Member Review

Margot Bradley is a beloved and very successful romance author, except she doesn't believe in romance and manages that disconnect by writing horrible endings for her couples in a Happily Never After file. When that file gets leaked live during an interview, Margot is suddenly the most hated person in Romanceland. Her little sister decides that the only way to get Margo out of her funk is to send her on a wilderness retreat to Alaska. Isolation to write the mystery Margot always claimed to want to write, and no internet access, seems like the perfect escape from everything romance and the fallout of her personal files getting leaked. But what happens when that escape comes complete with a very rugged, very handsome man who is basically a walking romance trope, and life keeps putting them in situations straight out of romance novels?

What a delightfully fun read this was. It's every trope you could think of mashed together into a plot that feels so fantastical that it could only work in a romance, and that's why it's so good. Margot and Forest are both well-rounded characters with a host of motivations that are easy to relate to, even as their lives are straight out of fiction. Getting so humiliated that you want to run away is, unfortunately, infinitely relatable, as is dropping everything to care for a loved one. You're rooting for both of them almost as soon as you meet them. And with Lavine doing everything possible to put them in as many romantic, emotional, and awkward situations as possible, it's a pleasure to read that journey.

Delighted thanks to NetGalley and Atria Books for the fun romance!