This book sadly wasn’t for me. I couldn’t really connect either the characters. The concept was so cute and I was so excited to read it! So I could definitely see how others would really enjoy it. Maybe it was just the wrong time for me.

The premise of this book is so fun, I enjoyed this and had fun with it! I liked both Mason and Sawyer characters and their quirky romance, loved that the base of their relationship was a true friendship. I enjoyed all the rom-com references and the trope checklist they were enacting. Their banter and chemistry was so vibrant and lively. I’d definitely read more from this author again in the future.

thank you to Netgalley and Forever for my eARC in exchange of my honest opinion

This one was super cute and surprised me in the best way.
I love the concept of making a do not fall in love list and then the whole thing gets thrown out the window lol.
And the last grand gesture (with the vintage boombox) loved it.

Lot of romance trope / romcom validation in this one! The MCs explore a lot of romantic cliches in their fake/un-dating, it was so cool reading them

-- ty to the author, the publisher and Netgalley for an advanced copy!

Sawyer is a romance writer with writer's block and Mason is an actor with a string of wrong relationships as a hopeless romantic. After a meet cute, the two agree to help each other out. Sawyer will break him of his romantic streak if Mason will give her ideas to cure her writer's block.

I loved Mason even if Sawyer was utterly frustrating at times. A Chicago setting is always fun for me being in the area. The idea of each chapter being a different romance trope was so creative and something new in the genre.

I would recommend this read to lovers of romance.

3.5 ⭐️ rounded up. This was great for a debut novel!!

I love the premise behind it and adore the MMC. The FMC annoyed me at times and it did get a little daunting.

However overall I did enjoy it.

I did get to listen to the audio and I don’t the male narrator matched the character at all.

Thank you NetGalley and publisher for the gifted copy.

I'm not embarrassed or ashamed to say that I love all the tropes and cliches in romance. That's what makes it comforting, knowing that something good is coming. Unromance brings all the best of those. Yes, technically they're trying to ruin love and romance and all the cliches one by one checking them off a list, but of course, Sawyer and Mason catch feelings. I adore Sawyer's sense of humor and how cynical she is. Mason is the perfect cinnamon roll to her black cat. Unromance is hilarious, makes the best references to some iconic rom-coms and ultimately will leave you with the happy fuzzy feeling we all need right now.

Fake dating and dating with a "plan" - two oft-used tropes, but this story managed to be fresh and fun, while still following the plan. Sawyer and Mason were interesting and layered characters, and I loved following them through the attempts to destroy romance.

A hopeless romantic actor with a very messy dating history shares an elevator meet-cute with a romance writer on deadline who doesn’t believe in love anymore and their fun one-night stand turns into a shared plan to ruin all the romance tropes they can think of and solve each other's problems. And then, they fall in love, because of course.

This was a lot of fun...for the first half. The writing was witty and sharp, the dialogue felt genuine, the spice scenes were compelling and not over the top, and both characters had enough of a backstory to keep me interested in their success. For a book about romance tropes, the depictions of Sawyer's writing career, and of Mason's acting career, felt really realistic and not falsely overdone to raise the stakes, which I appreciated. And honestly, none of the tropey elements of the book - each chapter beginning with a note on the trope of the day, the list of tropes the characters are trying to get through, the jaded romance author meets heartthrob celebrity trope thats as old as time - ever felt too annoying or too cringey. Sawyer's jadedness never felt too unrealistic, Mason never took his public personality too seriously to the point of being horrifically self-centered, and the slightly meta banter between them was fun. Kudos to Erin Connor for pulling it off.

My main gripe is that the second half of the book, and the third act breakup I should have been expecting, fell a little flat to me. I started to get a little bored, and I wish the big conflict didn't feel so contrived and so.......inane. But, the characters bounced back well, and the grand gesture of it all was a cute way to end the book.

My other, smaller issue (that will probably not bother everyone the way it bothered me, but whatever) is the amount of quippy chronically online lines. Comparing the MALE lead to Taylor Swift in her reputation era (you know, the era where she was being sexually harassed, publically shamed, and bullied by bigoted male celebrities) is weird and insensitive as hell. She then named her vagina Coochie Mane, and also named her vibrator after the love interest and thanked it for giving her an orgasm. So that put me off the fmc a bit.

Otherwise, this was fun, and even though it wasn't for me, it will definitely find its audience. I saw someone else describe this as 'one night stand to strangers to lovers to idiots to lovers' and I think that's a perfect descriptor. Contemporary romance lovers will really love this!

P.S: shoutout to the author for wriitng a bi female main character who was not protrayed as slutty or indecisive or just killing time with women until she meets her dream man. Sawyer is really solid bi representation, imo.

This book was absolutely adorable. The author does a great job of highlighting romance cliches in the cutest way possible, and the grumpy x sunshine banter between Sawyer and Mason is so much fun. This is a fluffy and sweet romance book that is certain to brighten your mood. I would highly recommend it!

At first, when I picked up this book, I just couldn’t connect with it, so I decided to put it down for a while. But honestly, that was on me, because when I gave it another shot, it completely won me over. The complex characters made everything feel so real, and I ended up totally hooked!

The author goes beyond the usual clichés, delivering raw emotions and moments that made me laugh, swoon, and even question the characters’ choices. The chemistry between them is undeniable, and their journey feels so real that I felt like I was living it with them. It was such a captivating and unexpectedly deep read—I highly recommend it!

THE TIGHTS.

That’s it, that’s the review.

But seriously, this book was utter perfection. Hilarious and heartwarming. We need more books like this in the genre.

Ohhh, this book was just not it for me. I went in expecting a fun, engaging romance, but instead, I got a bunch of unlikeable characters and a plot that just sat there. Nothing was really happening.

Sawyer is a jaded romance author who decides to "unromance" Mason, a guy who falls in love way too easily. The plan? Take him through a list of classic romance tropes to prove that love is not all it is cracked up to be. That actually sounds like a great premise, right? Yeah, well, the execution was a total flop.

I also somehow missed that this was basically a Hallmark Christmas movie in book form. If I had known, maybe I would have adjusted my expectations. But I didn't. So imagine my frustration when we were out here cutting down Christmas trees instead of dealing with actual problems. And do not even get me started on the miscommunication and that breakup. I was fuming.

This one was definitely not for me. If you like small-town Christmas-y romance with a little bit of chaos, you might have a better time, but personally, it is a hard pass.

This book had me grinning from start to finish! Unromance is the perfect mix of sarcasm, swoon, and trope-filled goodness.

Sawyer is a romance author who’s completely over love, and Mason is a walking heart-eyes emoji. Their dynamic? Reverse grumpy/sunshine at its finest! Watching them clash (and then, obviously, catch feelings) made for such a fun ride.

One of my favorite parts? The hilarious blurbs at the start of each chapter. Think rom-com wisdom meets peak sarcasm—I read them out loud because I just couldn’t keep them to myself!

If you love:
🔥 One-night stand
☀️ Reverse grumpy/sunshine
✍️ Famous romance writer x celebrity hero
💖 All the romance tropes
🌈 Bi rep

…then you NEED this book in your life. Highly recommend! ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️💫

Thank you Netgalley for giving me the opportunity to read and review this book. The opinions written are completely honest and my own.

I loved everything about this book until Christmas. It seemed to have slowed down and just seemed a bit repetitive. I got to page 223 and had to stop due to lack of interest.

DNF @50%

I was so disappointed that this book did not work for me. I found the romance to be forced and I did not like either character or believe their relationship. Sawyer just started to get on my nerves and the reluctance to communicate was driving me crazy.

I enjoyed the nod to famous romantic comedies and I love a good trope, but unfortunately it felt forced here. This ended up not being for me, but I could see how others would enjoy it.

DNF @ 62%

Unfortunately, I had to call it quits when I made it to the third act of the book and found I didn't feel any connection to either character or their romance.

I absolutely adored EVERYTHING about this debut novel. The meet-cute, their relationship development, their banter, their chemistry. It was an incredibly painful slow burn that had me swooning and kicking my feet.

The references from other entertainment movies and shows made me nostalgic and really confirmed that this book fit the "rom-com" genre so well.

This book turned Erin Connor into an auto-buy, auto-read author and this is definitely a book that I absolutely want to read time and time again.

Huge thank you to NetGalley and Forever Pub for the e-arc in exchange of my honest review.

Thank you so much to NetGalley and Forever (Grand Central publishing) for my ARC copy of this book!

Such an easy 5 ⭐!

I really loved reading this book! I'm a little bit upset it took me so long to pick up, actually.

The notion of going through romance tropes might sound boring, but everything happened so naturally that nothing felt forced. I loved the way that Sawyer and Mason interacted; they had some beautiful banter and sizzling tension and it was just perfect for me.

I can't wait to read more by Erin now!

I thought this was super cute, but didn’t stand out to me as amazing. The chemistry was believable and characters likable, but felt like it was missing something to be fully fleshed out and invested in the story. Overall still recommend!