3.75/5⭐
1.5/5🌶️

It's sometimes kind of trippy reading anything with an author MC. But this was fun! So spot on, it could've been real. I enjoyed the FMC and her relationship with her sister. I would've like just a smidge more depth for our MMC but he was for sure likable!

Thank you Atria Books and #NetGalley for this ARC!

Imagine getting hit by every rom-com trope in a snowstorm... and loving it. That’s basically Any Trope but You. Margot, a bestselling author who’s basically given up on love, runs off to Alaska to escape a scandal and accidentally signs herself up for the most chaotic romance novel ever.

Enter Forrest: grumpy doctor, reluctant lodge owner, and accidental heartthrob who quotes Taylor Swift at the gym (because obviously). Cue the enemies-to-lovers slow burn, forced proximity, one tent, one bed, six weeks of snowy tension, and more pining than a teenage diary.

Is it ridiculous? Absolutely. Does the book know it’s ridiculous and wink at you the whole time? Even better. Margot spends half the story roasting her own situation and I was living for the chaos.

The middle gets nice and steamy (if these two weren’t in love, their bodies sure didn’t get the memo), and the ending wraps up quicker than a TikTok recipe. Still, it’s fluffy, funny, and left me wanting more.

Read it if you love giggling, swooning, snowstorms, and books that make you want to pack a bag and accidentally fall in love.

Margot is a romance writer disillusioned by love whose whole career is in jeopardy after a private file gets leaked to her fans. A file containing happily never after events like divorce, ED, etc for some of her most popular characters. She goes on a writing trip to Alaska to try and reinvent herself as a mystery writer, but the moment she arrives, she finds the embodiment of all of her favorite tropes in one man, Forrest, the resort owner's son. Is he too good to be true, or can Forrest make her hard heart believe in love again?
I loved this story from their moose scare meet cute to the grovel at the end. It was fun to pick out all the different tropes throughout the book. And the spice is enough to burn down the sauna on the coldest night 😆. Great debut novel.
I voluntarily read and reviewed an advance copy of this book. All thoughts and opinions are my own.

This was such a fun book, and I absolutely love the cover! This book has all the tropes, which was really fun. I also really loved the Alaska setting! I loved it enough that I just bought toe Aardvark hardcover copy!

Thanks to Atria for this e-arc in exchange for my honest opinion! Any Trope but You was such a good time! I loved the immediate sparks between Forrest and Margot, but the story had so much depth beyond what was a very cute premise. I loved that it felt like a love letter to romance novels, a love letter to finding your own spark, and a love letter to hard choices with an open heart. I felt like it balanced terrain that could have felt morose or maudlin with dexterity and charm in spades. A perfect read to warm your heart!

First of all, a huge thank you to Atria books for the opportunity to review this title.

This is a new author to me and the blurb just captured my attention and I had to know more about these characters and the fun storyline it promised.

As I began reading the story, the hurt and the pain was just too real for me. Being a chronic pain sufferer, I really related to Margot's sister, but I felt like Margot as a caregiver and Margot in her painful feelings of the HEAs she abhors were negatively affecting me as a reader and that made it very difficult to get into the storyline. I didn't see this as a fun story, it depressed me more than entertained me.

That being said, I am not in a good headspace mentally with all the stuff going on in the world right now and I think I read this book at the wrong time. In another time and place, I'd give this story another chance. It just isn't the book for me, or the story I need right now. Thank you.

Margot’s Happily Ever After (HEA) is my absolute favourite story. Any Trope But You was a literal rom-com trope wonderland of everything I love in a rom-com novel and I could not get enough.

Margot is a romance author fleeing to Alaska (thanks to her chronically ill sister, Savannah), swapping her usual rom-com plots for a murder mystery… after her Happily Never After file leaked and she was cancelled by her readers. Looking for a way to reinvent herself, she becomes immersed into the Alaskan wilderness, until burly (think handsome lumberjack) lodge proprietor Dr. Forrest Wakefield comes crashing into her world. Rather, she goes crashing into his after an encounter with Bullwinkle. Forrest himself understands the trials of caring for a chronically ill family member, with his dad being in a wheelchair and losing his mom to breast cancer.

Through their adventures over Margot’s 6-week stay, her willingness to push forward in a remote area knowing one of her sister’s letters are waiting for her, and one trope after another, Margot may see a new HEA after all.

𝐫𝐞𝐚𝐝 𝐭𝐡𝐢𝐬 𝐛𝐨𝐨𝐤 𝐢𝐟 𝐲𝐨𝐮 𝐥𝐢𝐤𝐞:
🫎 playing with fire
🫎 carrying the heroine
🫎 snowed in (cabin) ➡️ Margot’s fav!
🫎 one bed… sleeping bag
🫎 large 🍆
🫎 partners in ‘crime’
& of course…
🫎 enemies to lovers
and,
🫎 A HECK OF A GRAND GESTURE
🫎 “And he’s a doctor, for the love of God. You can’t even get a more basic trope, right?”

Also - can we please appreciate for a second how absolutely INCREDIBLE this was for a debut novel?! Victoria Lavine you knocked it out of the park & I cannot wait to read what you write next 🙋🏻‍♀️.

Thank you Atria Books and Victoria Lavine for the ARC prior to release in exchange for an honest review - ARC provided through NetGalley.

SUPER charming, emotionally affecting enemies to lovers romance with an unexpected but extremely welcome exploration of the emotional complications of caregiving for disabled family members. I went into this one expecting fun fluff and hot clinches, and I got that in spades plus so much more. STRONGLY recommended, a genuine delight!

Thank you to NetGalley for this E-ARC.

I love this book. With my whole heart. I was giggling, I was laughing, I was crying. This book is hilarious. I can’t say that enough. It is so cute. And with a small amount of spice. The spice was done very nicely. But again. It is so funny.

Margot Bradley is a best selling romance author. Her followers love her and her sister loves her. They love her happily ever afters. Margot, however, does not. She doesn’t believe in them. At. All. She actually has a hidden document of Happily Never Afters, alternative endings to all of her romance books.
That document gets leaked. Margot gets canceled. Her sister ships her off to a “writing” retreat in rural Alaska. Margot’s sister Savannah sends her away for 6 weeks, to work on her new book, a murder mystery.

But what Margot doesn’t know is that the universe will be sending her every single romance trope in the form of Dr Forrest Wakefield. Yum.

Again, I cannot stop saying how funny this book was. The writing is so good. Do you like a specific trope? It’s in this book. Don’t worry. Victoria Lavine made sure to include all the tropes.
Do yourself a favor and read this book.

Ever since reading The Simple Wild by K.A. Tucker, Alaska is one of my buzzwords. If it's set in The Last Frontier, I want to read it.

Any Trope But You is a romance that will appeal to anyone who is deeply invested in Romancelandia. Our heroine is a romance author facing a scandal after it is revealed that she seemingly doesn't actually believe in HEAs, even the ones she writes. Of course, that gets put to the test when her sister sends her on a retreat to Alaska and the handsome man who runs the tour group just won't stop falling into every trope that makes up the perfect book boyfriend.

I really enjoyed the dual POV and getting to be inside both Margot and Forrest's heads. They are both very selfless characters who have a lot of self-imposed responsibility and I really enjoyed getting to see them learn to explore what it is they actually want. I did find Forrest's character more compelling than Margot, but I was really able to relate to Margot in terms of being a bookish person and holding onto certain things due to fear.

This would be a great romcom to read on a winter's day when you want to curl up and escape to cold, snowy Alaska.

Thanks to Atria Books and Netgalley for providing me with an e-ARC in exchange for an honest review.

This was a slow burn romance that had all the tropes I enjoy. It set up perfectly for a sequel, also. The writing was good, the plot was perfectly executed. The characters were interesting as well as likable.,especially Margot. Forrest, our MMC was witty and selfless. I absolutely loved the Alaska location. This was a fun and heartwarming book. I’m so glad I had the chance to read it, and definitely recommend it to other readers.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for the ARC.

A wonderful read!
This novel drew me in from the very first page and kept me hooked until the end. The characters were vibrant and relatable, the writing was engaging, and the story had just the right balance of heart and humor. Highly recommend!
Many thanks to NetGalley, the author, and the publisher for my ARC. All opinions are my own.

Any Trope but You features Margot a romance writer who doesn’t believe in happily ever after. She gets outed and ends up leaving LA for the Alaskan wilderness. There she meets Forrest, the mountain man of her dreams. Many different tropes, in one book. Will Margot actually have her happy ever after?

Thank you Atria Books and Net Galley for this arc!

Thank you to Atria Books for the advance reader copy and to Simon Audio for the complimentary audiobook. These opinions are my own.

I always love books featuring authors and the writing process. And wow, this one was a hit for me.

When Margot's career as a romance author goes off the rails, she retreats to Alaska to write a mystery. And she immediately runs into Forrest, a doctor who is there caring for his father and the family lodge.

The story balances humor and deeper topics around grief and caregiving especially well. I loved the pacing and how the story resolved. And I had such fun seeing all the tropes enacted. This book is such a wink to romance readers and an ode to the romance genre.

The audiobook is narrated by two of my favorites, Tim Paige and Jesse Vilinsky. They both added heart and emotion to their performance. At just over 11 hours, this is fantastic in the audio format.

When given a choice on Indie Bookstore Day to choose any ARC at my local store, this was immediately the one I chose. Even having read it already, I knew I wanted to physical copy to be able to flip back through.

CW: grief and caregiving

4.5 stars rounded up

I liked this one but I didn’t love it. Something about this book made me not care about any of the characters. I loved the concept of a canceled romance author and I wish somehow we could have gone more into that maybe from the fans side of things instead of her just escaping. Otherwise a good book but not a great book.

Unfortunately, this book wasn’t for me. I didn’t find any of the characters likeable and felt a lack of chemistry between the MMC and FMC. I DNF’d around 40%.

Disgruntled romance writer tucked away in remote Alaska wilderness, only to find the main character all romance novels are made of? SAY NO MORE!! This book was so so cute, easy to read and love, but also acknowledged how cliche so many of the typical romance plot lines can be. Overall, cute and easy read. Definitely some spicy chapters in there, be prepared for that!

Thank you NetGalley for this ARC, all opinions are my own

this was such a sweet romance book that kept me intrigued the entire time! the FMC and MMC had their own storyline, while also creating one together, which was really beautiful to read! I felt like this book embodied the importance of family, love, one’s career, grief/the emotions that come with it, and overall growth in life. highly recommend if you are looking for a good romance book :)

5 ⭐️

This was an absolutely adorable, kick-your-feet and smile the whole way through romcom. I love romance books that are nods to romance readers, because it’s like a secret love letter inside a love letter. Combine that with allllll the tropes you can think of that are also made fun of for being tropes, plus a few TSwift references, and you get this delightful masterpiece of a debut.

Margot was every scorned woman who has been screwed over by men, but she was down bad (hi TTPD) for Forrest the moment she jumped in his arms while running away from a moose. Forrest, the most selfless grump to ever grace the snows of Alaska, fell the moment he caught her. The tension between these two sizzled hotter than the sauna they finally christened. I laughed and swooned so hard at every mishap-turned-trope moment, and literally squealed at the HEA.

Thank you to NetGalley and Atria for the ARC of this book in exchange for my honest review! I’ll be buying it immediately so I can reread it as much as I want.

3.5 stars

Any Trope But You by Victoria Lavine is a rom-com for those who claim to be anti-rom-com but are secretly hopeless romantics who just haven't met the one to prove them wrong. That's the exact premise of this book. Margot, our FMC, is a famous romance writer who does not believe in Happily Ever After. When a cyber leak endangers her career, she flees to a remote resort in Alaska as a forced retreat. She believes she is finally free from writing romance, but little does she know, she's about to meet the real life MMC who embodies every single trope she has ever written.

On the surface, this book might seem like another cutesy rom-com, but it's much deeper. This book covers in depth what it means to truly love someone, and not just in the romantic way. Both MCs have to grapple with the difficult reality of weighing what comes first, their love for family members in need or their love for someone who they could be with for the rest of their life. Where does one love end and the other begin? Do they have to be mutually exclusive? Of all the conflicts that could exist in a romance, this has to be one of the most genuine and realistic ones, and Lavine does it justice.

On the other hand, the initial part of the romance is a bit Insta-lovey, which contrasts sharply with how deep of a relationship the two MCs end up developing. Also the frequent use of the F-bomb sometimes takes away from the beauty of a potentially profound moment. And for those who, like me, do not like spice in books, there are a couple chapters to avoid.

All in all, this is a refreshing romance for those who enjoy reading about complex relationships between characters and who appreciate a more nuanced conflict between the romantic leads.

Special thanks to NetGalley and Atria Books for providing this e-ARC in exchange for an honest review.

Any Trope But You is available everywhere now wherever books are sold.