Plot Twist by Erin La Rosa is a fast paced, witty, contemporary romance. Sophie is a romance author with writers block. When a TikTok video about Sophie goes viral and she decides to interview her exes to get to the bottom of what went wrong. This was fun and spicy and full of tropes however I didn’t feel strongly about it.

I read 32% of the book, and I decided not to finish it. It is well-written, but I think this genre isn’t aligning with my personal interests right now, so I struggled to connect and feel engaged with the story. I do believe that this book will find its audience and many readers will love it. The cover and title caught my attention, and I may return to this later, but for now I’m putting it on pause.

Not for me. If I’d known how big a role tiktok played in this book, I would’ve skipped it. I feel like books that rely so heavily on social media really date themselves, and it’s not something I enjoy reading. I also thought this book relied on the ideas of tropes, and while it IS about a romance author, I found myself rolling my eyes when phrases like “enemies to lovers” or “friends to lovers” and “only one bed” were used. The tropes only work if they fee natural to the story, and for me, they didn’t feel natural here. I didn’t enjoy the characters, and I wanted more of the plot to actually focus on the main character reconnecting with her exes. And the random stalker side plot was just odd. I didn’t see the point of Dash being a former child star. It didn’t seem to add anything to the story and, again, simply felt like the author was adding in another trope.

3.75 ⭐️ Rounded up. This is a sweet contemporary romance about a romance author with writers block and her handsome movie star landlord. It’s a fast-paced story with some spice, enjoyable characters, and a bit of depth.
Author Sophie Lyon has a looming publishing deadline and writers block. To top it off, a tiktok video of her darkest secret (she’s a romance writer who has never been in love) goes viral. At the suggestion of Dash Montrose, Sophie takes to TikTok and begins a series of interviews with her exes in an attempt to see where her romantic endeavors went wrong.
This book has plenty to offer, from spicy encounters, queer characters, to struggles with alcoholism and familial expectations. Definitely a quick, fun read.

Unfortunately I couldn’t really get into this one. I do admit it was the cover that really drew me in.
The writing was alright! But while reading, it kind of felt like there were TOO many tropes trying to be put into this book at once. Brothers best friend, one bed, “let’s just do it and get it out of our systems”, then the MMC ends up with a stalker too.
What are the odds of her brothers best friend being a celebrity AND her landlord?
This book just seemed like it had a little bit of everything and it just wasn’t for me :(

Plot Twist by Erin La Rosa is a fun best friend's brother trope romance with the twist that he happens to be super famous. Throw in a heroine who is a romance author in a rut and you have a winner. This goes heavy on issues of sobriety and self-confidence issues.

This was such an amazing book! An absolute page turner! It really does live up to its name with a plot twist around every corner, I never knew what to expect or what was coming to happen.

Super cute read and loved seeing glimpses of Nina and her man. Seeing the two mc’s realize they had to grow into their own person in order to be able to move forward was amazing. In the end everything was worth it and they both grew to know how to be there for each other.

I am sorry but this just wasn’t my favorite read. I didn’t dislike it but also didn’t love it. The writing was okay. The cover was cute at least. Literally no other thoughts.

Personally, this was not a captivating read for me. It was too pop culture and trope heavy. That is a personal preference so I know some people will enjoy this book,. The plot was cute and the writing was good so it was not a bad read by any means!

Fun and cute with lots of heat! I enjoyed a lot of the interactions with the side characters, and the focus on addiction, but I did find the main character, Sophie, unlikable. A lot of her inner dialogue made me roll my eyes BUT would still recommend to someone hoping to escape in a fun, summer romance book.

I love Erina La Rosa's debut For Butter Or Worst and her second book doesn't disappoint. It's a perfect, spicy read to take to the beach or just about anywhere.

I wanted to thank Net Galley as well as the publisher, Harlequin Trade Publishing for letting me read this lovely book months in advance!

Publication Date: November 14, 2023

I did not read the first book in The Hollywood Series. After reading this, i am interested in Nina's story. I'm not usually into romance books about the rich and famous. In some way, i have a slight prejudice to them. I wanted to prove myself wrong and decided to give this book an honest try.

Sophie and Dash's relationship was cute. It fits best in the grumpy sunshine troupe. Dash is a former child actor turned newly sober shut-in with a secret passion for making pottery while Sophie is a bubbly author with writer's block. She gets him physically out of his house and metaphorically out of his shell. I did love how he refused her to love him because he needed to spend all his energy not drinking. I might be rather close-minded when it comes to alcoholism since I've never experienced it.
Sophie herself is dealing with a lot of personal relationship demons.

The spice is not spicy. A bit vanilla more than creative to be honest. It felt like a deflated balloon, so I skimmed most of it. I got the general idea of what went on.
The ending was adorable, and I loved the HEO. I also loved the reference to LA based bookstores as well!

I thought this was a fun quick read. I did find it to be a little cringey at times with too many pop culture references.

Thank you to NetGalley for the ARC!

dnf @ 30%

The cover made me request this one, but I have regrets...

I struggled through a third of this and couldn't keep going.
1) Too many tropes. I felt like this book was written around tropes rather than the characters and as a result, the characters suffered
2)Sophie is kind of a mess but in a boring way? Her exes also clearly don't like her. It seems awkward and she doesn't have the self awareness to realize SHE is the problem. I lowkey didn't want her to end up with the love interest because he's clearly trying to get his life together and he doesn't need her problems...
3)Too many social media/pop culture references, which I usually don't mind but it felt forced here. Not sure how this book will age with the inclusion of so many references.
4) It just kind of dragged...waiting for things to pick and nothing.

This was my first book from Erin La Rosa. It was very entertaining and I overall enjoyed the chemistry between the two main characters. I give it a solid 3.5! Definitely won't be my last by this author. Super cute beach read.

Definitely better than the first - I actually liked both main characters, so that's pretty dope. One thing that I didn't like is how Dash used sobriety as an excuse for a lot of things without really explaining what that meant, to be "working" on his sobriety, until way later in the book. As someone who has not experienced alcoholism first-hand, I would have appreciated a small scene earlier on that explained what that meant and why working on his sobriety precluded him from, for example, being in a relationship or having a job. It came up enough times that I feel like more detail would have been nice than just him continuing to repeat that line over and over. A 4/5 for me.

Plot Twist was delightful, quirky, and so very real.
Summary: Sophie has a rapidly approaching deadline to complete her second romance novel… except she suddenly can’t find inspiration to write about a feeling she has never experienced. Enter Dash, her best friend’s brother and her landlord/neighbor. Sophie is on a journey to discover why she’s never fallen in love. As a ex-child actor living in his older brother’s shadow, Dash is on a journey to discover what he wants for himself in life while secretly working to earn his next chip and turn his life around. What happens when Dash agrees to help Sophie with her writers block in exchange for her award-winning speech writing skills? An adorable, relatable (and spicy) love story!

With a diverse cast of characters with very real flaws and struggles, this was an amazing and refreshing read. I loved getting to meet all of Sophie’s ghosts of relationships past, I found Dash to be heartbreakingly relatable, and Chris is just a delight.

Many thanks to NetGalley and Harlequin Trade Publishing for providing me with an eARC of Plot Twist in exchange for my honest review!

As an aspiring writer myself, I'm partial to books that revolve around writer MCs, so it made it easier for me to initially dive into Plot Twist—a contemporary romance that, as a whole, I found to be charming, even if I had some issues that prevented me from fully enjoying it. It starts out in a very tropey fashion with friends-to-benefits (which I can be iffy toward) and forced proximity (which I love), but I found them to be endearing in spite of how much the book hammers these tropes into my head. I'm not wild about Sophie's whole plan to reconnect with her exes in order to find out what problems had plagued their relationships, especially since said plan involves passing down the details to her TikTok audience. It just came off as cringey and contrived. That's why I ended up leaning much more toward Dash's side of the narrative as he strives to maintain his sobriety and wrestles with the significant toll that his dysfunctional family has taken on his emotional and mental health. Dysfunctional family crap is fairly commonplace in rom-coms, but we don't get as many characters who are trying to stay sober, so that was satisfying to read about. As for the chemistry between Sophie and Dash, I liked it well enough, although I think the spicy scenes could have afforded to be even steamier and woven into the plot a little more smoothly.

Overall, I'm officially rating Plot Twist 3.25 out of 5 stars. I may not have fallen in love with this book, but I had a pretty good time with it—enough that I'll make sure to check out Erin La Rosa's previous rom-com, For Butter or Worse, in the future, particularly since it's already been on my TBR pile for a while.

this book was a fun read, i think it handled the topics of sobriety and difficult family dynamics fairly well. it did feel like it was maybe trying to subvert some common tropes, or at least give a sort of meta, self-aware, wink-and-nudge to the reader, like "oh this character *knows* theyre in a romance". some of those references were like a fun little addition, but some did feel sort of forced, or ham-fisted in. overall, a pleasant read, im just not sure it was as successfully quirky as it might've been aiming for.