In this lush, slow-burning romance, two childhood neighbors, connected by a shared tragedy, unexpectedly reunite to ghostwrite a love story for a reclusive author. Spending the summer at her secluded Hamptons estate, they soon discover that dozens of classic romance tropes, including the ones they’re crafting on page, are mysteriously playing out in real life.
Katie Caruso is a completely normal twenty-five-year-old girl. At least, for the past eight years, she’s tried to be. She likes glitter and sequins and flirting with cute boys at New York City bars. She’s also a ghostwriter for Meredith Bradford, the bestselling romance novelist of all time. But then Tyler McNally walks back into Katie’s life, and that bedazzled facade crumbles at her platform-sneakered feet.
Katie and Tyler haven’t seen or spoken to each other since the overdose death of Katie’s older brother, a standout MLB pitching prospect. Tyler was her brother’s best friend, and Katie—naturally—was the girl next door. But now, Tyler is a sleeve-tattooed, Ivy League-educated aspiring literary fiction novelist, nine years sober . . . and Katie’s writing partner for the summer.
As genre conventions require, Katie and Tyler soon find themselves removed from Manhattan and instead writing their love story in “forced proximity” at Meredith’s isolated Southampton home. As the summer unfolds, the tropes Katie and Tyler have written into their novel begin to play out in their own lives. Call it destiny, fate, or magic It’s clear their love story is unfinished. This time, though, they’ll fight for their happy ending.
Heart-wrenching and tender, Tropesick is a love letter to the romance genre. With a wink and a nod, Okie has packed the novel with listeners’ favorite
Grumpy/Sunshine Brother’s best friend Girl next door Forced proximity Forbidden love Kissing in the rain Groveling hero Second-chance romance Slow burn Only one bed
Katie Caruso is a completely normal twenty-five-year-old girl. At least, for the past eight years, she’s tried to be. She likes glitter and sequins and flirting with cute boys at New York City bars. She’s also a ghostwriter for Meredith Bradford, the bestselling romance novelist of all time. But then Tyler McNally walks back into Katie’s life, and that bedazzled facade crumbles at her platform-sneakered feet.
Katie and Tyler haven’t seen or spoken to each other since the overdose death of Katie’s older brother, a standout MLB pitching prospect. Tyler was her brother’s best friend, and Katie—naturally—was the girl next door. But now, Tyler is a sleeve-tattooed, Ivy League-educated aspiring literary fiction novelist, nine years sober . . . and Katie’s writing partner for the summer.
As genre conventions require, Katie and Tyler soon find themselves removed from Manhattan and instead writing their love story in “forced proximity” at Meredith’s isolated Southampton home. As the summer unfolds, the tropes Katie and Tyler have written into their novel begin to play out in their own lives. Call it destiny, fate, or magic It’s clear their love story is unfinished. This time, though, they’ll fight for their happy ending.
Heart-wrenching and tender, Tropesick is a love letter to the romance genre. With a wink and a nod, Okie has packed the novel with listeners’ favorite
Grumpy/Sunshine Brother’s best friend Girl next door Forced proximity Forbidden love Kissing in the rain Groveling hero Second-chance romance Slow burn Only one bed
Title: Tropesick
Author: Lauren Okie
Publisher: Avon Harper Voyager
Expected Publication Date: June 16, 2026
Review:
Thank you to Avon Harper Voyager and NetGalley for providing me with a copy of this title to read and give my honest review. The opinions expressed here are my own.
What romance book lover wouldn't love a book that touches on all the romance tropes? None that I know of so the blurb for this book drew me right in and I needed to see how the author would incorporate them all and play them out. The concept is really great: two writers, with a history, thrown together to ghost right a story for a mega popular author. One writer who truly believes in romance stories and the other who does not. A story that includes all the romance tropes.
Before I go further, know there are some heavy topics addressed in this book including death of a loved one, unresolved grief, and addiction. If you have triggers for any of these topics, especially that of addiction, I'd proceed with caution. The blurb doesn't mention much on this point but the author's note at the beginning gives you a glimpse into it's depth in the book, which I very much appreciated. Having grown up surrounded by addiction, I was quite curious to see how the author handled this aspect of the book. Okie does a good job touching on the nuances of this topic with reference to rehab as well as meetings and sponsors. Plus she incorporates the ideas behind AA and sponsorship, which was done with great care.
The characters in this book were well done if not frustrating for me. Katie Caruso is broken for sure. She has lived her life in the shadow of her dead brother and even lived in his shadow before that. Never feeling she was loved or good enough to be loved by her family. Tyler McNally is her childhood crush and great love lost. She has spent years recovering from the heartbreak he dealt her only to be thrown back into his presence through her career choice. Considering all Katie has been through, I actually see she has a fairly good head on her shoulders. She does have hang ups with giving herself over to someone and keeps her relationships superficial to avoid the heartbreak that could possibly come along with getting attached to someone. You can see she loves what she does, though, and can put romance on a page easily. I will say her clothing and make up are referred to often in the book, attempting to make her more unique. But I didn't quite feel that uniqueness in her personality. Tyler is just a mess. He's closed off and wounded from so much trauma in his past: his dad leaving, his best friend's death, his inability to stop loving the girl from his childhood, his addiction and recovery: a classically tortured soul for sure. I was waiting the whole book to see him relapse, to be honest. His inability to communicate with Katie and his penchant for running drove me nuts throughout the entire book. If he had only opened his mouth to have a conversation with her about the things that happened in the past, rather than holding on to them for fear she would never want to be with him, then so much of the heart ache he was enduring could have been avoided.
The author does a good job with the pacing in this book. It was fast and the plot kept me interested. This is firmly a romance novel. While I understood the characters had a past, and this was truly a second chance romance, I was frustrated with how easily they fell back into each other. Given their past and the heart break Tyler cause, I felt Katie too easily forgave him and was quick to reform their friendship and have feelings for somene who hurt her so badly. I liked the use of the flashbacks so we got to know the characters and saw why they developed the way they did. Plus the snippets from the book Katie and Tyler were writing were spot on aligned with their own story.
My issues with this book were two fold. First, I feel like the grief from the loss Katie and her family endured was to drawn out. While I understood Katie was wont to confront her mother, I just feel like 8 years is a long time to carry that heaviness around without completely breaking. It seemed a bit unrealistic to me. My second issue was the magical aspect, which was thrown in at the end. I loved magical realism, it's a genre I often gravitate towards. While the blurb does mention some kind of magic, I didn't think it would be a literal part of the book given how the first 3/4 of the story progresses. It just pops up in the last 20% of the book, seemingly out of nowhere and take the meaning of ghostwriting to a whole new level. The weird twist take sthis romance and turns it into something more speculative with a paranormal aspect that just didn't fit the entire story line. To be fair, there were strange instances in the book where you could potentially see this magic at play, but they were never truly incorporated enough into the story to make me wonder. In the end, it just made zero sense for it to be thrown at the reader and took me right out of the story. I wish there was more in the body of the book that made you question things as the final twist would have made much more sense when it happened. The shock factor this twist was supposed elicit did not hit for me. The ending of the book quickly dropped my rating from 5 stars to 4.
But the writing is truly great. I didn't read Okie's first book but I've already added it to my TBR. And I'm definitely keeping her on my list of most anticipated author's for the future. Readers who love all the romance tropes will eat this one up. Just be ready to throw your beliefs out the window at the end and suspend any type of disbelief you might have.
Author:
Hi, I’m Lauren Okie, and I write messy, hard-fought love stories. My debut, THE BEST WORST THING, is out now. Look out for TROPESICK, coming summer 2026, and follow me on IG (@laurenokieauthor) to keep up with my nonsense.
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