**3.5-stars rounded up**

Sophie Lyon is a Romance author with a big problem: Writer's Block. After the great success of her first book, Sophie is truly struggling to get her second completed by the Publisher's deadline. There's so much pressure, and she just can't think of a way to finish it. Out at a karaoke bar one night, blowing off some steam, Sophie has too much to drink and has a breakdown with the mic in hand, confessing she's never been in love.

The unflattering moment is caught on camera and goes ridiculously viral. How can Sophie write Romance novels if she's never been in love?! It makes her look like a big fraud.

In an effort to get out ahead of it, and save her reputation, Sophie comes up with a plan to confess the truth on TikTok. Then she will meet up with all of her exes and talk to them about why their relationship didn't work out. First of all, great content. Secondly, Sophie is hoping that something in this process will help to break her Writer's Block, and bring her closer to finishing off her novel.

Dash Montrose is from a successful Hollywood family. He's a former teen heartthrob, who has since distanced himself from the limelight. Dash's sister, Poppy, is Sophie's best friend. Dash also happens to be Sophie's landlord. When he learns what Sophie is attempting to do, he offers to help her with her social media presence, as TikTok is a platform he is well-versed in. Of course, he doesn't tell her the reason he knows that platform so well is because he is a successful anonymous online crafter...

In fact, Dash has a lot of things he hides from the world and his family. The biggest being his struggles with alcoholism and the fact that he has been sober for the last 18-months. There's a lot of pressure within his Hollywood royal family, and he just tries to steer clear of stirring up any scandal. He lives a quiet life now, a bit of a recluse, and Sophie's energy is sure to shake that up.

Will Dash be able to handle helping with Sophie's exes project, while keeping a firm grip on his new found sobriety? It's definitely a risk.
Nevertheless, the two form an unlikely secret alliance. As they grow closer, feelings and attraction begin to come into play.

Plot Twist is a solid Romance story, which plays off a friends-with-benefits scenario. This is the 2nd-book in Erin La Rosa's <i>Hollywood</i> series, but you do not need to read Book 1 in order to read this one. These are companion novels and nothing will spoil Book 1 for you if you read this one first. The MC in this novel, Sophie, is the sister of the MC, Nina, from For Butter or Worse.

I do like Contemporary stories that follow fictional celebrities. I know not everyone is crazy about that, but I find their lives interesting. The different issues that arise when someone has a certain level of fame always feels engaging to me. Therefore, the Hollywood setting of these novels attracts me. I also enjoyed that Sophie was a author who was struggling. Her career wasn't painted with rose-colored glasses, and Dash's wasn't either.

This turned out to be heavier than I was expecting, so I would caution Readers, if you are looking for a light, fun read, this may not fit the bill for you. While it does have some fun, flirty elements, the issues, particularly that Dash is going through, are fairly heavily. Alcoholism and struggles in recovery aren't something to be taken lightly and feel like La Rosa does a good job of representing that here, as best as can be done in a Romance story. Because of the serious topics though, it does bring down the overall tone of the story.

If this makes sense. I'm not saying there is anything wrong with tackling serious topics in a Romance novel, I just want Readers to be aware prior to picking this up. Firstly, for the triggers, and secondly, just to rein in expectations. The cover looks so light and fluffy, I feel like it could lead to a mischaracterization of what this is all about.

I did enjoy learning about both Sophie and Dash's characters. Additionally, I liked them together, although it did feel a bit too instalove for me. I was very surprised at how quickly things escalated to a point where I felt like that had been communicating for 2-days and then were hopelessly smitten with one another.

I did enjoy this one a bit more than the first book, which is why I decided to round up my rating. I am a Reader who enjoys some serious topics brought into my Contemporaries, so that aspect worked for me. I also had fun watching Dash and Sophie work together on her exes project. They even go on a road trip where there ends up being a forced proximity element that was nice and sexy. There's definitely some steam in this. Not the exact type that I tend to go for, but it wasn't bad. I only cringed a couple of times. Depending on your kinks, it could end up working well for you.

Thank you to the publisher, Canary Street Press, for providing me with a copy to read and review. I was entertained. If there are more books released in The Hollywood Series. I would def check them out. I actually would love for Poppy to get her own installment!

I loved this book and the plot twists. The main characters were so cute and this book was great. I would definitely recommend this to a friend.

REVIEW✨
Plot Twist
By Erin La Rosa

This was a sweet romance that pulled on my heartstrings in every way! It did a wonderful job at mixing romance and sensitive subject matter like alcoholism and dysfunction families. The main female character has a pace maker which I loved, she is also living in a house that her childhood celebrity crush is owning. So her landlord is her celebrity crush but also the brother of her best friend… need I say more. The writing was perfecting done, the plot was great, the characters were complex but so sweet, so many tropes that I love.

This book has…
💕 LGBTQ+ themes
💕 Writer with writer’s block
💕 Actor that doesn’t want to act
💕 Complex family dynamics
💕 MMC is a teen heartthrob and her best friend’s brother
💕 Mental health rep

Romance: ❤️❤️❤️
Spice level: 🌶️🌶️
Plot points: 💥💥💥💥
Stars: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

Thank you for allowing me to read this book. I enjoyed the characters and their arcs, and found the plot interesting. I look forward to reading more from this author.

3.5 stars. I generally enjoyed this book as a second installment of the Hollywood series by this author. I will preface this review with the fact that there are some trigger warnings for folks (alcoholism, rehab) - so make sure to check them out if you're interested in reading this book! I think that these topics were handled fairly well from my perspective, but I don't have a lot of experience to lean on, so it's possible that feedback from others may be different just based on their lived experiences.

Read this book if you enjoy:
> Hollywood / famous MMC
> Artistic expression
> Romance writer FMC
> Best friend's brother

These are very complex and layered main characters. I loved that the FMC is a romance writer - leaning into the plot line of romance plots, tropes and favorite authors was a lot of fun. Hollywood characters aren't necessarily my cup of tea most often - that backstory for the MMC was fine, but he also had a lot going on with the alcoholism and pottery. It felt like most of the story they were trying to stay away from each other and/or finding reasons to not be together which got a little tedious. There felt like there was some extra manufactured tension that didn't really have a place in the storyline at times.

I did appreciate how there was some maturity shown in a few areas of the storyline, but then on the flip side there were parts where the maturity level didn't seem to match the characters. Overall, this story was fine - the cameos/tie-ins to the characters from the previous book did give some additional continuity which I appreciated - but this story could also be read stand-alone if you haven't read the first book.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for the eARC of this book to read and review. All thoughts are my own.

This book is sexy and sweet while talking about sensitive subjects. Dash is sweet! So many of his thoughts and emotions were well written. This book was overall adorable!

I so wanted to enjoy this one, but it was just lacking. The premise sounded cute and I have enjoyed other Erin La Rosa stories, but Plot Twist didn't have much of a twist. It was very predictable. On the plus side, if you like steamy then this would be a good one to read.

Thank you for the advanced copy.

This was one of the cuter romances that I've read recently. I loved seeing both of the main characters grow together and separately.

Good book. I liked the characters and the dialogue. The story kept me interested, so it was a quick read. A good read

As much as I was hoping to absolutely adore this book, I couldn't push through. The beginning had me going for a bit, but then everything began to feel quite lack luster. I continuously felt like I wasn't getting to know the characters a whole lot throughout. The trope was the forefront of the whole story, not the actual plot/characters. Do I enjoy a good trope? Heck yeah I do, but when there's a few of them thrown in just to make it 'catchy' I don't vibe with it.

There were quite a few fellow readers who also felt the same in the sense of TikTok being overly thrown in here as well. I love a good TikTok reference, but enough is enough.

I think the author has a great writing style and I truly wanted to keep pushing through due to that alone. But, there were just so much thrown in all at once that it overall just meh.

Fun, sexy rom com. You probably need a beginner level knowledge of tik tok videos for some pop culture references. Insta- love with deep, real life issues and concerns. Spicy!
Thank you NetGalley and the author for providing me a copy in exchange for an honest review! I loved it and will recommend to everyone.

I love a sweet and saucy book and these two were so much fun! Both of the characters felt so real and as a person who feels big emotion I felt them all!! Would recommend for someone looking for a nice easy read<3

The premise is this book was cute and I was excited about it. The more I read the more confused I got. This book has sooo many tropes really too many but two of my biggest pet peeves are miscommunication/ no communication at all and love triangles. She is just stringing her ex along because she obviously knows there’s no spark there anymore but she’s going to keep trying for the sake of her writer’s block? That’s selfish and really makes me dislike the MFC in general. While stringing this ex along she’s also screwing her landlord/ex actor/ best friend’s brother it’s just too much. THEN she gets mad at him for flirting with someone before they were even together. He kept one secret and for good reason because it really had nothing to do with her and happened when they weren’t together and she acts like he literally lied to her for the entire “relationship” and hid “so many things” where is the so many. Idk I just feel like if you’re going to have almost 40yr old characters they need to act like they’re in their mid thirties not their early twenties or it just gets frustrating.

BUT I did actually really enjoy the last little bit of the book. There was so much more depth to the characters that I wish it was that way through the whole book so that I could try and relate to them more the entire time instead of just the ending.

It just wasn’t for me. However, there were some really great moments so I could see people who don’t have the same pet peeves as me really enjoying it. Unfortunately, I have a hard time letting some things go.. it’s a me problem

I have tried several times over several months to read this book. And. I just cannot get into it. I’m just not connecting with the story or the characters unfortunately

this book felt like it was written around the tropes that Erin La Rosa wanted to include rather than having the tropes naturally integrate into the story.

I liked this a LOT more than I liked its predecessor. I thought this was really great. I loved what it touched on, though I did feel it could go deeper on some of those points, but overall, I really enjoyed it.

I truly love a book that has it all, and this book has a lot of it! The tropes are a win for me every time to even start with. To see a character struggle with sobriety and mental health, but still find love, provides hope for all readers. The book is a right mix of sweet, spicy, and serious and blends well to create a great read!

~ Thank you to Canary Street Press and NetGalley for an advanced copy ~

Falling for your childhood celebrity crush/bff's brother was not on Sophie's bingo card.

I really liked the romantic journey between Sophie x Dash. The romance for them is ... a plot twist. Sophie has never been in love, while Dash is emotionally unavailable (and he knows it). But there is an unmistakable pull to one another. Sprinkle in romance tropes like only-one-bed and force proximity, and you've got a spicy but sweet story that will have you cheering on our mcs.

I wish I could see Dash and his tattoos in person! This wasn’t what I expected but I also went in blind without reading the full description. It was a great friends to lovers read. There are some TW’s possibly so check those out. The romance and spice were just right and I just love a book with an epilogue. *chefs kiss*

The love they have is just EPIC and i loved how the core driving factor behind the story even though it’s not “specifically” the romance. Plus, as a hard-core hopeless romantic reader myself, I’d say this is a book that I loved beyond words.