This story is so cute! Definitely was not expecting several of the story points, I couldn’t put it down once I got into it!

What a cute read! I really enjoyed this book. Also great use of inclusive language! I loved the Hollywood / LA vibes. I also enjoyed the split perspectives. Dash’s perspective did a great job at showing his vulnerabilities. I think the incorporation of TikTok worked well, but I wasn’t a fan of the stalker aspect. I was expecting more to come from it but nothing really happened. Loved the romance and it had the perfect amount of spice. Fun read overall and I would definitely recommend it to others.

Plot Twist, by Erin La Rosa, drew me in right away. It is a fun rom-com that will have you laughing out loud at the banter between Sophie and Dash. It leaves you with the good "feels" of a Hallmark movie. Thanks, NetGalley and the publisher, for providing me with an ARC ebook in exchange for my honest review.

Plot Twist is a light and breezy falling for your best friend’s brother tale on the surface, but packs a solid emotional punch too – perfect for fans of Ava Wilder and Abby Jimenez.

When we meet Romance writer Sophie Lyon, she’s death’s door-level hungover, the host of a debilitating writer’s block party, and confessed to the world that she’s never been in love. Then she throws up on her hot landlord’s shoes. Said landlord, Dash, also happens to be her best friend’s hot brother, former actor, and the child of very famous jerks.

From the start, we know Sophie and Dash are both unenthusiastic riders on the struggle bus. Sophie decides to go on a High Fidelity-style trip down Confront Your Ex Lane to fix her inability to write a happily ever after. Dash is white-knuckling through sobriety by working on his crafting projects and being a recluse.

As expected from well-formed characters, what they *think* is going to solve their problems won’t get them to a happy ending. Anyone who’s fought imposter syndrome and people-pleasing tendencies will feel a kinship with Sophie, as she finds her voice and the confidence to fall in love authentically.

Dash will likely resonate with anyone who has struggled with addiction or loves someone who does. While his relationship with alcohol is an essential plot point, La Rosa handles this potential mine field with a lot of grace. He too needed to find his voice and Sophie serves as a point of inspiration without becoming his reward for sobriety. Dash may fear a new relationship is his biggest danger point, but it was his existing relationships which required new coping strategies.

The inner conflict of both Sophie and Dash is significant. However, the tender hearts of both characters keep the narrative from dragging into maudlin. There’s plenty of humor and spicy times to balance the rough stuff.

In Erin La Rosa’s first fiction offering, For Butter or Worse, we were introduced to the Lyon sisters, and specifically Nina, a celebrity chef on the rise. While Plot Twist is a natural second book in a series about Nina’s little sister, Sophie and Dash’s story can be treated as a standalone.

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Tropes: Best Friend’s Brother, Celebrity Romance, Friends-to-Lovers, Cinnamon Roll hero

Spice Level: 2/5, open door
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Thank you to NetGalley and Harlequin Trade Publishing for the ARC in exchange for an honest review. Expected publication date Nov 14th, 2023.

Thank you to Harlequin Trade Publishing for this ARC. I loved, loved this book. I listened to the audiobook and it was so well done. This book had such cute banter and was so spicy. I will be reading more by Erin La Rosa.

the third person writing was really hard to get through. i had to start and stop reading mutliple times. i couldnt finish it

4.5/5 stars

Thank you to NetGalley for sending me an arc of this book in exchange for an honest review.

The story follows Sophie and Dash. Sophia is an author, who is suffering from a writer’s block. After an unfortunate drunk incident she turns to TikTok to expose her tragic love life. Dash is Sophie's best friend's brother. He was once an aspiring actor but most recently he lives alone working on this crafting skills. Sophie and Dash start working together, becoming friends but there relationship slowly turns into something more as they get to know each other.

I definitely recommend this book to anyone who loves reading rom-coms!

Nope. I was excited for this one (it sounded so fun!) but the writing, pacing, and tenses were off from the start and never recovered. DNF'd.

Really cute grumpy sunshine/best friend’s brother Romance. Sophie and Dash are easily relatable, lovable and complex characters. Their backstories are interesting and really bring a lot to their relationship. I absolutely adored all the representation in this book. Not only the pansexual rep, but also that of addiction. Overall the pacing was good, although sometimes a little rocky. I can’t teLL you how many times I laughed out loud while reading. Sophie and Dash’s banter is delightful. Sophie, in general is delightful.

This book was 50% popular tropes and 50% contemporary references that I feel like will age the book and make it feel outdated in a year or two. I get the sense that the author is trying to introduce other characters who will get spinoff books, but it draws attention away from the main characters and was a bit distracting. Honestly, a bit of a let-down from the premise (the conflict between the leads got resolved so quickly in my opinion) and some parts of the book felt a little simplistic, or poorly executed even (i.e. the villains all felt so one dimensional).

I received a free ARC from NetGalley but this review was posted of my own volition!

"Plot Twist", by Erin La Rosa, intrigued me due to its unique plot line: Sophie is an author who writes romance novels but yet has never been in love. However, her best friend's brother and very hot landlord (Dash) is making her rethink the way she views love and romance. I enjoyed the growth that both characters made and thought the chemistry between the two of them was very strong. However, there were some pretty large plot holes to this story and I probably wouldn't read it again.

Thanks to NetGalley for the ARC. All opinions are my own.

DNF at 40%

This book is REALLY slow and I feel like I’m going nowhere. It’s almost like reading about all the different types of romance books there are and and why certain ones are the authors favorites. The references to TikTok is also a bit annoying to me with how constant it is.

The idea of Sophie trying to write her next book is a fun idea. Going to talk to exs about why she’s never fallen in love and I felt like it could have gone somewhere but I just got in a reading slump from this one.

Thank you NetGalley for an advance copy of this book in exchange for an honest view.

I was surprisingly super into this book right when I started it… probably because it was giving off rom-com movie vibes but my interest started dwindling around 60% mark. While I liked romance between Sophie and Dash, there was a real missed opportunity to let them stew in that mutual pinning a little bit more. Overall this a cute and spicy book.

I enjoy Erin La Rosa's characters and Hollywood setting as I think they appeal to millennial readers like myself a lot. Also her focus on the mental health struggles of her characters is refreshing to see in romance novels.
It makes her characters more realistic easier to identify with. I was a little bored with the meeting up with exes plot because I just recently read "Exes and Ohs" by Amy Lea and they just seemed too similar. There was also way, way too many references to the characters licking their lips. I will still recommend this book though because I did enjoy it and think others will too. I'm excited to see what Erin La Rosa does next.

Oh my lord, this was the cutest book and i finished it in one sitting. I absolutely loved Soph and Dash and really enjoyed reading this book. The whole story was amazing. Soph is an author who lives in California and is struggling to finish her romance book. Dash is her best friends brother, need i say more? Soph and dash are both struggling with their own issues and are working towards bettering themselves for their own happiness. The ending of this book was amazing and perfect! If you love best friends brother, one bed and happily ever afters this book is for you!

We have all gone to karaoke night and ran into a Sophie. I loved Sophie because she is a relatable character that any girl in her mid-20s would have in their lives. The book is a romcom but the plot is not something I have seen done where the character speaks to all her exes to find out what went wrong which props to her because I would never do that! I loved Nina and Poppy especially when Poppy warned her talking to her ex that broke her heart was a bad idea because we need friends like that. I am a huge fan of the best friends brother trope so the romance with Dash was extra spicy because of the forbidden aspect.

3.5 Stars

Sophie Lyon is a romance author who went viral on TikTok for getting drunk at a karaoke bar and claiming she's never been in love. Dash Montrose is a former child star, secret recovering alcoholic, and Sophie's landlord. After the viral video leaves Sophie feeling shame on top of the pressure to finish her Sophmore novel in 6 weeks, Dash gives Sophie the idea to use TikTok to tell her side of the story. While Sophie discovers why she's never been in love, her friendship with Dash blooms into something more.

Plot Twist is a trope-filled HEA romance that is camp in the most delightful of ways. Erin La Rosa had a lot of fun wedging in tropes left and right to help Sophie find the ending to her romance book and her love life. It can be overwhelming for readers who are trope-adverse, but I found all the tropes to be fun and fit with Sophie being an author. The pacing in this book was a little breakneck, and I would have loved to see Dash and Sophie sit in their mutual pining a little longer before falling in love- maybe even getting a HFN instead of a HEA. Overall, I think this story had some great parts but didn't have that "wow" factor. I recommend this to anyone looking for a light rom-com read with a fair amount of on-page spice.

Thank you to NetGalley and Canary Street Press for an ARC in exchange for an honest review.

This book hit me a lot harder than I thought it was going to. ESPECIALLY since it wasn’t mentioned in the blurb at all. As someone whose SO has gone through the program I’ll put it bluntly: the MMC is sober. Threaded through this adorable romance plot of “can’t date my best friends brother” is a lot of blunt discussion of early sobriety and supportive vs unsupportive people in their life.

Honestly, I really enjoyed it. I found the fact that both characters had struggles and personal growth really refreshing.

“how can we be friends but I know what you taste like?”

This book follows Sophie, a romance author and Dash an actor, with his career on hold while struggling with sobriety. Sophie is on timeline to finish her second book and is suffering from writer's block. A video gets out where she’s talking about never having been in love before. Her solution to this is to meet up with all of her exes and ask them why they feel like they never fell in love, and if they would consider dating her again. In hopes is that this would help her free through her writer's block. While dash continues to struggle silently with his sobriety and decisions about his future.

This book was good, it could have been great. There was an interesting use of social media that is so common in our current culture. Sophie identifies as pansexual and that kind of representation in media is so important for readers to see. Dash's struggle with sobriety seems to be true to what I've seen, its not something I've struggled with but have known people who do. There was so much going in on this book with both of their struggles that not much time was spent on the budding relationship between Sophie and Dash. I feel like more time could have been spent on the growth of their relationship. The earthquake seemed out of place and unnecessary. The personal growth seemed to sped up as well. Overall this book was meh for me, i liked the concept of meeting up with her exes and use of social media to chronicle it.

This is one of the best books I've read in a long time! I now need to go back and read Nina's story, but I think Sophie and Dash will forever be one of my favorite book couples.