Scan barcode
A review by ghostly_lina
Better Than the Movies by Lynn Painter
Did not finish book. Stopped at 58%.
Well, I saw so many people raving about this book that I decided to check it out. Especially since it apparently had one of my favorite "tropes" (if you can call it that) in romance, that being a "fake-out love interest" (where the main character is into one character/you as the reader think the love interest is this one specific character, only to figure out as the story goes on that the true love interest is another character entirely. It's a hard trope to recommend to, because it usally includes spoilers...).
My problems with this book began with the main character and the way she is written. I had the same problem with Liz that I had with Macy from "Love and Other Words". That is to say, I found her character to revolve solene around her dead mother and not much else. Sure, she likes Taylor Swift and reading and Rom-Coms but she strongly correlates this things with her mother. While I did think she was a way less egregious version of this problem than Macy was, it still bothered me.
Then, I never believed Michael as the love interest or had any sort of connection to him. He didn't feel like a character, just a means to get Liz and Wes working together.
Wes was fine, too. I didn't love him nearly as much as other people love him, though. I thought he was very typical - which isnt necessarily bad - but people on social media act as if he's the greatest love interest ever and I found him to be underwhelming. He is a baseball (or was it basketball?) player who smokes for funsies on his backyard and is super handsome, but obviously not as classicaly as the OG love inteterest (Michael).
Anyhow, I also could not connect with the writing. At all.
So, yeah.
My problems with this book began with the main character and the way she is written. I had the same problem with Liz that I had with Macy from "Love and Other Words". That is to say, I found her character to revolve solene around her dead mother and not much else. Sure, she likes Taylor Swift and reading and Rom-Coms but she strongly correlates this things with her mother. While I did think she was a way less egregious version of this problem than Macy was, it still bothered me.
Then, I never believed Michael as the love interest or had any sort of connection to him. He didn't feel like a character, just a means to get Liz and Wes working together.
Wes was fine, too. I didn't love him nearly as much as other people love him, though. I thought he was very typical - which isnt necessarily bad - but people on social media act as if he's the greatest love interest ever and I found him to be underwhelming. He is a baseball (or was it basketball?) player who smokes for funsies on his backyard and is super handsome, but obviously not as classicaly as the OG love inteterest (Michael).
Anyhow, I also could not connect with the writing. At all.
So, yeah.
Content Warnings
Moderate: Death of parent