Better Than the Movies

No, it certainly wasn't better than the movies.

Liz was an impossible heroine to root for. She was so unlikeable to me. Obsessive and profoundly immature and not-like-other-girls she treats people like chess pieces in her attempt to force her life to be a rom-com movie.

She has no boundaries. She goes after Michael despite knowing nothing about him except she's obsessed with him since she was ten for no apparent reason other than his southern accent and she doesn't even care he likes another girl. She will stop at nothing to get what she wants. Wes become a collateral victim in this. The dead parent is a cheap plot device to make you feel sorry for her and excuse her appalling behaviour. The way she treats her step-mom, Wes, and Michael is so messed up. Also, remember that poor kid she terrorised and held hostage because she was trying to force him to enact some husband-and-wife fantasy?

When I say characters need therapy, sometimes I say that because I feel their pain and I want them to go get therapy so they can feel better and improve their lives and other times I say that because I feel they are a danger to others and they need therapy to become somewhat bearable humans. When I'm saying Liz needs therapy, it's the latter.

This is also an example of enemies-to-lovers done wrong. Wes wasn't behaving like an ‘enemy' and fighting over a parking space is not a feud. She also mentions his brown eyes in the first couple of chapters. The story hadn't even begun and I already saw how it would turn out.

Overall, it was not an enjoyable book. It was full of tropes that were poorly executed.