
Member Reviews

This was a cute story filled with lots of tropes and some really great spicy scenes. The plot is driven by the main character's need to go back and talk to her exes about why their relationships went wrong, so that she can finish writing her book that's under deadline. The love interest is on a sobriety journey and also navigating a toxic family in showbiz where he has to deliver a speech for his father's star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. I enjoyed it a lot!

Plot Twist: 3.5⭐️
Sophie is a romance writer who’s never been in love, and she’s struggling to write her second book which is due in six weeks. To get over her writer’s block she’s decided meet up with her exes to find out why she’s never fallen in love and document everything to her followers. The only problem is that Sophie isn’t great with social media, but thankfully her landlord, Dash—a former teen actor—has offered to help. What he didn’t mention is that he is an anonymous online crafter, a hobby which helps him maintain his sobriety.
I enjoyed this book and Sophie and Dash’s sweet romance. I enjoyed the story more as the book progressed; for me, the second half of the book was much stronger than the first half. The book handled the heavy topics such as alcoholism and dysfunctional family relationships well. I’ll definitely be checking out other books by Erin La Rosa!
Thank you to NetGalley and Harlequin Trade company for providing me with a free digital reviewer copy in exchange for an honest review.

3.5/5
This book is a sequel to “For Butter or Worse” but It can be read as a standalone. I read it over a year after the first book.
This book follows Sophie, a romance book writer, who rents a guest house from Dash, a actor turned crafter. Sophie is a unique character who does not know who she is and what she wants. I personally cannot relate to these types of characters. However, I was pleasantly surprised by the queer representation. I believe Sophie is Pansexual and has dated men, women, and gender non-binary individuals.
Regarding Dash, he is a recovering alcoholic who does not have the best relationship iwth his family. He also has started crafting as an alternative to his previous acting career. His story line was a standout within this book. He had more character development and I really appreciate his connections with the variety of characters.
The relationship took a little to establish but I would not call this a “slow burn”. Overall, I enjoyed reading this book but there were times I was annoyed with Sophie as a character.
Thank you to Netgalley for an ARC in exchange for the honest review.

I loved this romance, it was sexy, sweet, emotional, and the characters felt real. They both were imperfect and worked through their own trauma. Such a great read!
Thank you to Netgalley and Harlequin Trade Publishing for an ARC in exchange for an honest review.

I really wanted to like this book, but it just fell flat for me. It felt like it was trying too hard to be inclusive to the point of making it inauthentic. The characters were meh, the plot was blah. I just really couldn’t get into it.

AHHH I wanted to love this book! I like the pairing of an author/artist and I appreciated that the author touched on some deeper themes as well. I just that a lot of the elements didn't come together to make a cohesive whole. An overall decent romance, I just wanted more.

Tropes filled shenanigans, friends with benefits to lovers, and celebrity royalty? Sign me up!
Sophie Lyon is a romance author who's never been 'in love' and is struggling to write her second book and Dash Montrose is a former teen heartthrob struggling with alcoholism and a rather overbearing family, who happen to be landlord and renter with another shared connection in Sophie's best friend who is also Dash's sister, and Plot Twist takes us on a tropetastic romp to reach the HEA between them.
I had a blast reading the first third of the book. Erin's writing is easy to sink into, her humor had me giggling, and the growing spice was spicing nicely. Then I hit the second third and things started to kind of wobble. Having never dealt with alcoholism in any facet of my life I don't know the nitty gritty of someone recovering from it; however, something about the interactions between Dash and his so called sponsor had red flags popping up. In addition I felt like Sophie was slowly losing the spark that I'd liked about her in the beginning as she revisits each of her exs.
And then we have the final third. The big Third Act. To keep spoiler free let me just say that I adore reading some of the tropiest of trope heavy romances; but I hate HATE hate the 'love magically fixes anything' trope, and that's what drove this final third of the book and just ugggghhhhh.
Plot Twist was my first dip into Erin's writing, and while I did struggle to finish the book due to the 3rd Act I did enjoy it enough overall to try a second of her books.
Thank you to NetGalley and Canary Street Press for the eARC!

This romance novel was lovely. It was a joy to navigate this relationship with the characters who were easy to like and enjoy.
I was hoping this would be a better fit for the character with a pacemaker (which is why I requested to the Read.Talk.Grow podcast) - this is a component of her life but not a focus and not particularly well explored which was appropriate for the plot (and then just not a good fit for our project’s purpose). Look forward to reading more from this author!

Really on the fence about this one. I enjoyed the romance and hotter scenes but the tiktok references really irked me in this and I felt like the story was built more around tropes than the plot or characters.

I am surprised by how much I enjoyed this book. The writing is very good. I felt connected to the characters and was curious about them.

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This was cute and cheesy at the same time. The storyline was just okay. I didn't care for all the pop culture references. I like the pacemaker and LGBTQ rep right from the beginning. Also, this book discussed alcoholism and family dysfunctions.
Thank you, NetGalley and publishers, for this ebook

I hate that it took me SO long to get through this book because it was so good and so cute. Both Dash and Sophie were adorable and I loved how they highlighted the fact that the right person will make you want to be a better person and not force you to change. I love the Sophie was writing a book and that in the end she had to figure out how to finish it when her heart wasn’t in it. I also thought watching the family dynamic play out with Dash’s family was interesting to watch unfold. All in all I did enjoy this book so much and am so glad I was finally able to sit down and finish it.

4⭐️
Romance author Sophie Lyon has never been in love and she thinks that’s why she can’t finish her latest romance book. So Sophie comes up with a plan to overcome her writers block, reunite with her exes to learn why she’s never fallen in love and luckily her landlord and bff’s brother, Dash, is here to help. Dash is a former teen heartthrob that keeps his life private to protect his Hollywood royal family and to keep out of scandal. Thats all until he can’t keep away from Sophie, however neither of them are in a place to date but they can have another type of arrangement…
You’ll like Plot Twist is you like:
-dual POV
-friends-with-benefits
-best friends brother/sisters best friend
-friends-to-lovers
-forced proximity
-grumpy x sunshine
-curvy FMC
-LGBTQ+ FMC
-🌶🌶🌶
cw: alcoholism, cheating
I volunteer for a recovery house so I am always very hesitant about books that deal with alcoholism or have a MC with a substance abuse issue. La Rosa did an excellent job representing alcoholism and I felt like she did Dash’s story justice (I’m going to just glaze over the fact that Dash’s best friend is also his sponsor, which is a big no-no and that Dash was going through rehab to be better for her). In the grand scheme of things this was probably the best representation that I’ve read in a romance book to date. I also loved how Sophie being pansexual was casual. All of her previous relationships were presented as ‘normal’ relationships and it wasn’t pointed out as being “GASP Sophie was in a relationship with another woman!”.
This is the second book in the Hollywood series. I did not read the first book before this and did not have a problem following the story.
Thank you NetGalley and Harlequin Trade Publishing for an advanced readers copy for an honest review.

I didn’t love this like I thought I would but it was a fun, cute little read and I can see a lot of people enjoying this. I found myself getting annoyed frequently while reading this and I just… didn’t enjoy it all that much.. I will say it was well written though!

cute, fluffy romance and I just loved it so much!! I think there was a few parts I got bored but all around a good book.

Love the imperfect characters, love the LGBTQ+ inclusion, love the meet cute! This was such a good one!

This book was not for me, DNF. Immediately, I did not gel with the banter of the characters and found them hard to like.

fell in love with you unexpectedly, but I plan to keep loving you fiercely."
If I liked For Butter or Worse, I loved Plot Twist! This totally one-upped the first book in this standalone series.
Sophie and Dash's relationship was totally swoon-worthy on all levels.
Sophie Lyon is suffering from a massive writers block. Her fans expect another incredible romance from her, but she can't seem to put pen to paper. And she knows exactly why - she has never been in love. To be a romance writer who has never loved is to be a fraud!
To get some inspiration, Sophie starts a TikTok series where she revisits her exes to try and figure out why she couldn't feel love. While she's completing her challenge, her feelings are slowly simmering towards her best friend's brother and her neighbor, Dash Montrose. Dash is overcoming challenges of his own and navigating a complicated relationship with his family, but Sophie is helping him manage his demons too.
It does feel a little bit silly to have the TikTok-celebrity element folded into this book, but I guess that is the state of society now and we're going to have plenty of TikTok romances to come.
Even if you haven't read the first book in the series, this is a great standalone story and can totally be read without the other. If you're looking for something fun and light to cleanse the palate, this is a great option!

I loved this story so much! The characters were wonderful and I loved how they had their own unique problems and just fit perfectly together to support one another. The storyline of her being an author was wonderful!

This rom-com was light but also included some tougher topics (alcoholism and dysfunctional families).
Our FMC has a pacemaker which was such interesting representation I had never seen before in a romance novel.
My favorite thing in any novel is when characters have their own issues and traumas and they learn to deal with and overcome them by themselves in order to become a better future partner. I hate when the love “fixes” them.
This was adorable and realistic.