★★★.5 stars
Helloooo. I know I said my next review would be TGCF volume 5, but to be honest I didn’t start that yet. I took a tiny break from TGCF to read other things. I read Better Than the Movies in like 3 days, and I’d like to discuss it.
So I gave this 3.5 stars. I read it with my friend and she seemed to enjoy it much more than I did lol. It was pretty good at the start, but that wasn’t sustained throughout. This review is gonna be a bit different from my other reviews; I won’t go through the whole plot like I usually do, rather I’ll just talk about the relevant parts. Frankly, because the book just wasn’t memorable enough. I read it a few days ago and I feel that I’ve already forgotten the plot. I mean, I knew I wouldn’t really like this, but I read it anyway because I had it and my friend wanted to read it. I bought it back when my book taste was different, so I still tried to go into this with an open mind. But, as much as the internet likes to hype this book up, it really was nothing special.
As I said, I liked the start well enough. Liz cringed me out on multiple occasions but it’s a part of her character, I guess, so I let it slide. But it really pissed me off that she kept going after Michael because it’s “what her mom would’ve wanted” even though her mom never said that. AND her mom knew Wes too and liked him just as much as the other kids. There really was nothing that made Michael special.
It felt like a typical teenage romance at the start, and I enjoyed the moments between Wes and Liz, but it got to a point where everyone could see that she and Wes had feelings for each other but she wouldn’t admit it. And like, the author made her stupid and oblivious just to keep the plot going.
I have this method to test the strength of a book’s plot. If the characters behaved rationally, would the plot exist? If not, then it’s a pretty weak plot. I think it’s safe to say Better Than the Movies failed.
The central conflict of this entire book is that Liz and Wes can’t communicate. He likes her, but won’t tell her because she likes Michael. She likes Wes but won’t tell him because he thinks she likes Michael. Are we serious guys?
And the whole reason she had for hating him is stupid. He used to “torment her as a child”. As if the other kids in their little friend group didn’t play pranks on her too. If she wants to hate one, she can hate them all.
I stopped liking it when things got silly. When she stopped liking Michael but just wouldn’t admit her feelings for Wes.
Also, lowkey, if I were Wes and I liked a girl since we were kids but she’s liked another guy the whole time, I’d feel like a second choice. I just didn’t feel like her feelings for Wes were genuine, more like she settled for him when she gave up on Michael. I know it wasn’t framed this way, but that’s how I saw it.
Wes had his own problems too. You’re telling me she literally kissed him, but she went and wrapped his arm around Alex as soon as Michael asked her for prom? Like she didn’t even say yes or anything, and this man was fully ready to go to plan B.
And it wasn’t just her problems with Wes that I found silly, but with literally everyone except Helena. The Helena thing was valid. But why did Jocelyn get mad? Because she didn’t tell her about the boy she liked? Like how old are we…
This book was marketed as an enemies to lovers thing (which it definitely wasn’t), but it should’ve been marketed as a miscommunication trope. I mean, I hate tropes and these stupid labels people place on books instead of actually evaluating it, but you get my point.
Can we also talk about this stupid Third Act Breakup that happens in every. single. romance novel? Can we like give it a rest? Do we HAVE to create a stupid, meaningless conflict 80% just to rush the ending? I really don’t get the point of this. I guess it’s to create “yearning”. But I’m genuinely sick of the entire romance genre. I think it’s just not for me at this point because the last one I enjoyed was Book Lovers by Emily Henry 3 years ago.
So, in general, I didn’t like this book and wouldn’t recommend it to anyone sharing similar tastes. I’m not saying it’s all bad, because some parts of it were enjoyable to read, but I just found it sloppy and silly. There was no effort put into creating a good, strong plot. Maybe for the first half, but after that Lynn Painter just gave up. It definitely has its audience, and I don’t think I’m included in that. But that’s fine—to each their own. I don’t think I’ll be reading any similar books anytime soon, though.
I’m currently reading The Seven Deaths of Evelyn Hardcastle by Stuart Turton. I don’t know if I’ll write a review on it because the plot is quite complicated and I’m a little bit confused. But I’m enjoying it. I’m postponing the TGCF volume 4 review (I just realized I haven’t written it yet) but I’m done with the book itself. We’ll see what review comes out next lol. Also sorry for this rather rushed review.
