Nothing Like the Movies

3.25/5

“I dare you to let me be your, your one and only. I promise, I'm worthy to hold in your arms...”❤️‍

This book didn’t quite land for me and I think it was because I had different expectations going in. There is a time gap between this and book 1. I feel a lot of the character growth happened off the pages so right off the bat in book 2, while they may be the same-named characters, they’re fundamentally different.

So, expectations are pretty important for the story to land right.

It's so easy to get back into this series, Wes and Liz are like a cozy blanket. Granted this wasn't as good as the first book. But still a cute, easy read.

The writing in this book was beautiful and engaging. I didn't expect to love Liz as much as I did here. In the first book, she annoyed me, but this time she felt so relatable and practical. Lynn did such a great job with her character growth.

Wes, on the other hand, wasn't as lovable in this one. I still like him, but right now, I'm definitely Team Liz. Clark frustrated me the most, though. For someone who's supposed to be Liz's friend, the way he kept pushing her to go with Wes felt unnecessary and kind of unfair. Even with all that, the drama and tension between the main characters kept me hooked.

This book was amazing I loved Wes and Liz in Better than the movies but this book really made love them both more especially Wes. Wes was a more complex character and I was surprised how much I related to him and the need to project happiness even when I'm not

This book was...not what I expected. And that left me feeling conflicted. To start off, a lot of reviews said that Liz and Wes didn't feel like the same characters from BTTM, and I have to agree (especially Liz imo). I guess I can understand Liz giving up on love because she had her heart broken, but the whole “she's just one of the guys, she's soooo chill” - was heavy handed. I felt like the essence of Liz had been stripped away. It would've been nice if Wes slowly reignited that “love lover” side of her throughout the story, but that didn't happen. And they never fully fleshed out their breakup either which I thought was odd. One thing that I think set this book up poorly was the blurb:

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.

4.25 i think? i loved this, it was so wholesome, as all lynn painter books are :,) but the ending felt a little rushed and i felt like there were conversations that should have taken place that didn't

i did love this book but there was no need for a sequel i can't lie but it was still good