Review Detail

Better than the Movies finds sweet Liz navigating senior year and all the unexpectedly difficult milestones without her mother and discovering that the mischievous boy next door, Wes, isn’t the troublesome boy from her youth as she remembers. Liz only has run-ins with Wes until her dream boy, Michael, moves back to town and she concocts a scheme with his help to pretend to date Wes so she has an excuse to be around Michael.
It is endearing to watch Liz oblivious to Wes’s charm when all the signs are there that he cares for her, and Michael has his sights on another. She endures some truly cringe-worthy mishaps while pursuing him, and it is only after it is too late that she finally sees the boy in front of her. Cue perfect music montage and movie parallels.
This story was such a fun read. Even though it followed a predictable course, it was still hard to put down. I wish we could have a dual perspective for a deeper exploration of Wes and his motivations. Since the book is from Liz’s perspective and she misjudges and doesn’t know him well we get a one-sided flat view of Wes.
Having just read Betting on You by Lynn Painter it is easy to see the near formulaic plot devices the author uses from the girl with great best friends whom she ignores and doesn’t develop, an uptight good girl personality, an absent parent (dead in this case) and a great stepparent that she can’t accept into her life, a cocky boy that at first seems Mr. Wrong and then isn’t through a fake dating enemies to lovers trope. Add in the same audiobook narrator that makes it even more similar and it was still an enticing read that I lost sleep to get to the revelation and resolution. I enjoyed the character's discussion of rom-coms and tropes in an ironic fourth wall parallel to this book.
Overall, this was a feel-good rom-com for anyone who enjoys a good movie in book form. If you like light-hearted YA romance or Lynn Painter's books, then this is a great next read. My only advice is to separate the books a bit so it is not so apparent how similar they are. However, if you wish you could read your favorite book for the first time again then the fact that the two books are similar will be a boon.