Review: Nothing Like the Movies (Better than the Movies #2) by Lynn Painter

Title: Nothing Like the Movies

Series: Better than the Movies #2

Previous book in this series: Better than the Movies

Author: Lynn Painter

Genre: YA, contemporary romance

Publication date: October 1st, 2024

Published by: Simon & Schuster Books for Young Readers

Source: eARC for review from publisher via Netgalley

Add it on Goodreads

Buy it: Amazon | B&N

Synopsis: In this highly anticipated sequel to the New York Times bestselling Better than the Movies, Wes and Liz struggle to balance their feelings for each other with the growing pains of being a college student.

For a few beautiful months, Wes had his dream girl: strong-willed girl-next-door Liz. But right as the two were about to set off to UCLA 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 and 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 the rom-com worthy big 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.

My rating: ★★★★★

Better Than The Movies ended with a wonderful Happily Ever After, so going into this I knew something was going to happen with Wes and Liz, but I was not ready for how heartbreaking this book ended up being...

I can't breathe without you, but I have to...

The things my poor Wes went through... It was incredibly sad, particularly how hard he was being on himself. He went through a pretty traumatic situation, one thing led to another, and he ended up breaking up with Liz. The way the beginning of this book almost made me cry so many times 😭 And I probably would’ve had I not been reading this in public. Lol. We get the general gist of why he broke up with her at the start of the book, but as the book goes on we learn more bits and pieces of what happened and how that led Wes to make the decisions he did *cue more internal crying from me*

He had so much on his plate, not to mention everything he was struggling with internally... it just made me love him more! How caring and selfless he was... He unfortunately didn’t think of himself in that way, and that just hurt to see. But he eventually started to get his life back together, and one thing he wanted back in his life was Liz. Despite everything he went through and the fact that he broke up with her, he never stopped loving her. And so he was determined to find a way to win her back because he knew he had a lot of making up to do.

I don’t know if I need to say this, but I LOVED this book! Going into it, I actually didn’t know if I was going to be in the right mood for it because I do have to be in a very specific mood for romances, but I didn’t need to worry because I was HOOKED! The whole thing with Wes... I was just rooting for him! One thing I loved about this book was that it was dual POV so we got to see things from both Wes and Liz’s perspectives, so that was really nice. We got to see everything Wes went through, and we got to see how Liz was thriving in college and how hurt she was when Wes broke up with her. But we also got to see the fun banter between them as Wes tried his best to not only win back her trust, but her love as well. There were some moments where their interactions were awkward and it just hurt me deep in my soul 😭 They definitely had a lot of work ahead of them to get back to what they once had in Better Than The Movies.

I loved the banter as Wes tried to win back Liz! It almost paralleled Better Than The Movies when he would tease her. It was SO cute! Their interactions definitely cracked me up (when they didn’t almost make me cry 😭)! Lynn Painter just does romance SO well! I cannot get over it! The way Wes perked up every time he spotted Liz...

And while I understood Liz being hurt and her fears when it came to possibly getting back together with Wes, I am not going to lie, I was on Wes’s side the entirety of this book! At the end of the book, some of her reasonings were just... not the best. And honestly, if this had been just in Liz’s POV, I probably would’ve sided with her 100%. But since we knew firsthand what actually happened, and everything that Wes went through, it was a little frustrating to see Liz’s reservations at the end of the book. But maybe I’m being unfair. I don’t want to discount Liz’s feelings, because they were completely valid, but it was a bit frustrating. Especially because it took a certain situation at the end of the book for her to realize that maybe her feelings for Wes are something worth pursuing.

That being said, I did love this book! I have not had a book hangover in such a long time, but this one did it for me 😭 I loved how complex everything was and how much growth these characters went through. I wasn’t expecting it to be as heartbreaking as it was, but I ate it up! I was completely HOOKED! The romance was so cute and Wes was somehow even more lovable than before.

I have read a lot of Lynn Painter books (not all, but I’m getting there!), and at this point, I’m starting to think she can do no wrong 😆

Have you read this book? If so, what did you think about it? If not, what do you think? Does it sound like something you might want to read? Leave me a link to your review or comment below! 😊