*I was sent a copy of Nothing Like the Movies in exchange for an honest review. Thank you to Simon & Schuster and Lynn Painter for my copy of the book*
Synopsis:
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.
Review:
When I tell you I literally screamed when this landed in my inbox I’m not joking. Nothing Like the Movies was one of my most anticipated reads of 2024 and I was ridiculously excited to get an advanced copy.
Now, this isn’t what I was expecting to write in this review at all, but I didn’t love Nothing Like the Movies. Sometimes books don’t need sequels and unfortunately, that’s what I think here. This book wasn’t bad, but it also wasn’t what I wanted. I was hoping for more Liz and Wes romance and less sadness. I never thought they’d be one of the couples that would break up after the epilogue but here we are. Better Than the Movies was one of my favourite reads of 2022 so you can imagine my disappointment when this one didn’t meet expectations.
I knew going into this book that Liz and Wes had broken up, so that wasn’t a shock. The way they acted was though. It didn’t feel like I was reading the same characters. I get that they both went through a lot since we last saw them two years ago, but this didn’t feel very much like a sequel. Having Wes completely change would have made more sense but he was pretty similar to how he was in Better Than the Movies. But Liz was a completely different person, unrecognisable even. Taking away her love of romance basically took away her entire personality and the magic was completely sapped from her story.
One part I really liked was the rom com/romance quotes at the start of each chapter. Especially as there were two The Hunger Games references.
I’m really struggling to write this review as I really don’t know what I thought of Nothing Like the Movies. It was a decent read but I didn’t have the best time reading it. I spent the majority of the book hoping Liz and Wes would get their acts together and admit they still have feelings for each other because that’s obviously where the book was going. I was fine with Liz being standoffish with Wes in person as it was actually quite funny seeing how he reacted but it felt pointless to have her deny her feelings to herself. Does that make sense? Probably not.
The start of the book was too long (and a little boring) and the second half was too rushed. Having Liz and Wes actually become friends again before dating would have been great. Instead of having them constantly argue about whether or not they still know each other, they should have got to know each other all over again. I’m just being bitter because I didn’t enjoy this very much.
Apologies for the all over the place review. It really sucks when a highly anticipated read isn’t what you thought it would be. If you loved Better Than the Movies, I’d suggest you don’t check this out. I would have said LizWes was one of my favourite book couples before reading Nothing Like the Movies.
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