I was a little disappointed after finishing this book. It was spicy, flirty, cute, some level of realism with substance abuse/rehab, but it just seemed so "reality TV".

The super hot child actor with family issues who drank too much and the young pretty romance author who has "never really loved" go through what was somewhat of a predictable romance with its ups and downs, crazy stalkers, etc. all to just end up together and ending the book with them doing a quickie. Meh. Not one of my favorite romance/spicy books, sorry to say.


Thanks to Netgalley and the publishers for this copy of the e-arc in exchange for an honest review.

This book was a cute, unputdownable best-friends-brother romance. I loved the chemistry between Sophie and Dash.

It emphasizes finding yourself through the process of facing your past, and not letting it or your mistakes define you. Both Sophie and Dash have their own pasts to overcome, and they both get their redemption in the end.



My only gripes are the constant TikTok references, the word guffaw is used too much, and the “perverted canine tooth” (…huh?)

Thank you to NetGalley and the author for letting me read this book in exchange for my review!

Sophie Lyon, a romance author, is facing writer's block as she has never been in love herself. To overcome it, she decides to reconnect with her exes and document her journey for her followers online. However, this means confronting her ex-girlfriend, Carla, whom she still has feelings for. Sophie's landlord, Dash Montrose, a former teen heartthrob, offers to help her with social media. But Dash has a secret, he is an anonymous online crafter who uses it to maintain his sobriety. As Sophie and Dash grow closer, they find themselves attracted to each other. Sophie proposes a friends-with-benefits arrangement, but Dash is unsure if he is stable enough for a commitment. Sophie also needs to figure out who she is outside of her relationships.

The beginning of this story was great! I get like over time it started to feel like the tropes took over the characters, that the tropes were the main focus and the characters were written a round those tropes. I started to slow down reading the book towards halfway and slugged through the second half. Overall okay story!

2.5 ⭐️ 2 🌶️

I really don’t have a ton to say about Plot Twist. The premise of the novel was cute and fun, but the execution was…not. The writing felt bland and formulaic, and I was ambivalent about most of the characters - main characters included. Honestly, I found Sophie to be downright insufferable at times. And if Dash mentioned Sophie’s “perverse canine tooth” one more time, I was going to lose it 🙃 *insert IT’S ENOUGH SLICES soundbite*

There were several things that happened in the plot that felt disjointed, unnecessary, or were left completely unresolved. It felt as if the author was trying to throw in as many tropes as possible without making sure it actually WORKED in the context of the story. The intimate scenes between Dash and Sophie felt weirdly conversational, but maybe that’s just because I wasn’t invested in them as a couple.

Overall, Plot Twist isn’t great, but it’s not terrible either. There was some good commentary on the realities of addiction recovery. At times it felt like the author was trying a little to hard to be ~relatable~ with the TikTok stuff, but I’m sure some readers will find the internet culture references fun. This one just wasn’t for me!

Thank you to Harlequin and NetGalley for the ARC!

I truly don’t understand how perfect this book is. I fell in love immediately with both MCs and I was rooting for them from the beginning. The FMC is very unique, but not in off putting way. I really love that she is pansexual, and it is just accepted- there is no conversation around her being interested in more than just men with the MMC. I do love queer books that delve into the deeper feelings and trauma around being queer, but sometimes just having it be treated as normal is what a person needs. Such a breath of fresh air. I love the MMC as well. He is very relatable and I believed his actions, they didn’t seem unreasonable at all. Perfect book.

When Sophie hits a writers block, she decides to talk with her exes about why they didn't work out and documents the experience on TikTok. Her landlord, Dash, knows more about social media and offers to help. Both are working on themselves and aren't sure they are ready to get into a relationship. But as the two get closer, they discover an undeniable connection between them that they can't ignore.
Plot Twist by Erin La Rosa was a cute next door neighbor romance. This book was good and a quick read. I enjoyed reading it and would recommend it to others. I gave it 3/5 stars. I liked the tropes that were in this book. Some of the tropes that were in this friends with benefits and the next door neighbor trope. I liked Sophie and Dash but not really any of the other characters. Although I did like Chris. The other characters were a bit annoying and not likeable. The plot was okay but I don't care for the use of TikTok in books. The writing of this book was good. It was easy to follow and did not have anything that was very different from your average romance. Overall, I liked this book and would recommend it to others. Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for the ARC. All opinions are my own.

Does Erin La Rosa have a looking glass into my brain? The tropes. All of the tropes. All of my favorite tropes smashed into a blender together. How did she fit so many in?!?

So, to backtrack just a little, this is the second book by Erin La Rosa in this series. I read and liked the first book. I easily liked it enough to pick up another. Still, I did have a few small gripes that built up by the end. When it came to reading Plot Twist I knew by the second chapter that I was significantly more into this story. I suppose retrospectively, it seems to me like Leo and Nina in the first book were amusing, but not people I could really imagine being in the shoes of. Dash and Sophie however, both felt very relatable. I loved that balance of silliness and personal growth that the story took on, it made it so easy to root for the character’s and their relationship. As mentioned there are so many cute tropes sprinkled in- best friend’s brothers, childhood crush, only one bed, but overall this rang through as being wholly original. The personalities and struggles that Dash and Sophie deal with make it entirely their own unique story.

I loved this book and would definitely keep it on hand as a go to comfort romance. Highly recommend ❤️

What an excellent sophomore book! I'm a sucker for books with writer/editor main characters, and this one doesn't disappoint. I don't know what it is about Erin La Rosa, but the chemistry between her love interests always gets me going.

I'm always a fan of a romance book where both love interests have their own personal journeys that need to be worked on before getting into a relationship with healthy communication. Call me a dreamer.

Plot Twist by Erin La Rosa ended up being a fun romance book that surprised me. I don't usually read romance books but I wanted to try something new and this was the perfect book for that. It was fast paced, hilarious, and the main characters were likeable and interesting enough to keep me going. In the end, if you're a fan of fun and steamy romance books then you might want to add this one to your TBR asap!

Actual rating: 3.5 stars, almost 4
Full review: to come closer to release date

This novel was slightly different than what I typically read. There were a lot of modern themes and references to pop culture. There’s also a lot of TikToking (is that what the kids are calling it nowadays?), which I thought was kind of cringey but maybe that’s just me.

BUT the love story in this was great and the characters were incredibly diverse and well thought out. The FMC is pansexual so it’s LGBTQIA+ friendly ☺️ also Sophie is quirky and just trying to figure her shit out in a lovable and laughable way that made me like her character a lot. She struggles with trust issues throughout the novel and I can definitely relate there. AND Sophie is an author so lots of good bookish references. ❤️

Dash is the MMC and he’s a tatted up dream boat who’s incredibly crafty 🤤. One of the main themes in this book is addiction and how that affects one’s love life and family relationships, which I thought the author did a phenomenal job of writing about. Dash is an ex-movie star that comes from a famous Hollywood family…and he’s got mommy issues big time. He is much more sensitive than most MMC I’ve read recently and I honestly loved that because it was a nice change of pace.

Overall, great story and great characters, but I didn’t love the overuse of pop culture and Tik Tok. Both of these things made the story modern and relevant, but when it comes to reading I like to escape the bs of the modern world and want to be reminded people can exist outside of social media. 🙃

First of all, look at this cover! I am in love.

Sophie is a romance author who has never been in love. She has a major deadline coming up for her next book but she has writer's block. So she goes out and gets drunk then has a sloppy, embarrassing video go viral on TikTok declaring this. And in order to "take control of the narrative", her neighbor suggests she create a response video and tell her side of the story. So she does and it unfurls into a series of meetups with her exes to find out where it all went wrong: why did she never fall in love? And if she can figure that out, maybe she can figure out the HEA for her book.

I love the premise of this. I love romance novels with flashbacks and though this wasn't written that way, I was excited for her to revisit her old flames and go on this journey of self-discovery with her. However, as the story progressed, there was too much going on and it was hard to focus on the characters or the multiple mini plot lines unfolding (lots of "plot twists" I guess).

There was also a lot reference to TikTok. Almost every other paragraph had it for maybe 2-3 chapters. I almost DNF'd at 25% because of this. And though there is definitely a space of social media in books, I felt that TikTok became the basis of the plot progression and didn't translate well into the story. Plus her actual meetings with her exes were very minimal so it seemed that we only really got Sophie's reactions and not their "feedback" which is why she was doing the meetups in the first place. It was hard to gauge whether or not these meetups added depth to Sophie's character or her quest to finding her/her book's happily ever after.

I liked that Dash was explicitly described to be a shorter MMC (we need more of this! Not every guy is 6'5') and that he liked crafts which is not (as some might say) a "manly" hobby. I also liked that he was very real about his challenge with sobriety and his struggle with being from a famous family. But other than that, he seemed a bit bland? I don't know if it was intentional that he was consumed by his recovery to showcase how hard it really is--because I bet it is-- or if he just read one dimensional.

I also liked that Sophie is curvy, identifies as pansexual, and that she's very comfortable with her sexuality. I think that makes her a strong FMC. Unfortunately, she is also very quirky, almost to a fault? As in, it didn't seem like the character was written decisively. There was a lot of contradicting personality traits as the book progressed so it was hard to cheer her on. Some instances she was portrayed as selfless that she never spoke up about her needs, but some of her actions showed that she was selfish and didn't consider how she affected other people. Sometimes she even seemed hypocritical.

The side characters had a lot of background information which was sort of thrown in at random and a bit unnecessary, but they seemed more developed than Sophie was. However, I don't think they added to Sophie's or Dash's growth because they seemed like they only popped up when convenient to the plot.

There was also a lot of "telling" and not "showing" in terms of the story and way too many tropes. And plainly told "this is the trope" as it was happening. Just the fact that Dash was her neighbor/landlord/childhood crush/best friend's brother/ex-teen heartthrob/friend to lover was already too much. Maybe this is why I didn't feel the chemistry between Sophie and Dash. It was just written to be accepted that they were endgame.

There was definitely spice which was nice, but the "dirty talk" was kind of cringey at times. Though I loved the highlight of asking for what we need/want in the bedroom!

I think the ending was my favorite part. I liked where Sophie ended up in terms of her emotional maturity, but I don't think there was evidence to support that she got there. It was just given to her. I was more in favor of Dash's growth with dealing with his demons and his family, though there could have been more there. But it was a nice wrapped-up-in-a-nice-little-bow ending, grand gesture included, which we all love.

Overall, I think this had a lot of potential but ultimately wasn't for me.

Thank you to the author, the publisher, and NetGalley for the eARC in exchange for an honest review.

DNF (sorry, I hate doing that, too.)

Listen. I am not against social media in books. It works in thrillers and it works when used as background. It does not work as a plot device -- it simply becomes impossible to read due to the cringe. The protagonist is very quirky. Like, painfully quirky. The guy is bland. It's all just very sad. The side characters are irritating and seem to be developed too much, which is a weird thing to complain about except they info dump their entire lives in the most irritating manner possible. The writing was also kind of weird. I was just uncomfortable the whole time. There were way too many tropes. You cannot rely on tropes to carry your novel. Also? Is it not a little weird that the mc here is the author of the previous book in the series? Is it not weird to include meta in romance?

Overall, I'm sorry, not for me. I know some people will love it though.

Thanks to netgalley and publisher for this arc!

This wasn't what I expected but was a touching real love story. The chemistry was great and he was just swoonnnnn in so many ways! I've never read a romance book like this that touched on serious struggles. On the surface this seems to be a girl getting with her celeb crush/landlord/best friends older bro, that's what sold me I love the older bro trope and celeb/fan trope but this was much more.

Thank you NetGalley for the ARC of Plot Twist. I enjoyed this story, the main character were likable and had believable flaws. I think the ex’s story line dragged on a bit too long and some things were just not really resolved (leaked stories, and stalkers, these just… went away?) and I didn’t really like any of the side characters. But this was a cute celebrity romance and I would recommend it as a good spicy read.

I unfortunately wasn't a fan of this book. I couldn't connect to the characters and felt like I was losing interest quickly. I loved the cover so am bummed this didn't work out for me.

I didn't know who Erin La Rosa was, but I do now! It has everything and more. She manages to cram a lot of tropes into one book -- best friend's brother, friends to lovers, and pessimistic/optimistic-- but somehow it still works without being cliche. She also incorporated LGBTQ instances with proper preferred pronouns without making it pushy and overdone. This was truly a GEM of a read.

Publication Date: 14 Nov 2023

Genre: Romantic comedy

Helpful hints: Features a male main character in recovery from alcoholism and a female main character who considers herself to be pansexual (and has dated mostly women)

Prefer closed door romance? Skip Chapters (half of) 14, 15 26, 27

This was my first time reading an Erin La Rosa book, and I must admit that I found myself feeling like I'd jumped into the middle of something without knowing the background of the other characters. When I looked it up on Overdrive, I discovered a book about the female protagonist in Plot Twist's sister, Nina. I'm now on hold for it, (because Plot Twist was great!) but Plot Twist might make slightly more sense if you read the first book in the series, "For Butter or Worse," before this one. With that being said, there was enough information for it to still be able to be read as a standalone.

Anyway. Plot Twist is the story of bubbly Sophie Lyon, a romance author, and her seemingly grumpy neighbor/landlord Dash Montrose, a former movie star and recovering alcoholic. When Sophie gets drunk and bashes love during karaoke, she goes viral on TikTok. Her best friend Poppy sends her brother Dash over to check on a very hungover Sophie, she vomits all over him, and against all odds, they become friends. Join Sophie and Dash as he helps her navigate the world of TikTok, she attempts to learn why she's never fallen in love, and he does his best to remain sober. Hijinks and shenanigans unfold with a plot twist I probably should have seen coming but somehow didn't. Not going to lie, with as many books as I read, it's hard to surprise me these days lol. My favorite random feature was Richard the squirrel, who has an inexplicable disdain for Richard Gere. 😂

Somehow this book manages to cram a lot of tropes into one book -- best friend's brother, friends to lovers, AND grumpy sunshine -- but somehow it still works without being cliche.

Thank you to NetGalley, Erin La Rosa, and Harlequin Trade Publishing for the ARC in exchange for an honest review. Make sure to mark your calendar for November 4th, if you are interested in this one. 📆

Sophie is a charming, pansexual romance author with serious writer’s block following her first published hit which chronicled her sister’s love story. The problem is that Sophie has never found true love and has never uttered those three little words. Sophie heads down a journey of reuniting with her exes and sharing with her findings with her TikTok fan base. Her landlord, Dash, who also happens to be the brother of her best friend, Poppy, is a former actor and teenage heart throb struggling with sobriety and keeping his passion secret from his family and the press. As their relationship evolves, Sophie and Dash find themselves in unchartered territory, navigating their identities, trust, honesty, and healthy boundaries.

It is a sweet romcom that hooks you from the start. I couldn’t help but root for these characters in all their flaws and quirks. I enjoyed that the narration shifted between Sophie and Dash and the little winks to the reader, pointing out the romance tropes at play. There are some very steamy bits for those seeking 🔥. For those sensitive about alcoholism, rehabilitation, and recovery, enter with care.

https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/5463945115

What do you get when two perfectly imperfect characters fall in love? A sweet, honest and caring couple with tons of personal baggage. Plot Twist is not your ordinary rom com. The characters have issues that aren’t easily solved or even resolved in 250 pages. Dash is an alcoholic trying desperately to stay sober. His family is a nightmare, and his mother is the worst. Sophie has major abandonment and trust issues. Despite all the reasons they shouldn’t, they fall in love because they are honest with each other and authentically themselves with one another, even when they aren’t with anyone else.

I found these characters both refreshing and frustrating. Dash is incredibly sweet to Sophie, and oh so sigh worthy. But the way he let his mother walk all over him without standing up to her was super frustrating. I wanted to yell at him sometimes but mostly I just wanted to give him a hug.

I will definitely keep my eye on this author in the future.

{Disclaimer: I was given a copy of Plot Twist from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.}