Liz Buxbaum has been waiting for her swoon-worthy, perfect rom-com love story her entire life, a dream she’s been chasing ever since her mother died when she was young. So, when her childhood crush, sweet and incredibly charming Michael Young, moves back to boring old Omaha, Nebraska, she takes the opportunity with both hands, but it won’t be easy. Liz recruits Wes Bennett, the painfully annoying boy next door (who is absolutely not boyfriend material), to fake date her in order to make Michael jealous and hopefully realize his romantic feelings towards her. Her genius idea doesn’t quite go as planned. Now, Liz and Wes are . . . friends? Not to mention that her other relationships are falling apart, but at least she’s getting Michael, right? As Liz and Michael grow closer, she begins to wonder if she and Michael were meant to be together after-all, and if the love story she’s always wanted has been right in front of her all along.
If anything at all can be said about Better Than the Movies, it is that it is so incredibly believable. Despite her mistakes, and the absolute fool she makes of herself, I was rooting for Liz until the very end. In making Liz oblivious, Lynn Painter, the author of the book, did an excellent job of giving the readers a reason to stick with this book, a reason to swoon or to slap our foreheads with our palms, to feel misery for Liz, and to cheer when she finally gets her crap together. There is nothing remotely special about this novel, yet at the very same time, it shines in comparison to every romantic comedy I’ve ever read. I marvel at the fact that Lynn actually made perfect characters. As someone who writes, I know that perfect characters are the most boring characters, but somehow, she managed to make the characters perfect while not being perfect because they needed to fit within Liz’s reality. There are imperfections because of the perfections, and then there were imperfections that were actually perfections in every and no sense of the word. My favorite thing about this book? The banter. It was so expertly woven I barely registered it as dialogue. I was completely absorbed. My second favorite thing? How, in the end, and I mean the very very end, everything made perfect sense. The situation, the characters, the themes. The stars aligned. I know everyone everywhere is saying this, but if you like comedy, romance, or none of the above, you NEED to read this book. 6 out of 5. Love it!