Better Than the Movies

Introduction

Better Than the Movies was written by Lynn Painter and published on May 4th, 2021, by Simon and Shuster publishing company. I was browsing Barnes and Noble with a friend and was specifically looking for a fun, stand-alone romance that would be an easy and fun read, and she recommended this to me. As usual, her suggestion was spot-on, and I can see why she enjoys this book so much. It would be a great quick read to get someone out of a reading slump, and there are several tropes included that could be a good introduction to the young adult romance genre for someone interested in it. Those looking for a general overview of this book and what I thought of it, the Spoiler-Free Thoughts section is completely safe. For those who have read the book or who don’t care about having certain plot points spoiled for them, the Thoughts section will be a bit more in-depth. I love having discussions with others, so if you have different thoughts and ideas about this book that you want to express, please feel free to DM me or leave it in the comments!

If you want to see more of Lynn Painter and her work, you can follow her @lynnpainterbooks and visit her website https://lynnpainter.com/.

I am so sorry for the incredibly long delay in posting, it was never my intention to wait this long before returning to the blog. I have the schedule set up, and I am hoping to post every few days in order to get back on track before the new school year starts!

Plot

All Liz has wanted is a romance just like those she has spent her whole life watching on TV, so when her childhood crush comes back to town just in time for their senior year, she enlists his close friend - and her sworn enemy - for help winning him over.

Spoiler-Free Thoughts

This book was a very easy read with a plot that felt silly and relatively relatable (coming from a girl with zero relationship experience largely due to what Liz refers to as “The Ick”). It had enough melodrama to be interesting but not so much as to feel completely unrealistic. I enjoyed Liz as a character and loved her unwillingness to hide her light under a bushel; she was unapologetically herself for almost the entire book. With that being said, I did feel that being a hopeless romantic was both her defining, and sometimes her only, personality trait. It felt too overexaggerated for my taste, and I occasionally pitied her mindset that being in a perfect, storybook relationship was the best way to be happy. I am personally of the opinion that memories made with close friends and family can be just as wonderful as those made with a partner. One small thing I did enjoy from this book was the chapter titles. The various quotes from the classic romance movies did make it feel like Liz’s personality really came through, and it reminded me a lot of The Love Hypothesis.

As far as the actual romance of this book goes, I did find it relatively predictable, and there were a few things to help that along. First, it was easy to see within the love triangle who knew Liz better, and while it could be argued that circumstance had a lot to do with it, that argument can only be taken so far. Not only did one clearly know her better, but only one seemed to truly love the real Liz, the girl who loved music, her friends and family, and rom coms. The girl who wanted someone to know her like that and love every part of her, just like in the movies. Added to all of that, the banter in this book is a dead giveaway. With one of them, it’s awkward and stilted, while it’s natural and fun with the other. The various denials made were absolutely frustrating at times, but I do think it made the eventual confessions more satisfying to read.

While I genuinely enjoyed this book, and I do think it would be a good one to get someone into romances or out of a reading slump, there wasn’t much of it that felt original. The story had intentionally been pulled from various cult classics, and while that makes for a comfortable read, it doesn’t make for a suspenseful one. With that in mind, I rate this book a 7.5/10.

Thoughts

A large part of the reason I found this book so easy to read is because, like many books, this one felt very predictable. You know from their first interaction that Wes and Liz will end up together, the only mystery is what will keep them apart for the duration of the book. Even that can be somewhat anticipated given that both are stubbornly insisting on disliking one another for most of the story.

As the plot continued, I could also tell that this book was going for the “he fell first, she fell harder” trope, which is one I do enjoy, and I actually felt that this one was done well in the sense that I didn’t think Wes was being too obvious or Liz too oblivious. The only time Liz felt like she was hopelessly deluded was closer to the end where she tried to convince herself she still preferred Michael to Wes, and that did feel a bit forced. Another trope explored here was the “enemies” begin fake dating, become real friends, and then fall for one another. Although, I can’t truly say they were enemies when it’s relatively obvious from the beginning that Wes was already into Liz and probably had been for a while. An argument could be made though that this prior emotion makes the fake dating much different for Wes because he was getting a taste of what he wanted while knowing he was only helping to make that impossible for himself. 

One thing I did appreciate this book tackling was complicated step-family relationships. While Liz’s stepmom was just trying to be there for her without altogether replacing her mother, I can see why Liz would struggle to have milestone experiences throughout her senior year without her mom there to share them with. Then add a well-meaning stepmom to the mix and things get even more difficult. I appreciated the conversation between the two of them that happened later in the book, and I’m interested to see how their relationship develops in the sequel.