Member Reviews

I loved this so much!! Our FMC is a romance writer, and after her alternate endings file is exploited, her sister sends her to Alaska for 6 weeks. Of course a romance reader and writer knows all the tropes when it comes to romance, so of course the first time she meets the MMC, she’s jumping in his arms after away from a moose! Trope after trope, this story was so cute! There was some great spicy scenes! The character building was there! Highly recommend!

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When disgraced romance author Margot's sister banishes her to the Alaskan wilderness in order to write a new book (she's been cancelled after her "Happily Never After" file on her computer was leaked and her readers felt betrayed), she is wildly out of her element. No wifi, no luxury, and more outdoor excursions than she'd ever want to do in her life. Her life becomes one of the romance books she's so familiar with when she meets Forrest, the owner's son who works at the lodge where she's staying for the month. There's chemistry between them, yes, but can both of them take a chance on love when real life threatens to get in the way?

Overall this was a really cute book. I loved the location and the chemistry between the two leads. The sibling relationship between Margot and Savannah was very sweet, as well. But omg there were so many metaphors in this book! An insane amount! It took me out of the prose sometimes, if I'm going to be honest. There were also some issues with pacing that made the book hard to come back to, but for the most part it was a sweet debut.

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I thought this was a great, well written rom-com. The characters were relatable and story line easy to follow.

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Any Trope buy You started off well. There is a plausible-ish reason for Margot to head to the wilds of Alaska and embark on various wilderness adventures. It was fun seeing Margot - a romance writer who doesn’t believe in the holy grail of all romance stories, the HEA - roll her eyes as she falls into one romance trope after another with the most perfect romantic leading man ever, Forrest.

Savannah, Margot’s sister, is by far the best character and her letters to Margot are the best part of Any Trope but You. Sadly, there is not nearly enough of Savannah.

I’m going to keep this short, because I don’t have much good to say. My opinion of this book is wildly different from the majority of the reviews I’ve read. In short, both Margot and Forrest are selfish people with savior complexes. They infantilized Savannah and Trapper (Forrest’s dad) and made caring for them all about themselves.

Thank you to Atria Books for the digital ARC, which I voluntarily read and reviewed.

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The start to this book was interesting and I knew I was in for a good time. I was right. The characters are human with all of the curve balls and uncertainty that life throws at you. The romance sizzles and the plot line is certainly unique. I would certainly recommend this book as not just a romance but as a contemporary novel in today's world of caregivers (Of which I was one for 8:years). I received an e-book from NetGalley in return for an unbiased review.

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OKAYYY, so I gave this book a solid 4/5 ⭐️

This story starts with Margot, a romance novel author, who looses her passion for love and happily ever afters. She has a private file of Happily Never Afters, which contains bad endings to all her books she planned/would want to do. During a zoom meeting with fans, someone hacks into her computer and shows the file to EVERYONE. She then gets cancelled, and her sister sends her to Alaska, where she can find herself and try a new genre; writing mystery and thriller books. She meets the bucheron lookalike Forrest, a grumpy that’s also a softie when you get to know him. At first, they hate each other, and throughout the book, they get to know each other and spend more time together, and their attraction is undeniable. Andddd the rest is history, you’ve got to read the rest if you want to know more, I don’t want to spoil too much 👀

I absolutely LOVED this book! At first I wasn’t sure if I was going to like Margot because she was kinda annoying and rude to Forrest for no reason, but I ended up liking her! She was such a strong and sensitive character! As for Forrest, he was sooo cute and so caring 🥹 I loved how adorable he was with his dad!

As for the story itself, it was the typical hallmark movie; such a cute story with lovable characters. It was pretty predictable just like in movies, but I couldn’t help smiling and kicking my feet LOL. Forrest was the absolute sweetest with Margot, always there for her and helping her with everything. And the letters Savannah wrote for Margot? SO CUTE! And the Taylor Swift references? i am SOLD !!! And just the title of the book made me want to read it; talking about romance tropes throughout the book was just so cool and such bookgirlie coded to me! 🫶🏼

I would 100% recommend this book! It’s out on April 1st if you want to read it 🤍

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Margot, is a romance author, but gets cancelled by her fans after her Happily Never After documented is shared. Her sister send her to Alaska where she meets the handsome Dr. Forrest Wakesfield. I loved this enemies to lovers, forced proximity, dual pov romance story.

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Any Trope But You is a stunningly heartfelt debut that pays homage to the romance genre, while also discussing why people feel the urge to pick up fiction in the first place. The story explores many tough realities of the world, such as dealing with health issues and learning to find reason to put yourself out there. I absolutely adored this story. From start to finish, I was compelled to keep reading. The romance is swoon-worthy and perfectly paced, but the character growth and thematic writing was the highlight of the book. Victoria Lavine manages to write with such maturity, while still keeping levity in her novel. I really loved this book and can't wait to see what she puts out next.

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This is really cute! I kind of wish it came out more so in the winter time because I really enjoyed reading it on a snowy day. I really loved the banter between Margot and Forrest, and it had excellent spice!

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This book is an unapologetic love letter to romance tropes, and that premise alone should give you a good idea of whether you’ll love it or hate it. I definitely didn’t hate it, but given my very rocky relationship with the whole concept of tropes and the way they’re used in the romance genre, I didn’t love it either.

I’ll say the writing here is solid, especially when it comes to the spice. Those scenes were the best, most skillful part of the book for me—sexy, emotional, and detailed without being cringe. Some of the dialogue throughout is clunky and veering into therapy speak, which isn’t unsurprising given some of the heavy themes the book deals with. But for the most part, ATBY’s prose goes down easy—I flew through the back half of it on a long flight.

The concept of a romance writer having tropes happen to her in real life was harder to swallow. Pretty much everything about this book is pure fantasy on purpose, especially when it comes to money—Margo is a wildly successful romance writer who makes enough money from writing to comfortably buy and renovate an old house, pay for her disabled sister’s healthcare, and get a random boob job; Forrest is well over 6 feet, effortlessly jacked with visible abs, a brilliant doctor at the top of his field—oh, and he doesn’t spend much money so he’s also rich. Then Margo suffers multiple medical ailments that have no long lasting consequences other than Forrest having to be close to her so he becomes more and more enamored with her. Both characters are SO selfless, and those that have hurt them are SO nasty and irredeemable. It’s obviously meta, and I would think the idea is for the tropes to be subverted in some way, but…they’re not subverted. It’s just like yeah, forced proximity DOES make you fall in love, and Forrest really IS that perfect. The only thing stopping you from having a 6’4” sexy doctor for a boyfriend is that you haven’t met him yet. And everyone in this book has unlimited money to deal with any logistical or health-related problems in their lives, because they just do.

I suppose it’s just a little bit too fantastical for me, especially when I’ve never liked tropes only for tropes’ sake. Only one bed or exposed forearms do nothing for me just by virtue of being stated; it’s the way they’re executed by the writer that makes them soar or fall flat. I get that romance marketing lives and dies by tropes now and that makes this type of meta book catnip to publishers (this is the second one I’ve read in a few weeks) but I can’t say I’m happy about that, lol. Now Levine does often write these tropes well, or at least competently, but the whole wink-wink premise just wasn’t totally for me. And I hated how many of the tropes (pretty much all of the ones that occurred during any wilderness activity) relied on Margot being a complete idiot.

Going back in time a bit, the reason for Margot’s canceling did not make sense to me. The idea that romance readers would react the way they did to a revelation like the “Happily Never After” document being leaked didn’t sit right with me. As HEA-obsessed as readers are, I don’t think they’d be more shocked by the document than they’d be to someone doing a hostile takeover of a zoom call to leak a writer’s private documents. It was a bit of a weak setup. But it sure sounds nice in the back cover blurb, lol.

Not sure how I feel about the resolution of the chronic illness/disability plots for both characters, since they pretty much resolved the same way and that way leaned heavily, imo, on having astronomical sums of money that were kind of unacknowledged by the characters. Idk, I don’t WANT them to talk about money and insurance a bunch, so it was probably written in the best possible way, but it felt a little surface level.

This is a very solid debut that doesn’t shy away from the tough stuff and has genuinely killer sex scenes, but your enjoyment will likely hinge on how many tropes you can stomach.

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I absolutely fell in love with this book, and it gave me a great escape from the chaos of life. The way it was written made you become so infatuated with all of the characters, and like you were in the book. Completely predictable, but 1000% worth the read!

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This had a fun premise, but fell lacking for me. I liked parts of it, but other parts felt rushed? Overall I didn't think it was terrible, I think many people could enjoy it. It just wasn't for me

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The debut from Victoria Lavine is a fun exploration of romance tropes and a wonderful love letter to romance novels. Margot is a romance novelist disillusioned from love. Forrest is helping out at his family’s retreat in Alaska.

A love story between two fundamentally good people. I laughed and I cried. I could not put this one down. Loved the banter, the families and all the supporting characters, especially Trapper and Savannah. Heartfelt and relatable…congratulations to Victoria Lavine on this incredible debut!

Thanks to Netgalley, Atria Books and Victoria Lavine for this eARC in exchange for an honest review

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So sweet and swoony! I had a blast reading this wintery, cozy, spicy delight. ANY TROPE BUT YOU is very funny, and I immediately fell in love with the voice of Margot. What’s so great about ATBY is that delicious Forrest sounds totally different, which is so hard to do in dual POV. The sauna scene was hot hot hot and the sister relationship and the relationship between Forrest and his dad were so meaningful and lovely. Fans of Christina Lauren and Abby Jimenez will go feral!!! Sign me UP for whatever Victoria writes next.

Thank you to Atria and NetGalley for an ARC in exchange for my honest review.

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Thank you to Netgalley and Atria for providing this ARC!

A jaded romance author’s Happily Never After list is leaked, resulting in her getting cancelled by her fans. She goes on an Alaskan wilderness trip to write her first murder mystery novel, where she meets the hunky resort proprietor who she subsequently finds herself in various romance tropes with.

What I loved: the catchy premise, the hilarious first chapter, funny writing, witty banter, dual POVs, the Alaskan setting, the first 50% of the book

What didn’t work for me: the countless TS references, the countless “sweethearts”, back to back to back sex scenes crammed in the second half of the book

This book started off great for me. I didn’t mind all the tropes and actually enjoyed the build-up and chemistry between the MCs. While I thoroughly enjoyed the first half, it unfortunately lost me at around the 60-70% mark and dragged for what felt like 400 pages. I also felt like the MMC was too perfect/too good to be true—I kept waiting for his flaws to be revealed, but even the huge conflict only painted him as more perfect.

Overall this was still a fun read and perfect to read on a snowy winter day (which is exactly what I did)!

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I mostly enjoyed this story about Margot the romance novelist who doesn't believe in her own happy endings. It is quite humorous watching her experience every romantic trope with her very own hero in the Alaskan wilderness. Couple that with a very sweet ending and you could have had a very delightful romance. However, the overly abundant use of the word f--k and the overly graphic bedroom scenes will keep me from recommending this one to my friends.
Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for the ARC.

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Any Trope but You is a Hallmark style, enemies to lovers rom-com. This book made my heart happy, and I felt ALL the emotions while reading this book. The FMC, Margot, is on a 6 week forced vacation in Alaska, after her “Happily Never After” document gets release, and let me tell you, Margot is like a fish out of water in Alaska. There were some scenes that were definitely on the corny side (the moose scene, the whole camping problem, etc.) but, it works well for the style of the book. The only thing that annoyed me slightly was that I felt like Margot was constantly a damsel in distress who needed saving from her lumberjack not-boyfriend. Overall, this book still managed to make me smile, though, and I enjoyed it.

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I think an all trope book is actually kinda fun. At first I was feeling very hallmark cheesy but I enjoyed that.
Overall this was a love letter to the romance genre and its readers of how they long for a HEA and it’s hard to accept anything different, but also understanding the real life struggles that don’t always have a HEA. My only real complaint with this book is it was a little more spicy than I would’ve liked. But in the end it was a cute read!

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Thanks to Netgalley & Atria Books for the E-ARC! Loved this so much! Cute characters & loved the wintry setting. Great palate cleanser romance. Will definitely read more.

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Margot is a romance author who - record scratch - basically doesn’t believe in love. Untilllll - Forrest. The epitome of every good and wonderful love interest trope out there. Plus they’re in the wilderness of Alaska and I LOVE a good forced proximity vibe.

I was pleasantly surprised at how well the humor flowed within this. The relationship between Margot and her sister was also very enjoyable. Lastly, the raw emotion of both main characters having to be a caretaker for someone - but also in turn allowing themself to never grow was done very well. Overall, I hope Margot and Forrest truly live their HEA (sans beer bellies, hair loss and divorce).

Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for providing an ARC.

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