My Review of 'Better Than The Movies' by Lynn Painter | Whimsical Soul

My rating: 5 of 5 stars

 "You look best when you're you."

*cue The Soundtrack of Wes and Liz*

This was one hell of a rollercoaster ride. It shouldn't have played with my emotions so much as it did. I was hooked from page one y'all and I read it in a day. It was absolutely unputdownable. It's like all I've ever loved about romance was shoved into a single amazing book and I couldn't get enough of it. I literally devoured every single line of this book. I can probably quote it verbatim at this point.

So this is the story of Liz, who's a high schooler, loves romcoms, wants to find her perfect Mr. Right, and loves soundtracking every moment of her life. She bumps into Michael, who's her childhood crush and is just perfect with blue eyes and blonde hair and amazing style. She thinks their encounter has all the potential for a meet-cute. She also thinks that the universe has brought Michael back so she can have her perfect happy ending. So she obviously enlists the help of her next-door neighbor and nemesis, Wes to get Michael to notice her more in exchange for the parking spot in their neighborhood. But then Liz finds herself utterly confused and reluctantly falling for Wes.

I kind of feel like my mind conjured this book out of thin air specifically for me. It had all my favorite romance novel/movie tropes in it: the enemies-to-lovers trope, the love triangle, friends-to-lovers, and the fake-relationship trope with plenty of will-they-or-won't-they thrown in for good measure. Not to mention quotes from all my favorite rom-coms, um, hello? you've got mail?? when harry met sally?? Just take all my money already! And I feel proud to admit that I recognized most of the movies mentioned in the book, I mean if that doesn't tell you what a rom-com nerd I am, I don't know what will.

And besides these things that made this book incredibly appealing to me, I loved how honest Liz was about what she wanted and did not care about other people's judgment. It broke my heart when she didn't want to go prom dress shopping because it made her feel like her Mom should have been there to live that moment with her. 

And Oh My God! Wes!!! WES!! he was so dreamy and gorgeous and charming and everything I look for in a perfect romance hero. I knew instantly that he was the one, I mean there was no doubt about it. I loved how they always fell into easy conversations with each other and Liz never had to pretend to be anyone else for him and never felt self-conscious around him. I knew they were endgame from the first page of the dang book.

“Enemies-to-lovers—it’s our trope, Buxbaum.”

Highly recommend it if you love romcoms like I very much do and if you want to laugh out loud and have a great time. And the next time you feel like watching a good ol' romcom, just pick this book instead, and I promise that you'll love it equally as much if not more. 💖

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