Review: Any Trope But You by Victoria Lavine
Thank you Atria Books for my copy! All thoughts are my own.
I was SO excited to read this book. I’m glad I read it during one of the last (hopefully) cold spells of our Winter but it’s a delight. It’s about a Romance writer whose true thoughts about happily ever afters, a staple of the genre, are released to the Internet at large. It felt like a realistic set up! As someone who in the book reviewing space, lover of Romance, and chronically online…yeah I could see this happening.
I laughed, cried, and swooned reading this book. It’s a perfect transition from Winter to Spring!
Synopsis:
“Beloved romance author Margot Bradley has a dark secret: she doesn’t believe in Happily Ever Afters. Not for herself, not for her readers, and not even for her characters, for whom she secretly writes alternate endings that swap weddings and babies for divorce papers and the occasional slashed tire. When her Happily Never After document is hacked and released to the public, she finds herself canceled by her readers and dropped by her publisher.
Desperate to find a way to continue supporting her chronically ill sister, Savannah, Margot decides to trade meet-cutes for murder. The fictional kind. Probably. But when Savannah books Margot a six-week stay in a remote Alaskan resort to pen her first murder mystery, Margot finds herself running from a moose and leaping into the arms of the handsome proprietor, making her fear she’s just landed in a romance novel instead.
The last thing Dr. Forrest Wakefield ever expected was to leave his dream job as a cancer researcher to become a glorified bellhop. What he’s really doing at his family’s resort is caring for his stubborn, ailing father, and his puzzle-loving mind is slowly freezing over—until Margot shows up. But Forrest doesn’t have any room in his life for another person he could lose, especially one with a checkout date.
As long snowy nights and one unlikely trope after another draw Margot and Forrest together, they’ll each have to learn to overcome their fears and set their aside assumptions before Margot leaves—or risk becoming a Happily Never After story themselves.” —NetGalley
What I Liked:
The Setting—Give me a book set in Alaska, and I will read it with glee. I also am a sucker for any book that takes place at a lodge or hotel. It’s so fun to catch the characters out of the “real life”.
Breaking the Fourth Wall of Romance—I feel like there’s been an influx of writer romances but this might be my favorite in how they handled the tongue and cheek nature of pointing out tropes while also leaning into the best parts of the genre.
The Emotional Depth—I love a good popcorn book, but there’s something about a book that can make you laugh and also examine how you view the world. The depth of these characters didn’t overshadow the fun, tropey moments. They enhanced them!
What Didn’t Work for Me:
Long Chapter Length—I feel like a picky monster, but oof a long chapter can take the wind out of my reader sails.
Character Authenticity: 5/5 Spice Rating: 2/5 Overall Rating: 4.5/5
Content Warnings:
chronic illness, cancer, death of a parent (past), injury/injury detail