PLOT TWIST

A romance writer reconnects with her exes and gets to know her best friend’s brother—her landlord—in this steamy forced-proximity romance.

Sophie Lyon is a pansexual published romance author working on her second book, but she has a major case of writer’s block. After a night out with her best friend, Poppy, a video of Sophie—extremely drunk at a karaoke mic—goes viral, showing her wild-eyed and sobbing, proclaiming that she’s never been in love. In a disastrous morning after, she finds out about her drunken proclamation, the existence of the video, and that people in the comments have recognized her, and in her extremely hungover state, she pukes all over Poppy’s brother Dash, her landlord. (Considering that they live in Hollywood, it seems only natural that Dash and Poppy are part of a movie dynasty, and Dash is an actor Sophie’s had a crush on since she was a teenager.) Dash suggests she post a response video on TikTok, so she decides to meet with all her exes, some male and some female, to talk about why their relationships didn’t work out. And so she does, posting videos about what she finds out about herself and her relationships. Meanwhile, Sophie and Dash are physically drawn to each other, but because of Dash’s struggles with sobriety, he doesn’t feel like he can be in a relationship. Secrets, family complications, social media repercussions, agony over mistakes, the difficulty of establishing new emotional pathways, and sex are all part of this surprisingly sweet story that embraces characters’ flaws as part of the whole package that makes up an individual.

An engaging novel that seamlessly weaves together an exploration of love, the challenges of sobriety, and robust sex.