Nora writes scripts. One will be filmed at her home. Enter movie star Leo. He and Nora become an item. Then suddenly something inexplicably occurs which I had no explanation. It ,add me think one of,the characters was a huge rat. The truth doesn’t arrive until much later in the story. The culprit got off light which was frustrating.
It’s a cutesy romance with a fairy tale like ending.

I adored Nora Goes Off Script. It felt fresh and fun and had rom com vibes without getting real silly, which I also enjoy, but this wasn't that. I had such a fun time reading this. Nora's children were included in the storyline as well. I haven't seen this often (or at all?) in other romances and enjoyed this aspect far more than I would have expected. The children strengthened the story and added to the reader getting to know Nora.

Nora is a screenwrite for the romance channel on TV. When she decides to write about her divorce, the script hits the big screen, and brings big time movie star Leo into her life. While filming part of the movie in Nora's small town, Leo makes a deal with Nora. He'll pay her 7 thousand dollars to be able to stay at her house for an extra week to take a break from his life. Being in a tough financial spot, Nora agrees. During the week, Leo falls in love with Nora and takes in active role in her children's lives. A few weeks later, a big role comes along that he can't pass up, but he promises he will be back. After effectively ghosting her, Nora is heartbroken, and begins questioning if it was even real.

I loved this story!!!! Nora is such a strong woman. She fights to keep her marriage together, and when that doesn't work, she puts her kids first and gives them every chance at normalcy. When Leo comes into her life, she hesitates to fall for him at first, because hello, single mom. But eventually the chemistry becomes too strong to deny. When she goes through her heartbreak, her children are still her priority. I love that through everything, she was a fierce mama bear who protected her babies, but wasn't afraid to reach for what she wanted as well.
I give this book 4 stars

{ @putnambooks #gifted Thank you for the free ARC of Nora Goes Off Script! } ⁣
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No one, and I mean no one was more surprised than me with just how much I liked 𝐍𝐎𝐑𝐀 𝐆𝐎𝐄𝐒 𝐎𝐅F 𝐒𝐂𝐑𝐈𝐏𝐓 by Annabel Monaghan. Don’t get me wrong, I thought I’d enjoy this light romance, but it was so much more and so well done, that I simply could not put it down. Nora is a romance channel screenwriter, who stumbled into a big screen success with the story of her own sad marriage and divorce. Key to the storyline is a unique teahouse on Nora’s property, so Hollywood arrives in her small town for a few days of shooting.⁣
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That’s where the story begins, but it takes off from there in ways both expected and unexpected. Nora, herself, was what I liked most about this book. She was a strong, capable woman who was not willing to put anything or anyone above her kids and even herself. She had bumps in the road, and heartache, but she never wallowed in it and I loved that. I was always rooting for Nora and so enjoyed watching her world expand in wonderful ways, thanks to no one more than herself. Nora was a romantic lead who led with not only her heart, but her head. So fun and definitely a perfect summer read! 𝘕𝘰𝘳𝘢 𝘎𝘰𝘦𝘴 𝘖𝘧𝘧 𝘚𝘤𝘳𝘪𝘱𝘵 is one of those books you can pick up, put down, and easily dive right back into later. ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️💫

Huge thanks to PRH International, and Annabel Monaghan for my E-ARC in exchange for the honest review.

Nora Goes Off Script is a beautiful rom-com. It follows the story of Nora, a scriptwriter for a romance network. She has produced several love stories. She is a dedicated mother doing everything she can to provide for her children after her ex-husband abandoned them. Her husband's departure prompted Nora to pen a dark script about their life and eventual separation, which is now being adapted into a film starring hottie, Leo Vance. Will Leo and Nora be friends after the shoot?

It's a delightful and fascinating love tale full of beautiful banter and laughter that captivates readers and has them swoon. It immediately draws you in and holds your attention. Nora and Leo are real people with flaws. Their narrative is written with fantastic emotion, and you will sense as though you are feeling the words on the pages with the characters. The slow-burning relationship between Nora and Leo was exquisite. It isn't your normal hot Hollywood relationship. In truth, it's not at all spicy. It is a lovely story of a woman always looking out for her children while yearning for a second shot at love.

Overall, Nora Goes Off Script was a charming story about a woman rebuilding herself. I adored the characters and couldn't put this book down. Highly recommend it.

SO fantastic... couldn't put it down... entertaining, sweet, and thoughtful all rolled into one. This was the perfect summer book!!! I enjoyed every bit of it and read it all in one go!!

I'm not usually one for romances, but this one was way more than just a sweet romance. It even poked fun at romance movies as a genre! It was smart, poignant, and just a great read all around.

Nora was a great character. She felt real in so many ways as a woman and mother.

I would recommend as a book club pick as well (which I usually wouldn't for a romance)!

I loved this story. Nora is a strong female character who doesn't need saving. The story had just the right amount of humor and reality to make it fun.

It's official: NORA GOES OFF SCRIPT combines a bunch of tropes and plot elements that aren't typically my fave, and I loved it.

I was almost immediately drawn in. I loved so many individual scenes, I can't even choose one to single out as an example of the sheer delight I felt while reading. This book felt like a warm hug, and a broken heart, and all the best things in life. A cotton candy sunrise. Kids growing and finding their "thing." Connection. Being and feeling heard. Joy.

Nora is a screenwriter for the romance channel, but after her too-good-to-work husband Ben leaves her and their kids, she funnels that into a different script -- one that's sold for the big screen. The book picks up with the stars, director, and loads of staff a movie requires headed her way, to film for two days in her tea house. (She did, after all, set a pivotal scene there and name the movie The Tea House.) You can read more about the plot in the synopsis but I'm not going to share anything else, given how much I loved watching it unfold.

And the writing! For example, "The part of me that knows who I am and knew I shouldn't marry Ben had become hard to hear over the din of wedding plans. Newton must have been thinking of twentysomethings in long-term relationships with hard-to-secure wedding venues when he decided that objects in motion tend to stay in motion."

Such an enjoyable read. I sort of wish I'd saved it for this weekend, so I could have read it in one sitting, but I loved being able to dip into this story during an otherwise hard week.

There were things I really enjoyed about this one, including the main character Nora. Her quips are great, and I found her believable. I wish there would have been more detail about Leo overall. He was just such a blank handsome “perfect” stand in for an actual human. Overall the story was fun, certainly kept me reading, but I felt like just a bit more would have improved it so much. I will be checking out what else the author writes though, for sure.

Overall, I really enjoyed this book. I heard a perspective I often don't and she's so fun to get to know during a book.

THINGS I LIKED:
I love, love, love the beginning of this book. Nora is super relatable and I love how quirky and awkawrd she is. I really enjoyed living inside her head during the novel. She was the perfect character whose story I needed to hear. Her internal monologue is fabulous.
I thought the book had excellent comedic timing. The imagery especially was hilarious.
I like how Leo was extremely cold to Nora at first. But, he's super soft around kids and that made my heart melt a little bit. And I think the premise/set-up is super realistic somehow. It fit well with the vibe of the story. I also really like how the children were written- they felt very real.
A lot of the more serious parts hit hard because they were so poetic yet simple so it made perfect sense how Nora was feeling.
I adore how Nora's whole family and support system was so sweet to her and genuinely cared. You don't read a lot of romance novels like that and it was honestly hilarious at some points, like when Kate calls Leo a narcissist but doesn't know what it means.

THINGS I DIDN'T LIKE:
I almost wish that we'd gotten more from Leo's POV or context about his career. We were told he's famous but I didn't know what type of actor he was.
I understand Nora not wanting Leo to leave, but her thinking that it's because of her frustrated me. Obviously he's got work and since she's normally such a logical person, she should realize that he can't just say no to a role for her. This coming right after her being so chill about Ben cheating on her made me really annoyed actually. Also, I wish the miscommunication had been because he was forbidden to talk to her or something just because I hated the whole blaming the mess on Arthur? It felt very To All The Boys I've Loved Before which I didn't appreciate either.

Nora is a 40-something screenwriter living in a small town. She usually writes made-for-TV romances, but after her husband leaves her, she writes a feature that’s a little more personal and raw. When the production comes to film at her idyllic tea house for a scene, the lead actor decides to extend his stay. Romance and complications ensue.

I enjoyed this for the most part, especially with its Evvie Drake Starts Over vibes. Nora was realistic about life and romance and she had nice chemistry with Leo, who I found adorable and awkward in equal measure. Nora's kids were super cute and I liked the small-town closeness of her community.

But the breakup incident (at around 60%) was WAY too outlandish for me to get past. There were just so many holes in what happened and how. It made me angry for the rest of the novel. (Why did he not ONCE just text her, or even anyone that knows her, to see what was true?? Absolutely wild.)

This was a fun read! Nora writes screenplays for Hallmark movies. Recently she wrote a script, a love story gone wrong based on her life,
when her ex left her with two kids and no money. It’s picked to become a major movie starring one of Hollywood’s heartthrobs and a former Sexiest Man Alive, Leo Vance. The production will shoot at her 100 year old house and writing shed.

When the shoot ends, Leo wants to stay an extra week to relax. He and Nora get to know each other, and he ends up staying a while, directing her son in a play and going to her daughter’s soccer game.

Nora watches the sunrise from her porch swing every morning,and Leo joins her. Much to her surprise it seems that Leo really cares about her and their relationship goes to the next level. Nora is on cloud 9 but afraid Leo is going to leave her and the kids like her ex did.

Eventually Leo is offered a huge part and goes back to LA. He says he’ll be back in a week but time passes and he doesn’t return. Was their relationship all in Nora’s imagination? Maybe it didn’t mean as much to him as it did to her. Nora knows she’s going to see Leo when the movie comes out and she wants to know what happened.

The writing is very well done. The plot and characters kept me reading non-stop long after I should have been asleep. I highly recommend this book, 4.5 stars.

Synopsis:
Evvie Drake Starts Over meets Beach Read in this heartwarming and hilarious novel about a divorced romance channel screenwriter whose script about her marriage's collapse just might help her reclaim her life and find love.

Nora's life is about to get a rewrite... Nora Hamilton knows the formula for love better than anyone. As a romance channel screenwriter, it's her job. But when her too-good-to work husband leaves her and their two kids, Nora turns her marriage's collapse into cash and writes the best script of her life. No one is more surprised than her when it's picked up for the big screen and set to film on location at her 100-year-old-home.

When former Sexiest Man Alive, Leo Vance, is cast as her ne'er do well husband Nora's life will never be the same. The morning after shooting wraps and the crew leaves, Nora finds Leo on her porch with a half-empty bottle of tequila and a proposition. He'll pay a thousand dollars a day to stay for a week. The extra seven grand would give Nora breathing room, but it's the need in his eyes that makes her say yes. Seven days: it's the blink of an eye or an eternity depending on how you look at it. Enough time to fall in love. Enough time to break your heart.

Filled with warmth, wit, and wisdom, Nora Goes Off Script is the best kind of love story--the real kind where love is complicated by work, kids, and the emotional baggage that comes with life. For Nora and Leo, this kind of love is bigger than the big screen.

Thanks to the publisher and NetGalley I received a complimentary copy of this book. Opinions expressed in this review are completely my own.

This was the easiest five star book I’ve read this year. It’s layered and realistic with just enough Hollywood dazzle to lean in to escapism. I can’t get over how much I loved it from the first sentence to the end. The pacing was perfect, the character development was perfect, the setting was fleshed out so well that I could see the story, almost to the point where I could smell the flowers. I’ll recommend this book 1,000 times over to anyone who will listen.

I loved EVERYTHING about this book by Annabel Monaghan.

It's the only celebrity romance I've ever enjoyed. I smiled so much while reading. The dialogue actually made me laugh out loud more than once, and I loved Nora and her kids so much. Nora was portrayed so realistically.* Her relationship with her kids felt authentic, too.

The flow of the narrative was perfect. The second half was heavier than the first; I truly wasn't sure how the story was going to end. The conclusion was wonderful. It's the kind of book that I wanted to reread immediately, which doesn't happen often.

The book is relatively short (under 300 pages), so it would be the perfect vacation/beach/airplane read!

*Ok, I was slightly horrified that Nora let a stranger unsupervised in her home with her children, even if he was a movie star. However, I am completely willing to suspend disbelief on this point because of how much I adored everything else in this book!

Read this if you liked Beach Read or The Suite Spot.

I only read the first 10% of this book, and I decided not to finish. The writing style wasn’t for me, it was too wordy and I know what i was reading was the unfinished version, so I hope that they reduce some of the unnecessary anecdotes and clean it up a bit.

Nora Goes Off Script by Annabelle Monaghan is a mesmerizing novel. This author previously wrote young adult fiction, and this seems to be her first women’s fiction novel. I know, because as soon as I finished reading, I immediately looked for more books by this author. What can I say about this book? It has everything that readers of women’s fiction and romance look for. Yet, this book is never trite or contrived, even though it deals with celebrities. This book is written with such authenticity and never feels formulaic. Still, it is a satisfying read. I certainly hope this author writes a sequel or more books like this one. It is a gem. I read quite a lot of books in this genre, and this book stands head and shoulders above the rest. It is one I plan to re-read. I loved it! I received a digital copy of this book from the publisher with no obligations. These opinions are entirely my own.

I could not put this book down. It reminded me a bit of the film Notting Hill, which I've seen more times than I should probably admit. Except this time, it's the guy who's famous and standing in front of a girl, asking her to love him. Told entirely from Nora's point of view, we get a story with both humor and heart. I will be looking for more books from Annabel Monaghan.

Nora Goes Off Script by Annabel Monaghan is a celebrity romance that was touching and sweet. Nora’s life was left in shambles after her ex-husband left her and her children. She turns around and writes her story and never expected a previous Sexiest Man Alive actor to play her ex. Leo seems to find his place with her family, but can someone like Leo be with Nora? I loved watching him interact with her kids and spend time just being with all three of them. Their story was light and charming and included single-mom, celebrity and second chance at love tropes which I truly enjoyed.

Happy reading!

This was such a cute read! I adored Nora. She was very relatable and a pleasure to read about. I also loved Leo, it was so easy to root for both of them! I loved the uniqueness of this story and it was interesting to have a movie being filmed on a characters property. I loved the story and definitely recommend it to anyone looking for a summer Romcom!

Nora Hamilton has made a life out of writing happily ever afters. Working as a romantic screenwriter has paid the bills, but Nora is far from a romantic in her day to day life. Years after being married to the wrong man may have done it to her, or maybe she was always that way.

Then one day her husband announces he’s leaving and her worlds collide. Viewing his departure as creative inspiration, Nora writes the anti romance, romance- one that will finally put her in the major leagues. The proof? Two A-list stars are set to play her and her ex in the big screen film adaptation, shooting where it all began, at her humble abode.

This is how she comes to meet major movie star, Leo Vance. Cast as her ex husband, Leo is also the house guest that can’t take a hint. He occupies her porch swing, drinks her wine, and craves Nora’s normalcy. So Leo offers her a deal- he will pay Nora 1,000 dollars a day for one week in order to hideout just a little longer. Before long, Leo begins to grow on her, and Nora begins to catch feelings. Then Hollywood lures Leo back, but he swears he’ll return. Can Nora and Leo make it while they are apart or is this just Leo just playing another part?

Nora Goes Off Script is a unique spin on the rom com genre. I really had no idea where the story was going the majority of the time, the beginning in particular really leading me astray. To keep one guessing in a rom com is no easy task, so kudos to author @annabelmonaghan for keeping readers on their toes, right up to the final act.