First, I would raise this to 3 1/2 stars. Second, thank you #NetGalley #PlotTwist for the ARC in exchange for my honest review.

If you are looking for a quick “rom-com” type book, here you go. It was cute, a quick and fun read, has all the feels, but also has the “same old story” told again. Great vibes among all the characters and the writing style is something I dig, but I felt like I had just read this story. It’s like all the tropes and events I just read in the last few books (of the same genre) were all mingled into this one. Very casual, semi predictable, and ends happily, so overall a reading win! I would read another book by her.

Thanks to NetGalley and HQ for the advanced copy.

This was my first Erin La Rosa book, and it won't be my last! I enjoyed the slow burn. Dash and Sophie are very much relatable characters. This was a cute quick and easy read. I finished it in 1 sitting. I enjoyed this Hollywood romance.

While I had a pretty fun time reading this, I found there were areas that were lacking in the execution department. Dax and Sophie's story both had some great messages, with Dax exploring what it means to be a recovering alcoholic, and Sophie digging back into her past to uncover the root of her relationship issues. These are themes I often don't see in novels, and a romcom seems like a great setting to explore these topics but keep it light and fun at the same time. While I felt like the characters came across as immature in many instances (which I will delve into further in a moment), Sophie and Dax's communication style felt refreshingly mature. I really appreciated how upfront Dax was very early on about his struggles, and how that could influence their relationship, and they were both in turn so very supportive of each other through both the ups and downs.

As mentioned above, I found the characters, both Sophie and Dax, but also the side characters, to come across as quite immature. For Sophie, it made a bit more sense in my interpretation, as she came across as almost an innocent, bubbly type. But the rest felt like such a clash to their values and past experiences, it just didn't add up to me. I also found it hard to relate to them with said immature tone, as they felt more like late teens/young adults rather than folks in their 30s. This just compounded with the dialogue feeling stilted and unnatural. I can see the tone the author was going for, and that many of the moments were intended to be humorous, but they just didn't work with my sense of humor. I think these two elements overall made it difficult for me to relate to the characters, which did dampen my enjoyment overall, especially near the end

Cute (VERY) fast read. A lot of loose ends (in my opinion) or unexplored areas. A few things that didn't' quite make sense, but the spicy scenes were pretty spicy!

🇬🇧 If you know me, you know that I love @erinlarosalit . Ever since I read For Butter or Worse last year, I've become an absolute fan of her style. So I didn't hesitate for a second with Plot Twist, the second volume in the Hollywood series 🍿

🎬 In the first volume, we follow the story of Nina and Leo two competing chefs. Here we follow Nina's sister, Sophie. This romance author has a secret: she has never been in love. So is she legitimate to talk about love? Have all her stories been fiction? And above all, how can she finish her next novel? 😱

🎬 By accident, she buzzes on TikTok and comes to use the network as a means of therapy to understand why she has never been in love. Dash, her best friend's brother and her landlord, will accompany her on this journey. He also gains from her helping him write an honorary speech for his father, a famous actor whose footsteps he has not followed, much to the chagrin of his family. She will also be a confidant and ally in his fight against alcoholism.

🎬 What begins as chance encounters turns into a friendly roadtrip, quickly replaced by a growing passion. While Dash sees Sophie as a ray of sunshine that brightens his days, she is still too unsure of her ability to commit to a real relationship. They will both grow up 🩷

🎬 Where Nina was a woman of character, determined and driven by her career and the goals she set for herself, Sophie is more relaxed, funny and awkward. While both are equally endearing and genuine, I enjoyed seeing a contrast between them.
As for the male characters, we are also treated to Leo and Dash who are sweet, very charming but sometimes insecure.

🎬 My favourite thing about Erin's novels is her ability to shed light on heavy topics in a light, funny and realistic way. She works to shed light on topics like mental health, social pressure, alcoholism, gender or social position expectations in an incredible way 👏

What to expect:
* Best friend’s brother
* Friends to Lovers
* A Squirrel named Richard
* Writer x Pottery/Craftsman
* Happy ending
* Sobriety and Insecurities


Both characters feel very real in terms of their personal desires to be better in order to be in a relationship. Dash is super self aware but also balances the idiot energy I love in fictional men.
I think Sophie who despite her own obstacles and struggles is so supportive for everyone else and I need her to realize she’s worthy of love and being loved.

The plot itself has such a promising premise and sounded really interesting. There’s the main plot and then there are subplots with Sophie’s sister, Dash’s family, their careers and finding themselves and such. I like how it’s not completely centered on their relationship and the problems that arrive in the third act. I think a lot of what is considered the third act breakup, was nicely just sprinkled in throughout the book and then we got it to where it was a more sensible third act breakup/issue.

Writing:

I liked parts of the writing, but some parts were written in a strange way that just stuck out from the story rather than being a smooth transition. Certain sentences didn’t need to be there for the story to progress, they were just filler.
Pacing was slightly off in it as well, but not too bad to where I couldn’t read it. Just slowed down at once or sped up at once with no warning. I’m not entirely jumping on board with Tiktok playing a dominant role in this novel either. Its kind of jarring but it also fits really well. I do think that it’s super sus of Dash commenting on her videos and her just not knowing it’s him. Idk it would be kinda weird to have someone you don’t know? Be complimentary like that on social media. Overall it’s fun, sweet, and hopeful book that carefully navigates a character dealing with sobriety and a character realizing they’re worthy of love.

Thank you for the ARC!

Ugh, I wanted to really like this book so badly. The premise is great -- romance author is struggling to write her next novel (specifically the HEA) and so she seeks out her exes to find out where things went wrong and along the way falls in love and learns a lot about herself. I didn't even mind the TikTok references, and these are usually hit or miss for me. I just didn't love the main character at all and the whole story seemed so unlikely. I know this is fiction and it's not going to be a true story but her landlord who happens to live in the house next door just so happens to be from a famous family and also is a famous TikToker? And she also happens to go viral on TikTok just at the right time? Not to mention, her sister was famous, plus there was everything with his addiction and rehab (which is great to see representation but it seemed like a LOT with everything else going on. I actually think other things could have been cut out so this facet would have been allowed to shine more.)

Overall it was fine. I wouldn't read again, but honestly I'll probably end up reading the rest of the series anyway.

Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for an advance copy of this book.

This was a very charming easy to read romance. The characters were likable, the banter was perfect, and the representation was chefs kiss. I especially love that the representation never needed to be pointed out or explained.

This was a cute story of love but also socially relevant content, friendships, family relationships, and what it’s like being in the spotlight. The setting was LA and that can be overdone but in this book it was not and I think that was a great choice since it wouldn’t have been relatable to most people otherwise.

Great writing, the pacing was good. And spicy too! Everything you want in a romance.

special thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for an arc of this book in exchange for an honest review.

besties if you hate, and i mean HATE the miscommunication trope then boy do i have the romance book for you! Plot Twist is filled with characters saying exactly how they feel the whole time and boy they do not apologize for it. for example, at one point the male MC says something along the lines of "oh boy!" during a smut scene...anyways...

overall i liked this book but unfortunately, modern day references mentioned repeatedly just don't do it for me. having tiktok be a big plot point wasn't my cup of tea but i'm excited to check out other books by Erin La Rosa in the future!

Thanks to NetGalley and HQ for the advanced copy.

This was my first Erin La Rosa book, and it won’t be my last! Dash and Sophie were both whole, flawed characters, and I really enjoyed the slow burn of watching them toe the line, until they were standing on the other side of it. I don’t read a lot of Hollywood romances, but I really enjoyed it. I do wish the stalker angle had a bit more of a resolution, but overall an overall enjoyable story! Would recommend.

Sophie is an author facing writer's block, 5 weeks before her book is due. Oh, it doesn't help that a video of her shouting that she'd never been in love goes viral. How does one write romance with HEAs if theyve never been in love? Her handsome landlord, Dash, who happens to be her best friends brother, convinces Sophie to use the momentum and respond on tiktok. In a series she calls her ex-periment, Sophie tracks down her exes to see what went wrong. Dash is full of secrets, but finds himself opening up to Sophie in ways he hasn't with anyone else. He helps her on her journey, and they go on one of their own too!

While I did end up enjoying this book, as someone on booktok regularly, it took me a while to get over the constant mention of it or the reference to tropes (both in general and in Sophie's own thoughts about her and Dash's relationship). This book seems like it was written for the booktok girlies, but I think I like a little more escapism than that.

This is a light, semi spicy, rom-com but also deals with alcoholism, trauma, and broken trust. The crafter aspect was not really doing it for me, but maybe I'm just on the wrong side of tiktok 🤷

⭐⭐⭐.5
🌶️🌶️

Meta on so many levels as the romance author Sophie struggles with Imposter Syndrome and writer's block - we even get a scene where she wanders into the Ripped Bodice, admires the decorations, buys a new romance novel, and says hi to one of the owners. It was a scene written made to make every romance bookworm in LA county go <i>squeeeeeeee I've been there!</i>. Sophie is also dealing with going viral from drunkenly confessing on stage to having never fallen in love before - not a good luck for a romance writer.

Meanwhile, as our heroine struggles to write a Book 2 as good as her debut, terrified of being labeled a one-hit-wonder, her landlord / best friend's brother is going through his own struggle of both dealing with an alcohol addiction and also hiding it from his VERY famous actor family. (His dad was (in this book's universe) one of the James Bonds, to give you an idea of the level of acting fame he was born into and expected to live up to.)

Dash gets sucked into Sophie's journey as wingman as she looks up all her exes to see if there is some 'x-factor' that has prevented her from falling in love thus far. Its similar to Amy Lea's Exes and O's - both books having fun with knowing and using ALL the tropes. Here we a see a great example of Only One Bed, with Sophie expressing the appropriate amount of delighted/abashed shock that she gets to live out that troupe.

We also see, as Dash deals with his addiction, that its NOT the end of the world to admit to having an addiction, or even to have a relapse. I LOVED that la Rosa pushes hard on the message that someone can still be loveable even after falling off the wagon and having to start again. Its a message I think that needs to be said more, and louder. I loved Dash and just wanted to hug him when his mom was being so awful to him!

A very fun and fluffy and heartfelt and sexy read - 10/10 would recommend. :-)

This book was so cute!!! I think I finished it in 2 sittings?!? The MMC is such a sweetie pie, and I loved the setting! I love reading about writers, especially romance writers falling in love. I do think that Dash’s recovery was handled relatively well. I think some parts dragged a bit, but honestly it was worth it for the cute bits. I enjoyed the dual pov, but at times it felt like there was too much going on. For the enjoyment I had, I’ll give 3.5 stars!

This was cute in some ways, but also felt a little all over the place.

Sophie is a romance author with writer’s block, and while she’s facing down a deadline, goes viral with a TikTok video drunkenly confessing that she’s never been in love. While she attempts damage control, she starts spending time with her sexy tattooed landlord Dash (who also happens to be her best friend’s brother?) who has his own secret TikTok account that’s very successful. He agrees to coach her in building her social media following in exchange for her writing a speech for him to give for his dad (who happens to be a huge famous actor?)

Dash is a recovering alcoholic, and struggles with how to relate to his famous family members. I enjoyed his character a lot but we didn’t get to understand much background. Sophie also has a famous sister, and I had trouble keeping track of who everyone was and why they were famous.

Both Dash and Sophie were at career crossroads, and it was lovely to see how they supported each other. However I felt their love story was overshadowed by a ton of excess drama - Dash had a stalker, Sophie decided to try again with an ex, and both of them independently faced severe betrayal from people they trusted. I was also uncomfortable with Sophie’s writing process, as she explicitly took details from her friends and family to use in books and couldn’t imagine a happy ending for her characters unless she had someone else’s to copy.

All in all this was a worthwhile read, very romance-genre oriented and I liked the Hollywood setting, but mixed feelings overall.

While this book has similar tropes to others, I loved that Sophie is pansexual. It is great to see a character who explores love from different angles. It was also wonderful to see a character give up fame and fortune for what really matters the most in their life.

There were definitely some interesting topics brought out. Along with Sophie’s sexuality and whether or not she has ever been in love, there were the many problems Dash had to face. He gave up fame and fortune to face his alcoholism. This leads to him dealing with his dysfunctional family, being forced into the public eye and relapsing.

I’ll be adding more books from Erin La Rosa to my TBR!

Thank you to Netgalley for the digital preview to read

The Plot Twist was a cute and enjoyable romance! Down on her luck with love, Sophie a romance author sets out on a series of get togethers with her past ex’s to figure out why she’s never said “I love you”. Dash is struggling with inner demons of staying sober and figuring out how to get out of acting without upsetting his parents. Together they help each-other but sparks fly along the way. I enjoyed enjoyed the humor and definitely got butterflies a time or two! Love Dash and Sophie!

I gave this 3.5 ⭐️

I really wanted to love this one, but I just liked it. I found I liked the second half of the book much more than I did rh first part. It had so many tropes that I love, but I just had trouble connecting with this book. I found myself more browsing than reading. I am glad both character gained perspective and grew through the story, but I was just hoping for more I guess.

as always, thank you netgalley + publisher for the arc

y'all, how are romances where the main character is a AUTHOR always so good??

the characters were so interesting to read about. they weren't some perfect people who just met and decided to stay together. they both had their.. issues and flaws, and that is what kept this book entertaining and interesting. Sophia, a romance author and a hopeless romantic and Dash, a used to be actor and now does crafting? and they're just all on tiktok? i just loved it.

i am a sucker for cliche tropes and this had it all, from friends with benefits, grumpy x sunshine, the girl next door. i would have enjoyed the book a little more if they were both struggling with their pinning for each other a lot longer buttttt this was okay.

this book also dealt with a lot more personal issues, such as one of the characters struggling with sobriety, mental health and dysfunctional families.

all in all, i was invested from the start and really enjoyed this.

This was a unique read for me. I love romantic comedies; however, this one tugged at my heart strings more than normal for the genre. The MMC deals with alcoholism, and his journey in healing and recovery was different from what I have read in other books. I loved how openly emotional he was with his support system. It's not often readers see a male character be emotionally vulnerable, and not just to the FMC, but with his friends and family as well. This was refreshing to read.

Also, something I say with all romantic comedies is that I need to laugh out loud while reading for it to be successfully comedic. Right from the beginning I was holding in my laughter while reading in the library. I had to cover up my snorts with a fake cough.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for an advanced readers copy of Plot Twist.

This was a sweet romance touching on deeper topics around addiction, dysfunctional families and self-love.

Sophie is a romance writer struggling to write the HEA for her sophomore novel seeing as she’s never been in love herself. Dash, a former actor and her best friend’s brother, is struggling with his issues and hiding them from his family—including running a popular crafting TikTok account. After Sophie accidentally goes viral, he ends up giving her video advice while she helps him with a speech he has to write for his famous father. With circumstances and a few romance tropes (one bed/forced proximity anyone?) throwing them together, sparks fly.

While I do feel like there were almost too many tropes/topics thrown in, I still enjoyed the core romance between Soph & Dash and their relationship/character progression.

Also, loved the shout out to a certain pink bookstore that exists irl (iykyk)!

Thanks to Netgalley and the publisher for this e-ARC.