Teen Intern Book Review: Nothing Like the Movies by Lynn Painter

As part of their SuccessLink internships at the Boston Public Library, Teen Central's teen interns Abri and Elizabeth wrote reviews of young adult literature, evaluating whether BookTok favorites lived up to the hype or not. See Abri's thoughts on Nothing Like the Movies below, then check out the book for yourself and decide if you agree!

Nothing Like the Movies by Lynn Painter

Overall Book Rating: 3/5 stars

Synopsis:

For a few beautiful months, Wes had his dream girl: the strong-willed girl next door Liz. But right as the two were about to set off for college to start their freshman year together, tragedy struck. Wes was left dealing with the fallout, which ultimately meant losing Liz in the process.

Flash forward months later, and Wes and Liz find themselves in college, together. In a healthier place now, Wes knows he broke Liz’s heart when he ended things, but he is determined to make her fall back in love with him.

Wes knows Liz better than anyone, and he has a foolproof plan to win her back with rom-com-worthy grand gestures she loves. Only . . . Liz will have none of it! Wes has to scheme like a rom-com hero to figure out how to see her. Even worse, Liz has a new friend . . . a guy friend.

Still, Wes won’t give up, adapting his clever plans and going hard to get Liz’s attention and win back her affection. But after his best efforts get him nowhere, Wes is left wondering if their relationship is really over for good.

Introduction:

As the sequel to one of most celebrated rom-com books of the 2020s, it is no surprise that many people online were clamoring about the release of this book. Better Than the Movies was perfect: amazing plot, swoon-worthy romance, and characters that had people dedicating whole Pinterest boards. After reading this sequel, I’m beginning to wonder whether Lynn Painter hated the first book.

What I Liked:

• The Mystery: I appreciated the time skip in this book because it led to a lot of mystery and ambiguity about Liz and Wes’s relationship, and why exactly they broke up. Because it’s a sequel, I thought the plot might lose the allure it had in the first book, but I was pleasantly surprised about how hooked this aspect of the book had me.
• The Shenanigans: A good rom-com book needs some tropes and cheesy one-liners and Painter did not disappoint. This book had fake-dating, second-chance romance, forced-proximity, and a bit of rivals-to-lovers. I was not here for a complicated, fresh-and-new, never-been-seen before storyline and I liked what I got.

Critiques:

• The characters: Wes and Liz are NOT the same characters they were in Better Than the Movies, remotely. I don’t know what happened in between the publication of both books but it must have been something drastic, because Painter did a complete 180 with these two. Sweet, easy-going, funny Wes has become the jerk version of himself with zero boundaries and the communication skills of an ant. Dorky, rom-com obsessed, starry eyed Liz has become the most jaded college junior I’ve ever seen with a random interest in sports and a hatred of movies. Their original characters were way better and I understand that the time skip might have allotted these changes, but it just felt like I was baited and switched into reading a book with two different main characters.
• The lack of complexity: Lynn Painter seems to be allergic to making her book relationships complex because every time we got a sad or emotionally charged scene, we jumped into a light, funny har-de-har interaction that felt out of place or some stilted dialogue about the importance of mental health that felt like it was ripped off a poster at the doctor’s office. There were a lot of more serious moments that I really enjoyed and I would have appreciated them a lot more if Painter treated them with any ounce of nuance. The tragedy we got for Wes was tragic but it felt like it was pushed to the side too often for any pay-off or growth.
• The scheming: I was promised scheming in the synopsis and I got a little excited, imagining Wes might get a fake-girlfriend or recreate some scenes from Bailey’s favorite rom-coms or anything remotely strategic. It was not so. Overall, I’m not mad with how the story played out, because as I said before, this book did have a lot of tropes I enjoyed and I wasn’t looking for the next War and Peace, but I still felt a bit disappointed with how empty the plot was at some points.
• Taylor Swift references: This is not really a critique but the Taylor Swift references in this book were kind of hilarious in the way they were so out of place. I love Taylor as much as the next person but I could not take anything seriously whenever Painter added a random song lyric into a line.

Conclusion:

If you just want to know the conclusion of Better Than the Movies and don’t have high expectations, this book is a fun, not-too-serious read. If you think Better Than Movies is the best book ever written, don’t disappoint yourself with this.