REVIEW: Any Trope but You by Victoria Lavine

In Any Trope but You by Victoria Lavine, Margot Bradley, a famous romance author who turns out one HEA after another, should believe in true love and happy endings. But nope. After a lifetime of being abandoned, let down, and used by men, she secretly doesn’t believe HEAs are real. And to vent her frustration, after completing each new book Margot writes an alternate “Happily Never After” ending for her eyes only. But when her HNA file is hacked and spilled for all her beloved readers to see, things go sideways. Fast. Soon Margot’s career is on a downward trajectory and her fans have all but abandoned her. Determined to forge a new path, she reinvents herself as a murder-mystery writer and is sent by her sister to Alaska for six weeks to finish the manuscript. But Margot is thrown into her very own rom-com right from her first moments at North Star Lodge. Although she’s sure things won’t end as dreamily as they do for her heroines.

‘Beneath all the romance and triple-orgasm sex scenes I peddle like snake oil, I’m more jaded about love than a former Bachelorette star, mid-divorce.’

Dr. Forrest Wakefield has no idea what to do when beautiful Margot literally leaps into his arms upon their first meeting. Granted it was to get away from the lodge’s (admittedly huge) pet moose. But somehow, she seems to fit way too easily into his embrace. Knowing he doesn’t have time for distractions with a career in cancer research on hold and seeing to his disabled father’s daily needs along with running the family lodge, Forrest hasn’t the bandwidth for a relationship. Especially with Margot. She’s icy and standoffish on the best of days. At first. Then Alaska’s beauty and healing powers do their work on her attitude and the author becomes one of the best reasons for Forrest to jump out of bed in the morning. But with Margot’s time at the lodge dwindling and things up in the air about his future, now still isn’t the best time to fall in love. If only his foolish heart would listen to him.

‘This woman, who upon first impression seemed completely trite and unrelatable, is probably the one person in a thousand-mile radius who might understand what I’m going through.’

ANY TROPE BUT YOU might be a debut novel for Victoria Lavine, but her writing feels like being welcomed back by a familiar friend–as did the selfless, absolutely lovely cast who readers will be sure to cherish.

‘Even the romance heroes from my own books are starting to fall short of him.’

CW: View Spoiler »Chronic illnesses (some details), loss of a parent, child abandonment « Hide Spoiler

I’ve read romances before that felt like every trope you can think of was thrown at the main characters and it sadly felt overwhelming. But Victoria Lavine’s debut is the perfect example of exactly how to use a myriad of tropes to enhance and entertain. Being snowed in, a fiery enemies to lovers pairing, one bed (well…one tent, actually), a love triangle, the swooniest cinnamon roll hero, and meddling family members, to name a few, ANY TROPE BUT YOU had it all. But what saturated the pages was honest emotions. The kind that makes a reader connect deeply with the cast member who’s feeling *all* the feels while we trudge along in their footsteps hoping everything works out okay. And I’m happy to say that Margot and Forrest did finally get their own hard-won HEA. Eventually.

I truly was hooked from the first page. Knowing it was going to be mostly set in Alaska was intriguing on its own, but the idea that a famous romance author didn’t believe in the HEAs she wrote–and was called out for it–I had to see how Lavine would handle all of it. She did a great job making all the ups and downs Margot went through seem real. There was no sugarcoating the despair from seemingly losing her career or, most importantly, her readers whom she adored.

And when her caring sister sent her off to the wilds of Alaska to work on a new murder mystery manuscript, I had to laugh at how much Margot fought all the changes going on. One of the biggest being how drawn she was to the lodge’s proprietor, Forrest. From their meet-cute involving a moose she mistook for a bear (LOL!!) to how they seamlessly slotted into each other’s daily lives, they were a terrific couple. But they were both caregivers to family members who were priority number one–as they should be–which made a relationship for Forrest and Margot a tricky thing to navigate. Seeing it through both of their POVs, though, was so very touching. And I couldn’t have been happier to see them end up in each other’s arms for good. Sigh.

QOTD: Is there any romance trope that will make you instantly want to pick up a book if you see it mentioned in the synopsis?

Book Info:

Publication: Published: April 1st, 2025 | Atria Books |

A bestselling romance author flees to Alaska to reinvent herself and write her first murder mystery, but the rugged resort proprietor soon has her fearing she’s living in a rom-com plot instead in this earnestly spectacular debut by a stunning new voice.

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.