A great romance sparked by a parking war & a plan to get the "dream guy".
Lynn Painter combines all our favourite tropes from rom-coms with perfectly timed charm.
*trigger warnings at end of review*

Where do I start? Because I have all the feels !
When a book begins each chapter with quotes from classic rom-coms, I have an inkling I'm going to love it. A rom com about a girl who's obsessed with rom-coms could've gone an entirely different way, but Lynn Painter weaves a lovely and adorable teen romance that had me sighing with each tense of Wes's Jaw. The lovers to enemies trope was done well and I liked that neither character was too nasty to the other and they didn't actually hate each other. The banter, pranks and teasing were all in good fun and witty to boot. And the tension! It had me holding my breath and devouring the book wanting to find out what happened.

Lynn Painter somehow managed to throw in all the things we love about rom-coms and make it work seamlessly. With nods to the classics like "When Harry Met Sally" & "Bridget Jones Diary" it had me captivated and infatuated. The main character (Liz) thinks she knows everything about love and romance, but she knows absolutely nothing. I really enjoyed her coming to terms with the fact that love is nothing like what (or who) she expected.

It was charming in all the right ways and I swear I was swooning, squealing and melting while reading. This book made me dream of meet-cutes and having a sickly sweet romance. I'm definitely going to be binge watching my favourite rom-coms (and re-reading this book ASAP) now so I can stay in this romantic comedy fantasy land.

I could say so much more about this book because I really enjoyed it, but I've got to go listen to the soundtrack!

List of Tropes in the book :

-Enemies to lovers
-Makeover scene
-The boy next door
-childhood friends to lovers
-fake dating

Trigger warnings :

death of a parent (in past), car accident (minor)

FIVE OUT OF FIVE STARS! this book was amazing in all different days, i loved this couple. the enemies to lovers but we’re neighbours vibe AHHH! the writing was so on point too, the novel was such an easy read and had me hooked from the first line. so cute and charming made my whole heart full, thank you to the publisher for sending me this arc through netgalley!

"Be brave enough to go big."

The first thing that comes to mind after finishing this book is WoW! I knew it would be addicting, simply based on the description and the reviews I had seen. However, I was not expecting to be complexity taken away and to feel giddy the entire time. That is the best description for how this book made me feel, completely and utterly giddy.
As a romantic, and a person who completely adore love and the concept of a movie perfect love story, this book hit me in all the right places. The main character, felt extremely relatable and realistic in every sense of her being. I understood her need and. desire to have the perfect love story. Her love for love, and the want to have her life play out exactly like a romcom. I saw myself within her and her actions, and maybe that is why this book hit so hard.
Between the characters, the relationships, and the banter, this book has everything that any lover of love stories could want. It is the novelized version of a teenager romcom. There is a bit of drama, and a lot of second hadn't embarrassment, but just enough for it to be bearable and worth reading.
Overall, I extremely enjoyed this book. Besides the few pages of second hand embarrassment, I have zero complaints. I cannot wait to be able to buy a physical copy and have this book on my shelf

🚨NEW FAVOURITE BOOK ALERT!🚨

I swear I spent every minute while reading this actively swooning, giggling and/or dying from sheer adorability.

This book is a gift of smiles but also holds some seeds of grief. It was beautiful and lovely. I loved every word of it.

Every YA contemporary lover absolutely 100% HAS to pick this up.

Liz isn’t looking forward to everything that comes with senior year. But when Michael moves back to town? It must be a sign. Too bad the only way she can think of to get close to him is through Wes, the boy who lives next door. The same boy who has terrorized her for years, and is constantly battling her for the street’s prime parking spot. When he agrees to help her on her quest to go to prom with Michael, they embark on a journey that makes Liz wonder if she’s put her eggs in the wrong basket.

This book was adorable. It had heart, a mischievous charm, and so many sweet moments. As a lover of romcoms, I appreciated the nods to them throughout the story. I’m not a fan of the classic “makeover montage” and I didn’t love that Liz was being pressured to dress like a “normal” teenager. While it is addressed later on, I just didn’t like it. I did love Liz’s unwavering support for her favourite movies, even as others put them down. Romance rules!

There was also a lot of music referenced on the book, and I found it really impactful when I knew the songs that were being referenced. When I didn’t, it felt a little disjointed without knowing the full context. That being said, I have a playlist of songs to listen to now that will remind me of the book. Liz’s playlists remind me of swapping burned CDs with my friends, and spending hours picking the perfect songs.

Overall, I really enjoyed reading Better Than The Movies. It was a cute romance that also delves into grief and friendship. I’d recommend picking it up if you’re a sucker for the boy next door.

Thank you Simon & Schuster for sending me an ARC of Better Than the Movies by Lynn Painter, all thoughts & opinions are my own.

So, basically, I sorta, totally, am in love with this book. Like, dance around your room to cheesy pop love songs in love.

Better Than the Movies follows Liz Buxbaum, a rom com obsessed high school senior dealing with the loss of her mother. When Liz finds herself pulling out all the beloved movie moments to create a When Harry Met Sally worthy romance with her childhood crush Michael, there's a few hitches in the road to say the least. The biggest thing in the way? Her rival and annoyingly cute neighbour Wes Bennet. When Wes teams up with Liz to help her get her perfect prom moment with Michael, she finds out her swoon worthy romance might not be as she always planned it.

So, I AM in love with this book and will be suing Lynn Painter for emotional damage and by emotional damage I mean causing ALL the rom com feels. We meet Liz at such a critical time in her life, on the cusps of adulthood yet still weighed down by her sometimes fictitious ideas of love and moving forward in life. Through the story we see such a beautiful arc of a girl trying to figure out what she wants and what it truly means to live authentically. Her story is woven so flawlessly and there was never a moment I thought anything she would do was unlike an actual teen her age which is so crucial in a coming of age story about young loves like this. Her hopes, fears and perception was so well written and realistic but never boring and uninteresting. Now, enter Wes, funniest of fun, king of my heart (cue the Taylor Swift). Wes and Liz start out in a rivals aspect but never once did I feel like their rivalry was toxic or manipulative of any kind. I feel like a major issue when two main characters start off in that sort of enemies territory is that they are very toxic, unauthentic or manipulative but as the story progresses, all of that is shoved under the rug and just "accepted". The story progression was natural and witty, and I never felt like I was being pushed through the story at a weird or trope heavy pace. The side characters had good motives and reasonings to their actions which is always appreciated (and big shoutout to Lynn Painter for making the supposed "mean girl" of the story a three dimensional character and didn't necessarily pit the girls against each other, recognizing both girls' strengths and privileges!).

Now listen, I know what it's like to loose a parent. It sucks. It suuuuucks. You feel like so much of what you're doing is a betrayal or not right because this person who means so much to you is gone and time stopped for them, but forced you along anyways. The authenticity of Liz's pain and grief was so well written, never used as a tool to push a certain narrative, but rather her coping and development was a place she was slowly learning and allowing herself to grow into. My heart was with her the whole time, it's really difficult to figure out who you are when you feel like someone you loved so much is gone. One of the biggest things that Lynn Painter did that I really connected with was showing grief and love as something that didn't have a timeline. Liz was living through her grief, there was no set date, it haunted her, uplifted her, held her and pushed her. There was no "oh I'm over it!!" moment in the book because that just never is the case. There is no over it, we just learn to grow with the missing pieces.

I loved this book, I love rom coms, I love playlists and music and setting the scenes. I loved more than anything, seeing pieces of the author in the book (and yes Lynn if you ever read this I did listen to your Better Than the Movies playlist on Spotify, I'm in love with it). It was beautiful, and it was perfect in the way that messy scary moments of our lives are perfectly imperfect. A beautiful, heart wrenching and swoon worthy story, I can say without a doubt, this was better than the movies.

In this rom-com about rom-coms, in the spirit of Kasie West and Jenn Bennett, a hopeless romantic teen attempts to secure a happily-ever-after moment with her forever crush, but finds herself reluctantly drawn to the boy next door.

This was a really cute fun read. I love books that give me the warm and fuzzies, especially during a book hangover.

Now, this is what I call my KIND OF BOOK. All the REFERENCES TO ROM COMS? I LIVE FOR THIS. I loved how this book gave me modern vibes of When Harry Met Sally, and other hate-to-love romance movies. From Sweet Home Alabama to Say Anything, from Dirty Dancing to She's All That, and EVEN TO ALL THE BOYS I'VE LOVED BEFORE? I LOVED all the rom-com references; for once I understood them all. That made me much more engaged with the book. The meet-cutes, the grand gestures, all getting ruined throughout the book, because let's face it, those things don't ACTUALLY predict a relationship in reality. BUT, we all love Wesley, the cute boy next door who loves irritating Liz, but honestly it's just so she can get his attention. I loved the emphasis on staying true to oneself, and never having to change who you are just to please anybody. LOVED THIS BOOK WITH MY WHOLE HEART!

Thank you to NetGalley & Simon & Schuster for allowing me to read this early arc! My opinion and adoration of this book are all my own!

Roll a bunch of rom-com movies into one, then you have the inspiration for "Better than the Movies".
I'm not going to lie and say that I don't have a favourite trope, but Fake dating tropes are one of my favourites; they will always get me hooked!

Liz and Wes have been neighbours since they were kids. And since they were kids, they have always hated each other; pranks, tricks etc., But when a long lost love from Liz's childhood named Michael, come back to their school, Wes is her only way to win his heart.
But just like the rom-com's that Liz loves, things don't go according to plan.

I loved so much about this story; the banter, the ease between Wes and Liz and the buildup that just was so natural and believable, the pain of losing a parent so early in life that it can shadow things in your life in the future & coming to terms with not everything can be like the pictures. It was so easy to devour this story, and it is instantly a favourite.

Only one thing that I hated, but I hate this trope in any book; STOP GHOSTING/EXCLUDING/FORGETTING BEST FRIENDS OR FRIENDS. I despise the trope where you leave everyone out of the plan, like fake dating, because the friends are always hurt because they are blown off or left to feel like they aren't wanted around anymore. So if we could end this trope in all fiction works, I'd love that because seeing Joss get hurt multiple times made me cry -hit a little too close to home.

I absolutely LOVED this book!!! This book is such an ode to rom com lovers out there + it made me want to rewatch all of my faves. Each chapter starts with a quote from a variety of different rom coms—which is absolutely appreciated!!! it was such a nice touch to the story. It also gave me a few more rom coms that I need to watch.

I read this book at the perfect time + it felt like such a warm hug! I think I finished this whole book basically in a day. This book is so much more than a typical YA contemporary romance as our main character Liz is dealing with grief + how that impacts the way she sees and experiences the world. I loved seeing this explored + how Liz’s love for rom coms stems from her mom’s love for the movie genre.

I am such a sucker for the boy next door trope, so I ate this book UP! The romance was definitely predictable, but I liked seeing how it evolved. If I read this book as a teen, Wes would 100% be a new book boyfriend!!

So let me just say that I, just like Liz, am a sucker for romantic comedy movies and general romance/love. I love romanticizing my life and my world would be so boring without doing so, which is why I was SO drawn to this book. Give me all of the references- from Kate & Leopold to the blueprint Lorelai Gilmore stepmom. All in all, this was a by-the-trope YA novel and it was cute! It made me smile and made me wish I had a Wes in my high school times. However, I was more drawn to Liz and her relationship with grief. I liked watching the characters react to that side of her and I cried a little bit when Wes called Liz out for emulating her mom and her scripts. That darker element reminded me a bit of Sarah Dessen novels (haven't read one of those in a while, but I think I'm remembering them correctly). I genuinely enjoyed reading this!

I am no longer enchanted by YA romantic leads and I am aware that life isn't like a rom-com, but damn if I don't often wish my life was like this... I was also very much into the whole "soundtrack-of-my-life" quirk in high school, does that count? This was a cute and trope-filled novel that I think will feed the souls of the romantics.

Thank you NetGalley and Simon & Schuster for this ARC in exchange for an honest review!

Don't have too much to say about it -- what you might expect when reading the description is exactly what you get. This was a pretty standard teen rom-com for me. I found it extremely predictable, but still really sweet to read. Fans of YA romance will definitely like this.

Thank you to #NetGalley and the publisher, #SimonSchusterCanada for this ARC in exchange for an honest review.

I thoroughly enjoyed this book. It's a cute, light read; perfect for a day at the beach or for quiet weekend mornings sitting on my deck with a cup of coffee.

This was a cute little story. I found it to be an easy read. Totally enjoyed it. Light and easy. A good beach read.

Thanks to the publisher for providing an eARC of Better Than the Movies in exchange for an honest review.

I can definitely see why a lot of people will really enjoy this. You have so called enemies to lovers, a practically perfect love interest, a quirky protagonist everyone ends up liking. I did like a lot of this because of how utterly adorable it is (also the fact that if Liz ended up with the 'enemies to lovers' character and took his last name she'd literally become "Elizabeth Bennet" made me insanely happy) and while I can see a lot of people not liking this because Liz is really flawed, I think she's definitely flawed in a really real teenage way. On that note, Liz does eventually realize all her flaws but acknowledging them is really rushed at the end of the story and I wish it was a bit more spaced out. I also wish we got a few more moments of Liz doing nice things for Wes because their relationship ended up feeling really imbalanced. This is a romcom though and I think it handled all the romcom tropes wonderfully.

I enjoyed this book but I didn’t find it to be anything special. I really disliked the protagonist (“she’s not like other girls”) and it felt like the storyline was creating conflict where there was none/where it wasn’t needed. I liked the romance plot in theory but I wish the story had been more diverse and we’d learnt about the other characters more. I would probably recommend as a cute romance but in 2021 i think there’s better options in the same genre.

Thank you NetGalley for providing me an e-arc for review!

Better Than the movies is a cute-as-a-button YA novel that follows Liz as she tries to win the heart of her childhood crush ~who just moved back to town~ with the help of her childhood enemy, Wes.

This book is cute, y'all. It gave my the butterflies. It made me tear up. It made me nostalgic for a time in my life that I didn't even really enjoy when living through it, and yet, it made me hopeful that I ~could~ have had a cute rom-com like high school experience in another life.

That said, if I'm being honest, Better Than the Movies felt like a book I've read before. It follows the same plot and clichés as many YA novels that came before it. Was it still an enjoyable read? Yes. But it didn't add anything new or unexpected to the genre.

The strongest part of the story for me was Liz's grief, and how she maneuvers through her senior year of high school, still so influenced by her late mother.

Still, with YA, I really have to remember what it was like to be a teenager, because Liz's character could be... very frustrating. Look, I understand teen books need conflict too. I get it. Was I woefully uncommunicative and prone to petty misunderstandings and fights when I was that age? I mean, probably. And yet I still felt iffy about some of the book's main conflicts and character choices. The miscommunications felt weak and Liz's lying seemed to be added just for the sake of some c-plot conflict with her best friend.

And Wes. Of course, as to be expected, he's as charming, witty, and secretly-pining as YA love interests come, though I'm not sure how much I enjoyed the subtle "oh-he's-teasing-you-cause-he-likes-you" narrative we typically get with the childhood-enemies trope. I just felt like I've seen his character type before, whether it be Asher from Jessica Pennington's Meet Me at Midnight or Jackson from Kasie Wests' Moment of Truth. He was nice to read about, but just... wholly unremarkable.

There were a few writing things that Painter included that felt a bit try-hard. I'm of the belief that current gen-z slang changes so quickly that it's futile to try and include in. What's in when you're writing will almost certainly not be when the book is published. In Better Than the Movie's case, Painter had Liz say "I am shook" (which, on top of just being a cringe slang in general, just doesn't feel in keeping with her character), and also has Helena, Liz's step-mom, say "bet". It was off-putting.

For a book with such a focus on rom-com movies, I would have actually liked to see more rom-com tropes. I thought, in Liz's attempt to woo Michael, her and Wes would have teamed up to manufacture a few cliché moments. I actually thought that would be the entire premise of the book!

Overall, this fluffy book will definitely give you the warm-and-fuzzies. It's pretty much everything you can expect from a YA romance set in high school, so as long as you go in with those expectations, you should have no problem flying through this like me!

“Enemies-to-lovers—it’s our trope, Buxbaum."

4.9/5 :)

A rom-com with rom-com references, fake dating and enemies to lovers, all while the MCs are neighbors and childhood frienamies??! This was like a dream come true!


It was a realistic story with mostly likable characters.

When they were stargazing and eating s’mores in his backyard, OMG IT WAS SO CUTE!

I love the quotes at the beginning of each chapter. I also thought the rom-com references fit in very nicely.

Helena is my favorite character in here. She's such a cool and chill person, yet she was treated so unfairly for something she can't even change. She seems more like a good friend than a mom. I wish I have a friend like her…


Unfortunately I think this book just spoiled the entire plot of The Great Gatsby…

Also, I wish the characters could stop thinking "what the hell", please. That phrase can get annoying after a while. Maybe change it up each time or just say something like "why not".

Sometimes I don't understand how Liz thinks because I can't connect with her. But I guess when the supposed 'love of your life' is standing in front of you, it's hard to always act rationally. She might seem a bit 'not like the other girls', but that's part of who she is and I like her for it. She could be a little slow and oblivious sometimes (especially when it comes to her love life…)

I was really shipping Wessy and Libby so the minor flaws doesn't really affect me. It shows how much I liked this story :)


Overall, an amazing rom-com that made me cry and laugh and smile. This book is now my favorite rom-com ever. Would recommend to everyone!

03/12/21

I would love this book just for the playlist. :) But it's a wonderful book because of the main characters. .Very swoon-worthy. :) It's harder than you think to have a happily-ever-after ending that isn't corny or cliched. But this book manages it wonderfully.

Thanks to the publisher for providing me with this free arc.