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Verdict: A warm, low-angst Seattle coffee-shop romance with two genuinely well-drawn leads, undercut by a central relationship a lot of readers never quite believed.
Best for: Readers who want a cozy, character-driven sapphic romcom, are content with a closed-door love story, and will forgive a middle that circles a long time before it lurches.
Heat level: ★★☆☆☆ (2/5 — largely fade to black, whatever the packaging promises)
Rating: ★★★★☆ (3.6/5 — a 3.74 Goodreads average where almost a third of the ratings are three stars)
Tropes: Opposites attract, grumpy-sunshine, slow burn, coffee-shop romance, writer heroine, muse with a secret, forced proximity, small-business jeopardy, dual POV, low angst.
Not in the Plan by Dana Hawkins is her debut and the first of the Single in Seattle trilogy, a Storm Publishing contemporary lesbian romance set in a failing Seattle coffee shop, where Charlie, the owner hiding how close she is to losing it, meets Mack, a novelist out of book who starts feeding Charlie’s private life into her manuscript without telling her.
It carries a 3.74 average across 2,456 Goodreads ratings, a same-day audiobook from Storm narrated by Elise Roth, and a rating spread odder than the average makes it look: 37% four stars, 32% three stars, and almost no anger at the bottom. This is not a book readers fight about; it is a book a great many readers finished and shrugged at. Why a novel with this much competent character work leaves so many people lukewarm is the thing worth understanding before you start.
What Is Not in the Plan About?
Not in the Plan is a contemporary sapphic romcom in the cozy register — the subgenre where the jeopardy is a lease and an overdraft rather than a life, and where the setting carries much of the emotional work. Seattle carries it here, and the coffee shop is a real place in the book rather than a backdrop.
Charlie is the sunshine half and the one with the hole in the floor: a divorce behind her, an attachment style she has not examined, and a business she is failing to save while hiding the statements from everyone who loves her. Mack is the anxious half, a novelist with a deadline and no pages who has never been in love and treats other people as material before she treats them as company. The book runs on dual first-person POV, and that is the choice earning it most of its goodwill: you get Mack rationalising the theft in real time and Charlie not noticing, and that gap is the only sustained tension the plot generates.
What Makes This Sapphic Coffee Shop Romance Work
- The setting: The Seattle coffee shop is the most-praised element by a distance. Reviewers describe feeling like they are sitting in it, and several say the fictional drinks are what kept them turning pages.
- Mack’s interiority: The strongest character writing in the book. Readers who connect with Mack connect hard, and they name her anxiety, her family and her mother’s illness specifically.
- The dual POV: Amazon’s own reader summary singles out the two-sided narration as what adds depth, and it is what keeps Mack sympathetic while she does something indefensible.
- The comfort register: StoryGraph readers tag it lighthearted 76% of the time and emotional 54% — exactly what a slow burn comfort read is supposed to deliver.
- A clean, complete ending: It resolves, it has a happily-ever-after, and the trilogy around it is finished. Nothing is held hostage.
Book Synopsis
Charlie owns a queer coffee shop in Seattle that she loves and cannot afford. The renovation went over budget, the numbers never recovered, and she deals with it the way she deals with most things: by not telling anyone. The bills go in a drawer, the debt collectors go to voicemail, and in the meantime she makes everyone else’s morning better.
Mack is a novelist with a contract, a deadline and nothing on the page. She leaves New York for her parents’ house in Seattle on the theory that a change of room will unlock a change of mind, gets lost in the rain, and walks into Charlie’s shop looking for coffee. What she finds is the first thing in months that makes her want to write. Charlie talks, unguardedly, about her marriage, her family and the shop she is losing. Mack goes home and writes it down.
The book that comes out of it is the best work Mack has done. It is also, line by line, Charlie’s life, handed over in confidence to a woman who has not mentioned she is a novelist, let alone what she is doing with the material. The two get closer anyway, through shifts and storms and the slow discovery that they are far better company for each other than either expected. The question the novel holds is not whether Charlie finds out, but what is left of either of them when she does.
My Review
The premise is genuinely good, and I want that on the record before the qualifications start. A writer using a real woman as raw material while falling for her is a proper romance engine — it builds the betrayal into the courtship rather than importing one in act three. Hawkins also knows what to do with a setting: the coffee shop is specific, populated and warm in a way most cozy romance only claims.
The character work is the other real strength, and it is not close. Mack is the best thing in the book: an anxious, avoidant, mildly selfish woman whose interior monologue is convincing enough that readers who recognise themselves in her say so at length. Charlie’s financial spiral has the same honesty — the hiding, the voicemail, the cheerfulness deployed as a screen.
Where it comes apart is the romance itself, and this is not one reader’s taste — it is the most consistent complaint in the reviews. A great many readers do not believe in Charlie and Mack as a couple. The recurring word is connection, or the absence of it; the reader who abandoned the book at 43% on StoryGraph gave “the attraction between the two leads seemed forced” as the reason. Underneath that sits a pacing problem several reviewers describe in near-identical terms: the two circle each other far too long, then go from nothing to settled at speed.
The other problem is that the book flinches from its own idea. The appropriation plot is the sharpest thing Hawkins has, and it resolves quickly and gently; one two-star reviewer’s complaint that the characters “overcame their issues way too quickly” is aimed squarely at that. A late third-act breakup arrives with very little book left to repair it, and the shop is rescued by a parental cheque.
One expectation to reset. The publisher sells this as a swoony, steamy romcom, Amazon files it under spicy queer romance, and the author’s own site uses the same word. Readers do not: the scenes fade out, and the heat is build rather than anything on the page. If explicit is what drew you, calibrate; if closed-door is what you were hoping for, the marketing has been lying in your favour.
My honest note: A debut with better characters than chemistry, and a great idea it handles too kindly. If you read romance for two people you enjoy spending time with, this works. If you read it for the pull between them, this is the one that will feel flat.
| Element | In Not in the Plan |
|---|---|
| Central relationship | Charlie & Mack — struggling coffee-shop owner and blocked novelist, opposites attract |
| Core tropes | Opposites attract, grumpy-sunshine, slow burn, muse with a secret, forced proximity, small-business jeopardy |
| Setting | A queer coffee shop in present-day Seattle, plus Mack’s parents’ house across town |
| Heat level | 2/5 — largely fade to black, despite steamy marketing |
| Series | Single in Seattle book 1 — standalone with an HEA; the trilogy is complete at three books |
| Content notes | Divorce and abandonment fears, a parent with cancer, parental neglect and alcoholism, infidelity referenced outside the couple, debt and financial precarity, anxiety, and a sustained privacy violation by one lead against the other |
How Spicy Is Not in the Plan?
A 2/5, and this is the one place the databases and the readers disagree. romance.io lists it at 3 of 5, “Open door” — but that band rests on 13 ratings, and the people who read the book describe something else. One Goodreads reviewer calls the spice a complete tease, nothing explicit and all fade to black; another marks it very minimal; an independent blog review calls it a little steam and fade-to-black scenes. Against a blurb promising swoony and steamy, that gap is the most common way this book disappoints someone.
What is worth flagging in advance is not kink but consent-adjacent: Mack takes Charlie’s private history and publishes it, and readers who found the book uncomfortable name that rather than anything in the bedroom. No reviewer I found flags explicit content of any other kind. If this is roughly the band you want, The Roommate Arrangement and One Last Stop sit in the same open-door territory with more on the page.
Who Should Read This Book?
You’ll likely love it if: you read for character rather than plot, you want a cozy low-angst romcom with a strong sense of place, you are happy with closed-door heat, and you like a narrator who is a mess and knows it.
You may want to skip it if: you need to believe in the couple above everything, you have no patience for a middle that circles, you want explicit scenes and will feel cheated by fade-to-black, or you want a betrayal plot that actually costs the characters something.
In short: excellent company, unconvincing chemistry — a comfort read better as a hangout than as a romance.
What Readers Are Actually Saying (August 2026)
There is no viral moment here and there never was. The book has no trade reviews at all — the editorial block on the Kindle listing carries an author bio and nothing else, with no Publishers Weekly, Kirkus or Library Journal coverage to reproduce. Sapphic outlets carry it mostly as promotion: The Lesbian Review has a catalogue listing rather than a review, and I Heart SapphFic ran an author Q&A in February 2024. Independent criticism comes from a handful of book blogs, PowerLibrarian’s four-star review being the most substantial. My Reddit pass was incomplete and TikTok returned no results at all, so treat both as unread rather than empty. What the book does have is reach: 2,456 Goodreads ratings and 794 Amazon ratings for a debut, from a publisher push rather than a groundswell.
Storm released the audiobook the same day as the ebook, 31 January 2024, narrated by Elise Roth across 8 hours 52 minutes; Roth narrates book two as well. That simultaneous release is the industry fact worth knowing here — this is a debut given a full trade rollout, not one that earned audio later.
Prefer audio? Listen to Not in the Plan on Libro.fm — the audiobook shop that supports independent bookstores.
Why readers love it (according to the discourse): The coffee shop, first and most consistently — the Seattle setting and the invented drinks are what people name when they recommend it. Then Mack, whose anxiety, family and grief land hard for the readers they land for at all; several say they saw themselves in her and mean it as praise. The low-angst register is named as a feature, and the dual POV draws credit. The prose is one of the very few things nobody attacks: even reviewers who disliked the book say the sentences were fine.
What readers argue about and complain about: Chemistry, above everything. Reviewer after reviewer reports liking both women and not believing in them together, and that is the complaint producing the enormous three-star band. Second, pacing: described almost identically across independent reviews as far too much circling followed by abrupt insta-love, with a middle that drags. Third, the resolutions are too easy — anxious attachment cured, a betrayal absorbed, a business saved by a parental cheque. Fourth, the heat measured against how the book is sold. Beyond that, a very late third-act breakup, and the premise itself: more than one reader says the appropriation plot made them actively uncomfortable. That is where opinion genuinely splits — some came in braced for it and were relieved by how gently it plays out, others wanted the book to take its own idea seriously and felt it declined.
The standalone question worth asking first: this resolves. Charlie and Mack get a happily-ever-after, nothing is deferred, and the Single in Seattle books are interconnected standalones about different couples. The trilogy is finished. The useful part is the ratings shape: book one is the most-read of the three and the lowest-rated. In Walked Trouble, an enemies-to-lovers rivalry, sits at 3.84 across roughly 1,494 ratings, and one Goodreads reviewer who read it first found this book the weaker of the two. Hawkins’s strongest numbers are outside this series: I Will Always Love You (Maybe) at 3.95 and My Girlfriend Is Not the Father at 3.98.
Frequently Asked Questions
Is Not in the Plan a standalone?
Yes. It resolves completely and delivers a happily-ever-after, and the Single in Seattle books follow different couples rather than one continuing story. The trilogy is finished, so nothing is left hanging.
How spicy is Not in the Plan?
A 2/5. Readers consistently describe the scenes as fading to black, with the heat carried by build rather than anything explicit. romance.io lists it in its 3 of 5 “Open door” band, but that rests on 13 votes and the reader reports point lower.
Why is the Goodreads rating so much lower than the Amazon one?
Goodreads sits at 3.74 across 2,456 ratings. The honest picture is the Goodreads spread: 37% four stars and 32% three.
Is there an audiobook?
Yes — narrated by Elise Roth for Storm Publishing, running 8 hours 52 minutes, released on 31 January 2024 alongside the ebook. Roth narrates the second book too.
Is the writer-using-her-as-a-muse plot as uncomfortable as it sounds?
It is the book’s best idea and its biggest missed opportunity. Mack does take Charlie’s private history without permission, several readers say it made them uncomfortable, and the fallout still resolves quickly and gently.
If You Loved Not in the Plan, Read These Next
If the Seattle opposites-attract setup is the draw, Written in the Stars runs the same uptight-versus-free-spirited dynamic in the same city with far more heat on the page. If it was the cozy small-business warmth, Delilah Green Doesn’t Care gives you a comparable found-family texture with a couple readers actually believe in. And if Mack’s anxious interiority was the part that worked, Late Bloomer puts the same messy, self-aware narrator at the centre. For more in this register, browse our forced proximity reading list or the full Book Reviews collection.
The Bottom Line
Not in the Plan wants to be a warm, funny Seattle romcom with a real ethical bruise at its centre. It gets the warmth, the city and the two women right: the coffee shop is a place, Mack is a properly written mess, the low-angst register is delivered as promised. It does not get the couple right, it circles too long and then rushes, and it forgives its own best idea far too quickly. Whether that trade works depends on what you read romance for: if it is company, this is good company for nine hours; if it is chemistry, this is the book that leaves you writing a three-star review, as almost a third of Goodreads did. Check Not in the Plan on Amazon →
The Eikna Overall Ranking
On the Eikna scale, Not in the Plan ranks as a competent trade-published cozy sapphic romcom — strong on character and place, weak on the pull between its leads, and best approached for the hangout rather than the romance.
The Evidence Scorecard
Overall ★★★★☆ 3.6/5
- ✓ 3.74 average across 2,456 Goodreads ratings
- ✓ 3.59 on StoryGraph across 951 reviews
- ✓ Only 5% did-not-finish rate
- ✓ 32% of ratings sit at three stars
Romance ★★★★☆ 3.5/5
- ✓ Opposites-attract setup is well built
- ✓ Friendship phase genuinely charming
- ✓ Betrayal is baked into the courtship
- ✓ Chemistry is the most repeated complaint
Characters ★★★★☆ 4/5
- ✓ Mack’s anxious interiority is the standout
- ✓ 83% call the characters loveable
- ✓ 77% say flaws are a main focus
- ✓ Both leads fix themselves too fast
Writing ★★★★☆ 3.8/5
- ✓ Prose draws almost no criticism
- ✓ Coffee-shop setting vividly rendered
- ✓ Dual POV handled cleanly
- ✓ Structure sags badly in the middle
Emotional Impact ★★★★☆ 3.9/5
- ✓ 54% of readers tag it emotional
- ✓ Mack’s mother and family land hard
- ✓ Financial shame written honestly
- ✓ Low angst caps how much it can hurt
Heat Level ★★☆☆☆ 2/5
- ✓ Readers report fade to black throughout
- ✓ Build and tension carry the attraction
- ✓ Blog reviews corroborate the low heat
- ✓ Marketed as steamy, which misleads
Ending ★★★☆☆ 3.4/5
- ✓ Complete HEA, no cliffhanger
- ✓ Works fully as a standalone
- ✓ Third-act breakup arrives very late
- ✓ Shop rescued by a parental cheque
Re-read Value ★★★★☆ 3.6/5
- ✓ Cozy comfort read by design
- ✓ Nine-hour audiobook is an easy revisit
- ✓ Two finished sequels to move on to
- ✓ Little tension to rediscover
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