Both of the Rosie Danan's I've read have been very good romances, and so while I might not have loved this the way I loved The Intimacy Experiment, this is definitely a good time. It also delivered the fall vibes I wanted from it when I held off on reading it until the fall months.

Here we are following Riley, a curse breaker from New Jersey as she's in Scotland to break a curse on a castle so developers can move forward with their plans. It's here that she meets Clark, an archaeologist there to ensure that the developers don't destroy anything. He's also licking his wounds from a previous project that would have made him an even bigger laughingstock of the archaeologist if his father wasn't archaeology royalty. Or that's what I took from the exchange.

Overall I think that this book did a fun job at throwing Riley and Clark together. I like their dynamic, it was fun and light and entertaining to read about. It's also the true strangers to lovers that I am always in favor of. Sure they're technically employed at the same location, and I guess you could call it workplace romance if you wanted to reach, but they didn't know each other and they had to come together to break the curse that Clark doesn't really believe in. I also thought that it incorporated the paranormal/supernatural/spiritual element of Riley being a curse breaker without ever feeling like it was going to veer into full-on fantasy romance territory. It felt like it made sense to be grounded in a contemporary setting.

The only con that I really had is I wish Riley could have had something going on outside the romance too. Clark has a whole family situation that is slowly parceled out through his section, and the way it relates back to the romance and the reason as to why he's at the castle in the first place is all very well and good, but it leaves Riley with nothing to do outside of Clark and the work they're doing together. It's not the biggest problem in the world. In some ways the story does mirror some of that back at her with the storyline with her mother, but it's not as prominent and it's not quite the same.

Overall I had a fun time with this, the smut was excellent, and while I do not believe that Clark and Riley are a couple that would last the test of time sometimes that's not as important as the fun we had getting to see them at this point in their shared journey.

Hmmm..... I'm a Danan Stan and will back her work for eternity. However, this read isn't nearly as captivating as her previous works.

I enjoyed this quite a bit for sure, but it's radically different than her other publications.

I loved Clark and the craze that was Riley. They were something fierce together. We still get some amazing steam in our Danan era.

I would rank this at the bottom of her works however.

Thank you to the publisher for the advanced ecopy

Thank you to the publisher and NetGalley for the ARC!

Rosie Danan is a master at writing erotic romance and in this book, she did not disappoint.

Do Your Worst is about Riley, a curse breaker who’s been trained on the occult from a young age, who gets hired to break a hundreds year curse on a Scottish castle. The only thing in her way is Clark, an unbelieving archeologist working onsite to save his reputation. When the 2 are thrown to work together, they realize they are enemies. But, the curse seems to want them to be the opposite in order to fix everything. So, they must go from enemies to… not.

There was a good blend in the book of romance and an actual backstory for this curse. I expected to only read smut, but the history of Arden Castle was a pleasant plotline.

I did feel the characters went from one extreme to the next in regards to their relationship with each other, but it wasn’t a bad thing. I wished there were more exciting scenes as everything seemed to happen as I predicted it would. Not a particularly standout romance, but it served its purpose in the smut department and I can see readers who want that enjoying the book. Especially for fall/spooky season!

This book was a cutie-patootie. I really enjoyed the concept of the curse and all the hard work it put in to push the people in its castle together.

Riley is a curse breaker, as her grandmother was before her. Her job is to get rid of the awful curses that get placed on placed or people, either purposely or accidentally, and bring relief to those who were cursed. She travels from New Jersey to Scotland, to break a three-centuries-old course on Arden Castle. Clark, the archeologist in charge of preserving the site, thinks she's full of crap. Curse related madness and romance ensues.

I enjoyed this a lot. This was the first I've read of Rosie Danan's work, but I throughly enjoyed it. She built a lot of fun magical elements into the story that didn't feel out of place or glaringly "magic for the sake of magic," like some magical realism books do on occasion. I love the setting in the Scottish Highlands and the background characters, when they come into play, are well-developed and fun additions.

I love that Riley is confident in herself, though she has her moments of self-doubt too. Clark has his own demons that need to be dealt with, but he's not a "broken man" like so many romance writers love to try to rehabilitate in their novels. The romance here is good, and the intimate scenes are steamy and even borderline BDSM, which is different. It's a fun enemies to lovers storyline, and even the stuck in a trope situations felt organic and not forced into being just to make sure there's a "we're stuck together" situation.

I received an Advanced Reader Copy via NetGalley in return for sharing my thoughts on this book. Thanks to the author and publisher for this opportunity!

Thank you to NetGalley and Berkley Publishing Group for this arc in exchange for an honest review!

4.5 stars

This was a really fun read and perfect for the fall. I thought this was a good representation of enemies to lovers, and I liked the development of their relationship. I thought Clark's transition from thinking she's a scammer to somewhat believing her was a little abrupt, but I liked everything that came after that.

I enjoyed both character's inner dialogue. They were both funny in their own ways, and Riley was very entertaining, though she was temporarily quite a savage to poor Clark. And of course their banter when they were getting along was great.

I also enjoyed the back story of the curse they were trying to break and was a little disappointed that we really didn't get closure on that. Did they both just die there? Were they able to sneak out and live happily ever after?

Would recommend for any romance readers, and I kind of hope Rosie writes something else in these series!

Thank you to NetGalley and Berkley for the ARC of "Do Your Worst" which is a fun, very spicy, enemies-to-lovers, contemporary romance set in the ruins of a Scottish castle in the Highlands. Riley comes from a long line of women who understand how to break curses that have been placed upon people, land, places, etc. As she tries to build her curse breaking business, she takes a job in Scotland to break a 300 year old curse on a castle currently in ruins. When she arrives, she meets Clark, son of a famous archeologist trying to win his father's approval back after getting mixed up in some bad business.

Being a man of science, Clark immediately finds Riley's curse breaking a huge joke, if not outright fraudulent. But the more they try to push each other away, the stronger their attraction to each other and, interestingly enough, the more the curse seems to want them together.

Clark and Riley get into some VERY steamy situations and, while I enjoyed most of it, one initial phrase really turned me off. Clark said Riley had porn star lips which made me cringe. But I'm glad I moved past it because the book ended up being a lot of fun with some wonderful, positive self care and self importance messages. Also, there's a library of ancient books where the couple have some major breakthroughs. Who doesn't love a story with an ancient library? And, yes, we kinda knew where this was headed from early on, even if Riley hadn't figured it out, but it was still a lot of fun to take this journey with them.

I knew Rosie Danan wouldn’t let me down and I was still blown away by this book. Riley and Clark had the kind of chemistry that you could feel radiating off the page and I just could not put this book down. I’m a sucker for a good old enemies to lovers plot and this one nailed every bit of the trope and then some. Also, sequel following Patrick and Ceilidh when?? I feel so lucky to have gotten this ARC and can’t wait for everyone to discover this absolute gem when it hits shelves.

If you're a fan of Rosie Danan's previous romances, you will certainly enjoy this one -- especially if you are a fan of U.K-set books, British book boyfriends and supernatural entities. OK, well more supernatural-adjacent because this novel is about two humans trying to break a fae's curse, though the fae is somewhat of an urban myth to them.

Do You Worst, told in dual points of view, is full of Danan's signature witty and compelling language that had me very intrigued to keep reading AND find out if they'd break the curse And yes, true to style, the spicy scenes do get extra steamy and NSFW.

Do Your Worst has the perfect blend of cozy and spicy right in time for Fall. When Riley meets Clark sparks fly...until he tries to get her fired. Fired from what, you may ask. Nothing much...just her first big time curse breaking gig, which also happens to be his archaeological site. This fun crushes-to-enemies-to-lovers book is as fun as they come and is perfect for anyone who wished My Roommate is a Vampire had just a little more spice.

I love the Scottish Highlands setting with romance. This novel had an interesting take on the romance-fantasy genre which can get redundant at times. I did enjoy the characters although I was never completely sold on the deeper connection between Clark and Riley.

Very fun, enjoyed the enemies-to-lovers of it all. and the setting, chef kisses. It was very cute overall. I wasn't a fan of the duel third person pov, I'm more into first person narrative.

I love Rosie Danan as an author, so I was really excited for this one. However I just wasn't really vibing with it. Maybe I'll try again once it comes to audiobook.

Delicious, trope-filled fun! Do Your Worst is zany and bonkers in the best way, while also grounded by stellar characterization work and Rosie Danan’s thoughtful prose. I had a blast reading this.

Cute rom com with a bit of America and a bit of the UK combined. And ghosts. And curses. Didn't completely finish but would go back.

I liked the characters and their banter was top tier, the cursed Scottish castle was a fun setting for this book as well. Riley being a curse breaker and Clark being an archeologist were two jobs that I don’t see often so I enjoyed that aspect too. I just didn’t find their romantic connection to be believable— it felt more sexual and surface level, even though there was some moments where they bond through discussing their pasts and the difficulties of familial pressure. the writing wasn’t my favorite though, so it left me feeling detached and because of that the story fell kind of flat unfortunately.

This book gets the top book award for best character hook up location. Steamy library scene for the win. Take my money. My only criticism is I wish I had felt a deeper connection with the two main characters. There were many points along the way I just thought they were over the top and way too mean to each other. I wish there had been more light hearted banter.

I wasn’t completely sure what to expect going into this one, but I really enjoyed it! Perfect for the cooler weather we are starting to get!

I loved that this had slight paranormal elements without being fully paranormal! I think it would be a good read for those who don’t normally do fantasy or paranormal but love romance!

I enjoyed that Riley and Clark had so many insecurities and that they helped each other through them (even if they shoved them into each others faces first, I mean hello enemies-to-lovers!) I did guess where the curse was going in its language, but that didn’t take away from the story for me!

This one definitely had some spicy scenes and I enjoyed that they were open about what they liked!

This book is out November 14 and I highly suggest putting it on your radar! I did receive an early copy of this book from the publisher. All opinions are my own.

I really enjoyed Rosie Danan's first two books and was eager to see the way she tackled the paranormal genre. I'm glad to see this subgenre having a moment right now and comping anything to The Mummy is a guaranteed selling point for me. I enjoyed the mystery and romantic elements and am eager to see what she does next!

Thank you Rosie Danan and Penguin Randomhouse Publishing for this digital ARC. I originally was pretty excited about this type of plot - little spiritual calling mixed with archeologist & I love a good enemies-to-lovers trope. It went right in the middle for me. I felt that the enemies came on very suddenly and almost too early in the story for me. I was just getting ready for the “setting the scene / building the base” when I immediately was interrupted by the heavy greeting of Clark. :) Not in a necessarily bad way, just wish there was a little bit more ‘world building’ in this romance. There was spice which I liked, but heavier than I anticipated!! I think many readers will end up liking it… but it was just okay for me.

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