This young-adult rom-com picks up with the protagonists of Better Than the Movies, now in a difficult college reunion for two. I loved book one, but this one had such a different feel for me, I didn't feel the connection to that story's beloved characters.
In Lynn Painter's Nothing Like the Movies rom-com, Liz Buxbaum and Wes Bennett were childhood next-door neighbors in Omaha who fell in love as teens.
They both head to UCLA for college, but when Wes's dad dies only weeks into their first semester, Wes leaves behind his D1 baseball future, his schooling, and his love for Liz.
Two years later he's at UCLA again, he's worked his way back onto the baseball team, he's diving into classes--and winning over Liz is the last item on his to-do list.
But Liz, who is often embedded with the baseball team to gather footage and social media material, isn't going to forgive him so easily. And her new boyfriend may have something to say about Wes's ongoing love for her too.
I loved Painter's extremely funny, sweet Better Than the Movies and its believable young characters that I cared about. And although this title is labeled as part of the series Better Than the Movies, book 2, this one has a dramatically different feel: for me, the characters didn't have a plausible connection, and the story's baseball focus gave it a more formulaic sports-romance flavor. I didn't connect the first book's beloved characters to these characters until very late in the book.
The movie quotes at the start of each chapter felt like a forced attempt to connect this book to Better Than the Movies, but this story is so baseball-focused, Liz is so determined not to be sentimental or romantic, and the characters' relationship felt bristly and as though they really weren't suited for each other, so for me, the swoony cinematic moments didn't seem to fit.
I was put off by Wes's frequent "honey," "baby" pet names and by what felt like repeated alpha-male attempts to force a return to his relationship of years past; Liz is making her way with friends, involved extracurriculars that seem a promising path to a future career, and a full life. Despite their history, her breathless reactions to Wes didn't feel built upon factors I could believe in; I bought in much more fully to her moments of annoyance and exasperation.
Painter spends significant page time on what is essentially the idea that one character or the other is too gorgeous to believe and to one character's realization that the other character is too tantalizing to resist. But for me, the story didn't support these romantic, sexy fantasies--I remained somewhat irritated by their interactions.
I found myself distracted by the convenient but unlikely circumstances that allow for much of the book's events to occur. For example, Liz hadn't returned home from college for two years and had presumably never spoken to any mutual friends to find out anything about Wes. In this day and age of social media, casual searches, and easy communication, this seemed tough to believe. I also found it difficult to buy into the amount of UCLA funding for coverage of and for the extent of filming and featuring the new player Wes, including a school-funded trip for three to his childhood home. Multiple other small moments in the book felt similarly dubious and therefore drew me out of the story.
I missed the clever banter and heartwarming moments of Better Than the Movies, which I rated five Bossy stars.
I listened to this as an audiobook, and the narrator's voice often quivers with emotion and came through as somewhat shrill during Liz's frequent dramatic reactions--this effect was possibly exacerbated by my listening at a sped-up rate.
I'd love to hear your thoughts about this book!
Lynn Painter is the author of a rom-com I adored, Better Than the Movies, the cute Betting on You and also Happily Never After, Accidentally Amy, Mr. Wrong Number, and other books.
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