Plot Twist by Bethany Turner
Publishing Date: June 14, 2021

February 4, 2003, is just another day for Olivia Ross—a greeting card writer whose passion project is a screenplay of her own. After she and a handsome, struggling actor have a near-magic encounter in a coffee shop, they make a spontaneous pact: in ten years, after they’ve found the success they’re just sure they’re going to achieve, they’ll return to the coffeehouse to partner up and make a film together. The only problem? Olivia neglected to get the stranger’s name. But she doesn’t forget the date.

But a lot can happen in ten years, and while waiting for the curtain to rise on her fate, the true story of Olivia’s life is being written—and if she’s not careful, she’ll completely miss the epic romance playing out right before her eyes. 

I received an ARC of this title via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. 

Ok, so I used to very much be a fantasy only reader, but then I started dipping my toes into a bit more romance, and I won’t lie the more “Rom-Com” type of books are one of my favorites in the Romance genre. I was so excited when I got approved for this ARC via NetGalley, because this SCREAMED Rom-Com, and it delivered for the most part.

So I’d like to start with talking about Olivia. I think she’s a phenomenal character…at times. As a thirty year old woman who has self esteem issues and issues in pursuing life goals that seem like a pipe dream, she really resonated with me. But she seemed to stay that way over the course of ten years, which first off, I hope that those life hurdles don’t stay with me that long but I feel like we didn’t get enough outside of just February 4th of each year to really see her in any other light, so I feel like she had trouble developing as a person until towards the end of the book. But at the same time I understand the choice to really hone in on just February 4th.

Even though we got one date over the span on ten years to take a peek into Olivia, Fiona, and Liam’s life, I feel like it did a great job of keeping the plot moving and being a very unique way to setup a book. I don’t think I ever read a book the centered on one day a year for a span of ten years.

Now let me take a minute to talk about well…the romance or love journey. I figured Olivia was going to go on a twisty journey from the beginning (title of the book giving that a way a bit) but I didn’t expect there to be this weird love triangle. Don’t get me wrong, I literally felt my heart pounding when the whole coming back from Italy and THE DINNER, oh my god, I felt it. It was terrible, but it just felt a bit that the whole love triangle kind of went on for a really really long time, which I felt like was a tad much.

I found the ending to be a bit predictable, especially towards the end, I figured the man she met wasn’t going to be Hamish but props for making him someone I really didn’t expect, and it totally bummed me out that even HE wasn’t the final, but I could tell who was Olivia’s OTP by like half way through the book, and it made sense, and just seeing that journey, for me was pretty enjoyable.

I had a really good time with this read, although one would probably call it a very slow burn, it’s a clean and fun romance, that I actually flew through. Would I call it an all time fave? Not necessarily but if I was looking for something to entertain me and really just give me an enjoyable quick read, yes, yes, a thousand times yes!

3/5 Stars