Any Trope But You by Victoria Lavine 🩵
Standalone

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
♾️♾️♾️♾️♾️
Adult • Romance
ARC Review
336 pages
🗓️ April 1

🩵enemies to lovers
🩵close proximity
🩵down on her luck FMC
🩵snowed in together
🩵middle of nowhere Alaska
🩵romance writer FMC
🩵one tent

📍“I am a Scientific American kind of guy. But I guess I’m a Margot Bradley kind of guy now too.”

📍“Not a guest?” she asks. “Then what am I, Forrest?”
Mine.

📍”She’s the end of me but also the beginning.”

Was I crying like a baby reading the last chapters of this book? Yes. Do I even know exactly why? No. Was it probably because this book made me feel so many things that they just started overflowing out of me in the form of tears? Yes. Absolutely yes.

Just like Margot, I started to lose hope. Not hope in happily ever afters. But hope that I would ever find another romance I would truly enjoy this month. You see, a DNF was followed by a kind of just okay book and I was spiraling. Back to back books that just don’t mesh with you is exhausting and heartbreaking and very much worry inducing.

{Any Trope But You has entered the chat}

Victoria Lavine said, hold my gloves and hat while I write this book for Jess — yes, I’m a firm believer this is a true depiction of the events. And I couldn’t be more grateful. Any Trope But You was everything I wanted in a romance book with the added bonus of coming to me at the right time, and filling me up with hope that March doesn’t need to end with meh books. Oh no, if nothing else… my end of March will forever be remembered as the time I fell in love with Forrest and Margot.

This is more than just a RomCom.
This is more than just a feel good romance.
This is more than a weekend read.

This book is all the feels, everywhere, all the time.
It’s a love story about love itself, in its many forms.
It’s an ode to hope that can be found in the least likely places.

Thank you so much @atriabooks @netgalley and @victorialavinewrites for this ARC.

This book was sweet with a meet cute and many other tropes (ahem forced proximity).

I liked the Alaskan remote setting. I enjoyed the sister bond and the family caretaker aspects. I did not love the beginning where the FMC is outed for having a Happily Never After document (where she turns her romance books into sad/unhappy endings. While I get how this plot set up the overall storyline, I just thought it wasn't as big of a deal to "cancel her" essentially. That said, it does create the conflict to get her up to Alaska and I did enjoy the book as a whole.

In the end, I liked the characters and their growth.
3.75 rounded up.

My only suggestion is shorter chapters and sometimes I wanted to know more about what Forrest was thinking at the time!

I adored this book! The banter, the hilarious tropes popping up in her real life, the love and compassion she has as a caretaker, the whole dang book made my heart happy. I swooned, I laughed, I sobbed, and I yearned for the book to never end.

Oh yeah- like the title says- it's trope-y. And steamy. But it's also got heart. Margot's career as a best selling romance author tanks when a hacker finds and circulates the alternate non-HEA endings she's written for her novels so her sister Savannah, who has a chronic illness, buys her a six week trip to a lodge in Alaska. A lodge without wi-fi that is managed by....Forest (even the names!), a hot cancer researcher who has come home to care for his father who had a life changing accident. Of course, Margot, child of Southern California has no clue about snow or cold and Forrest must rescue her from a moose, from a sprained ankle, from a house filled with smoke because she didn't open the flue of the fireplace. These two start off sort of enemies but with much attraction to one another (they both tell the story) and, well you know what happens. There's some artificial conflict that doesn't entirely work but you'll end up rooting for them. The side characters (Forrest's dad, the other hikers) are good, the atmospherics fine, and, for a trope-y romance novel, it's got a few surprises. Thanks to netgalley for the ARC. A good read.

1 A bestselling romance author flees to Alaska to reinvent herself and write her first murder mystery, after a private document of hers gets released. Every trope gets thrown at you in this book but obviously you knew it was going to happen lol this is a cute, fun read.

Wow, what a debut novel for Victoria Lavine! There are so many aspects of this story that I loved. The main characters and the side characters were all so loveable that I was sad when the book was over!

Margot is a 'romance author in LA who was just canceled by the romance community for having a secret Happily Never After file for all of her novels. While I couldn't understand that part since, we would NEVER!, I could relate to her California-bred attitude when her sister sends her to a remote lodge in Alaska to go on outdoor excursions. No THANK YOU! 😜

Luckily, this gave us an amazing journey between Margot and Forrest that I absolutely LOVED!! The hilarious meet cute, the dislike to enemies trope (among many others!), the man who's a simp for the girl, both characters knowing what it means to sacrifice for people they love. the letters from Margot's sister, and all of the steamy adventures, made for an incredibly well-rounded story.

I'm so excited to read anything else Victoria writes!

Thank you Net Galley and Atria books for the ARC in exchange for my honest review!

“I think he knows. I think he sees every hidden part of me, and for the first time ever, being known doesn't feel like a threat. It feels like coming home”

When a bestselling romance author’s secret stash of “Happily Never Afters” gets leaked, her career crashes overnight. In need of a reset, she escapes to a remote Alaskan resort to write a murder mystery—only to find herself caught in the middle of a real life rom-com or maybe even her own happily ever after…

This story was such a breath of fresh air and I honestly can’t believe this is Victoria Lavine’s debut novel! It’s the sweetest love letter to romance readers everywhere. I cannot wait to see what she writes next!

My thoughts:

💌 Savannah’s letters was pure gold! The bond between Margot and her sister was so touching and gave the story even more heart. I laughed, I teared up, I wanted give them both a big hug!

🫎 Alaska as the backdrop? YES PLEASE. I’m already a sucker for books set in Alaska, and this one had it all: snowed-in resort vibes, quiet wilderness, moose sightings, and just the right amount of forced proximity. Absolute perfection!

💝 The emotional weight in this one was so well-balanced. The portrayal of caregiving and burnout was so real. It added a depth to the story that made the fun moments hit even harder.

🔥 And can we talk about this adorable cover?! But don’t be fooled…this is a spicy open door romance, and I was here for every moment of it!

Besties, I flewwww through this one. I didn’t want it to end! Mark your calendars ASAP—Any Trope But You releases April 1st, it’s an absolute must-read for all romance lovers!

My rating: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
Spice level: 🌶️🌶️.5

Thank you to Victoria Lavine, Atria Books and Netgalley for this ARC! This was a hit for me!

Margot Bradley, a best-selling romance author or was until someone hacked on her computer diary, and it was posted during a review session she was having for a new book. Her Romance days she felt were over, and her sister booked her a trip to Alaska for a rebirth. She goes and though she thinks she will not have a good time, especially after meeting Bullwinkle, she might change her mind after meeting Forrest Wakfield, one of the owners and who has been putting his M.D. to use for his father. Savannah, though, has given her an incentive that when she does a trip, she will get a letter, and these letters keep her going and help with the story. There is much work for both Margot and Forreset, and that only adds to the story as well. Excellent characters and setting, for a very good read.

loved this book so much!

It was so beautiful and such an enjoyable read!

It was packed with so much emotional depth, humour, palpable chemistry and just incredibly relatable aspects.

This book made my heart so happy!

I would definitely read more by this author. I also see myself re-reading this book in the future.

Thank you to NetGalley, Atria Books and Victoria Lavine for giving me an ARC of this wonderful book!

WOW! What an incredible debut!

I loved this author's sense of humor, realistically flawed characters, depiction of sisterhood, everything! The story felt relevant and modern without being too reliant on pop culture trends.

Our FMC Margot immediately has things take a turn for the worse right at the start of the book and we get to see someone fall for her at her lowest low. Our MMC Forrest seems too good to be true (but is true!) and can relate to Margot on an incredibly rare front. The banter between these characters was so clever and fun, and the build to lovers was worth the wait!

I have to say Margot's sister Savannah also stole the show a bit, her letters had me tearing up. There's nothing like the bond of a sister.

My only notes are that the sentences could run a bit long, so it was a slower read for me. I wanted to take my time to fully read as there were so many funny lines I would have missed if I sped over something! Also, the ending was so so sweet, I just would've loved to see more of their resolution 😊 #NeverEnough 🫶🏻

I'd recommend this book to anyone who likes:

- sunshine x sunshine disguised as grumpy x grumpy ☀️🌵
- Alaskan wildness adventure ❄️
- sisterhood 👯‍♀️
- chronic illness rep 🩹
- coming back better than ever from what feels like rock bottom ✨
- Taylor Swift references 🪩
- happily ever afters 💞

I can't wait to read more from this author!

DNF at 34%. I found myself constantly checking my reading progress and wondering when it’ll be over. I was pushing a bit to finish this since it’s a relatively short read, but I just didn’t care or enjoy it enough to want to continue on.

The FMC Margot’s love and affection for her sister was really sweet, but she didn’t have much appealing qualities beyond that. Being rude and petulant with your rescuer after almost burning down the cabin because you’re an idiot, and then threatening to leave a bad yelp review of a family business to get your way is not cute or feisty, it’s just being an entitled Karen and catty AF.

E-Arc provided by NetGalley in exchange for my honest review.

I felt a lot of secondhand embarrassment from this book unfortunately and the unlikable FMC didn’t help with that at all. I feel like I signed up for a fun romcom and there were a lot more serious and sad moments that I didn’t anticipate. The setting was really well done and I didn’t like the MMC, but don’t see that relationship lasting long term.

Margot Bradley, queen of the romance novel, is cancelled after her readers discover she believe in the happily ever afters she writes. Determined to start fresh in a new genre, she heads to Alaska to write her debut murder mystery. But while she may be running from romance, romance certainly isn’t running from her—one trope after another leads her straight into the arms of her very own romance hero come to life, Forrest. But is Margot ready to accept that her own happily ever exists?

My favorite part of romance novels is the tropes, so when I came across this novel, which puts all the classic romance tropes at its center, I couldn’t have been more excited. Victoria Lavine gave each trope her own unique spin—for example, instead of only one bed, she put just one tent in the Alaskan wilderness. Tropes popped up when I least expected it, delighting me endlessly. Margot was an entertaining heroine, just the right amount of sassy and self-deprecating. I loved how her sister’s letters unfurled her backstory, giving the reader insight into Margot’s family and her romantic history. As I relived each memory, I began to understand Margot more, and everything about her fell into place—her fears, hesitation, and skepticism. So, while I felt the weight and importance of the letters, I struggled simultaneously to believe that Margot would engage in these grueling and physically challenging outdoor excursions simply for a letter from someone she was going to be reunited with in six weeks. I felt like the stakes simply needed to be higher for me to be invested. On the other hand, the stakes were perfectly believable for the romance between Margot and Forrest. With both serving as primary caretakers for chronically ill family members, I understood their hesitation to prioritize their relationship. Lavine handled this delicate situation beautifully, allowing the reader to emphasize with them both. In the midst of a cold winter, this book was the perfect way to warm my heart.

Thank you to NetGalley and Atria Books for granting me access to this ARC in exchange for an honest review.

This book was cute. I know a lot of people will love this book! I wanted to love this book and for some reason, I didn't. It had so many tropes that I love! There was just something where when I wasn't reading it, I wasn't drawn to it, but when I started reading it again, I was eating it up! The MMC, absolutely dreamy! City girl in rural Alaska, such a fun setting! I genuinely can't pin point what it was. I will definitely recommend to others!!

Thank you NetGalley, Atria and Victoria Lavine for the ARC in exchange for an honest review.

4.5⭐️ The tropes! I loved how self aware this book was. The FMC, Margo, is a jaded romance author who doesn’t believe in love and has been essentially cancelled when her fans discover she’s been writing alternate ending for all their favorite romance novels (featuring divorce, cheating and all the nasty stuff).

Her sister decides to send her on a 6 week Alaska experience in hopes to inspire her newest book - a murder mystery, since she’s been kicked out of the romance genre. Somehow, she finds herself in the literal arms of Forrest - a man who embodies all the best romance MMC traits.

I loved all the ridiculous tropes they kept stumbling into and how Margot was calling them out as they happened.

The letters from her sister were really cute. That relationship was something special and I’m glad it went where it did.

I think I would have bumped this up to a 5 if there was a little more to the ending - or at least an epilogue- but I’m so impressed this is her first book.

Thank you so much for this read! I love reading new authors to me and to find out this book is featured in illumicrates afterlight editions is amazing! I love a good book set in Alaska where the FMC is trying to find herself again!

this was so cute! a little cringe/cheesy but in general just such a fun charming read. romance is my genre but sometimes it's like reading the same book over and over but this was such a nice little refresh

Any Trope but You is absolutely fabulous. This story had laugh out loud moments, emotionally heavy topics and such a unique take on the FMC being a romance author herself.

Both main characters suffering love and loss in different ways. They both are also caregivers to a family member with chronic health conditions. These topics are represented so well and I find aren’t always common topics! Caregiver fatigue is real and often people are forced to pick between their loved one’s needs or their own desires and goals.

The chemistry between Margot and Forrest is electric from the start. How they meet is absolutely amazing and their hate to love relationship unfold was so well done. The angst and tension is phenomenal and it’s such a lovely slow burn romance. Forrest not being able to just turn a blind eye to Margot makes their interactions at times laugh out loud funny.

Oh and I cannot forget to mention Margot’s relationship with her sister (who has an autoimmune disease) is so heartwarming and beautiful.

This book tackles heavy and complex topics but in a way that makes the storyline more compelling and wonderfully beautiful! This book is ideal for readers who enjoy lighthearted humor and emotionally layered romances. While delivering heartfelt connections and a touch of escapism.

This book is a love letter to the romance genre that I never would have guessed was a debut.

Margot is a disenfranchised romance author who has had her heart broken one too many times. When her secret notes leak and it's revealed that she may not believe in Happily Ever Afters as much as her books suggest, she is canceled by her fans.

Margot's sister and roommate ships her off to Alaska for 6 weeks to escape the spotlight and try her hand at writing a murder mystery instead. Naturally, Margot immediately encounters the owner's son, Forrest, the too-good-to-be-true embodiment of every single romance trope ever. But can Margot overcome her skepticism about living in a real-life romance novel and the guilt of leaving her ill sister behind while she searches for her HEA?

This was such a fun read, with lots of laugh out loud moments and lovable characters!