Better than the Movies is a young adult romantic comedy by Lynn Painter. In this novel, you follow 18 year old Liz Buxbaum who is obsessed with all things romance and falling in love. She’s obsessed with rom-coms because her mom really loved them and they would watch them together. But when her mom passed away, Liz became obsessed with the idea that if she lived her perfect romance story her mom would be proud of her. Cue in the fact that her long time childhood crush Micheal moved back to town. Liz takes this as a sign from the universe that they are meant for each other. She hires her annoying neighbor Wes to help her get Michael to fall in love with him. But the more she works with Wes, the more Liz questions if Micheal is the one for her.
This book is an absolute must read for every teenage girl or really anyone who overthinks every single thing they do. I give it five stars. This book also has some amazing quotes, such as, “sometimes we get so tied up in our idea of what we think we want that we miss out on the amazingness of what we could actually have.” Another spectacular quote is, “because of things like car accidents and lost loves, life and death and broken hearts, we should grab every moment and absolutely devour the good parts.”
The sequel to Better Than the Movies recently came out and is titled Nothing Like the Movies. In Nothing Like the Movies, the book follows Liz and Wes after high school and into college. I just finished the sequel and it is also a five star read.
