The cute cartoon cover strikes again. I was very much looking forward to The Plot Twist. The book is very surface-level. The characters are boring, and I didn't buy into their chemistry.

Honestly, a lot of it was problematic for me. The way the author handled the hero's alcoholism ruined the entire book for me. The sponsor, the rehab facility, and the therapist would never do the things in this book.

As if that wasn't enough, the book suffers from too many tropes, as though the author had a checklist of romance tropes and felt compelled to check each box off instead of letting them flow naturally from the plotline.

I am also not a fan of referencing social media (in this case, TikTok) constantly in books.

Thank you to NetGalley, Harlequin Trade Publishing, and Canary Street Press for an advanced copy in exchange for an honest review.

I enjoyed the story of Sophie and Dash more than the first book.
Dysfunctional people deserve love too!

Sophie is an author with major writers book. After a drunken night that ended in a embarrassing social media video of her she’s decided to figure out what’s wrong with her love life, her incomplete book and the reason she can’t say I love you.

Dash is a ex actor that is a recovering alcoholic. He’s on a journey to find himself while navigating his crappy family. Boy did I want to punch his mom in the face so many times!

Sophie rents from Dash who is also Sophie’s best friend’s brother. While helping Sophie on her journey to interview all her ex relationships they start to mess around but remain friends.

The smut in this book Is goooood!

Over all this was a really cute book. I’d definitely recommend it to my fellow romance readers.
I hope theirs more books to come with their friends story’s.

3 stars.

"Plot Twist" by Erin La Rosa is a surprisingly deep best friend's brother/grumpy sunshine/dual POV romance that can be hit or miss. The story starts very strong but fades the longer it goes on. I liked the inclusion of the weighty topics in this book including sobriety/recovery, addiction, stardom, social media obsession, stalking, familial troubles, starting over, and finding one's purpose. I love it when romance books make me empathize with the character's struggles, and I completely sympathize with the main male character, Dash. His circumstances are not ideal for his alcohol recovery. He comes from a family of actors, and he himself was one until he focused on getting sober. His family is not very understanding about his self-imposed extraction from acting, but he doesn't want to tell them about his sobriety. He gets his frustrations and feelings out by crafting and making videos for his secret TikTok account. Dash offers to help Sophie, the main female character, grow her TikTok presence so she can figure out why she's never been in love (though this never happens and he never actually helps her apart from leaving nice comments on her videos???). I do find it a little odd that, for someone so focused on his sobriety and recovery, Dash never, not once, goes to an AA meeting. It's not even discussed. He has a sponsor, but the sponsor often brushes him off, like...??? Get a better sponsor and friend, man! Sophie is a mess of a character, and her mess involves her being super selfish most of the time. She is insanely self-absorbed but absolutely hates herself and has no self-confidence. She spills her sister's secrets, she doesn't give her best friend a heads-up that she's involved with her brother, she starts up a relationship with an ex and still sleeps with Dash, etc. She's going through this big life thing, trying to find out what went wrong in all of her past relationships, but doesn't ever do work on herself to better who SHE is. Sophie feels a lot younger than she is supposed to be in this book. Because of this, I felt it difficult to root for the two of them to get together. I wanted Dash to stay far, far away from Sophie and all of her chaotic selfishness. Something in "Plot Twist" was missing for me, something that would have made me like it more than I did. This book can also be a little cringe-worthy with its dialogue. Some of the tropes don't feel naturally integrated into the story, as if they were thrown in after the fact to please social media users. I didn't love anything that happened around and after the 85% mark, plus the final gesture at the end of the book. It all feels very slapdashedly thrown together just to finish the book. I wish this had been better, I was really looking forward to it.

Thank you to NetGalley, Erin La Rosa, Harlequin Trade Publishing, and Canary Street Press for the complimentary ARC of this book. All opinions are my own. I was not compensated for my review.

DNF at 17%

Not the book for me. I'm sure other people will enjoy it but I am not the right reader for it. I found it boring and didn't care about the characters.

This book was a cute contemporary love story with some fun tropes. It also dealt with some heavier topics in a way that I think portray the struggle in an approachable way. I have been in so many fantasy worlds lately it was nice to just be able to read this and not have to understand world building and politics! I give this book ⭐️⭐️⭐️.5 stars

A romantic journey full of character growth, spice, and laughter, Plot Twist is destined to be a Tik-Tok sensation. With writers block and zero romantic prospects, author Sophie embarks on a foray into the exes of her past, asking them why they think they didn't work out. As she shares her findings with the world, she starts to wonder if she's been the problem all along. For Dash, the reclusive, self-aware, brooding, famous neighbor, Sophie is the problem. She's tempting, sultry, beautiful, makes him laugh, makes him want more. He suggested her social media look into her exes to help clear writers block, but now he just wants her to stop and be with him. Only, he's not ready to be with anyone. As the title predicts, these two are meant to be, but a plot twist has got to happen.

I really enjoyed this book, loved it in fact. It's cute and sexy, the kind of book that's fun to read, that keeps you smiling, even as you sort of want to throw your Kindle at the wall. La Rosa's Plot Twist is super fun to read, feels authentic to reality, and features the character development I always think romance reads skip over. These two work on themselves first (yay for personal growth), putting their wildly strong chemistry on hold to cheer one another on. Sure, I yelled at them to be together, but it wouldn't have been the Plot Twist journey I loved if they hadn't done the work and denied themselves.

I was unable to finish reading this book before it's publish date, but my library, and several others in our system, has purchased it.

Sophie is a romance writer, but unfortunately, she isn't doing much writing. When her agent gives her six weeks to finish the book, Sophie makes a desperate plan to get over her writer's block: meet up with all of her exes to figure out why the relationships didn't last and document the findings for all her followers.

Plot Twist is such a sweet and spicy story about a romance writer who has never been in love and a former actor who is focused on finding a new path after sobriety. When Sophie goes viral for a karaoke-gone-wrong video, she takes the advice of her landlord/best friend’s brother and turns it into a TikTok series where she confronts her exes to find out what happened and determine why she doesn’t fall in love. Dash is a former actor secret craft-toker who is hiding his biggest secret, that he was treated for alcohol addiction, from everyone around him, but especially his Hollywood royalty family who continue to pressure him back into the spotlight. Dash doesn’t believe he’s ready for any change in his life as he’s forging his new way, and Sophie isn’t sure what direction she’s supposed to go in once she starts meeting her exes. I really enjoyed the frank conversations these two have with each other, even when they’re worried about sharing with others, and the honesty kept the relationship feeling more realistic to the characters current circumstances. This book is for fans of the tropes best friend’s brother, forced proximity, and friends to lovers. A few more tropes get put in here, but I’d say those are the main ones.

Thank you to NetGalley and Harlequin Trade Publishing for giving this advanced copy in exchange for an honest review!

This is my first book by this author. Although it wasn't for me, I'll read more of her work in the future. It felt too heavy / forced with the amount of tropes - almost like there was a checklist of tropes that the author wanted to include. They just didn't feel natural. I'm also not a fan of the celebrity trope and it didn't do anything for me in this book. That said, the writing was fast-paced and I appreciated the wittier / banter moments. I think it was just the premise of this one that didn't do it for me - I would read more by Erin La Rosa in the future. Thank you for the chance to read this!

Sophie is a romance writer who has never been in love. It was her dirty little secret until one drunken karaoke night where she spilled it and someone filmed her epic meltdown. Now she’s on a mission to figure out why? Enter Dash, her landlord/neighbour and her best friend’s brother who volunteers to help her.

We instantly fell in love with Sophie and Dash. They just worked! Sparks flew while they started a cute friendship and their romance was full of angst and ultimately turned into the perfect mix of sexy and sweet. Dash could be hard on himself but Sophie brought out the joy. She was a breath of fresh air with her quirkiness and her happy disposition was the key. Dash was such a grumpy Cinnamon roll hero with his secret pottery love which we absolutely loved!

Plot Twist touched on some tough topics like dysfunctional family dynamics, alcoholism and trust issues while also keeping the story fun. We are fans of Erin La Rosa and look forward to reading more from her in the future!

Read if you like:
▪️Best friend’s brother
▪️Forced Proximity
▪️Grumpy x sunshine
▪️One bed
▪️Dual POV

I gave Plot Twist a 3 star rating. Now hear me out- 3 stars is not necessarily a bad rating on my scale.

Three stars for me, is when I do not HATE or LOVE the book. I was interested, but the book was missing something that made it "not put down-able" for me; or something was irking me, that may not necessarily irk someone else.

I felt like the plot and tropes were forced. Almost like the author had the tropes outlined and didn't work on the plot to help the tropes flow into the storyline.

I wanted to love the characters, I do love a friends to benefits romance; but I found myself spending more time looking for my next books than I did reading this.

There are some pros- I love a red headed FMC, a romance author FMC, too.

I think there was potential here, and it could easily be that it is just not my cup of tea, or that the author's writing style is just not for me.

Would I recommend? Yes, but with full transparency on my thoughts on the plot/tropes.

Some of the writing was a bit cringey, but overall the story was enjoyable. I felt for Dash, and Sophie was a great female lead. I would be interested in a story about Poppy!

I received an advanced copy. All thoughts are my own.

Once teen heartthrob meets romance writer- do I need to say more?! It was cute and funny. Dash and Sophie were both great characters, their development was good. Plot was 4/5 love me a good grumpy/sunshine FWB!

This book was a bit of a struggle to get through. I found the plot a bit dull and underdeveloped, with characters that I failed to become invested in.
The cover art is so cute and I did enjoy the premise, but found it to just need a bit more “something” to really make it a book I would enjoy reading or recommend to my audience.

Song of the book: I Wanna Get Better - Bleachers

Thank you to NetGalley for giving me this ARC in exchange for a fair review! It was just hard for me to get into this book. I found the plot slightly boring, and I just could not bring myself to care that much about Dash and Sophie getting together. I don’t even know what my issue was. I think it was possibly that they had not interacted much before the start of the book, so the six-week timeline of their relationship felt off to me. They got really close really quickly, and it was not working for me.

I thought this book had a few elements that were oddly executed. I did not read the first book in the series (about Sophie’s sister, Nina), but I still felt that Nina was seriously missing from the novel. She and Sophie get into a major fight pretty early on, and I don’t think enough was done to resolve the issue, despite the fact that they have a conversation about it. Additionally, I don’t want to give spoilers, but I found the grand gesture totally bizarre and WAY too much for a weeks-long relationship. It made me cringe a little.

I thought that the TikTok aspect of this book would annoy me more than it did, but I honestly didn’t mind it (although I’m afraid that it might feel dated pretty quickly). If anything, even though the description explicitly mentions how Sophie gains internet fame by talking about her exes online, the book kind of felt like having the scenes with the exes was kind of a chore. It was almost like it didn’t add much to the plot (other than Sophie’s reunion with Carla, which just led to a love triangle that probably shouldn’t have existed, since it was obvious the entire time that Sophie was over Carla).

Overall, I wish I had a better time reading this than I did. I don’t think I’d actively recommend this book to anyone, but I certainly won’t discourage people from reading it if they like the premise or the author.

Sophie is trying to figure out why she hasn’t been able to fall in love by meeting up with her ex’s for answers. It felt like she wasn’t getting anything from the meetups & it started to feel a bit repetitive. I’m also not a fan of spicy scenes in books & find myself cringing through them so I really didn’t enjoy that. On a positive note though, both main characters are so likeable & I was rooting for them from the beginning. I like how it talked about Dash’s journey through addiction & recovery & it was nice seeing his character grow throughout the book. I loved how both of them helped the other through their personal struggles & building a relationship at the same time. Overall this book is a very cute love story & gave a romcom movie vibe!

Thank you to NetGalley & Harlequin Trade publishing for an eARC of this book in exchange for an honest review!

Massive thanks to NetGalley & Harlequin Trade Publishing for the gifted book, which I voluntarily read & reviewed.

Plot Twist by Erin La Rosa is an intriguing romance novel about a romance author who has never been in love. It follows her on her journey of viral fame from her accidental announcement of her lack of love, her revisiting exes & rediscovering herself. It also deals with her landlord that happens to be best friend’s brother.

Plot Twist is good for fans of
🖤Romance Novels
🖤Best Friend’s Brother
🖤TikTok Fans
🖤Dual POV
🖤 Author Meets Former Actor/Current Crafter

This book is full of a lot of chaotic mess & it is quite a journey. Both characters are on their own rollercoaster & experience tough times with some growing pains. There are some uncomfortable & awkward times.

There are parts where I really loved their story & then, there were parts where I just felt uncomfortable & not connected. It felt like a bit of a bumpy ride with starts & stops. This story has a lot of imperfect people doing imperfect things.

I really appreciated Dash’s story & felt the authenticity of that. That was a very important story to tell. I also loved the pacemaker representation & I so appreciate seeing that with a main character in a romance novel. Disability representation is hugely important to me so I am grateful for that, & I did really enjoy how they came together.

Content Warnings: addiction, relapse

Since I rated this 3 stars, I will not be sharing this to my social or Amazon.

Sophie Lyon’s having trouble writing her next romance novel, and she blames it on the fact that despite past relationships, she’s never been in love. Sophie plans to overcome her writer’s block by discussing past relationships with her exes to learn why she's never fallen in love. This includes her ex-girlfriend Carla, the closest she's come so far. Sophie’s landlord is former teen heartthrob Dash Montrose, who is familiar with social media. He has reasons to be anonymous online, from maintaining his sobriety, past fame, and the fact that his family is Hollywood royalty, so Dash has to steer clear of scandal. Sophie and Dash grow closer, but neither feel ready for a relationship. So Sophie suggests what any good romance author would: a friends-with-benefits arrangement. That would be safe, right?

It's kind of funny for a rom-com writer to fall into her own rom-com situation, and that's the premise we're working with here. Sophie literally wakes up after a drunken confession of never being in love going viral on TikTok and stitching a response is now leading her to explore how past relationships did or didn't go, with a six-week deadline for her next novel being due. We go through several fun romance novel tropes, though the seriousness of Dash's sobriety and Sophie’s fear of commitment and falling in love are handled with care. Both make some doozies of mistakes as they deal with the attempt at being friends with benefits, and not all of them are because they catch feelings along the way. Life and love are hard, and both have to figure out what's important to them. The grand romantic gesture is heartfelt and multitiered, leading to a satisfying happily ever after for them both.

This story follows romance author Sophie who has never fallen in love and can not seem to write her next book. Dash, her best friend's brother and also her landlord, is struggling to figure out what he wants to do with his life now that he is done with acting. Sophie gets drunk one night and goes viral online for screaming at karaoke that she has never been in love. She decides to go on a journey with TikTok to meet up with her exes to find out what went wrong. Through her TikTok adventure, she and Dash grow closer. However, Dash is struggling with staying sober and she is struggling to keep her friendships. Will love conquer all?
Tropes
- grump-sunshine
- best friend's-brother
- one-bed trope
- tattoos

I love how this story handles trusting others and trying to do everything yourself even when you have people ready to help. The struggle of handling family problems and being an alcoholic. This story has so much depth and love. It is a great read for anyone.

When I first saw this cover, and read the synopsis, I really thought this would be one of my next favorite romance books. Everything about this seemed like it would be something I would love. However, I could not get through this book. The writing was not the best, and the heavy focus on TikTok kept pulling me out of the story to the point where I just stopped enjoying it.