Sophie Lyon is a romance author who has never been in love. She has never uttered "I love you." to any of her past relationships. Sophie is on a deadline for her next book and she is stuck. Thinking has found the solution to her writer's block, Sophie goes on a mission to reconnect with all of her past partners who have said the "L" word to her. Sohpie's hunk of a landlord, Dash Montrose, a former teen heartthrob is social media saavy and offers to assist Sophie with making TikTok videos of her experiences. As Sophie and Dash get closer, she learns about his sobriety and the fact that he is hiding it from everyone including his family. Dash can only look at one day at a time and wants to pursue more with Sophie, but is scared to risk his sobriety. The two encounter crazy stalkers, bitter exes, volatile family members, and invasive media. Everything comes crashing together when Dash is forced to make a speech for his father. Can the two withstand broken trust and overcome the fear of what lies ahead for them? Plot Twist is a saucy romance with quirky characters, serious topics, and hope for happily ever after.

Plot Twist by Erin La Rosa follows the story of Dash and Sophie. Dash’s sister is best friends with Sophie which is how they meet. Sophie is a romance author and has been struggling with her book. After an embarrassing video of her goes viral on TikTok, her and Dash’s lives become even more entwined.

The start of this book was a little hard for me to get in to but the book later became amazing! I loved the realism behind their story from all the different struggles and problems that they both experienced. I adored how the story wasn’t just perfect or completely happy and how there was a balance between fiction and realism.

The writing and the plot was very well done, easy, and fun to follow. However, the book is written in 3rd person which can sometimes discourage people to read a book. I myself was taken by surprise when I started the book but I ended up loving how the story played out.

Overall this was a really good book that made me happy, sad, angry, and a little jealous of people in love.

Not a bad book, just too many tropes and moved through the story too quickly. An overall decent read for me, but not one I will pick up again.

Thank you to NetGalley for an arc of this title!

I really enjoyed this romance! It was unique, imperfect but in the best way, and so sweet.
Sophie and Dash were such unique characters and their imperfections were endearing and relatable. Sophie being a romance writer who has never been in love is such a clever idea, and Dash being a former actor with a famous family that pressures him to continue acting was such an interesting perspective. Both characters thought they were unworthy of love because of their flaws and past relationships, but went to disprove this myth of only deserving love if you are the “best version of yourself” by navigating these indivual journeys in their lives together and apart, and communicating their feelings transparently and trusting in each other to try to understand.
this story is definitely worth the read, it’s endearing and refreshingly communicative, and i will continue to love these characters and their story for a long time.

I thought this book was fun and quirky. Both qualities I love in a book! I really liked both main characters and how they corresponded with each other. I also loved the growth and how serious topics were approached and handled.

Plot twist is a rom-com about a romance writer, Sophie, who finds herself with feelings for her landlord/best friend’s brother, Dash.

This book is fun and light hearted. It’s full of tropes, but I expect (and like!) that in a romance novel.

There are a too many plot points - most of them don’t feel fleshed out enough - but it keeps the story moving!

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for the eARC!

This book was alright. I would have preferred that the main characters had more tension & build up than they did. Overall it was still a fun and cute read!

the whole plot about her meeting her exes to write her book felt very half assed lol. it seemed like an afterthought

this book is such a sweet, interesting, book! i loved seeing the lgbtq representation in this book! i also loved how it brought up issues like mental health and addiction. additionally, the characters were both very interesting which made the book even better to read! the forced proximity and friends to lovers trope was executed sooooo well. i cant wait to read more books by erin la rosa!

This book was fine. Honestly, it moved a little too fast for me. And I would've preferred that the main characters have a bit more tension than they did. The spicy scenes were still good though, and over all it was still a fun and cute read!

Thank you to NetGalley for an advanced copy of this book. I DNF at 68% but I skimmed the book from about 20%.

Pros:
Fast paced
Good writing

Cons:
Too many tropes. Every couple of chapters seemed to have a new trope.

There were too many things that could have been developed further and weren't. They could have led to interesting plot points. Instead another trope and situation was introduced.

I tried to love this story, but the couples, while sexy were predictable in both a boring and unbelievable way. I was disappointed and barely got through this one.

Thank you NetGalley for the opportunity to read this story.

Thank you to NetGalley for providing this ARC.

From the very first paragraph I felt ~seen~ by Sophie. This book was funny, charming, and sweet. I loved how it showed that healing isn’t linear, and we’re all human, so we will inevitably fuck up. But, that doesn’t mean we aren’t worthy of love.

Some of the dialogue felt a little clunky and unnatural, and like not a ton happened, but overall thoroughly enjoyed this book!

This book had a lot of potential. I really liked the premise of it, and I was into it right away. But something just didn’t stick with me. I got bored and didn’t want to keep going. I strongly considered DNF-ing it. The main relationship started to feel too easy, and then parts got too juvenile for me. It wasn’t horribly by any means, just didn’t keep me super engaged.

⭐️⭐️⭐️

Thanks to NetGalley, the author, and the publisher for this ARC.

GENERAL INFO

Year Pub: 11/14/23

Date read: 5/19/23

Format: Kindle

Source: e-ARC. I received a complimentary copy of this book. Opinions expressed in this review are completely my own.

Page Count:336

Setting: CA

Genre: Contemporary Romance, Women's Romance Fiction, NA

Tropes: enemies to lovers, celebrity romance, sister's best friend, books about books

Standalone/Cliffhanger/Part of a Series: Book#2 The Hollywood Series

HEA/HFN ending: HEA

Epilogue Included: yes, 1 yr. later Second Chance Summer and Seize the Clay

Character(s)POV Spoken: dual povs H Dash and h Sophie

BOOK DESCRIPTION

Synopsis/Plot Summary: Sophie Lyon has writer's block with a tight deadline. Needs a HEA for her romance book. She will meet up w/ exes to find out why they didn't fall in love. Next door neighbor/landlord Dash Montrose was a teen heartthrob turned recluse. He has become a TikTok sensation with an anonymous persona for his secret hobby- crafting. He agrees to help Sophie document her journey.

M/F-M/M-M/M/F-etc: M/F

Representation: pansexual, alcoholism

Contains Cheating: no

Contains Children: no

Flashbacks: yes Dash is forced to confront the pressure his parents put on him and competing w/ his brother Rhys.

Jealy/Possy/OTT H/h: yes, Dash's parents push him and his brother to compete w/ each other getting roles.

Amount of Sex In The Book: enough, massage anyone?

Overall Smex Rating: 4

CHARACTER DESCRIPTION

Hero: Dash Montrose

Hero Description: 36, Child actor, teenage heartthrob from Hollywood royalty. Now he's a recluse who uses crafting and pottery to stay sober. No one knows he is an alcoholic. He's an anonymous TikTok sensation @tokcrafty2me and agrees to help Sophie document her experiences. She agrees to help him write the speech for his father's Walk of Fame ceremony. His father wasn't there for him.

Hero Likability Rating: 4

Heroine: Sophie Lyon

Heroine Description: Romance writer, people pleaser, never been in love. Has book contract w/ 6-week deadline. Will document talking to exes about why their relationship failed. Her mother is deceased-10 years ago- and father was never in the picture.

Heroine Likability Rating: 4

Secondary characters:
Chris-Dash's bff and sponsor
Poppy-Sophie's bff and Dash's sister.
Rhys-Dash's older brother, a famous actor
William- Dash's father getting star on Hollywood Walk of Fame. Kitty, his mother wants Dash back in spotlight.
Nina-Sophie's older sister, celebrity chef h from For Butter or Worse-Book #1 The Hollywood Series

H /h RELATIONSHIP INFO

OW/OM/Exes: 1st ex Sophie revisits-Jewel would not give any answers. Told Sophie to look towards the future. 2nd ex-Ned was her high school boyfriend who she broke up with. Carla-Sophie's Dr. ex who was her longest relationship. Dash has a TikTok friend Cindy he flirts with.

Cheating Before/During/Outside H/h Relationship: no, but they agree to friends w/ benefits relationship.

CONTENT WARNINGS/TRIGGERS
Alcoholism/addiction, mental health

AUTHOR OVERVIEW
Erin La Rosa
New or read before & any favorites: new author for me. I would read the first book in this series, For Butter or Worse, about Sophie's sister Nina.

PERSONAL OVERVIEW

Overall Rating: 4*

Do You Recommend This Book: yes

Will You Re-read This Book: maybe

Would You Read More Books by this Author: yes

°•*⁀➷ 4 Stars.

This is the story of two friends who under unlikely circumstances start developing feelings for each other.
If you like a best-friend's-brother to lovers and forced proximity this one is definitely for you.

Sophie is definitely going through it. She's a writer suffering from writer's block. She has a book she must publish ASAP. The problem is how will she write a story where the characters fall in love and get their happily ever after if she has never experienced that in her life? She has been broken up with multiple times and can't seem to fall in love. She decides to go on a quest interviewing her exes to figure out why she could never seem to say those three words. She is hoping that this quest will help her get her passion for writing back.
Enters Dash. He is her best friend's brother, her neighbour and also the landlord of the house she is currently renting out. Dash is also going through it. He is a recovering alcoholic with a hollywood royalty background. He is dealing with his own sets of insecurities and rethinking what he actually enjoys doing. He is stuck between figuring out who he is without the shackles placed on him by his family.
How will Dash emerge on the other side without the need to be the person everyone wants him to be?

The plot of this book is nothing I have ever read before. It is so well written, funny, quirky and extremely relatable.
Through Sophie and Dash's budding romance we discover what it's like to be loved unconditionally. What it means to live for yourself and not others, and most importantly what it means to honour all parts of yourself whilst loving someone completely.
The book also explores deeper topics like dysfunctional families, alcoholism, addiction, loyalty and everything in-between.

This was my first book by Erin La Rosa but I will definitely be reading more of her!


Thank you so much NetGalley, the publisher and the author for giving me this arc to read and review!

You’ve already noticed the single star, so I feel obligated to be transparent here: there will be spoilers in this review. I can’t explain my issues with this novel without them. Sorry/not sorry.

The Gist:

Sophie is a romance author whose never-been-in-love status has triggered writer’s block: she can’t write the HEA for her upcoming novel, which is due to her editor soon. She determines to meet up with all of her exes to figure out what went wrong, documenting her journey on TikTok and hoping that it will unblock her writing and maybe even rekindle a past flame. Oh yeah, she also has a longstanding mad crush on her BFF’s brother Dash, who also happens to be her neighbor/landlord.

Dash is a former actor and black sheep of a major Hollywood family. He left acting to focus on his sobriety, although he’s keeping both his alcoholism and recovery a closely guarded secret. Clean for just over 18 months, he’s managed to stay sober by isolating himself, a secret craft-focused TikTok account his only avenue to community. Sophie has always just been his sister’s BFF…until he finally notices her one morning while helping her through a monster hangover. (If you want to avoid the upcoming spoilers, just know that this last detail is one huge red flag for my biggest objections.)

The Good:

1. La Rosa’s writing style is engaging—her smutty scenes are generally satisfying and work to move the plot forward, and her minor characters are well drawn. Had my One Big Objection been handled differently, I certainly would have enjoyed this novel. So, despite my strong fatal objections here, I’m willing to read another of her titles.

2. Probably my favorite aspect of this book was the casual inclusion of LGBTQ+ characters. That Sophie is pansexual is no biggie. One of her exes is enby; another is a BIPOC/same-sex ex. Again and again—no big, no big. They are presented as (gasp!) normal people doing their normal people-y thing. This is exactly as it should be. The seamless weaving in of these characters is so phe.nom.en.al that I debated whether to even mention it here. (Believe me, I recognize the irony of pointing out how much I appreciated the inclusion of LGBTQ+ characters without them explicitly being pointed out.)

The Meh:

1. Trope-a-palooza. So many other reviewers have mentioned this that I don’t feel much of a need to elaborate. I think the author was trying to achieve a meta-fiction thing here—a romance author encountering a series of romance tropes. Unfortunately, the plot points aren’t developed well enough to make that approach successful. This is unfortunate because it could have come across as fun; instead, it just came across as lazy.

2. The whole TikTok thing—I get it: it’s supposed to be a fresh, new take on the epistolatory novel. Except it just…isn’t. It immediately gives this novel a limited shelf life, not to mention that TikTok’s format doesn’t lend itself to prose. It was far too awkward to include as such a frequent and important literary device.

The Bad: Beware: spoilers ahead!

1. Penetrative Sex as some sort of threshold for physical intimacy: can we please stop pretending that p-in-v sex somehow ‘counts more’ than other methods? Particularly (but not exclusively) when we’re reading about queer characters?

2. Cheating: Sophie sleeps with Dash after she decides to reconcile with her most recent ex. She even tells Dash on her way out the door, with “all her clothes bundled in her hands,” that she’s “attempting to make things work with Carla.”

Are you, Sophie? Are you really?

Let me just say that cheating is never acceptable. Not even as a plot device. Nope. Nope, nope, nope.

3. And this is the big one: irresponsible depiction of addiction and recovery:

Where do I even begin?

First, Dash’s sponsor Chris—how loudly can I write that a sponsor is not a bestie. And there’s no way, zero, that Chris is going to strap his own baby onto Dash’s chest, send him to a meeting, and then not follow up with him about it. I don’t care how sleep-deprived Chris is or how much he’s jonesing for a nap. This is not sponsor behavior. At all. There also won't be basically zero repercussions—including and most immediately Dash having to find a new sponsor—once Chris realizes he’s been lied to (even if ‘only’ by omission) multiple times.

Next, Dash’s relapse—I have no problem with the fact that Dash had a third-act relapse. In the course of the narrative, this absolutely makes sense. However, I do have a few major problems with his time in rehab:

There’s a soft implication that he wants to get better ‘for her,’ so that he can ‘be the man she thinks he is.’ (Please note that I’m paraphrasing here.) What’s worse, these implications go largely unchallenged. Even Dash’s therapist goes along with this, which is not something an addiction counselor would ever do, especially within the first days and weeks of residential treatment. No. Just, no.

Next, Sophie sets up a scavenger hunt at the rehab facility with her ‘I love you, so let’s officially kick off our romantic relationship’ at the end of it? And the treatment center lets her do this? On visitors’ day? Seriously? Because, no. No, they didn’t. It’s basically s.o.p. for addicts to focus only on their sobriety for the first year of treatment. There is absolutely no way that Dash’s sponsor (such as he is), therapist, and rehab center staff would condone this. Which of course means that the one-year-later Epilogue should have been Dash and Sophie’s first official date.

And this brings me to my biggest beef with the way Dash’s alcoholism was treated in this novel—he is never shown going to a meeting, not even after his on-page stint in rehab. I get that for most of the novel Dash was trying to ‘do things on his own,’ but after his relapse? The dude has to go to meetings. Readers need to see his character grow in a very specific way—and that means meetings. On the regular. And probably therapy. And a new sponsor. These things are non-negotiable. As it’s written, the Epilogue basically shows him being ‘all better’ after a year with Sophie, which dangerously supports the ‘love can fix addiction’ lie. For me, this absolutely kills the book and I cannot in good conscience recommend it to anybody. At all. Ever.

And don’t even get me started on Sophie’s tattoo, about which I will just say this: getting inked as a way to announce your love is cringey. Creepy. Ill-advised. And honestly, Dash—who faced a cringey, creepy stalker within the course of the narrative—absolutely should have seen it as a red flag. Ew. Ew, ew, ew, ew, ew.

Romance, cuteness, and just a touch of book-nerdy-ness!

I devoured this book in one sitting! Both the FMC and MMC were delightful to read and when they came together sparks flew (no books where harmed thankfully).

This was weirdly more intense than I expected it to be even with the obvious plot notes in the blurb. Like homeboy is going through it and just needs some love. But not like a voodoo doll kind. Just a normal kind sane love.

I was very invested in their friendship and I kind of wish we had seen more of that before it moved to the ✨next level✨ because, although they’ve obviously seen each other around, they both admittedly have not had many interactions. But then they move real quickly to having All The Interactions, which tbh is understandable considering their families I guess.

I read it all in one day! It’s nice to have representation (of addiction, invisible/less visible illness, etc) that is portrayed in a real way, and I am so glad to see it more and more in media!

I thought this book was really cute! Outrageous and predictable, yes, but an entertaining read. I'm a big trope gal, and all the tropes included were like a romance book lovers dream come true. I also love pop culture references in books, and Plot Twist was full of them. Dash and Sophie were both sweet and vulnerable, but an explosive match in the bedroom too. And the cover??? SO CUTE (if you say you don't judge a book by its cover, you're lying). There was a balance between feel-good romance and deeper issues, but if you're looking for an overall fluffy romance read - this is it!

Thanks to NetGalley and Erin La Rosa for an ARC!

Read if you love reading about:
- best friends brother
- grumpy x sunshine
- forced proximity (landlord x guest house)
- celebrities
- only one bed
- tiktok and social media
- pansexual representation
- friends with benefits
- dysfunctional families
- sobriety and mental health issues