This was an enjoyable story, but I wish it were a quicker read. I don't know if it needed additional editing to cut down on repeat comments, but was a slog in some parts to get through. The characters were drawn well and the romance was not overly dramatic, especially in the end. Romance readers will enjoy each new trope that pops up. This was a solid, but not great title.

🩵📖ARC R E V I E W📖🩵. Thank you @atriabooks and @victorialavinewrites for the @netgalley ARC of Any Trope But You. I absolute devoured this one! A listener voicemail on the @badonpaperpodcast touted this as her favorite book of year and said that this author was going to be the next big name in romance. I was immediately intrigued and wholeheartedly agree, I loved it!

Margot is a best-selling romance author based in LA and lives and cares for her sister who has an auto-immune disease. Margot herself has had a lot of disappointment in her life and doesn’t believe in the HEAs she writes for her characters. Her secret is exposed when her Happily Never After document was hacked and released to the public. She’s cancelled and dropped by her publisher. She decides to switch genres and write a murder mystery since the romance community has shunned her. 🔪

Her sister, Savannah, books Margot a 6-week stay at a remote Alaskan resort for her to get away and buckle down to write her new manuscript. There she meets Forrest, an LA-based cancer researcher who is back home caring for his father. Both main characters don’t know what has hit them when Margot arrives in Alaska and the romance tropes start and don’t stop coming.

This is truly the perfect romcom. It’s hysterical, heartfelt, tension for days, and the perfect amount of spice. Such a fantastic debut that I’ll be recommending to every romance reader I know. This one is being released 4/1 (not a joke), but so worth the wait! ❄️

I absolutely adored this book! How is it a debut?! The fact that this isn’t coming out until April is really sad to me because I think it would do so well in the fall/winter.

I loved the setting of Alaska and the tension was off the charts. Margot and Forrest were so good together and the way the title wove into the story was perfection. I may never recover from the sauna scene 🥵

My only thing that I struggled with was the long chapters, which is a me problem. I usually cannot stop mid chapter in a book but had to a few times in this one. It didn’t stop me from loving the book any less. The character development was unmatched and the ending was perfectly wrapped up.

I cannot wait to see what Lavine does next!

I just finished reading "Any Trope But You" by Victoria Lavine, and what a fun surprise! The story follows Margot, a romance author who's lost faith in happy endings, as she embarks on a journey to rediscover herself in the Alaskan wilderness. The dynamic between Margot and Forrest is both heartwarming and hilarious. Their banter kept me entertained, and I loved seeing their relationship evolve. The book beautifully captures the struggles and joys of caregiving, adding depth to the romance. It's a perfect blend of humor, emotion, and steamy moments that kept me hooked from start to finish.

Ok - loved this!!! Such a fun take on one of the characters being an author. I loved the grumpy sunshine vibes but also how warm and caring Forrest could be with Margot. This is the perfect winter read!

This book has what so many romances are lacking: reality. There are real-life challenges that aren’t resolved, but managed. We get our HEA, but it feels real. The dialogue is sharp, witty, and roots us in the present. The characters aren’t caricatures, and the knowing references to all the tropes are fun without being heavy-handed. I really enjoyed this book!

This book was okay *shrug emoji*

I want to be WOWED by a romance and unfortunately this one just didn’t have what I was looking for. I didn’t connect with the characters, I found the inciting incident unrealistic, and the writing a bit cheesy.

I did like the way illness and caretaking entered the plot - it was a little different from what I usually see in books like these.

Overall, though, it was a miss for me…but if you’re looking for a ln easy wintry read with lots of common tropes, it might be for you!

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for an ARC in exchange for this honest review.

Any Trope But You by Victoria Lavine was a refreshing read. I loved the book's premise. I enjoyed how different it was to read. The main character is a writer (cliché, I know) who is basically cancelled because all of her HEA stories turn out to be not as HEA as they appear, so her sister convinces/sends her on a trip to find/reinvent herself and her writing so that she can make a comeback, but what Margot, our main lead, doesn't expect is to find romance with our male lead, Forrest, who happens to be the blueprint for perfect book boyfriend material. Margot and Forrest cross off so many book boyfriend check marks that
Margot begins to question whether HEA exists.I was cheering for these two from the beginning; their banter and chemistry were endearing and amusing. I really loved Margot and her sister's bond. I related to the narrative since I have a supportive sister and am a cancer patient, which added to my emotional connection. Overall, I was impressed with this author's book, especially considering it was her debut novel, and I hope to read more of her work.

⚠️I was gifted an ARC courtesy of Atria Publicity and Netgalley and this is my honest review.

Thank you Net Galley and publishers for letting me read an arc of this book in return for an honest review.

How dare this book make me feel all the things! Ugh, as I write this with tears in my eyes I can't help but think of my own HEA. Like Margot, I didn't want to believe in love. I found all the tropes cringey and hallmark movies too cliche when out of no where in bursts my walking cliche of a husband. I couldn't stop smiling and laughing at every trope that Margot found herself in and Forrest is literally a cinnamon roll of a guy. The epitome of grumpy vs sunshine. He's a doctor researching breast cancer, c'mon! There's so many heartwarming and relatable events in this book, I couldn't put it down. It's a very feel good story about not only relationship love but the love of family, which may be more powerful. This story was definitely a favorite of mine this year.

omg what a slam dunk debut!!

And what a great winter read -- I'm so glad I chose to read this when I did.

A cancelled romance author who doesn't believe in HEAs is exiled to the Alaskan bush to reinvent herself and escape the virtual vitriol. During only-one-tent wilderness excursions and the unfortunate proximity to a real-life (yet grumpy) romance hero -- essentially, all the tropes Margot writes but fundamentally doesn't believe in -- she must decide how to move forward amidst the unknowns of her future and her heart. Both she and the uber-hot Mountain Daddy™ Forrest (yep, a forest-dwelling Forrest) find unexpected connection in caring for their chronically-ill family members and fight to ignore their immediate physical connection. What do their futures look like, and how can they include each other? And can Margot find faith in her own possible HEA?

Damn, this book is so smart and WILDLY funny. I was so impressed with Victoria's writing and could not put this book down once I started. It's beautifully understanding of the feelings of caregivers and full of emotionally resonant conversations around illness and loss -- both in the lives of the ill, and in the lives of the caretakers. Plus, it's super hot (steamy sauna time, literally and figuratively) and is such a tender love note to romance readers and the romance genre. It's a story about hope, resilience, growth, sacrifice, love, brave forward motion.

There will be (much) cackling, heartstring-tugging tears, fanning oneself, and loss of respectable bedtime routines. All this to say: a must read.

ANY TROPE BUT YOU is meta as hell and I gobbled it up yum yum yum

(*my only minor note is about pacing: I wanted one less third act breakup -- there are two -- and the first felt unnecessary. I wanted that time to help build the relationship and trust between Forrest and Margot so her change of heart about HEAs was stronger, more believable, and more satisfactory. Then again, that's coming from me, a jaded, recently divorced HEA-skeptic. HA.)

Thank you to Atria Books and NetGalley for the e-ARC (and Atria Books for the physical ARC) in exchange for my honest, unbiased review. ANY TROPE BUT YOU is out 04/1/25.

This book was just ok. I loved the Alaska setting but I didn’t feel a ton of depth with the characters. I also don’t love insta love/attraction and felt like this sort of leaned that way.

Such a cute winter romance read <3

~ plot ~
a romance authors darkest secret is exposed and her fans start to turn on her. Margot’s sister exiles her to Alaska for six whole weeks without wifi to rediscover herself. this is where she meets her stereotypical romance MMC & struggles to believe the men she writes about are actually real. Forest (aka Mr perfect) works at the Alaskan resort Margot was exiled to and chose to taking care of his disabled father over his career in cancer research (swoon). Let the steamy romance and cliche tropes begin!

~review~
Amazing debut novel by this author! This book was such a perfect wintery read & the depth to the characters & their background stories made it hard to put down. Perfect amount of spice to story telling ratio as well. I would recommend adding to every romance lover’’s TBR!

What a sweet DEBUT novel! I am a sucker for an enemies-to-lovers trope in any romance novel, so it was easy for me to get hooked into this quickly.

It reminded me a lot of the themes in It Happened One Summer and The Simple Wild (like, hello city girl in essentially “exile” in a small town/rural area, and one is actually also set in Alaska).

Margot is a romance author living in LA with her younger sister who has a chronic illness. Margot has trouble believing in the HEA and her secret is hacked off her laptop and leaked across the internet. She gets cancelled by her fans/publishing industry so her sister sends her to her “exile” in Alaska where there is no wifi or cell service to essentially find herself again. Then enters Dr Forrest Wakefield, the son of the owner of the North Star Lodge, who leads her to question everything. Forrest also struggles with the HEA and is afraid to commit to anyone, except maybe his father and due to health issues, Forrest puts his career on hold to return home to Alaska to help his father run the resort. Can these two put their own fears aside to try for their own HEA?

This is a novel of tropes. Enemies-to-lovers? Check. Forced Proximity? Check. Meet Cute? Check? Love at first sight/slow burn? Uhm, YES.

✨ARC Review✨

Sometimes you read a book that is perfectly perfect and exactly what you want at that time. This is that book for me.

Margot is a successful romance author who secretly doesn’t believe in HEAs. She loves her fans and the success they’ve brought her, but she thinks they’re naive for believing in love. Obviously, Margot has *issues*. She also has a chronically ill sister/bestie whom she cares for.

During a live Zoom call with a podcaster, someone shares her formerly secret Happily Never After files. These are the alternate endings to all her romance novels: they end in divorce and erectile dysfunction. You already know she gets canceled.

Her sister, Savannah (Van), convinces her to go on an Alaskan retreat. It’s remote. It’s cold as hell. And Margot is not happy. Until she thinks she’s being stalked by a bear and jumps into a stranger’s muscular arms.

That stranger is Forrest. He’s a doctor home in Alaska helping to care for his father. He’s stunned by the beauty in his arms, but he’s sworn off getting involved with guests.

And then every trope you’ve ever wanted starts happening and it’s funny and sweet and absolutely delightful.

These two also “get” each other in the way two caregivers of the most important people in their lives do.

Highly recommend! @victorialavinewrites has written a stunner! ❤️❤️❤️

I was given this eARC via #netgalley and @atriabooks. All thoughts are mine alone.

#romance #romancebooks #contemporaryromance #

When a romance author falls out of favor with her audience, what's a girl to do? Set off for Alaska of course! Finding herself and a new romance in the piles of snow, this trope had me hook, line, and sinker.

Any Trope but You is about a bestselling romance author who goes to Alaska to reinvent herself and wants to write her first murder mystery but the resort proprietor has her fearing that she is in a rom-com plot instead. The author wrote this so well and I was turing pages until the very end. I loved all of the characters in this especially Margot. I loved the winter setting in the book a lot. I can not wait to read more books by this author. Overall, this was an amazing rom-com that I loved so very much. I would recommend this one to any reader especially to romance readers. Thank you to NetGalley and Atria Books for this romance read in exchange of my honest review of Any Trope but You by Victoria Lavine.

Thank you to NetGalley and the Publisher for the advanced copy!

Tonight my husband asked me if I was done reading rom-coms yet and I said “probably not.” I’m in a swoon-hole and I can’t get out of it and I’m perfectly okay with it.

This one was perfection. All the tropes tied into one and really just adorable. The banter was cute and quirky. You’ll get the ending you want for sure, which is the reason we are all reading these to begin with. And the steam was chef’s kiss!

Thank you so much to atria books and netgalley for an e-arc in exchange for an honest review!!

This book was a fun, trope-filled ride that had me smiling at its Hallmark-movie charm—truly, a compliment! I loved the clever play on romance tropes, from meet-cutes gone awry to forced proximity in the snowy Alaskan wilderness. Margot’s journey to reinvent herself after losing everything was engaging, and I enjoyed the unique premise of a romance author diving into murder mysteries.

That said, this one was more of a like than a love for me. While Margot and Forrest’s story had potential, I wished for more chemistry between them to truly sell their connection. Margot’s relationship with her sister, Savannah, felt unhealthy at times, and the emotional weight of their bond didn’t always land for me. Additionally, Margot’s behavior often made her seem far younger than her stated age (which I think it said she was in her thirties), which occasionally pulled me out of the story. And while the puns and jokes were fun, there were just a few too many for my taste.

Still, the heartwarming storyline and cozy, snowy setting make this a great winter read. If you’re a fan of romantic comedies with a side of self-discovery, you’ll want to check this one out!

I loved this book so much! I haven’t shut up about it since finishing it. A real joy to read during the holiday season.

4.75 stars, rounded up

I absolutely loved this!! I thought it was the perfect Holiday rom-com! The characters were perfectly hilarious, the setting was perfect for the holidays, and the plot was great! I especially loved the pointing out and making fun of all of the romance tropes. I found myself laughing out loud throughout the whole book and even cried a few times as well.

I wish I could reread this for the first time all over again because it was nearly perfect. I also felt like it showed real relationships very well, both the good and bad parts of them. It felt very authentic (even though some of the ways the characters found themselves in the different tropes were a bit outlandish at times, I didn't feel like that took away from the plot or character development, it was just for comedic relief), which I enjoyed greatly.

I cannot wait for the next book by Victoria Lavine, I just want more from her!

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for this ARC in exchange for an honest review!