If anyone is a fan of rom-coms it’s definitely me, so I think it’s safe to say that Better Than the Movies has been on my radar for awhile. So you can imagine how excited I was when the publisher contacted me to ask if I wanted an e-arc of this book. Of course, I said yes! Today I want to tell you about this book and what I thought. Keep on reading to find out more.
In this rom-com about rom-coms, in the spirit of Kasie West and Jenn Bennett, a hopeless romantic teen attempts to secure a happily-ever-after moment with her forever crush, but finds herself reluctantly drawn to the boy next door.
Perpetual daydreamer Liz Buxbaum gave her heart to Michael a long time ago. But her cool, aloof forever crush never really saw her before he moved away. Now that he’s back in town, Liz will do whatever it takes to get on his radar—and maybe snag him as a prom date—even befriend Wes Bennet.
The annoyingly attractive next-door neighbor might seem like a prime candidate for romantic comedy fantasies, but Wes has only been a pain in Liz’s butt since they were kids. Pranks involving frogs and decapitated lawn gnomes do not a potential boyfriend make. Yet, somehow, Wes and Michael are hitting it off, which means Wes is Liz’s in.
But as Liz and Wes scheme to get Liz noticed by Michael so she can have her magical prom moment, she’s shocked to discover that she likes being around Wes. And as they continue to grow closer, she must reexamine everything she thought she knew about love—and rethink her own ideas of what Happily Ever After should look like.
Review
“My inheritance was the knowledge that love is always in the air, always a possibility, and always worth it.”
Once I picked up Better Than the Movies I just couldn’t stop. This book was everything I was expecting and more! For all rom-com fans out there I definitely suggest picking this one up!
Our main character Liz is a big rom-com fan and used to watched them all with her mother. Liz is waiting for her perfect meet cute and love of her life. So when Michael moves back she sees all of her dreams coming true. It was so much fun reading her thoughts of how everything was going to happen. She wanted this so much that she was even willing to call in the help of the annoying next door neighbor. All of the references to rom-coms and even the fact that Liz creates soundtracks for everything in her life had me flying through the book even faster.
“What was I even doing – trying to live-action mu own personal version of She’s All That?”
Better Than the Movies isn’t only all fun. Liz is still processing the loss of her mother and with all the senior milestones around the corner it isn’t easy. I can’t imagine going through all of that without my mother and I just wanted to give Liz a hug. That being said this book is the perfect balance of serious and fun. There were many touching and emotional moments, but the same amount of moments that made me laugh.
We have to talk about Wes though. The annoying next door neighbor. He was a lot of fun and I loved that we slowly got to know him! He’s definitely my kind of bookboyfriend, haha. It was interesting to see their relationship and friendship grow during the story. Better Than the Movies has a great set up for romance. It may have been a bit predictable, but it just fit the story and characters very well. Besides the romance aspects of the story family also played an important part as Liz was still dealing with all of the emotions after losing her mom.
All in all, Better Than the Movies was an amazing book! I’ll definitely be keeping an eye on this author to be able to find out when she writes more books. Which I hope will be many more!
Better Than the Movies is a book I won’t be forgetting anytime soon. I loved this book so much and definitely expect it to make my favorites list at the end of the year! Are you a fan of rom-coms? If so, what are your favorites? Let me know in the comments. I’d love to hear from you!
So glad you loved this one, too.
Great review. Coming from the heart and genuine. I can see that and now I want to read it as I am a sucker for rom coms!!!