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A review by anthonybanthony
Nothing Like the Movies by Lynn Painter
1.5
Rating: D
Not since Frozen 2 or season 4 of The Dragon Prince have I seen a delightful romance so thoroughly butchered. Everything from the writing to the characters to the romance screams 'rushed-out cash-in'. Liz and Wes are both destroyed as individual characters, and their relationship is grounded into hamburger meat. Wes loses all his maturity and goes to unacceptable lengths to push Liz away, and then to get her back once the story proper begins. The mental health aspect, so wonderfully done in BTTM and Betting on You, is slap-dash and barely impacts the story. Wes goes from despair to cocky and self-assured between heartbeats. Liz also loses the emotional maturity she attained in BTTM and just feels like a 14 year old coming to grips with her first love. She's annoying and unsure of herself, which was fine in BTTM because she had to overcome those flaws. NLTM constantly goes on about how she's all grown up and no longer Little Liz, but it feels like she's regressed prior to where she was at the start of the prior entry. The writing is also terrible and leaves me convinced this was written within a small window of time to capitalize on BTTM being a success. Scenes have odd transitions, it's difficult to keep track of all the side characters, the first half is full of random bits of exposition that never come up again, and the secondary characters are massive jerks who don't respect Liz or Wes's boundaries. Another thing, it just wasn't fun or charming in the slightest. It's a dour, badly written, badly plotted, confusing mess that made me appreciate how well written and mature BTTM was in comparison.
Not since Frozen 2 or season 4 of The Dragon Prince have I seen a delightful romance so thoroughly butchered. Everything from the writing to the characters to the romance screams 'rushed-out cash-in'. Liz and Wes are both destroyed as individual characters, and their relationship is grounded into hamburger meat. Wes loses all his maturity and goes to unacceptable lengths to push Liz away, and then to get her back once the story proper begins. The mental health aspect, so wonderfully done in BTTM and Betting on You, is slap-dash and barely impacts the story. Wes goes from despair to cocky and self-assured between heartbeats. Liz also loses the emotional maturity she attained in BTTM and just feels like a 14 year old coming to grips with her first love. She's annoying and unsure of herself, which was fine in BTTM because she had to overcome those flaws. NLTM constantly goes on about how she's all grown up and no longer Little Liz, but it feels like she's regressed prior to where she was at the start of the prior entry. The writing is also terrible and leaves me convinced this was written within a small window of time to capitalize on BTTM being a success. Scenes have odd transitions, it's difficult to keep track of all the side characters, the first half is full of random bits of exposition that never come up again, and the secondary characters are massive jerks who don't respect Liz or Wes's boundaries. Another thing, it just wasn't fun or charming in the slightest. It's a dour, badly written, badly plotted, confusing mess that made me appreciate how well written and mature BTTM was in comparison.