3.5/5

I liked, didn't love this one. These characters are constantly getting in their own way, and there's one trope after another to the point where the fmc, Margot, exclaims "I can't be in another trope with you!" I love a self aware trope, but it gets to be a bit much.

I also had a hard time believing the extreme repurcussions of someone leaking Margot's secret file of "happily never after" endings to her well loved HEA romance novels. It rocks the literary world, her publisher DROPS HER, and she has to go escape to Alaska to rediscover herself.

Once there, she literally jumps into the arms of Forrest, which I mention because 1) it's the first of their tropes, and 2) it's to escape what she thought was a bear but what ends up being a "completely harmless" moose. Yes, it turns out to be a basically domesticated moose named Bullwinkle, but my first thought when facing a moose wouldn't be, "Oh, harmless."

In the end, not deal breakers. Suspend your disbelief and enjoy the story, including some steamy moments (hello, sauna).

Thanks to NetGalley and Atria Books for the ARC in exchange for my honest review. I think this will be gobbled up when it comes out in April, and I will definitely read more from this author.

Did this make me want to fly to Alaska and meet a hot, grumpy lumberjack kind of man? Absolutely. Beyond that, this one fell a little flat for me. I think my issue right off the bat is that it felt a little unrealistic. Of course, I know it's a book, so I take these things with a grain of salt, but the idea that an author was outed for not believing in happily ever afters and, therefore, essentially gets canceled by her entire audience feels... silly. It definitely gives Hallmark, which I know is popular for a reason!

I also very much enjoyed putting as many tropes as possible into a book to lean into the fact that that is such a big marketing tool these days. Authors focus heavily on tropes, so putting them all in one book to shine a light on that was very entertaining! By the end, however, it felt a little repetitive by the end. All in all, it was a very cute story, but it wasn't my favorite. I would definitely recommend it in the winter when you're looking for a snowy getaway.

"Any Trope but You" by Victoria Lavine was a delightful surprise! Don’t let the Alaskan setting make you save this for winter—add it to your summer TBR immediately! The book provides a playful twist on common romance tropes in a refreshingly unique and funny way. In a genre often saturated with predictable love stories, this one feels fresh. The vivid Alaskan backdrop (a personal auto-read setting for me!) and well-crafted characters, brimming with witty banter and undeniable chemistry, make this a must-read. This book gets rather steamy, especially towards the end which did start to feel a bit redundant. Overall, it's a fun and entertaining read!
Thank you to NetGallery and Atria Books for an advanced copy of this book in exchange for my honest review.

Someone rent me a cabin in Alaska! This book was so much FUN. I loved the characters, the setting and the solid writing. Some of the scenes got quite steamy, but the overall story was super sweet and I loved the connection between the sisters and the discussions surrounding caregiving. I thought it was really beautifully done. A fantastic debut. I will be keeping my eye out for future books by Victoria Lavine (hopefully with another super cute cover)!

Thanks to Atria Books and NetGalley for the advanced copy.

Posted to Goodreads on January 16, 2025

Any Trope But You was so good!! I was hooked right from the start of the book. Our female main character Margo is wracked with guilt because she writes romance books for a living but doesn’t actually believe in the HEA’s (happily ever afters) she writes about. She has private notes with alternate endings for her books where her MMC’s end up with hilarious travesties like a beer belly or the need of a prescription for viagra. This private list of HNE’s (happily never afters) gets leaked to her fans and they cancel her for being a phony. Margo decides to make a career comeback by writing a new book which will be the antithesis of romance, a murder mystery. After Margo’s humiliating PR disaster her sister urges her to head up to a remote area of Alaska to get inspiration for her book. The first person Margot encounters is our MMC, Forrest, who happens to embody all the qualities of every romance hero she’s written about. Forrest comes with his own baggage and pessimism toward love but the two find themselves experiencing just about every romance cliche trope you can think of. It’s so fun to see them slowly realize their affection for one another while they work through personal struggles. Margot and Forrest kept me wondering whether they were going to get a HEA or HNA in this life romance.

There are some sad and serious subplots in the story but Victoria Levine wrote them perfectly. I saw a mention of triple negative breast cancer before I started the book and, as someone with metastatic TNBC myself, I was bracing myself for something upsetting. I was so happy with the way it was handled and kudos to the author on creating awareness around this specifically awful type of breast cancer.

This is a bold statement so early in the year but I think it will be my favorite romance book of the year. Victoria Levine, how is this your first book and when can I read the next?

This was a cutie!

I loved the Alaska setting, enjoyed the premise (romance writer x sexy doctor / wilderness lodge manager), the sweet families, and the adorable HEA!

Any Trope but You is the perfect type of romance - it's funny, it's sexy, and it's deep. Victoria Lavine somehow delves into serious health-related issues. without creating melodrama or heaviness. I LOVED Forrest and Margo - they both had such depth of character. I will recommend this book to everyone, not just romance readers. And I will be putting this on my "re-read" shelf.

🌶️3.5
⭐️3.5 (rounded up!)

This was a super sweet read. I really liked the idea of a romance author who doesn't believe in love but finds it. I also thought that it was really fun when she'd point out a classic trope and begrudge that things we so ironic. Was this book entirely predictable? It was indeed, but it was still really cute. I really hate third-act breakups, especially ones that are a miscommunication so the ending was very meh. He comes back after 2 months or radio silence, tells her he loves her and low-key proposes and then literally "The End"? Nah I need more than that!!

In terms of the writing itself, I thought the author did an amazing job at describing the scenery and landscape of Alaska. It definitely fueled my desire to be an off-the-grid hermit. There were also really good instances of the author knowing what it's like to live in artic temperatures; having had to camp in a tiny and thin tent in the middle of nowhere in the snow, my extremities were frost-bitten just at the memory thanks to that particular excursion. I do hate when an author is writing from the equator and is guessing what it's like to be cold, so I daresay she had done some in-person experiences. The spice scenes were good, but there were a few times a description or the dialogue would give me the ick.

A cute, light-hearted winter read for sure!! Thank you so much for this ARC!

Any Trope but You
3.5 stars

This was cute. A popular romance author, Margot Bradley, is forced to reinvent herself after an Anti Happily Ever After list gets out and her fan base have strong reactions. So her sister sets her up on an Alaskan getaway...for 6 weeks. When she gets there to realize there is no wifi and moose walking about the property she is all but impressed. And the manger of the lodge where she is staying is rugged, handsome and the perfect man from a romance novel.

Forrest Wakefield is handsome, charming and wildly smart. He is a cancer researcher but has recently left his job to care for his ailing father and help run the lodge. Both Forrest and Margot are not interested in anything but trope after trope they are forced together and end up being quite drawn to one another. Can they both overcome their fears and get their very own HEA?

The banter was good and overall I enjoyed the characters but the romance was a little cringy and the sex scenes toward the end and back to back chapters was a little overkill for me. I did enjoy the Alaskan element and the excursions that they went on. Those were fun and helped each character grow. Both of them trying to navigate caring for a loved one was emotional and thought provoking. I probably would do the exact same thing in their situations. And also watching how those loved ones react to the overbearing caring was beautiful.

Overall this had a great message.

Cute and enjoyable rom-com book. Some of the will-they won't-they got a little repetitive. The characters seemed to keep the same internal arguments to not get together and they got frustrating at times. But overall the communication and banter between them was well done.

I ate this book up, it was SO cute and such a great plot line. The spice was SPICING and Forrest is the stuff of literal dreams?? I definitely recommend it if you want a fun, cute but poignant romance and are a fan of romance books in general. I really enjoyed it, the perfect book for a winter break!

https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/7135743394

Any Trope but You is the *perfect* winter read. I loved Margot and really connected with her character because I, too, was jaded when it came to love at one point in my life. I loved the setting. I loved Forrest. This was one of the best books that I’ve read in a while!
Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for this arc ebook in exchange for an honest review. All opinions expressed are my own.

This book was so sweet. I loved it and it gave me all the feels. I plan to read it again. Thank you for the arc.

Thank you to NetGalley for providing this digital ARC.

3⭐️

It truly lives up to it’s name, honestly ever single trope. The story was fine but not one that I would rush to recommend.

This spicy rom-com is like a Hallmark movie. Margot, a jaded romance writer who’s recently been "cancelled", escapes to Alaska to run straight into the hard chest of the stereo-typical male main character. Together they fall in to all the classic romance tropes. It’s a fun, lighthearted reminder not to take reading too seriously.

This was everything you wanted all wrapped into a romance novel. Quirky, heart ripping, the tropes... oh the tropes!!!!!! I couldn't sing higher praises to this book and would definitely recommend reading!

I loved this book. It had been awhile since I've read something that tugged at my emotions like this book did. It's hard to believe this is the authors debut novel. I loved the duel POV between Margot, a romance author who gets cancelled after alternate endings of her books are released, and Forrest, the handsome doctor who is in Alaska taking care of his dad and helping to run his family's lodge. They have great chemistry and because of the things they are going through in their own lives, they understand each other like no one else does. The author was able to include almost every romance trope in the story without making it unbelievable. This one was a lot of fun to read!

Spiciness: 3/5 🌶️

Thank you to Netgalley and Atria for the ARC!

Any Trope but You was a good time while I was reading it! I thought Margot could have been a little nicer and some of her choices had me going ??? but overall I was rooting for the couple! I was riveted by the plot the first like 75% and then I think the ending fell a little flat. I also didn't love the side character trying to get in Margot's pants constantly but maybe that's a me issue.

However, any readers out there looking for a fun, tropey-on-purpose romance should look no further. The MMC was a standout character as was his father. This was a cute read and I do recommend it!

Thank you for the ARC!

“Reading novels is one of the most time-honored ways of understanding and processing the human experience, and an essential part of that human experience is, of course, love.”

TLDR: This book is trope-tastic and I loved every bit of it. It’s a sweet and funny love letter to the romance genre and the readers who love it. One that will have you laughing, squealing with delight, and probably blushing a time or two. A fantastic debut!

I grabbed this from my NetGalley shelf because my little southern never-gets-snow town was expecting some and I wanted a book that had all the wintery snow vibes. This one was exactly what I was hoping for and more. Not only did the vibe fit perfectly while I watched the snow fall while drinking coffee by the fire, it ended up being my first 5⭐️ read of the year. I was completely sucked into the story. It wasn’t hard to do with that ridiculous and hysterical meet-cute. More than that though I fell in love with ALL the characters including the supporting characters, which speaks to how well the book was written. I would read a spin off book about any of them. Also, we can add Forrest to my list of 2025 book boyfriends. He is the perfect MMC, flaws and all. The wood chopping, gourmet meal cooking, knight in flannel I didn’t know I needed in my life. I loved Margo’s character arc. I kept thinking about Margo’s situation and how I would feel as a reader had that happened to one of my favorite authors. I loved how she was pushed outside of her comfort zone on this trip to the Alaskan wilderness and the growth that she experienced because of it. I adored the letters from her sister, they were sweet and tender and gave us a glimpse into her past to understand why the Happily Never After files existed to begin with. I always enjoy reading books with sweet sibling relationships. This one is unique and now one of my favorites.

Tropes + things
alaskan setting
caretaking
wilderness adventures
forced proximity
snowed in
Dual POV/1st person

I truly can’t believe this is a debut. I’ll definitely be doing a reread when the audiobook comes out. I’m looking forward to reading more from her in the future.

Thank you so much to Netgalley and Atria books for providing me with this ARC! I had seen a few good reviews about it on bookstagram, but hadn't heard of the author before, but wanted to give it a try since it seemed right up my alley. And it absolutely was! Victoria Lavine now has a big fan in me, and this is her debut novel which is even more impressive.

The premise is that a bestselling romance novelist escapes to Alaska to reinvent herself and write her first murder mystery. But when she meets the ruggedly hot resort owner, she starts to wonder if she's caught in a rom-com instead.

Really cute rom com that had me hooked and was a super binge-able read. Loved the Alaska small-town setting, found family, and all the tropes managed to be squeezed in (which was the point!) It was verging on insta-love.. But I didn't mind.
The romance was so sweet and spicy I was here for it and I thought the third act breakup made a lot of sense, I wasn't rolling my eyes. And a pretty good ending too!

This managed to pack in just about every romance trope into one book but still be such a fun and unique read. I loved the two main characters together and was rooting for them so much. Can’t wait to see what this author writes next because I will 100% be reading it! This is definitely up there on the rom-com list for me, I am so glad that I had the opportunity to read it and would 100% recommend it