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3.9 AVERAGE
3.9 AVERAGE
Thank you Forever and NetGalley for the DRC of Unromance! All opinions in this review are my own.
I am happy to say that this book lived up to the hype for me! People were not exaggerating how good this romance is! I love how each chapter starts with a trope definition which is featured in the chapter. While it may sound like this book just panders to tropes in an effort to include them, it is truly done in a skillful way so that it doesn't feel like this. Each trope is included in an effort to "ruin" it for Mason and to try to prove that they only work in romance novels and not in the real world. Overall, I loved the tone of Unromane and feel like it is a fresh take on the romance genre which has become obsessed with identifying books solely by their tropes.
slow-paced
emotional
funny
lighthearted
medium-paced
This was a fun read. It made me want to watch all my favorite rom-coms and a couple I haven’t seen yet. I loved the setup- ruining romance tropes. Sawyer & Mason had great chemistry from the beginning. Big-hearted, funny, & sweet. Loved it.
emotional
funny
lighthearted
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
I had heard good things about this debut contemporary romance, and I am glad to say most of them are true!
Sawyer Greene is a struggling romance novelist living in Chicago. After her longtime girlfriend broke up with her—taking her apartment, friends, and writing inspiration—Sawyer has been struggling to get any words down on paper. Now she's a year late on the contract for her fourth book and is desperate for inspiration to strike. She gets stuck in an elevator with a handsome stranger named Mason Alvarez West, and for the first time in a while she feels a spark with him. They agree to a no-strings, one-night stand where they'll just bang it out and go their separate ways. But when they run into each other again, they take it as a sign: they're meant to help each other. Sawyer needs romance inspiration to get over her writer's block, and Mason needs to get over romance. He's a TV star on a show that films in Chicago, and his love life has been fodder for the tabloids. Mason needs to be single for a while, so he and Sawyer agree to do all the cliché things from romcoms—go to a Christmas tree farm, ice skate in Millennium Park, etc.—which will give Sawyer motivation for her book and cure Mason of his obsession with romance.
Let's begin, as usual, with the things I liked. I think Erin Connor did a great job with her characters' voices. I found myself drawn into their voices quickly and was able to distinguish them from each other right away. I also really enjoyed the way Erin Connor threw up roadblocks between the characters. This book could have easily devolved into a trope-y mess, but she did a great job of making them feel organic to the relationship. I think she leveraged external conflict—primarily from Mason's upcoming move to LA—to great effect, rather than leaning on miscommunication between our characters or their emotional damage. The move provided the impetus for their issues to naturally become a problem in their relationship.
There were two things in this book that didn't quite work for me. The first is that I don't enjoy romances that reference existing contemporary romance novels. Sawyer references a Jasmine Guillory novel in the first chapter, and that was a little too meta for me. I don't mind the '90s and 2000s romcom allusions, but books written in the last five years feel a little too on the nose for my taste. I also struggled with some of the Chicago details. I live in the city of Chicago and have been here for over 12 years now. While it was clear Erin Connor did her research, there were a lot of nuances she just didn't understand that would have been picked up by a beta reader. For example, no one who is shopping downtown is going to travel seven miles northwest to a neighborhood they don't live in for lunch on a whim. The lunch in question would have taken our characters 35–45 minutes to get to on a train, with a long walk once they got off the Blue Line, when there were comparable restaurants right near where they were in the Loop. There were a bunch of little moments like that, which probably wouldn't bother someone who doesn't live here, but they bugged me.
I am excited to see what Erin Connor puts out next. She seems like a promising voice in the genre. 4 stars.
Sawyer Greene is a struggling romance novelist living in Chicago. After her longtime girlfriend broke up with her—taking her apartment, friends, and writing inspiration—Sawyer has been struggling to get any words down on paper. Now she's a year late on the contract for her fourth book and is desperate for inspiration to strike. She gets stuck in an elevator with a handsome stranger named Mason Alvarez West, and for the first time in a while she feels a spark with him. They agree to a no-strings, one-night stand where they'll just bang it out and go their separate ways. But when they run into each other again, they take it as a sign: they're meant to help each other. Sawyer needs romance inspiration to get over her writer's block, and Mason needs to get over romance. He's a TV star on a show that films in Chicago, and his love life has been fodder for the tabloids. Mason needs to be single for a while, so he and Sawyer agree to do all the cliché things from romcoms—go to a Christmas tree farm, ice skate in Millennium Park, etc.—which will give Sawyer motivation for her book and cure Mason of his obsession with romance.
Let's begin, as usual, with the things I liked. I think Erin Connor did a great job with her characters' voices. I found myself drawn into their voices quickly and was able to distinguish them from each other right away. I also really enjoyed the way Erin Connor threw up roadblocks between the characters. This book could have easily devolved into a trope-y mess, but she did a great job of making them feel organic to the relationship. I think she leveraged external conflict—primarily from Mason's upcoming move to LA—to great effect, rather than leaning on miscommunication between our characters or their emotional damage. The move provided the impetus for their issues to naturally become a problem in their relationship.
There were two things in this book that didn't quite work for me. The first is that I don't enjoy romances that reference existing contemporary romance novels. Sawyer references a Jasmine Guillory novel in the first chapter, and that was a little too meta for me. I don't mind the '90s and 2000s romcom allusions, but books written in the last five years feel a little too on the nose for my taste. I also struggled with some of the Chicago details. I live in the city of Chicago and have been here for over 12 years now. While it was clear Erin Connor did her research, there were a lot of nuances she just didn't understand that would have been picked up by a beta reader. For example, no one who is shopping downtown is going to travel seven miles northwest to a neighborhood they don't live in for lunch on a whim. The lunch in question would have taken our characters 35–45 minutes to get to on a train, with a long walk once they got off the Blue Line, when there were comparable restaurants right near where they were in the Loop. There were a bunch of little moments like that, which probably wouldn't bother someone who doesn't live here, but they bugged me.
I am excited to see what Erin Connor puts out next. She seems like a promising voice in the genre. 4 stars.
Loved getting to visit my fave romcoms and tropes for the simple, silly, and utterly adorable premise of "ruining" them.
I did think it was interesting that multiple friends of the main two described their relationships by using the trope that got them together. Totally in the theme of the book, but honestly made me check multiple times if this was in a series of other books I had missed lol.
I did think it was interesting that multiple friends of the main two described their relationships by using the trope that got them together. Totally in the theme of the book, but honestly made me check multiple times if this was in a series of other books I had missed lol.
challenging
emotional
funny
hopeful
inspiring
reflective
tense
fast-paced
3.5 ⭐️ This was a super cute debut romance novel. I can tell the author has deep rooted feelings for the romcom film and book genre, the ultimate love letter to various romance tropes. This is about Sawyer, a romance writer, unable to write anything since her last big heartbreak a few years earlier. She is closed off to the idea of getting close to others and romance. She has the ultimate meet-cute, getting stuck in an elevator with dreamy Mason West, a hopeless romantic who just wants to find his happily ever after. They proceed to help one another overcome their blocks - him falling for every girl under the sun and Sawyer overcoming her writers block. They plan to ruin romance for one another - this is where it lost me, I didn’t understand the entire premise of what these two were trying to do. It was super cute to read but I genuinely didn’t understand how we are to believe someone would think of this plan and think this was a good idea. Also, it has a bit of miscommunication and a 3rd act breakup (gross). But Mason is the ultimate cinnamon roll, he falls first ray of sunshine to Sawyers very grumpy and childish attitude. Mild spice, open door but pretty tame. Great secondary characters, loved Lily and Luis the best friends. Even though the premise didn’t really hit the mark for me, it was very well done, I loved the chapter headers/one liners, I loved the funny, sexually charged banter and I loved how it knew it was super trope heavy on purpose. I would definitely read more from Erin Connor in the future.
TLDR:
* Fake Dating-ish
* Grumpy x Sunshine
* He falls first
* Homage to romance tropes
* Bi - representation
* Funny banter - loads of sexual tension
This was my 4th book of 2025
Format: Kindle e-galley
Thank you to NetGalley, Erin Connor and Forever Publishing for this advanced readers copy in exchange for my honest review.
TLDR:
* Fake Dating-ish
* Grumpy x Sunshine
* He falls first
* Homage to romance tropes
* Bi - representation
* Funny banter - loads of sexual tension
This was my 4th book of 2025
Format: Kindle e-galley
Thank you to NetGalley, Erin Connor and Forever Publishing for this advanced readers copy in exchange for my honest review.
emotional
funny
hopeful
lighthearted
medium-paced
funny
hopeful
lighthearted
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
A charming little romance. I had a little trouble buying the mail lead as a human that would actually exist., but it didn’t bother me a ton!
One of the best parts for me was that the female lead is bisexual and that’s just not what the story is about ! So often bisexual leads are having a bi awakening or coping with biphobia…or are functionally straight leads with a bi label to make them seem edgy. The fact that the female lead had a traumatic break up with a female ex and was estranged from her family due to their homophobia made it so her bisexuality was core to her identity— but it also didn’t come up a ton because the character had done the work of figuring that out before the book started.
One of the best parts for me was that the female lead is bisexual and that’s just not what the story is about ! So often bisexual leads are having a bi awakening or coping with biphobia…or are functionally straight leads with a bi label to make them seem edgy.
emotional
funny
lighthearted
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes