3.5
Friends to Lovers is normally not my favorite - i love the angst - but Plot Twist was so heartwarming and sweet. Dash's dynamics with those around him was so interesting. From being a seemingly stereotypical grumpy, he was so much of a marshmallow that I honestly forgot that that was his character trait at the beginning. I genuinely enjoyed this book and loved the characters. Loved that Dash was a short king, all hail. Sophie has an absolute heart of gold and I actually really loved her little tiktok saga.

My only complaint is that I feel it was so subplots that tropes in such a short span of time that other than Dash's main conflict, the rest felt a little rushed and sometimes feel like they were dropped back into the story after the fact. The subplots were each interesting in their own right but I think if one or two were dropped to allow more depth/story to everything else it would have allowed me to sort of savor and enjoy them more.

I had a hard time getting into this. There was too much talk about TikTok that I wasn't in the mood for. I don't generally enjoy reading books that are so heavily dated like this one is. The writing wasn't bad, so if you don't mind constant references to social media, you may enjoy this more than me.

I loved this book from the start. I’m big into romance right now and this book hit the spot. I loved that the author didn’t make Sophie and Dash sit in their mutual pining too long. I hate when that happens and the story drags on. However this was perfect. Some spicy scenes involved as well. Definitely recommend.

This was quite a fun read, and there were aspects of it I really enjoyed. For example, I liked the casual inclusion of both male and female exes for the MC. The main things that brought it down from a 4-star read to a 3-star one were some specific writing quirks (especially overuse of the word "smirk") and the way the menacing TikTok follower just kind of... goes away. I wanted to see that plot thread end in a much more satisfying way.

I appreciate the opportunity to read the e-arc of Plot Twist!

This book was SO good. It hit all the right spots for a lovable, relatable romcom.

FMC Sophie is a romance writer who is stuck on deadline for her second book, and she has been waylaid by writer's block. Like - epic level writer's block. When she becomes an accidental TikTok sensation, her incredibly hot yet reclusive neighbor, former child actor Dash Montrose (that name!) offers to help her with social media. Despite his actual celebrity, Dash is an undercover TikTok star thanks to his popular crafting channel.

The story takes place in Los Angeles, with many famous and famous-adjacent types making appearances. I liked how the people who had these interesting jobs, IE a celebrity chef, were just normal people, friends and siblings, to our FMC and MMC. The challenges and stressors they dealt with were just like the ones any of us normies would have, and it added a layer of depth to the subplots.

Dash is both physically swoon-worthy and his emotional growth as a character makes him for-real swoonworthy. The man has had a difficult path through life, and reading along as he gets comfortable with being vulnerable was humanizing and real.

Sophie is a brave, confident, lovable person and we see her interview her exes to see where things went wrong in a bid to find out what her own issues are. Along the way, she sees her weaknesses reflected back to her, and it makes her think about what she wants out of life.

Dash and Sophie fall for each other against the backdrop of some deep, personal healing. You can't help but root for these two as they figure themselves, and each other, out.

The way that Dash's alcoholism and struggles with sobriety were written was kind and authentic. The scene where he wakes up after his relapse and the house is full of his friends and family making breakfast, allowing him to move through his mistake with grace, was such a beautiful demonstration of love.

Thank you to NetGalley, the author and the publisher for this ARC in exchange for my honest reviews.

Unfortunately this book was just not for me. Because of that, I will keep my review off of Goodreads.

I am not a TikTok user, nor will I ever be. I just could not get into the whole influencer things that takes up the entire first part of the book.

So sorry, it’s just not a book for me.

Unfortunately, I had to DNF this book at about 20%. While I understand that social media is a central point of the plot, the near-constant references to Tiktok, social media trends, etc. was a bit too much for me. While there were some aspects that I liked (normalizing therapy & sobriety, the chemistry between the main characters) it ultimately wasn't enough for me personally to slog through all of the pop culture references. I think that if reading about current trends/Tiktok isn't something that would bother you in a book, give this a shot!
Thanks to NetGalley and Canary Street Press for the ARC.

3.5⭐️ So cute, fun, and lighthearted. Plot Twist follows author Sophie and ex-film star Dash. Sophie is battling writers block and the fact that she’s never been in love. Dash is battling his feeling of inadequacy after leaving the film industry that his family is prominent in. After a night of drinking Dash goes over to check on Sophie, and after seeing a viral video of her declaring she’s never been in love their journey to love and healing begins.

I felt that Dash and Sophie had good chemistry. Their friends to lovers trope progressed very smoothly and didn’t feel forced or rushed. It was nice (in an annoying way) to see how the mcs positively affected each other without realizing it. The couple spent so much time talking about the way they cared about each other before either made a move.

This was a quick and easy lighthearted read that tackled a few heavy topics in an appropriate manner. There was lqbtq+ representation. The book wasn’t overly steamy, it only had a few steamy scenes and some innuendos throughout.

Overall, I think this was a nice read and if you’re on the fence about picking it up, I say go for it.

I received an advance copy of this book, courtesy of Harlequin Trade Publishing and NetGalley. All opinions are my own.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for this eARC - it was a delight to read.
I appreciated the careful exploration on the topic of sobriety - the struggles felt believable and authentic and I felt for the MMC the entire book. The FMC was delightful as well, and I did not think the TikTok references were *too* cringey. Both characters were fleshed out well and I was interested in each of them and their interests. I particularly find the MMC's love of pottery super charming.

This book was just ok for me. I enjoyed the character of Dash more than Sophie, but I didn’t feel invested in their relationship. There were also quite a few minor characters that felt underdeveloped. Chris was interesting, but Poppy and Nina didn’t add much to the plot for me.

This book was absolutely adorable and I highly recommend it, as it is the romcom that you have been craving! I couldn't put it down, and I enjoyed every minute I spent with these characters!

Fun premise, decent execution. I think this will become dated very quickly. Don't the kids already not use TikTok?

Thanks to NetGalley and Canary Street Press for the ARC.

Friends to lovers, one bed, friends with benefits- all the tropes I love! Sophie is a romance author stuck with writers block due to never having been in love, and unluckily, she’s gone viral in a video drunkenly professing her lackluster belief in Happily Ever Afters. Dash was a teenage heartthrob from “the” Hollywood family, but now he’s focusing on his sobriety by anonymously posting crafting videos to TikTok.

I loved the characters. The author really made me feel connected to them and want them to succeed. However, there wasn’t much time spent pining for each other; they skipped straight to friends with benefits, which made later plot points, such as why Sophie was upset about Dash not being upfront about his darkest secrets, a little confusing. The summary also provided more background than a summary of discussing what the plot would be; I thought there would be more social media involvement based on the summary.

Overall, I enjoyed this universe and was drawn in to keep reading to find out how they would find their way together.

Plot Twist by Erin La Rosa is a pretty standard romance, with some pretty absurd moments. Sophie Lyon is a romance writer with writers block, staring down a deadline for her second book. Dash Montrose is a former heartthrob and recovering alcoholic, relying on his anonymous crafting TikTok account to keep him sane and sober. The premise basically rests on the fact that Sophie has never been in love, and she needs to revisit all her past relationships to find out why. But then also, for some reason, she needs to start a FWB relationship with Dash (who happens to be her landlord AND her best friend Poppy's brother).

Hijinks ensue. There are multiple false starts to Sophie and Dash's arrangement, and then of course as soon as they have sex (written in excruciating detail), they are in L-O-V-E. There are so many other threads that just manage to muddle the whole thing. Sophie's HS boyfriend is somehow still made, a decade later, that she ghosted him after they broke up, so he pretends to reconcile with her and then sells a story about her famous sister to the media. Dash has an online friendship with another craft TikToker, who turns into a stalker who makes a doll of Dash as some sort of...threat? Or come on?? Hard to say. And of course, Dash comes from "Hollywood Royalty" (#nepobaby) who are about as cold as you'd expect.

All in all, I didn't enjoy this book. Mostly because I couldn't settle into the storytelling before yet another ridiculous obstacle was thrown in the way. It could and should have been more focused and better. Lots of steam, if that's your thing.

I picked this book to read while I was preparing for a four hour sitting for my most recent tattoo. That's a weird thing to put in a review, but I was looking for something engrossing so that I could forget that I had to sit still so long, and this DID THE TRICK. I was completely sucked in immediately and while I didn't finish the book before the artist finished my tattoo, I did finish it that same night after going home.

The characters problems and feelings felt very real to me. The book also avoided my most hated trope where there's a huge emotional blowout over a simple misunderstanding that could be solved if two people could just talk like adults for five dang minutes. The book does have a scene that could have been like that, but instead they talked and it didn't completely solve everything, but it was so much more believable than if one of them had blown up over something small.

The love scenes are very very sexy, the characters are very believable and the plot twists are excellent. Highly recommended read for your next tattoo sitting, long haul flight, or when you just want to fall into a book.

ARC Review! I received an arc of this book from netgalley in exchange for my honest review.

I have mixed feelings about this book. I liked it. It was enjoyable to read. I just had a hard time believing the chemistry of the two leads until about the 80% mark. From that point to the end of the book was fabulous. Their chemistry was believable. Their relationship felt tangible. It was great. But everything up to that point? Not so much.

I feel like it was me, though, and not the writing; that's why I still gave it four stars. 😅 Overall, I liked the story. I did feel that there was a lot of exposition about the other characters just kinda thrown in there towards the beginning. It felt like when you're reading the third book in a series and the author is giving you a little summary of the other books. It's just that there weren't other books. So it felt like you were missing all this information about these characters, but you actually weren't.

I loved the side characters. Poppy was funny, and I loved her obsession with organic and all natural products. Chris was supportive and charming. The squirrel, even, was funny. 😄

Dash was complicated. He really punished himself for everything and believed the worst of himself. I was happy to see how the story resolved. I felt like it was a good way to settle his issues.

Sophie was so tied up in figuring out her issues. It was interesting to follow her journey of discovering why she never fell in love.

Now, for my main issue with this book:

The number of times they talked about tiktok had me in such pain. I understand that it's a big platform for authors and books to become popular, but I don't wanna read about it. And they spent so much of the first third of the book or so just talking about it all the time. It ruins the escapism of a romance book when you mention current pop culture. Unless it's done well. But tiktok? No, thank you.

That's all I have for this book. I did enjoy it, despite some smaller issues. 🤷‍♀️

Thank you NetGalley for this ARC in exchange for an honest review!

I didn’t love this read. It was a struggle for me to get through and I feel like a lot of the struggles for both characters were very repetitive. The character development wasn’t as strong as I would have liked and there were a few plot holes that still having me wondering why some of the points were created.

Alright folks this one comes with mixed feelings.

What you can expect:
Tiktok
Fame
Crafting man
FMC who is an author
Best friend’s brother
Grumpy x sunshine

Okay so here’s what I liked:
Genuine growth of the characters. I felt like they each were trying to really push themselves to make strides with their own issues. Normalizing therapy and sobriety.

You find out early on that the MMC has struggled with alcoholism in the past and has been sober for about 18 months.

I’ll say that they certainly had chemistry.

Here’s what I didn’t like:
ALL THE TIK TOK REFERENCES.

I like tik tok and have respect for people who do content creation. I think that pop culture and social media can be done in a book but the way it was approached in this one annoyed me. It was most prevalent at the start of the book but did taper off in the second half.
With that I did end up liking the book more than I expected because I almost DNF this.

I also appreciate the way the FMC handles the MMC sobriety. You can tell the author wanted to make her character as opening and supportive and accepting as possible.

Overall for me 3⭐️.

Thanks to NetGalley and the Publishers for an advanced e-book!

I really liked this book! Some of Sophie's sexuality felt a little forced but I did enjoy the pansexual representation. As someone who has had a partner go through a sobriety journey, I felt like that aspect was done really well. Everyone's sobriety looks different but I felt like Dash was a very relatable character and had me rooting for him from the start. I am always slightly wary of a TikTok/social media heavy book but it was not over the top at all. I didn't like the formatting of text messages - they were very hard to read but maybe that can be fixed before pub day. Overall, I enjoyed reading it! 3.5 stars, but I'll round up to 4!

Thank you for letting me read this arc! This book was such a fun refreshing read. The main female character is a romance author who's never been in love and the main male character is a childhood actor who's a recovering alcoholic. There was some touching moments throughout of their journeys. I also enjoyed the tiktok bits as well! Would recommend!