spice. Props to her!!!

This was my first book by this author and I will definitely be reaching for more books written by her in the future. I loved her writing style and the way she wrote her characters. It was all so special and I definitely loved that this was my first book by her.

*Thank you Harlequin Trade Publishing and Netgalley for the ARC in exchange for an honest review.*

Oh my goodness, I just loved the heck out of this book!!! Ever since I read the blurb for this book, I just HAD to read it and was overjoyed when it landed on my kindle.

This author had wrote an incredible combination of romance, an upbeat and fun plot, and also managed to tackled more sensitive topics with the care they deserved. I always love and respect when authors are able to do it all like she did. But also don’t get me wrong and think it was all intense emotion… because damn can Erin write good spice. Props to her!!!

This was my first book by this author and I will definitely be reaching for more books written by her in the future. I loved her writing style and the way she wrote her characters. It was all so special and I definitely loved that this was my first book by her.

*Thank you Harlequin Trade Publishing and Netgalley for the ARC in exchange for an honest review.*

The ideas behind this book were good, and the tropes were spot on for a romance novel, but the romance itself felt a little bit lacking. I didn't feel like I got enough of Dash and Sophie's chemistry. I wish we had a chance to see more of Dash's artistic side too. It was a quick read and definitely spicy, I just wanted more out of it.

I've tried reading this book several times but it unfortunately just never grabs me, so I've DNFed at 34%. I truly hope this is a personal issue and not a reflection of the book and that others may enjoy it. Maybe one day I'll be able to come back to it.

The cover of Plot Twist made me guess that this was going to be a generic romance. I've read other books about woman searching for answers by looking back at their exes. However, Dash was such a great character that I ended up really enjoying the book. I don't see many love interests struggle with addiction and it gave the story a lot of depth. The grumpy/sunshine dynamic can often be overdone, but it worked well here. The only thing I didn't love was the frequent social media references, but that's more of a personal reading preference. Never read the author before and I can't wait to check out the other book in the series.

Based on the description, I should have loved this book, but in execution, it did not work for me. I wanted to read a book about a romance author who finds love for the first time. Instead I got a book that moved very slow and ended with declarations of love without any development of the characters' relationship. I would have been fine with this kind of instalove if the characters were better developed. However, for me, we only saw the most surface aspects of Sophie. Dash and his family were interesting, but Dash’s ending felt rushed and was not satisfying. I would probably read another book in this universe about the Montrose family, but I won’t be rushing back to visit with Sophie’s story.

First Erin La Rosa read and i’m so glad i read it. so cute and sweet and romantic!!! i seriously enjoyed this one and look forward to what Erin releases next!

Gotta sneak in my books before the end of the year! currently getting through my ARC backlog, so thank you to NetGalley for this ARC! This was SO much better than her first book. That one was so painfully cringy i could barely take it, but this one had a lot more down to earth themes, and I really felt like I could connect to the characters. I loved reading about Dash's story, and I really felt like this is a good story for those who dont know anyone struggling with addiction. I hope La Rosa's books continue to get better, because I would read so many more books like this.

Cute and spicy friends to lovers romance, done so well! This book explores multiple real life issues and triggers but it done will care. This won't be the last book I read from this author.

Thank you to NetGalley and Harlequin Trade Publishing for providing a free copy of this book to me in exchange for my honest review.

This book was a quick and cute read. The tropes were a little on the nose, but that happens sometimes with romance. I wish we had more relationship building between Dash and Sophie. At times it felt like they went from not that interested to deep in love without much scenes allowing us to see how that love grew. Nonetheless, this was a very charming read.

I did want more out of this story, while I liked Dash well enough, Soph was a difficult character for me to get into. We are told how selfless and good she is but mostly what we see is that she’s kind of selfish and self centered. I didn’t enjoy her journey through her exes, especially since it didn’t really play into her figuring out her own issues but oh well.

This was a really fun, fresh, sweet rom-com! I loved the meta take on romance, and the "unexpected" love story along the way was charming.

I absolutely loved Dash's character and the way that he grew during the book, especially in terms of accepting help and standing up to his family. I also liked Sophie's character and the relationship between Dash and Sophie, but it often felt like Sophie was still not understanding herself and did not learn from what her exes and loved ones were telling her. This in turn made the point of conflict in the relationship about how Sophie believed that Dash didn't trust her, when he had explicitly said in several ways that he confided in her the most and that that scared him, which made me frustrated that Sophie could not hear that from him. Other than the miscommunication, I thought this was a good book and enjoyed reading it!

The main characters, Dash and Sophie, were what initially caught my interest in this book and made me request it, particularly that Dash used crafting (specifically pottery) as an outlet for working through anxieties and personal issues. Sophie, meanwhile, is a romance author who has somehow never fallen in love. However, I think it’s made me realize that I need to give up on the romance genre as a whole - I’m too cynical and have too little patience for it. I’m just not ever going to be a romance girlie and that’s okay. I think there’s definitely a market for this story and it’s younger and more carefree than myself lol.

I guess I’ll go through all the things that bothered me about this and then you can decide if it’s for you. In no particular order, here’s my list:

1. There was far too much content about TikTok, its inner workings, how to use it to become famous, how it works, etc. I do not give a shit about social media and I’m sick of it coming up in fiction that I’m trying to read to get away from the annoyances of real life.

2. Dash’s obsession with “Sophie’s perverse little canine tooth”. I wish I had flagged every single time he commented or thought about how her crooked, wonky tooth made him horny because I feel confident in saying it was at least four times, maybe more. That seems excessive to me but maybe that’s a kink I’m unfamiliar with.

3. Unless I misread or am remembering incorrectly, these people are in their mid 30s, yet they acted and spoke like they were in their early 20s/late teens. I can’t stand miscommunication and acting like the world is new to you when you’re supposed to be nearly middle aged. The characters would’ve worked better if they’d been younger.

4. Love conquers and cures all. There were some heavy topics in here and I think they were way too glossed over for the sake of getting to a happily ever after. It just added to the unbelievability of this whole book for me.

5. Tropes, tropes, tropes, including the author writing herself writing herself. I understand this was supposed to be meta but it just came across as awkward and forced to me. It felt like tropes were being forced into the narrative just to be checked off so that they’d be able to be hashtagged and referenced in the marketing later.

So yeah, I will be giving up on reading romance novels going forward (unless a plot line really draws me in and I’m feeling like a glutton for punishment), but I appreciate being given the opportunity to read an ARC by the publisher and NetGalley. Now I know better and hopefully this will work better for other folks.

I enjoyed this novel overall. I found that it was not a book I could binge read, however it was not at all bad. The continuous social media references didn’t bother me as it was a part of the story framework rather than thrown in as a one off, however I could see how some readers could be put off by main characters with TikTok accounts. I liked the progression of Sophie and Dash’s acquaintance, their connection was gradually built rather than feeling rushed.

However, I am no authority on addiction so take my opinion here with a grain of salt, I find it strange that Dash never went to a meeting and Chris never followed up. It seems like that would be something he should talk to Dash about, if only to get him to take accountability for not putting in the work when he wants nothing more than to stay sober.