WOW. One of my favorite books of the year. (Of all time?) Don’t let the cartoon cover fool you; this book is deep and emotional and really, really sexy. It’s a love letter to the Romance genre and its many tropes, and a master class in how to do it right. The Alaska setting is fun and different, and the cast of side characters was delightful. And the two main characters, Margot and Forrest, come with juicy emotional layers, and enough sparks to set off a fire. Loved loved loved it!

5⭐
Tropes: small town/winter escape, one bed/tent, doctor MMC, author FMC,

Blurb: Famous romance author, Margot Bradley, is in desperate need of a fresh start when a scandal threatens her career. She is forced to escape to Alaska and meets the grumpy lodge owner, Forrest Wakefield, a former physician who doesn't need a relationship to distract him. The two share a kinship in their similarities and despite fighting their chemistry, they fall in love.

I didn't love Margot initially but her "Swiftian" redemption arc won me over. She cares for her ailing sister, and after being exposed as a romance author who doesn't believe in happily ever afters, she tries to write a new book in Alaska to redeem herself. Forrest was also forced to come home when his father gets hurt and becomes partially paralyzed. They both agree that a relationship wasn't what they needed at the time, but no one else related to each other best than each other.

I enjoyed her adventures in Alaska. I swooned when Forrest carried her down the side of the mountain because she sprained her ankle. The tent scene???? OMG. Fuck one beds, put me in a tent! Lol.

What I liked most about this book was how much they loved their family members. Margot's love for her sister was palpable and admirable too. She put all the relationships in her life on hold in order to care for her, and Forrest gave up his career (who he dedicated to his late mom??? WOW) to take care of his dad. We can only hope that someone will love us like that.

Thank you Atriabooks and Victoria Lavine for an advanced copy of your book in exchange for my honest opinion <3

This was one of my favorite romance reads for 2024! I have already recommended it to my friends.

Margo is a romance author who doesn't believe in romance. Privately she has given up on true love, but when her private thoughts become public suddenly her fans and publishers are revolting against her. Margo's sister arranges for her to go on a writer's retreat in a secluded Alaskan Resort.

Not being an outdoorsy girl at all Margo has a steep learning curve however luckily there is a tall dark handsome man there too keep her away from the wild moose and the dangers of the Frozen tundra.

Margo wrights love stories. She writes Romance. And this man, who she literally bumps into on her first day, seems to be fictional. Too good to be true! What follows is Margo living out all of her favorite and well-known romance tropes and wild fantasies. When the retreat is over, will this fling turned into the real thing?

I loved that this romance explored love in its entirety. Love for siblings and parents and children. The complications of family relationships and the healing we have to do in order to live our own love story and learn self love and self worth.

A fun smutty romance that also punches your heart and makes you examine the relationships you have in your life.

My first book of 2025 was a five star read and I can’t recommend it enough!!

Margot heads to Alaska to hibernate and maybe write a murder mystery after she’s canceled when the romance reading community finds out her secret…she is a romance writer who doesn’t believe in HEA’s!
But the romance tropes she thought she left behind, pick up from the very beginning of her arrival...starting with a perfect meet cute featuring a moose and Forrest, whose is clearly the perfect romance hero come to life.  Despite both trying their best to deny the attraction, those darn tropes keep coming, forcing them closer.  But both have lives worlds apart and people they need to take care of, so can Happy For Right Now be enough, knowing an HEA doesn’t look to be an adventure for them.

Ugh, this book!  It is one for the romance readers for sure, with all the nods and love to the romance genre and the community that makes it up.  I loved seeing Margot battle her annoyance at all the perfectly swoony tropes that Forrest seemed to bring out.  I loved her love for her sister and how her sister pushed her to grow through adventure and her letters…ugh those letters!  I loved Forrest’s love of his family and wanting to be there for his dad.  And North Star Lodge and really all of it’s fun characters.

This was an emotional and beautiful story filled with heavy and relatable topics, some fun comic relief, and so much love.  I can’t believe this is Victoria’s debut book...but I can’t wait to see what else she writes for us romance readers!

Thank you to Victoria Lavine Atria Books and Netgalley for this ARC!

Pub Date: April 1, 2025

I am absolutely blown away that this is a debut for this author. I went to find all of her backlist in my library app and honestly thought something was wrong when I couldn't find anything.
Margot is a successful romance author who doesn't believe in Happily Ever Afters in the real world- so much so that she finds it cathartic to keep a secret file on her computer of the "real" unhappy endings to all of her beloved characters books. When this file is leaked in a public way and she's effectively cancelled, she flees to a remote cabin in Alaska to try her hand at writing a murder mystery instead. This is where Forrest comes in, the physical manifestation of every MMC and trope in every romance book we've all ever read.
Judging by the cover, title, and synopsis of this book I wasn't expecting anything more than a typical fluffy romcom and I was so so wrong. This book was so much deeper than that. Both characters were dealing with past traumas as well as being caretakers for family members with disabilities. At times the FMC came off as a bit unlikable but even in those instances she was self aware and there were reasons behind her actions which I find lacking in a lot of other romance books. l'm also a huge hater of the third act break up and I even I couldn't deny that it made sense in this story.
All in all this felt like a love story to the genre of romance itself and I was truly hooked from chapter one.
I knew the entire time I read it that this would be a five star review (and I don't have those out easily!). I cannot WAIT to see what this author does next.
Huge thanks to the publisher and NetGalley for an ARC for my honest review.

I loooooved this book!!!! It was so cute and the spicy scenes were VERY well written omg.

Is it very cheesy? Yes. Despite having very serious topics I do think you have to go into it expecting cheese in order to enjoy the book.

I wouldn’t say this was enemies to lovers or even rivals to lovers. Honestly it might be insta love which is my least favorite trope but I loved it in this!!!

I also really appreciate that any miscommunication/misunderstandings were solved very quickly (minus the last one).

Thank you to NetGalley for this arc!
If you hadn’t have told me this was a debut author, I wouldn’t have known. I thoroughly enjoyed this. Like I wish I had more things to say but it was just really damn good and why did some parts have me tearing up?? I didn’t expect it to get quite that deep but it diiid.

Also. Girlie knows how to write her spice scenes, okay?!

This was a very cute story, but it also contained some depth. I think it's hard to always get depth from a romance novel, but this one featured a lot of experiences having a family member with a significant illness. It honestly was a little more than I expected which was a good thing and a not so good thing. The spiciness was great and the characters were interesting enough, but it just needed a little more of the side characters or the main character to have a friend besides her sister. It just didn't do it for me like the other reviewers. It wasn't bad, just wasn't great.

I'm so sad that I didn't love this one like other people seem to be! I am likely an outlier so don't let that discourage you from reading. Thank you to Atria Books, NetGalley & Victoria Lavine for allowing me to be an early reader. All thoughts are my own.

Author needs a break from reality so her sister sends her on a surprise vacation to Alaska.

Unfortunately, this book was just not for me. The plot was moving SO SLOW - basically nothing happened by 20% ??? The writing had lots of words with minimal dialogue which is always a chore for me to get through.

DNF @ 20%

When Atria Books reached out to me and asked if I’d like an arc for Any Trope But You, I couldn’t say yes quick enough. But then I went through a reading slump and avoided it like the plague, somehow convincing myself I wasn’t going to like this book.

I couldn’t have been more wrong.

Any Trope But You is a true love letter to the romance reading (and writing!) community. Our heroine has lost her belief in true love and when her secret Happily Never After files get released to the world she loses that community in a heartbeat. (Personally I would have just laughed my butt off, but I’m the problem)

Her sister packs her off to rural Alaska where she is dismayed to meet our Hero, who is every romance trope known to man, the living embodiment of every man she’s ever written.

This book is hilarious and emotional and full of delightful Swiftie references. The way chronic illness is handled was gentle and kind, the main characters loving their family with all their hearts in a way that gives you hope for the world.

Sorry everyone else has to wait to get to read this book!

I read this ARC for this debut novel for Victoria Lavine and loved it!! Our FMC Margot is a romance author who secretly doesn’t believe in real life happily ever after. After she gets OUTED and cancelled by her fanbase she escapes to Alaska to write murder mysteries instead of romance. She can’t seem to get away from every “trope” she thinks couldn’t possibly exist in real life while her heart slowly melts despite the frozen surroundings.
I loved this take on the romance novel! I enjoyed the MMC, Forrest and his whole supporting cast and this “found family” that Margot our FMC finds herself thrown into. It is a heart(melting) story and this grumpy pair find they have so much in common and the journey there is great! Good spice- just right and very steamy.
This is a ABSOLUTE recommendation and I’m so pleased I had the opportunity to try this ARC. I was drawn to the cover and the title and it lived up to my curiosity.

Omg, omg, omg. Any Trope But You was sheer perfection. A romance author flees to Alaska to reinvent herself and quickly finds herself in the literal arms of the rugged resort owner's son. Hands down. Perfection. All the tropes, banter, spice, Taylor Swift references, selfless characters, love for family, etc. I could go on and on. An absolute love letter to the romance community. If you love Abby Jimenez and Chloe Liese and want a love story along the same vein with absolute heart, disability/illness rep, and one that'll make you cry a little, definitely add Any Trope But You to your TBR. I know I'll be preordering a copy for my self asap.

What I loved: all the tropes! Somehow Lavine made all of them work together in a way that felt genuine and not forced. I love that Margot and Forrest's conflict didn't end in true miscommunication and that it wasn't solved via any character deaths. I was worried that would be the only way they could actually be together and I'm so grateful that didn't happen. Those two had been through enough.

Favorite moments: Margot's book dedication (cue the tears!), the grand gesture, and all of the sweet family moments between Margot and Savannah and Forrest and his dad.

4.25/4.5⭐️

Thank you Atria via NetGalley for this ARC! I absolutely loved this book in all of its troped glory! It was a little reminiscent of Book Lovers (which I loved) but was still its own identity. Forrest and Margot were sweet together and it was so nice to see them work through (by force from family) their deep seated guilt and need to caretake. The ONLY reason this isn’t 5⭐️ is because with romance, I love a good epilogue that’s in the future to really solidify in my brain that they made it. This unfortunately did not have an epilogue. HOWEVER, overall a sweet trope filled book that acknowledges the tropes and doesn’t take itself too seriously. Definitely a recommended read!

I absolutely adored this book. I love that Margot is a secret curmudgeon on love and happy endings. When she stood up and forgot she was not wearing pants on her video podcast had me simultaneously laughing and cringing. Every time something happened to her with Forrest that became a “stereotype” trope had me giggling. The fact that he carried her down a mountain was my favorite. Loved the disability representation with Margot’s sister as well. And I love books with a setting in Alaska! Would definitely be one I would read again!

I really like reading this book, but I wouldn't say its in my top-top reads for the year. I could pretty easily recommend this to a ton of friends though! It was unique enough to stand out in my memory, warm, cute, with a bit of spice and the prose/writing style was really enjoyable. I look forward to Victoria's next release!

Likes: Winter/cabin setting, Alaska, the premise, the MMC, the supporting characters

The premise of a romance author secretly writing alternative endings for her happily-ever-after books and those being leaked getting her cancelled, is unique enough to really stand out in my memory. Although, I do think it might be a little far-fetched to actually happen since I would eat it up if someone like Rebecca Yarros released alt endings haha.

The characters are complex, there was good banter and funny moments. Forrest was an absolute dream of a book boyfriend, too. My biggest beef is that they seemed to fall in love a bit quickly.

I’ve heard a ton of praise about this debut that comes out in April. The author put a fresh spin on some well worn romance tropes. I loved the authors sense of humor, the Alaska setting, the main characters devotion to their families, and the chemistry. This is a fabulous debut for me it was slightly unbelievable that she would have been cancelled and it dragged slightly for me. A solid 4 star read that I enjoyed. I think this will be a huge release in the spring! A huge thank you to Victoria Lavine, atria books and NetGalley for the early copy.

Thank you so much to Victoria Lavine and Atria Books for the eARC of this title. This is such the perfect winter rom com and sucked me right in. I absolutely loved reading Margot and Forrest's story. I liked how she used all types of tropes in this book as well. I can't wait to read more from Victoria! Highly recommend.

This book is a gift - Margot is a successful romance author who writes happy ever afters who (horror) doesn't belive in them and is outed- this is a big deal do off she goes to Alaska to get away from it all with no wifi (another horror) but their she meets Forest (could there be a better name with the circumstances) who is there workimg the resort, as he takes care of his father - he's every MC she's written and every trope comes at them hard and fast - it's a easy book to read in one sitting both main characters love their families and do what they need to do to help them- will they get their happily ever after or is Margots view on them correct! Check this out and be prepared to love it as much as me!!!!

THANK YOU NETGALLEY FOR THIS ARC FOR AN HONEST REVIEW!

Any Trope but You is the perfect winter rom-com! I loved how Victoria Lane was able to take fun cliché romance tropes and write them into a book with so much heart. These characters really cared for and understood each other. I specifically loved how they were both caretakers for family members and able to fully understand the sacrifice and dedication that takes. I found Margot's relationship to writing and her fans very interesting. You can tell the author has a deep love and respect for the romance genre and it's readers. While I didn't love the couples hot and cold tendencies throughout the book, in the end I was rooting for them and believe they did truly belong together. Overall a wonderful winter rom-com with a fun plot, lots of heart, and engaging characters.

Thank you Atria Books and NetGalley for the arc!

OBSESSED!!! This book hit me in the feels!!! Can’t wait to read more by this author!!! I loved the character development and the love they had for each other!!