This was cute, but I didn't LOVE it. Nora started to really bother me toward the middle, and not in a good way! I like when books have complicated main characters and narrators, but here I felt like Nora was just going in a completely different direction. There was a bit of "insta love" between her and Leo and I didn't love how involved her kids got with him, because...he's there for a short period of time and also a huge celebrity? Girl, what are you DOING! I was yelling at the page! I wish the relationship was fleshed out a bit more, I would have liked more character background from Leo to understand him a bit more.

Thank you to G.P. Putnam's Sons for my copy, all thoughts are my own.

I enjoyed this! I think it could have been 50 pages longer because the ending felt pretty sudden. But I got very invested in the characters and their story, so overall a fun read!

LOVED THIS ONE!

It is so refreshing to see books that feature an actual middle aged love interest!!

Nora is 40, and was just dumped by her good for nothing husband Ben. Nora knows she's better off without him and she takes control of her life. She is a TV screenwriter who is always writing the picture perfect hallmark happy endings, but now she decides to write about real life, literally HER life.

A major studio picks up her script and her home is used as one of the locations for shooting!! Her home is now not only filled with the camera crew, but also the extremely good looking star actor Leo!

Leo makes himself at home and even stays longer than that initial filming time!! They go through a bunch of ups and downs, and you will have to read to find out how it all ends!

Definitely recommend this one to anyone who is looking for a loveable hero & heroine while still knowing it is real life!

Thanks to netgalley and Annabel Monaghan's team for an ARC!

What an awesome romance. So real and so well written. I loved the characters and the miscommunication issue felt right. Can’t wait to read more from this author

Romance isn’t usually my genre of choice, but gosh, did I enjoy this book. Nora is such a likable main character, and I absolutely loved her dry, sarcastic sense of humor. This story was just so lovely and wholesome—perfect to cuddle up and read on a cold winter day.

What a fun little rom com book! Nora writes screenplays I’m imagining for tv like lifetime or hallmark. Her husband, Ben leaves her with the kids and she ends up writing the story of their relationship. Enter Hollywood star Leo and a major life change that happens to this normal family.

I loved the fun story and the ending.

Thank you #NetGalley for the advance copy

Nora's novel about the tragedy of her won love life is picked up for a movie set to be filmed at her own house. At the end of the film, the lead actor pays her to let him stay for a little restcation. No one is more surprised than Nora when her relationship with the reclusive actor starts to veer into more. I loved this one. It was a little bit Hallmark but also had some grit. Kind of like the novel Npra wrote in the first place. I loved the characters and didn't want to leave the charming setting.

I really really enjoyed this! Good amount of steam, great family “drama” realistic and I didn’t see that ending coming. Another fantastic read of mine in 2022!

I have recommended this book to so many of my friends/family already. I have already added Annabel Monaghan's next book to my TBR and wrote it into my planner. I could not stop reading this story until I finished, all while dreading it to end. Monaghan expertly weaves grief, love, anger, stubbornness, selflessness, resentment, and forgiveness. She took the classic movie-star-falls-for-the-small-town-simple-life trope and spins it into a unique and engaging story. I will be re-reading this book along with anything and everything else Monaghan releases. To say I am impressed and hooked is an understatement.

This was such a fun book! The main character was lovable, and I really enjoyed her strong opinions. She stuck with her decisions and I think that’s a really incredible example.

I’m in love with this story! It reminds me of a Hallmark movie, which I’m obsessed with. I definitely recommend it.

Wow. I absolutely adored this story!

I must be honest; I kept putting this book off to the side based on the general premise and, yes, I judged the book by its cover.

What I had expected was a trite little rom com with the (imo, overdone) celebrity-falls-for-the-normal-person trope.

What I got was a much deeper, much more meaningful, heartfelt story that was more about being allowed to be who you are-warts and all-unconditionally. This is about what it's like to find freedom in being authentically you without having to put on a face or put on airs. I found this story to be un-put-down-able and refreshingly different.

Well done, Annabel Monaghan! 👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻

This is a new to me author and I have to say I am looking forward to reading more by this author! I loved this book

This was the cutest book and I would love to see this on the screen (it would be so meta).

I laughed, cried, and felt so warm while reading this. I will definitely recommend to all my friends!

This book was a fantastic surprise. I felt myself rooting hard for Nora, loved that children were very much present in this rom-com (that's rare!) and holy smokes did I fall for Leo. The setting was charming, the plot just enough to be an escape while still being believable.

Nora finds happiness and herself. Parents who have been through divorce etc will see themselves in her. YAY for older heroines. I appreciated that in the end, she wanted love but didn’t need it to be complete. That made the romance that much sweeter.

Hip hip hooray for this winner of a book!

This is the perfect sweet, cozy romance! Loved the setting and characters, and I loved the “cookie cutter but not cookie cutter” storyline — almost a play on the cookie cutter romance storyline. I liked that we had a single mom MC with slightly older kids — I was able to relate to her on many levels. This is a great read that I’m sure will resonate with many romance readers!

4 stars! Nora Goes Off Script is a great romantic read. Highly recommend!
Thank you to Annabel Monaghan, Penguin Group Putnam, and NetGalley for this ARC in exchange for an honest review.

A writer ends up selling the movie rights to a book she wrote about her failed marriage and where do they want to film it? Her house. So her regimented small life with her two kids gets turned upside down by the cast and crew for a few days. But when it came time to leave the main man just did not want to leave the morning sunrises and every day life. Before you know it they are head over heels for each other.

Why did it take me so long to get through this book? I have heard such amazing things about this book and it has everything I like in it. But for me? It just wasn't a hit. To me a book is good when I just can't put it down. And I kept setting this down and would have forgotten that I was reading it other than the fact that it kept showing up in my current reads on GoodReads. /overall it was good writing, a good story but I wanted more from it. I think there was not enough banter or love for me between the characters. It just doesn't make a ton of sense for them to be together and there doesn't seem to be much bringing them together that will be strong enough to keep them together. He just slide into her life and even though there are some bumps along the way there was not much she wouldn't forgive. Maybe I just was hard on it though because I kept hearing nothing but the good stuff from fellow avid romance readers.

Overall, I would recommend this book for someone as a beach read or someone looking for a Hallmark movie in book form (I don't mean that in a mean way I read Hallmark romance books sometimes and really enjoy them). Thank you NetGalley for the opportunity to read this book!

4 out of 5 stars - If you ask me, I'll tell you to read it.

Thank you to NetGalley and Penguin Group, Putnam for this free advanced copy. All opinions expressed are my own.

Nora writes the cheesy romance made-for-TV movies, but after her husband walks out on her and their 2 children her writing gets a little deeper and a little darker. This leads to a big budget movie being filmed with her screenplay... on her property.

Nora's world is thrown into chaos when an entire movie set, movie stars and all, moves onto her property. At the end of filming, Nora wakes up the next morning to find that the male lead of the movie had stowed away on her property and wants to escape his world for a bit. Leo Vance moves into her "tea house" for a week and spends time learning about small town life, including grocery shopping and kid schedules.

This was a cute story, with the inevitable struggle, but you knew that it was going to end happily. You just had to wait to see how it all ended and what caused the struggles. This book has added a new author to my rotation of books to check out.

I really enjoyed this! Shamelessly in my head, I was imagining a modern Heartburn or just a nod to Nora Ephron. I wasn’t disappointed. Highly recommend