This one had a charming setup, setting, and cast of characters. It offers an exciting debut from Victoria Lavine. Fun for fans of Sarah Morganthaler.

Thank you Netgalley for the ARC!

I loved this book! I am a novice to the Romance world (not including Romantasy😁). But, despite being a romance beginner, I am familiar with all of the tropes. This book was sooooo cute! And I genuinely laughed out loud numerous times while reading this. Victoria's writing style is so descriptive but never overdone. When setting the scene, the awkwardness that, Margot, our main character would go through, had me cracking up LOL. Also, the genuine love story that was set up between her and and executed was very cute. I felt like I was in a hallmark movie. Victoria Lavine has a new fan in me. I can't wait to see what else she comes up with! 💗

This was a laugh-out-loud, heart-stealing gem that takes everything we love about rom-coms and gives it a fresh, witty twist. Victoria Lavine’s debut masterfully blends humor, heartfelt emotion, and swoon-worthy romance with a dash of self-discovery, all set against the breathtaking (and hilariously inconvenient) backdrop of Alaska.

Margot’s journey from a cynical romance author to someone grappling with the tropes she’s always poked fun at is both relatable and endlessly entertaining. Forrest, the rugged and broody resort owner, is the perfect balance of grumpy and soft-hearted, making every interaction between the two a delightful spark-filled dance.

Lavine expertly weaves together classic rom-com tropes in a way that feels self-aware and fresh, all while delivering a slow-burn romance that’ll have you grinning and fanning yourself in equal measure. Packed with charm, spice, and just enough emotional depth to tug at your heartstrings, Any Trope but You is a must-read for anyone who loves a good laugh and a happily-ever-after (or at least a solid chance at one).

Margot Bradley’s secret document of “Happily Never After” endings gets leaked, turning her world upside down. With her career in shambles, she agrees to try her hand at writing murder mysteries while staying at a remote Alaskan resort. Enter Dr. Forrest Wakefield, a reluctant resort owner with a heart of gold hidden beneath a gruff exterior. Margot and Forrest’s chemistry is undeniable, and their push-and-pull dynamic keeps the story moving.
This book is an absolute treat for romance fans. Victoria Lavine masterfully weaves nearly every romance trope into a fresh, engaging story that’s equal parts heartfelt and hilarious. From forced proximity and a moose-induced meet-cute to snowy nights filled with banter, this story is as tropey as it gets—in the best way possible.
Margot’s journey is more than just about falling in love; it’s about rediscovering herself and confronting her fears. Forrest? He’s book boyfriend perfection, with layers that make him more than just the handsome hero. Their connection feels natural, even as they resist it, and the emotional beats are just as strong as the swoony ones.
Lavine’s writing is sharp, witty, and filled with humor, making this debut a standout. While the pacing sometimes felt a bit uneven with the rapid-fire tropes, the overall story kept me hooked from start to finish. It’s a love letter to the romance genre that celebrates all the things we adore about it while exploring the vulnerability behind writing and love itself.
If you enjoy romantic comedies with depth, unforgettable characters, and all the tropes your heart can handle, Any Trope But You is a must-read. Lavine is definitely an author to watch!

᪥ Close Proximity
᪥ One Tent
᪥ Snowed In
᪥ RomCom
᪥ Enemies To Lovers
᪥Dual POV

4 ⭐️ 2.5 🌶️ (only a few scenes)

I loved the enemy to lovers vibe but also all the other tropes (hence the title). This book was very witty and kept me grinning throughout.

It also had an emotional side to it. Both MC’s have similar caretaker roles that help connect them but also play a major hindrance in their relationship.

It’s such a warm and cozy story that gives you all the feel good vibes.

Thank you to NetGalley for allowing me to read this book prior to release!

Thanks to Net Galley for the ARC!

Thoroughly enjoyed this romp through the Alaskan back country. The book is so fun and also very sexy. I was glad to get to read it in winter when the vibes are right for their snowy escapes. Also enjoyed the side characters and animal friends, like the domesticated moose and adorable dog.

The book is very trope-y in a self aware way, though I did at times find it a little much in the first ~third (it got a little repetitive how perfect the love interest was). I found it made the characters have a bit less depth (I’ve seen this book comped to Emily Henry, but I would say it’s not nearly as deep into the character back stories as she goes). But if you’re a romance fan, you’re sure to enjoy the fast read!

I absolutely loved this rom com! It checked every box that I look for in rom coms like spice, sweet, hilarious and great writing. I also loved that the main character is a writer and that it takes place in Alaska. This is a book you won’t want to miss!

our heroine Margot is a romance author that has had the horrible experience of having her secret "Happily Never After" files leaked, with all the erectile dysfunction, beer bellies and cheating spouses she could cram in. it was never supposed to be seen by anyone but her, until a hacker finds it and releases it during a livestream.
jump forward a few week, and Margot's sister has booked her into a remote Alaskan lodge to reinvent and/or find herself.
once at the lodge, she meets Forrest, the epitome of every single trope there is. her "bah humbug" is off the charts. Margot's sister Savannah has arranged for Margot to get out and challenge herself in the wilderness, all while writing a new book in a whole new genre for her.
All these tropes band together into one giant TROPE, and it is delightful. The side characters are likeable, and the book was a delight to read

Obsessed!!! Such a strong debut. I love it when romance authors poke a little fun at the genre. Based on the title alone, you know you are going to encounter many tried but true tropes. I loved the adventures, the caretaking, the quirky inn.. I had a blast reading!

This is my first Net Galley ARC, and it didn't disappoint.

The writing was easy to read and follow even though it was written with two perspectives.

The story of Margot and Forrest had me staying up late to see what was going to happen next. The story had the right amount of adventure and spice.

A romance must read ❤️

I really enjoyed it! It was funny with good humor for each character. I really enjoyed getting both sides and seeing the characters fall for one another. I am biased where I do enjoy a little jealousy from the MMC point of view and him wanting the FMC is badly. The spice was spicinggg which again I'm here for. I also enjoyed the characters being a little older and not in college or fresh out of collage. Gave more life experience than the average romance character written lately. Overall really enjoyed and wouldn't mind more from the author.

2.5⭐️ Overall, this one wasn’t for me.

What I liked:
- The book was funny, especially in the beginning. There were multiple times in the first handful of chapters I found myself laughing while reading.
- I appreciated the way the author included some disability rep in a couple characters and explored the complex nature of caregiving dynamics and how that reverberates through all aspects of life.

What I disliked:
- The synopsis states that the main characters encounter “one unlikely trope after another” so I knew I could expect a collection of tropes being played out… however, even with the title and description, it all felt a little too on the nose. Not only were the tropes being played out but they’re also named outright, either in internal dialogue or aloud between the main characters. I’m definitely a “show me, don’t tell me” reader so this had me rolling my eyes a bit.
- Way more spice than I anticipated, and a lot of which just wasn’t personally my cup of tea. The (multiple) sex scenes were aiming for both roughness/dirtiness and tenderness/sweetness and, in my opinion, achieved neither. I’m not against spice in a novel, especially romance novels, but it has to make sense for the storyline and the characters and this didn’t seem to deepen the dynamic between the characters. Also, the (very) repetitive use of the term “sweetheart” by the MMC to the FMC was giving me major ick.
- Possessive, jealous MMC 🚩
- Lacking character development throughout the story and the dynamic between the two characters felt very immature at times. It was also very insta-lovey to me to the degree it felt problematic (like love bombing).
- Towards the end (last 30% ish), it felt repetitive and I was losing interest.

What I would have liked to see:
- Less of a binary portrayal of caregiving dynamics. I don’t want to give too much away, but I will say I think finding balance within caregiving roles is nuanced and complex and I would have loved to see this explored more directly.
- More direct communication between the main characters and leaving space for things to developed and explored (healthy relationship dynamics).
- I would’ve liked to see some of the murder mystery writing Margot was doing, that would’ve been fun.

All that said, I think there’s a lot in this book that will be someone else’s cup of tea (spice, lots of tropes, etc), but it wasn’t mine.

Thanks to Netgalley and Atria Books for giving me a digital ARC of this book in exchange for my honest review.

I enjoyed this book! Any rom-com having to do with Alaska is always hit with me. It was a great book to read post holidays.

Thanks to NetGalley for giving me an advanced copy of this book to review! Add this to your TBR today so you can grab it when it comes out on April 1!

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

I’m back with another romance, and - shockingly - a good review! If you’ve read my reviews before, you know that romance isn’t my genre of choice, but that I am hell-bent on finding romances I actually enjoy. “Any Trope But You” absolutely falls under entertaining.

Here’s the gist: Romance author Margot Bradley is canceled when an angry fan leaks her “Happily Never After” file during a live stream. While her books may be filled with happily ever afters, Margot doesn’t actually believe in them, so for each of her best-selling books, she writes a morbid alternative ending. Think divorce, rage, and erectile dysfunction.

It’s hard to blame Margot for her skepticism of true love when you find out she had both an absent father AND an a-hole ex-fiance.

Thanks to the leaked file, Margot is riddled with negative social media comments, and her publisher is threatening to drop her. Faced with the fact that she can’t be in the romance genre anymore, she decides that she’s going to pivot to murder mysteries. To help her with this, her sister, Savannah, books her a five-week stay in a remote lodge in Alaska - where her latest rom-com was supposed to take place.

Savannah and Margot have a close relationship, made even closer because Margot often steps in as caretaker when Savannah has a flare-up of a number of autoimmune disorders. Margot doesn’t want to leave Savannah, but Van assures her that she will be well taken care of by their mother and Van’s boyfriend while Margot is gone.

And so, Savannah finds herself in the Alaskan wilderness without cell reception or internet and standing face-to-face with a gorgeous man right out of a lumberjack fantasy. Of course.

But Forrest is more than he seems. He’s actually a doctor who left his life in California to care for his sick father. He’s handy and a good cook. He’s fit and a competent hiker. In fact, he’s a lot like the men that Margot has created in her books, which means that to her, he’s too good to be true. But as they fall into romance trope after romance trope, it’s clear that Margot is second-guessing her thoughts on love.

As part of her stay at the lodge, Margot takes part in weekly arctic excursions. In exchange for completing each one, Margot is given a letter from her sister. These letters help set the scene and help you understand what has made Margot so closed off. And with each letter, you see how deep the love and devotion between Margot and her sister is. But the last letter…

Spoilers ahead! I want to go over the good, the bad, and the ugly for this book. It’s mostly good!

The Good: Lavine is a great humor writer. There were several lines that made me laugh out loud, and it made for good banter between the male and female main characters.

I also really loved the “realistic” aspect of the romance Lavine included. One of the reasons I’m not incredibly into romance is because romance novels are often filled with big romantic gestures and very few small gestures that I feel make up a real romance - the buying of a favorite treat when you’re at the store, the asking if you just need to vent or if you want actual advice, etc. But there are some moments of true, small, romantic moments in this book, my favorite being when Margot realizes that Forret has packed all of the ingredients for her fussy coffee order and hauled it up a mountain so she could have her perfect cup of coffee on a mountain summit.

I also loved the subplot of both Margot and Forrest being caretakers and their internal struggles of caring for their family member in need vs. doing what they need to do to be happy. This felt like a unique twist in the book that gave the characters more depth and added an element of non-romantic love into the story.

The Bad: There were parts of this book that made me laugh a little bit in a bad way. The idea that Margot would be canceled because she didn’t believe in happy endings was silly and unrealistic. I feel like so many people read romance BECAUSE they haven’t experienced true love in real life, and I feel like they would find it refreshing to hear that someone behind their favorite love stories doesn’t have the perfect partner with whom they live the perfect life. It was also insinuated that Margot would need to pivot genres or leave the book industry altogether, but no one ever suggested she keep doing what she’s great at under a pen name?

I also thought that Margot being upset over Charlotte’s review was a silly section of the book. The news was given to her by a jealous man, and the review was written by a scorned woman. Why would Margot even think for a second that Forrest wouldn’t have a reasonable answer to the review? It makes sense that she would be nervous to be one of a string of flings Forrest has had with guests, but she acknowledged that other parts of the review were incorrect and only used to hurt Forrest. Let’s use our head, Margot.

The Ugly: I am never going to give a five-star rating to a book that introduces a pet name in spicy scenes, so Forrest’s abrupt introduction of “sweetheart” left this one lacking. In general, I thought the spicy scenes were well done, but there was enough cringe to take me out of the story, which I didn’t enjoy.

All-in-all, this was a really fun and fast read for me. And I know myself well enough to know that romance isn’t my favorite genre. So I also know that if it IS your favorite genre, you’re probably going to absolutely LOVE this one. It’s in the same vein as Emily Henry and (I’m told, I have only read one of her books and was underwhelmed) Abby Jimenez. It’s funny, occasionally cringy, but full of realistic moments (even if the MMC is a doctor lumberjack.)

Happy reading, and stay safe (but not too safe).

You’ll get the reference soon.

The story frankly broke my heart multiple times. I loved elements of it. I ultimately love where we ended up. It put me through the wringer.

Margot doesn’t believe in Happily Ever Afters, which is a problem because she writes them for a living. And when her readers find out they are furious. She decides to trade romance for murder mystery because she still needs to support her chronically ill sister. So when said sister books her a 6-week stay at a resort in Alaska, Margot jumps. And who does she meet in Alaska, well, Forrest, who has given up his job as a cancer researcher to take care of his dad. And what do these two people who feel Iike they can’t have any distractions from being caretakers to their loved ones find…….well I’m sure you can guess.

You can’t help but like these two. They mean nothing but well and they love so fiercely. It just is crushing to watch people put aside what they want and frankly deserve to try to do right by others. And it was especially hard to watch Margot have her self worth and identity tied so heavily to being needed, not just wanted, by another person. It’s painful, but like a good ache while reading. I really like her sister and her journey in the background. Watching Forrest and Margot fall in love and eventually let themselves enjoy that and believe in it is lovely. I will probably reread this again next winter, it just has some really comforting moments.

Holy trope-tastic, Batman.

The great thing is that this book is fully designed to recognize and call out tropes in a wild sort of meta-lucid dream of romance. The drastic action Margot takes after a live public display of embarrassment is definitely the equivalent of saying "I'm taking a break from dating." Obviously this means her Alaskan escape is chock full of hunky guys and trope after trope after trope. Margot's sister meddled perfectly, as did the family who own the resort, to get her together with Forrest and restore the confidence they both had in themselves and with each other.

Thank you to Netgalley and publisher for this ARC. I genuinely adored this book. Actually a 4.5 rating. The banter was 12/10 no notes. All the characters had substance to them and were so loveable. The third act breakup made sense and had an actual plot connection instead of just miscommunication. Genuinely such an enjoyable winter romance with a deeper subject line about caregivers, autoimmune diseases, and caregiver burn out. Highly recommend

when I tell you this is one of the best debuts I've ever read! wow! so fun and so silly and so sweet! I am such a sucker for a meta romance story lol

synopsis
Margot is a romance writer who loves her fans and her stories but sees them as total fantasy. After a lifetime of heartache, she's given up on finding love and started cynically re-writing the endings of her own books, giving her characters more realistic (in her mind) Happily Never Afters - divorce, cheating, etc. it's cathartic!

when her computer gets hacked and the file is leaked, her fans, agent, and publisher all turn their backs on her, and Margot's sister sends her away to a remote cabin in the Alaskan wilderness for 6 weeks to reinvent herself and write her next manuscript. on day 1, she meets Forrest, the son of the cabin's owner and the physical embodiment of every romance hero she's ever written. and despite being on the same page about No Romance, they keep finding themselves in silly little romcom scenarios that slowly break down their walls. but the very thing that binds them the most is the thing that also keeps them apart - they both serve as caretakers for family members. Forrest has to stay in Alaska to care for his wheelchair-bound father, and Margot has to return to LA to take care of her occasionally bed-bound sister.



I can't think of a single thing I didn't love about this book. it was such a perfect blend of goofy antics and heart-in-your-throat moments. The setting was amazing, the pacing was perfect. The sister relationship. The father-son relationship. Ugh. It was so well done. 6 weeks is definitely bordering on instalove, but it didn't really feel that way to me. The combination of so much time together and the shared understanding of the complicated feelings and deep responsibility of caretaking really made it work for me that these two would fall this fast. The spice was so emotional. The admiration they both had for each other was the best, and it's something I'm noticing not a lot of romance writers really do that well. Forrest and Margot were so proud of each other.



thank you Netgalley for the arc! this sweet, silly, emotional debut romcom is out in the world April 1st!

“You launched yourself at me the first time we met, and it was like the whole fucking sun fell right into my arms.”

While it doesn’t come out until April 1, ANY TROPE BUT YOU by Victoria Lavine was such a delightfully great read over the holidays - and it’s the author’s debut! {Thank you to @atriabooks for the #gifted eARC to read and review!}

After her divorce, romance author, Margot Bradley, loses hope in love and secretly keeps a file of what happens to her characters after her novels’ HEAs - think divorce, cheating, beer bellies, and more. But when her document gets hacked and leaked, she loses so many of her dedicated romance fanbase. To ride out the online backlash and try to write her next book in a completely new genre, she jets off to remote Alaska…where she finds herself in her own romance story with the hunky innkeeper.

This book was the perfect combination of tension, spice, and all the sweet moments we want between our two leads. Plus, it is set in remote Alaska, and Lavine creates such a beautiful and rugged atmosphere in her writing! You get forced proximity (only one tent, anyone?), a city girl and lumberjack, delicious buildup, a laugh-out-loud meet cute, dual POV, chronic illness rep, getting snowed in, and a moose named Bullwinkle.

ANY TROPE BUT YOU is out April 1 - preorder today!

Beloved romance author Margo is cancelled. Despite writing HEAs she doesn't believe in them herself. When her heartbroken readers turn on her she has no where else to go but Alaska (why not??). There's a resident moose, some quirky house guests and of course a flanneled, bearded, Mr. Right...or should I say Dr. Right??

Forrest Wakefield falls into every single trope Margo could ever dream up but she's not falling for it (until she is, obviously, it's a romance and we need our HEA!).

This book is funny and heartfelt and steamy and most importantly, self aware. The book pokes fun at romance while still giving us all the hot swoonies we're looking for. Margo wasn't always my favorite character but she's an authentic main character with a strong arc. Forrest is 10/10, Victoria Lavine obviously knows what the readers like and he's giving all the things.