This was a cute, quick read. The characters were adorable, their story was fun. It wasn't a stand out rom-com, but enjoyable. A great way to escape reality, but also touched out real and difficult topics. I honestly think the only reason it was not *incredible* is because it felt like a very surface only type of story. I felt like it was missing some of the details and depths. All that being said, I enjoyed reading it and enjoyed the characters.

Sophie is a romance author who has never been in love. With a deadline and writer's block creating a problem, she decides to reunite with all of her exes to figure out why she never fell in love. And document it virtually. Her neighbor, Dash, a former teen heartthrob, offers to help her while he hides his sobriety from his family and the media. As they get closer, the sparks start to fly - and they end up in a friends with benefits situation... which never goes wrong....

Thank you netgalley for my advanced reader copy.

It was nothing special, and I am sad that I have to say that. Expected more because I think the concept is really cool.

Sophie has a case of writer’s block. She has. 6 weeks to finish her next book for her contract but how can she write a good love story when she’s never been in love? This leads her to confront her former lovers to figure out why things didn’t work out between them as she documents to encounters on social media.

Throughout the whole process, she begins growing closer to her handsome landlord, and best friend’s brother, Dash. Dash is a recovering alcoholic that has been hiding his battles from his family.


I loved seeing both of these characters working through their flaws and insecurities over the course of the book. The Sophie and Dash we meet in the beginning can’t handle a serious relationship right now, but can they self reflect and grow individually and have a successful relationship?

Thank you to NetGalley and Harlequin Trade Publishing for the advanced reviewer copy. Plot Twist lived up to what expected from Erin La Rosa and I can’t wait to read her future books.

This book was very overwhelming in terms of tropes that were used. There was washed up teen star, next door neighbor, best friends brother, recovering alcoholic, one bed, and multiple others. Because of that it was hard to concentrate on the plot because I was just anticipating the next trope. The main characters were sweet but there were an abundance of side characters that were frankly unnecessary. The stalker side plot also was very hard to get through and seemed completely unneeded.

OKAY THIS IS THE BOOK.
I was seriously hooked from the first page until I (unfortunately) finished it! The emotions felt by both MC while they were going through their own conflicts (Sophie with her book and trying to figure out why all her relationships didnt work out. Dash with coping with being a child star, his family, and struggling with addiction) were so deep and real and it just added so much to the story. I didnt know that this was the first in the series and this was my first novel from Erin La Rosa but omg it will not be my last. ALSO??? I havent mentioned this is a best friends brother romance (one of my favorite tropes tbh) who also happens to be her landlord so I was IN LOVE.

This book was such a joy to read! I love Erin’s writing style and how real the characters felt. I laughed out loud multiple times!

Ok, I picked up an arc of this MONTHS ago... and I didn't immediately pick it up, I am so sad I didn't I this book right away. It's so cute and endearing. You see the struggles of Sophie learning to trust. You see Dash's struggles of growing up a child actor, but mostly you see the love grow. This grumpy and sunshine romance was everything I hoped it would be... now I need to pick up the first book to see how Nina fell in love. I really hope that there are more books in this series. I couldn't put it down!!!

I was so excited when I saw "Plot Twist" on NetGalley because I didn't realize there were going to be any more books in the same world as "For Butter or Worse." I was even more excited when I realized this book was about a character we got to meet and hear about in the first book. (It took me a minute to realize this, it's been a while since I read book one).

I loved "Plot Twist" it was so fun while also hitting the right emotional notes. It had a really unique premise that also really allowed the characters to explore themselves. And the backdrop of the characters being minor celebrities is always fun. In addition to the fantastic romance, I loved how the book explored the dynamics between Sophie and her sister and Dash and his family.

One of the most compelling and poignant parts of the book was seeing Dash process and live with his sobriety and how that affected himself and his relationships. I also loved the representation of Sophie having a pacemaker. However, I do wish that we got to hear and see more about what it is like living with her medical condition.

My only other criticism (that isn't even a real criticism) is that while I loved getting to see more of Nina in this book, I wish we got to see more of Leo as well. And I will forgive Dash for being a landlord.

4 stars.

Thank you NetGalley and Canary Street Press for this eARC. All opinions are my own.

I voluntarily read and reviewed a copy of this book, provided by Netgalley. All thoughts and opinions are my own.

What a cute best friend's brother romance! Dash was the sweetest, and I think I feel in love with him a little. Sophie's an author struggling with the follow-up to her debut romance novel, and realizes she's never been in love - a pretty serious thing for a romance author. But her best friend's brother/her landlord, Dash, helps her come up with a plan to revisit her exes and see if there's a reason why she hasn't fallen in love - and well, let's just say Dash and Sophie find out they are MFEO obviously haha

I Loved that Sophie has a pacemaker, and I even love that Dash is hiding his recovery form his overbearing family. Honestly, Dash's family enraged me so much. The only one worth not throwing out the window is his sister. She's a keeper!

The banter was fun, the steamy times were great (there's face sitting bahahahah), and I just loved these characters.

First off, I love the cover! This was the main reason for my Netgalley request. I totally judged this book by its cover. I wanted to like this book more. Unfortunately, I had a hard time getting through. However, I pushed through. I'm not sure if I was in the "romance" head frame when I was reading this novel. I felt the book was a little over the place.

You may be asking why I didn't give it a lower rating? Well, the story picks up in the second half. We also find some true character development and growth. It is very romance-genre oriented and I liked the Hollywood setting but I still have mixed feelings about this novel.

I loved the LGBTQ+ theme, Dash's journey with alcohol addiction and sobriety, and highlighting damage caused by familial trauma.

Tropes: best friend's brother, boy next door, dual POV, one bed, forced proximity

Trigger Warnings: alcoholism, relapse, panic attacks

Thank you to NetGalley for the advanced reader copy in exchange for an honest review.

This was just okay for me. The writing style was enjoyable overall, but I found my interest trailing off more and more as I read. I simply just didn't care about their relationship. The beginning was good, but they went straight to sex and skipped over the mutual pining phase. I wanted more tension when they finally became intimate. I found myself skipping over their sex scenes. It just felt so overly sexual and not so much emotionally driven. Don’t get me wrong, I do love some good smut, but this was just too much, too fast. I will say that there are many sweet moments between Dash and Sophie that did help break it all up.

I also didn't appreciate how Sophie was leading Carla on, while having copious amounts of sex with Dash. I get that neither relationship was exclusive, but it just felt wrong in some ways for Sophie's character.

I did appreciate the alcoholism representation that we got in this. It felt very real and believable. Though I do wish we had gotten more of Dash's backstory with how he fell into alcoholism to round it all out.

Overall, this was an okay romance for me. I'm sure a lot of others will love it. It just didn't hit for me.

Thank you to NetGalley, Harlequin Trade Publishing and Canary Street Press for the arc of this book!

A romance writer who has never been in love finds herself getting help from her landlord. Along the way, they find love. I thought this has promise, but I didn’t love the writing style. Others might enjoy it more!

SWOON! I had to fan myself reading this! I am a big fan of Erin La Rosa so I had high hopes and she did not let me down. I will be recommending this to my customers for sure!

Plot Twist is an appropriate title for this book because this book perhaps has too many of them. There's the recovering alcoholic Dash (who also has an on page relapse) who has a toxic family dynamic (mostly his mother is an absolute bitch) and also has a stalker. And then there's Sophie, a romance novelist struggling with writer's block who hits upon a plan to reconnect with all of her former exes to figure out why their relationship failed in an attempt to find writing inspiration. The book dragged in some places but also, there's so much darkness and trauma in this book and some of the plot lines felt unnecessary (the stalker plot felt pointless and only contrived for the purpose of exposing Dash's TikTok crafter persona to Sophie). The pacing was off and so much of the book was about their baggage that it hardly felt believable when these two proclaimed their love for each other. For a romance novel, the romance really felt like an afterthought.

Cute story! I really enjoyed reading about the relationship journey between these 2. However I did have a hard time connecting to these characters and as such the read was not as enjoyable as I thought.

Thank you NetGalley for the advanced eARC of Plot Twist. This was my first book by Erin La Rosa, I enjoyed it but it wasn't really my favorite. I didn't really like any of the side characters: the best friend/sister, the mom, the old friend from high school, what a sordid group of people. The social media references were repetitive.
I will pick up her other book because I like her witty writing style. I'm sure there will be tons of more positive reviews for this Erin La Rosa novel.

Tiktok made it happen. A drunken video of a romance author’s sad karaoke moment admitting she’s never been in love goes viral. Sophie Lyons is struggling and down to weeks to finish her next book but has writer’s block, and worse, has now outted herself as a fraud of love. With the advice of her best friend’s older brother, Dash, who was also a teen crush and from a famous Hollywood actor family… and where she also rented his bungalow… she’s starts a TikTok series revisiting past relationships to found out why she’s never been able to find love or say “I love you”.
Along the way Dash deals with the sobriety, the stress of Hollywood fame from his family and his secret love of pottery, a squirrel named Richard Gere, and a fish named Rain Boots.
Thank you NetGalley and Canary Street Press for the ARC

Content Warning: alcoholism, rehab/relapse, dysfunctional family, stalking

+ An author with writer’s block, Sophie, is trying to get writing inspiration by talking to all of her ex’s. Dash is her landlord and he’s a famous actor, and also her best friend’s brother. He’s also working on his sobriety which he’s kept a secret from his family. I thought Sophie and Dash had good chemistry and they didn’t hook up right away, it was nice to see their attraction grow. They have a few spicy scenes together which made this story a little sweet and spicy.


+ I do like that the two characters were working on themselves a lot before committing to anything with one another. They definitely tried to give each other space enough to do that – but their attraction kept getting in the way. Dash doesn’t have the best relationship with his mom – he comes from a famous family full of actors and his mom always makes him feel like he doesn’t live up to her expectations. So he’s going through a lot.

~ The TikTok storyline with Dash’s stalker didn’t quite work for me. I thought it was interesting he was a crafter on the side to help with his sobriety though.

~ I didn’t totally click with Sophie. She’s trying to figure out why her past relationships ended but then tries to get back with an ex or explore the feelings there while she’s having a physical relationship with Dash. I thought she was a bit messy in that department but she did seem like a very supportive friend to Dash.

Tropes: one bed, best friend’s brother, forced proximity

My Thoughts:

I thought this one was okay and wish I liked Sophie better but at least I did like Dash’s story a lot. I did enjoy how both characters were working on themselves as they navigated their attraction and feelings for one another. There’s some spice to this one!

Loved this super cute romcom from Erin La Rosa! Family dysfunction, addictions, unlucky with love, talking to your exes, mental health, TikTok, friends-to-lovers… this has it all!

I can’t wait to read more by this author!

Many many thanks to NetGalley, Harlequin Trade Publishing, and Canary Street Press for the digital ARC!

This wasn’t a bad read. I liked how easy things were between Dash and Sophie. Dash has legitimate issues and I can understand why he stays so private. Sophie seems a little over sensitive to create conflict that’s unnecessary. Almost like it’s to make up for Dash having serious issues.

The premise of Sophie meeting with her exes seemed pointless other than to create more conflict. Sophie didn’t seem to learn a whole lot with the experiment.