This book was a delightful read, with characters I enjoyed and cheered or. I had such fun reading this one! When a new romance author clashes on social media with a very popular crime writer, the challenge they are faced with is what if they joined forces on a project? A clever enemies to lovers story with plenty of clever banter and just the right amount of spice. This was so enjoyable, I will be looking for more titles by this author.

As a black woman from Louisana, I applaud diversity in novels. However Marcel was kind of over the top. It seems like Shiv fetishizes him being black and Marcel reminds you of it every 3 pages....even when it isn't integral to the plot or dialogue. Everything, down to his Louisana drawl. The author mentions or references him being black 504 times. It's ridiculous.

The depiction of Louisiana was cliched in a way that if someone just googled "things associated with New Orleans" and just sprinkled them through the book. There was no real soul or appreciation behind it. It read like an intro travel guide.

I wasn't feeling the relationship between the characters. Also, I know this story was translated, and maybe that's why it seemed like the writing was so bad. Two thirds of the way through, it read like bad fan fic.

I loved this!
It has so many references from books, movies and actors that I knew and I found this helped me to enjoy the book more.
It was funny and had a lot of tension building and banter at the beginning of this book that continued the whole way through.
It gave me a real in-site into the life of black culture and living and the daily struggles they face.
I enjoyed seeing marcel grow and open up slowly through out this book and seeing his openness to a relationship at the end shows me just how much he had changed.
The only thing that let this book down slightly for me was the fact that marcels character annoyed me at times. I know his outlook on life and relationships was written to be closed off and not opened minded but this irritated me sometimes.

This was a lovely, easy read for me, a nice palate cleaner that I would recommend to those in a slump🫶

I did not enjoy this novel... at all. It wasn't believable and Marcel is unbearable. I don't even like the story outline of theirs that is forcing them to work together. I stopped at page 89. I can't imagine the story or characters getting better.

Thank you NetGalley and the publisher for providing an advanced reader copy of the book for an honest review. Any quote(s) used in my review have been uncorrected.

Thank you Amazon Crossing and Netgalley for the arc of Plot twist by Carmen Sereno. Right at the outset upon reading the blurb or of this enemy to lovers trope, I got a few Emily Henry flashbacks. But I MUST iterate that this is where the similarity ends.

I have to admit that as much as I loved the grumpy sunshine character of Marcel, I found something fell short for me in the overall story.

I loved premise from the blurb but nearly DNF'ed it due to its patchy pacing. Whilst I didn't agree with some aspects of the story, I respect that this is after all the Author's prerogative.

I really wanted to love this book, but sadly only liked it.

I was excited to read this story because I love stories about writers and basically ones which are situated in the publishing industry.

The banter between the characters was so fun to read. I really hated Marcel's character at the beginning, but he did have a character development as the story goes on but at somewhere around the end he reverted back to his personality at the beginning. However, I loved how Marvel treated her after they were writing the novel together.

I didn't like the way Siobhan forgave him so easily. He failed to properly communicate with her, yet expected her to understand his intentions.

Plus some things were not tackled properly like Marcel's father played a big part in his decisions and we didn't even see their conversation, it was skipped. Furthermore, Siobhan had some kind of problem with her agent and changed her in the end to Marcel's agent but it wasn't shown properly as to what exactly happened.

Despite the flaws I personally enjoyed reading this book. If you're looking for a quick read with an interesting premise, you should add this book to your TBR when it releases on the 6th August, 2024!

Thank you to Net Gallery, Amazon Crossing and Carmen Sereno for giving me the opportunity to review the ARC of ‘Plot Twist'.

This is far from being just another romance novel. It will definitely keep you on your toes and have you giddy at the banter between the main characters. Not predictable at all and the character development is amazing. 5 out of 5 stars!

I thought this book was beautifully written. Thank you to Netgalley for this e-ARC. What an incredibly sweet story. I loved both the characters, but especially Dash. Dash is the ultimate cinnamon roll, and I just loved him. This was also the first book I've read that specifically featured a pansexual main character, which was nice to see.

Thank you to NetGalley and Amazon Crossing for granting me access to the ARC of ‘Plot Twist' by Carmen Sereno.

This unfortunately was a DNF for me at 30%. I tried to get myself to stick with it, but I just found the characters too much to stomach. I enjoy the grumpy/sunshine trope and this would work well for people who like that to the extreme, but I just couldn't get into it. Marcel Black/Dupont is just irredeemably unlikeable at least in the first 30%. I'm sure he has some revelation on why he acts the way he does and finds that he has room in his shrunken, crumbling heart for romance afterall, but I couldn't read anymore to get to that point.

The male lead, Marcel, is so insufferably full of himself, insulting, and condescending, and the female lead, Siobhan, is the cookie cut out 'super awkward, eternal sunshine and rainbows, hopeless romantic that just can't catch a break'. All the side characters are walking stereotypes. Marcel is so unlikeable as the gloomy half of the enemies to lovers, sunshine/grumpy trope, that I could not summon up the want to read on to see what exactly his problem was. The fact that the two of them are constantly complaining about each other in their respective POVs while simultaneously obsessing over the others appearance (especially in Siobhan's case *ugh, he's terrible but his ass is amazing, and his strong arms have veins that look like rivers on a map and he's wearing glasses that make me fantasize about him tutoring me* - not a direct quote, but all things that she does indeed hyperfixate on) just seemed very strange. It's one thing for a character to be annoyed with another while also noticing at least one good quality about them, but the amount of overdesciption we get about Marcel from Siobhan's view point is just over the top for how terribly he treats her.

Also, just a small side note, but in Chapter 4, there is this line directed at Marcel by his agent; "Don't take this the wrong way, but sometimes you seem like you have Asperger's." due to Marcel's dislike of dealing with people. I don't know if it was a choice to leave in the controversial, no longer correct term of Asperger's, or if the author or translator didn't know that the term is not used anymore because of its origin, but I feel like it's an unnecessary line. Automatically equating someone who has no regard for others and quite literally hates almost everyone with a person who has autism just seems like a bad choice.

✨Book Review: Plot Twist by Carmen Sereno✨

I was lucky enough to get this book as an ARC reader from NetGalley! I love books that have the main characters as writers, publishers, editors so this was right up my alley as both the characters are writers in this story! Siobhan is a newly published and taking the book world by storm with her romance novel whereas Marcel is a wildly famous author with 14 books published of crime fiction When they get into a Twitter feud, they are forced to write a book together combining the two and it gets spicy 🌶️. I really enjoyed this book, the main characters and the side characters were funny and added to the story. There is one trope which comes up in this book which drives me crazy so that knocked my rating down a bit! But if you like a fast paced and easy to read romance then you should definitely add this to your TBR when it releases on the 6th of August 2024!

- [ ] To be honest the start of the book was a little hard to get into. I feel like the author put a lot of unnecessary information in the Prologue and it dragged. But once I got a couple chapters in I was hooked. I loved the dynamic between Marcel and Siobhan; him being a crime author who doesn’t care about love or romance and her being a hopeless romantic romcom author. The only thing that’s really bugged me is that the chapters end abruptly. It’s like once it gets intimate and you feel that rush of anticipation for the characters to finally have a cutesy moment it’s over before it’s even started. For example when the two of them are going for a walk after celebrating Marcels birthday she falls on him and he whispers “I’ve got you.” while there’s romantic music playing from a street performer. And instead of letting the scene play out, that’s it, that’s the whole scene. Which irks me because I want to read what happened not have the character some it up in two sentences in the next chapter. But overall I did enjoy it and it was a cute fast read. I got the arc through net galley. #PlotTwist #NetGalley

I would have preferred the whole book in her POV and her ending up with Alex. He matched her energy so much more.

I really enjoyed this book. The premise is amazing and I think that it was executed really well.

I really connected with Siobhan's character, the hopeless romantic aspiring author was so well written and I loved following her story.

I didn't really connect with Marcel's character as much as I hoped too. At first I really didn't like him, especially not how he looked down on other genres and thought everyone else was trash compared to him. Over time we did see some really good character development and hearing his backstory made me really understand why he was so closed off, but I just wasn't able to connect with him the way I did with Siobhan.

Siobhan's friends I also didn't really connect with. Every time they appeared all they spoke about was feminism and other activist topics/minority groups. Which is good, I think that it's important to address things like that, but it was too much. We didn't find out anything about her friends, their personalities or what they were like as people. I needed more information about their lives in order to connect with them so that fell a little bit flat for me.

Alex, however, I loved. He was so intuitive and knew everything that was going on before the MC's even knew, he really understood both sides and whilst I wish we found out more about his life and backstory, his personality was really well written and I loved every page he was on.

Overall, I did really enjoy this book, I just wasn't able to connect with some of the characters. The storyline was really well written and it is a great English debut for the author.

when I saw this book and its blurb, I wanted to read it immediately! two clashing authors that write different genres coming together to write a book together, enemies to lovers style?! that's usually what I love in a romance! and it really did not disappoint!

getting into it, I wasn't sure if I'd actually enjoy the book because Marcel, the male lead, was incredibly frustrating to me at first. I didn't vibe with whatever he had going on, though by the middle I knew that he would be developing and that I liked the direction it was going in. I'm glad we got some backstory here!

Siobhan and Marcel are the perfect sunshine × grumpy pairing, though I couldn't fully connect to either of them on a deeper level. What kept me hooked was the unexpected backstory we get, which is ironically pretty unrelated to the idea I had going in.

I'm unsure how I feel about the pov in this book, since not really liking Marcel as a character at first dragged my reading process out quite a bit. Overall, however, I enjoyed it and would call it a heartwarming read full of banter. an intriguing read for sure!

thank you netgalley and the publisher for the arc!

"Plot Twist" by Carmen Sereno is a delightful literary concoction that blends humor, romance, and a touch of rivalry into a heartwarming tale set against the vibrant backdrop of New York City. Through the lens of two clashing authors, Siobhan Harris and Marcel Black, Sereno weaves a narrative that celebrates the diversity of storytelling and the power of collaboration.

The banter was there. The tension was there. Overall, "Plot Twist" is a captivating and feel-good read that will appeal to fans of romantic comedies and literary fiction alike. Carmen Sereno's masterful storytelling and engaging characters make this novel a true standout, reminding us that sometimes, the most unexpected partnerships lead to the most extraordinary adventures.

Set mainly in New York, Plot Twist is about two authors, one a crime writer, and one romance, who are paired together to create a genre mash-up novel.
Firstly, New York City and New Orleans were characters of their own in this book, the author really brought them to life. The storyline had great promise but a few things fell short of making it a perfect romance for me.
Oh how I love an enemies to lovers but for almost the majority of the book Marcel is severely unlikeable (asking for her to be paid 50k less, asking about her weight, etc). They did have good banter but those classic small moments to show his inner monologue/redeeming qualities were missing for me.
He only redeemed himself at about the 90% mark. I love a slow burn, but not that slow. This made it slightly unrealistic for me as he suddenly becomes a loud romantic - perhaps the character development was TOO subtle!

In all honesty, it was probably just under a three for me, but I rounded up because it was an easy read, the premise was great and I liked Siobhan as a character.

Thanks to NetGalley for the advanced reader copy.

This was a fun grumpy-meets-sunshine/enemies-to-lovers romance. I was happy to see that the author was thinking about Regé-Jean Page when she was writing Marcel, since that's exactly who I pictured while reading. Being forced together to write a crime plus romance book created lots of opportunities for the characters to be thrown together. My biggest quibble with the book was that Marcel's character read as much older than mid-thirties and Siobhan read as younger (more naive) than being thirty years old. Even in the heightened reality of a romance world, Marcel often came across as being in his early to mid-fifties, which sometimes made me cautious about how much I should root for this relationship, especially since Shiv came across as much younger than a woman who'd spent at least four years attending college in New York City, then staying for work should. Overall, a fast-paced, fun English language debut.

There were aspects of this that I enjoyed. The quality of the writing was good and so was the dialogue. The characters, however, just didn’t resonate fully with me.

I could see how this could be an enjoyable read. I think the writing is great. There were just too many things in this book that bothered me. The things that Marcel said to Siobhan in the first half of the book just didn’t seem redeemable for me. I understood why he was the way he was by the end of the book but I couldn’t shake the feeling that maybe he needed to heal alone before he got into a relationship. I don’t have faith in him being able to love Siobhan the way she deserves to be loved. I really wish his character was more closed off than just outright rude. The ending was very nice though.

I was iffy about this book at first. Marcel’s character is a real turn off in the beginning. They way he treated Siobhan and how much he dissed her work and romance novels as a whole, saying it’s not true literature, really made me dislike him and I wasn’t sure I would finish reading this.

I did, though. Over time, Marcel slowly changes. He’s still a jerk to Siobhan on occasion, but out of the two of them, he’s got the subtle character growth throughout the book. He goes from saying love is despicable to wanting everything with her.

There are several things about this book that I was annoyed with or felt wasn’t necessary. I’m not sure if it’s just the nature of the book, or because it’s a translated version. There were a lot of long descriptions for places and events that could have easily been shortened and still gotten the point across. It doesn’t happen incredibly often, but it’s also something I’ve noticed in several books I’ve read in the past year - I find it annoying when authors emphasize the color of one’s skin. I don’t feel it necessary to capitalize black, when describing people of color. To me, it just feels like putting unnecessary attention to it. You can write inclusive content without making it look like you’re blatantly saying, “look! Look what I did!”

I also felt like Marcel needed more of an epiphany and or panic when he realized he was in love with Siobhan. For someone completely against love and love stories, the conflict didn’t hold much oomph.

In the end, I did finish the book, it was just not a wow story for me, or one I have a desire to maybe read again one day.