Thanks to Canary Street Press and NetGalley for the advanced copy of this book!
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I finished this book in just a few days, and then started another the same day I finished. I’ll be honest, I enjoyed reading this book, but the details were gone from my memory near immediately. It’s a good thing that I kept notes in my reading journal, or I might have no idea why I liked it! Sophie is a romance writer, with writers block trying to finish her second novel, and to make matters worse she announces to the world that she doesn’t actually believe in love. Now she’s on a mission to find out from all of her ex’s why they broke up, and documenting it on tiktok.
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Sophie’s landlord, Dash, jumps in to help her navigate the wild world of tiktok, despite being a former Hollywood actor trying to avoid the spotlight. Just for some extra chaos, they decide to add in a friends with benefits situation. There’s a lot going on in this book to say the least. I didn’t actually care about Sophie’s journeys to meet up with her ex’s as they all more or less said the same thing, but Dash’s story was fascinating and I constantly wanted to learn more about him and what he was going through.

Thank you to NetGalley and Harlequin Trade Publishing for providing the ARC.

After seeing all of the positive reviews for this book, I couldn't wait to jump in. But this book felt overwhelmingly "meh" for me. The writing was subpar and the story was not cohesive and lacked direction.

It felt like two different stories were happening at the same time: one about Sophie's journey to figure out where her past relationships went wrong and one about Dash's struggle with sobriety. I felt like if the author had focused on one story, the book might have felt more fleshed out, as opposed to two halves not quite meeting together.

There were also some choices made by Sophie that felt really juvenile and immature. It really took me out of the story because she just kept digging herself a deeper hole. There were also other aspects of the story that were included that either did not need to be there or did not have a resolution, leaving the reader in limbo.

Overall, this book was not a good read for me.

First time reading a book from this author and although I did not read the first book in this series I did not feel like I was missing anything. I really enjoyed this book and would recommend it to others.

I received this ARC in exchange for my honest review.

This was such a fun read with some nice breakaways from usual tropes and issues. The only thing I didn't like as much was 3rd POV but that's personal preference.

Such a cute friends to lovers romance! I loved the bookish girl fmc and how that came across. And Dash??? So swoony.

What’s holding this back for me is 3rd person pov. I don’t usually gravitate towards 3rd person in contemporary settings.

Thank you so much for the arc!

I loved this one! I did not realize it was the second in a series, but I loved it anyway. I really loved Erin La Rosa's writing, she really made you fall in love with the characters from page one. The beginning was a little slow for me, but I was so obsessed with the characters that it kept my attention and picked up pretty quickly. There was a few moments where I didn't totallyyy love Sophie, it just felt like she was leading Dash on a few times. Like acting as though she was all for him and what he offered but then turned around and was like "oh yeah I'm totally with xyz", I didn't loveeee that. But Dash was a champ and expressed what he needed and/or was willing to give and I loved that. It was a fun read and I loved that Sophie was able to rediscover her love life and learning that it isn't bad to ask for what you need and deserve. I love Dash and his story, there were definitely moments where I wanted to cry over Dash. He was just so sweet and he deserves the world. Dash is the newest edition to my 'best book boyfriends' lineup. Immediately downloading For Butter or Worse as I need more of Erin La Rosa's writing.

**I received an ARC copy of this from NetGalley. This is my honest review.**

This was a solid 4.5 star read for me. What pushed it into the extra .5 star category is that the male MC is a recovering alcoholic who has been sober for some time but still is working on staying sober. I really loved that representation and how believable that struggle was displayed in his relationships.
Also I loved the effortless queer representation and representation of a character with a pacemaker. Nothing felt forced into the storyline.
I also am always fond of a romance involving an author. The twist here is Sophie is a romance author who has never fallen in love. Over the course of the book, and several meetings with her old exes, she discovers what she needs to do in order to make the romance of her dreams possible.
This romance focuses a bit heavier on the relationships between the MC's and their family/friends but it still makes time for heartfelt and spicy moments.

BOOK: Plot Twist (Book #2 in The Hollywood series – can be read as a standalone)
AUTHOR: Erin La Rosa
PUB DATE: 11/14/23, by Canary Street Press
PAGES: 336
RATING: 3.5 stars
GENRE: Rom-Com Fiction

A BIG “Thank You” to NetGalley and Hachette Books for gifting me this advanced reader’s copy in exchange for my honest review!

SYNOPSIS: She’s written off more than she can chew. Romance author Sophie Lyon’s ironic secret just went she’s never been in love—and it’s ruining her reputation. With a manuscript deadline looming, Sophie makes an ambitious plan to overcome her writer’s block and reunite with her exes (including her last girlfriend Carla, the one person she could have loved) to learn why she’s never fallen in love, and document it all for her millions of new online followers. Luckily, Sophie’s reclusive landlord, Dash Montrose—a former teen heartthrob—has social media all figured out and is willing to help. What he doesn’t mention is that he’s an anonymous online crafter, a hobby that helps him maintain his sobriety. No one knows about his complicated relationship with alcohol, and with a family that’s Hollywood royalty, Dash has to steer clear of scandal. As Sophie and Dash grow closer, they discover a heat between them that rivals Dash’s pottery kiln. But Sophie needs to figure out who she is outside her relationships, and Dash isn’t sure he’s stable enough for the commitment she deserves. So, Sophie suggests what any good romance author a friends-with-benefits arrangement. Surely a strictly casual relationship won’t cause any trouble…

REVIEW: This is my first book to read by this author. It is the second in a series, but this is a standalone, so it can be read without having read the first one. It was a cute RomCom with a decent amount of spice, it’s just a very slow burn. If you’re looking for a sweet love story, with a little heat and a semi-flawed MMC & FMC, this may be just for you!

TROPES:
Friends-to-lovers
Sloooow burn
One bed

Happy Reading!

This was absolutely delightful! I loved their connection and banter and I thought the fact that he was short was a rarity in romance. I really enjoyed this one more than this authors first book!

Thanks to Netgally and the publisher for providing an e-arc in exchange for an honest review.

3.5 stars
I enjoyed this but I didn't find it to be anything special. It is a very quick book to read and it was fun to get snippets of Nina from the first book in this one. I'll continue to read books by this author

A romance author finds herself wondering why she's never found love herself and enlists her super-hot landlord to help her find out, contacting her exes to get to the bottom of it. Little does she know love might be just around the corner with her new friends-with-benefits landlord that she can't stop thinking about.

Super fun and spicy with a bit of harder topics as our MMC is secretly struggling with his sobriety. A perfect romcom to fly through on a rainy day, especially if you're a fan of Lana Fergusen or Sierra Simone.

I felt this book was irresponsible and tone deaf.

He tells her point blank that his sobriety is too new and too precious to him to even entertain the idea of a relationship. The next chapter has them fooling around publicly. This boundary stomp was very loud.

And then the ending? He STILL is not in a position for a relationship and she sets up a scavenger hunt as a love declaration. I cannot.

Thank you to Netgalley for a copy in exchange for a review.

Read if you like:
❤️ Romance
✍🏻 Romance Writer FMC
🥵 Friends with Benefits
💔 Revisiting Exes
🤳🏻 Tik Tik Viral Videos
🎥 Disgraced Celebrity MMC
🍺 TW: Alcoholic MMC

This book is such a roller coaster! Sophie I’d a romance author that hasn’t ever been in love so she decides what better thing to do than to revisit old relationships to figure out why…

But in comes her landlord Dash who offers to help her and then they begin hooking up which is just 🥵 🌶️

I love the depth of emotions that this gives from Sophie who has never really loved while Dash is battling feeling unworthy of being loved.

If you like a little more gritty emotion in your romances I highly recommend this one!

Thank you to the publisher for my ARC in exchange for my review!

GOD I LOVED THIS SO MUCH. THE TENSION THE ROMANCE JUST EVERYTHING UGH SO GOOD. okay gathering myself together now, i absolutely adored the character arc of the main characters and the setting was so fun. 5 stars for sure!!

Overall I enjoyed the premise of this book but felt like something was missing while I was reading. Although this book was not for me, I do feel like others may enjoy reading it!

I give the book 2.5-3 stars.

Thank you to Netgalley for an ARC of Plot Twist.

3/5 Stars

General Description: Erin has never been in love, except she's a romance writer. Problem right? Well, it gets even worse when her confession goes viral on TikTok. Her neighbor/landlord, Dash, sees the viral video and suggests that Erin does what she suggested in her response: go speak with her exes to figure out where it went wrong. Dash and Erin begin to work together on this project, but Dash quickly discovers he may not be ready for the socialization this requires. Dash is recently sober, and he's keeping it a secret from anyone. Will Erin be able to fall in love, will Dash be honest about his sobriety, and how will their relationship change?

The good:
- I LOVED the concept
- I liked Erin's growth throughout the book
- I think the book resolved clearly and definitely had a lot of subplots that I felt got wrapped up nicely, which I enjoy.

The loss of two stars:
- The main reason it lost two stars was because I could not get past the writing style, To me, it felt juvenile for an adult book, especially for the main characters being in their later 20s. If it was more early 20s or very late teens, I might have let it slide, but I definitely had a different expectation for the writing style. It also felt very modern, not just contemporary, where I feel like the verbiage will quickly become outdated in the next five years.
- The spicy scenes, TO ME, were a bit cringy at points? I am not one to add humor to a spicy scene, and that happens multiple times in this book.

Overall: If you can handle the writing style (maybe check out a preview on Google Books or read the first few pages in the book store) AND you enjoy rom-coms, you'd probably enjoy this book, but if you're sticklers for beautiful writing, this is not the book for you.

This one is gonna be hard to review, because I don't like writing negative comments on socials. But I have conflicting feelings so I figured I'd share both sides!
This was a cute read! The overall premise of the book was really good. I feel like the book maybe didn't deliver as well as I had expected...but still wasn't a bad book!
I loved Dash. He was a really good book boyfriend!
Sophie was relatable, kind of a neurotic mess g They compliment each other well!
I think the spicy scenes got a little messy, a bit unorganized
But there's a really nice exhibitionism scene that I think would have been SO GOOD, minus the clumsiness €
Also love the Igbt + rep!
Overall, I enjoyed the book. I do recommend it, and I would love to see if anyone thinks differently!

This was a really nice read. Sophie and Dash are both complex and relatable characters without taking away from the lightheartedness of the story. I also felt like the balance between their romance and both of their personal stories was better done than in a lot of novels I've read. Neither one distracted from the other.

A cutesy romcom.

It was a cute and fun read. The writing style took me a bit to get used to as it seemed dry in some aspects but did pull heart strings in others.

The character banter was witty and development was slow paced at first then speeded through.

More left to resolve in some aspects but overall it was a decent story.

3 Stars,
This was the 2nd book in a series but it actually could be read as a standalone - the characters from the first book are still prominent in the plot of this one, but you don't feel like you're missing any of the story by not reading the previous book first. The romance was just average to me and the smut was different in comparison to other contemporary romances I've read recently (am I supposed to truly believe a person's canine tooth is sexy??). I wasn't a big fan of the tiktoks written in, I kind of skimmed over those. The plot was kind of boring at times but the author tackled some heavy themes well and my heart felt for Dash those last few chapters.

Thank you NetGalley and Harlequin Trade Publishing for the ARC!