Thank you Netgalley and Berkley for an advanced ebook of Not Like the Movies in exchange for an honest review.

The cover and the description of this book made me instantly want to read it. After a few chapters in, I realized it was the sequel to another book by Kerry Winfrey. Waiting for Tom Hanks is the first in the series, but I was not lost at all.

Not Like the Movies focuses on Chloe Sanderson and Nick Velez. Chloe works in the coffee shop that Nick owns and she is juggling trying to go to school online, take care of her father who has Alzheimer's, figure out a way to someday own her own bakery one day so she can make all the pies and deal with the reappearance of her twin brother back in her life.

Chloe has a lot going on and added to her life's drama, her best friend Annie wrote a movie script about the budding sexual tension between Chloe and Nick. Having a stable relationship is the furthest thing from Chloe's mind because it's already to full of all the other hardships in her life. But when she begins to realize that maybe trying to take on the world by herself is not the best course of action and thinks that maybe she is falling for Nick, she begins to do a lot of soul searching.

This book is full of witty dialog and side characters who steal the show. What I enjoyed about this book is that the main character is portrayed with very realistic flaws. She is almost 30 and still doesn't have most of her life together and that resonates with a lot of people today. Some things that I did not like is the romance between her and Nick only really takes off towards the end. I would have loved to see more of them throughout the story. It ended on a cute and satisfying note. But sometimes Chloe was a little frustrating with how she continued to push people away.

Waiting For Tom Hanks was one of my favorite books of 2019 and I've been impatiently awaiting Chloe and Nick's story ever since. Not Like the Movies did not disappoint and if possible was even better!

***Thanks to the publisher and Netgalley for providing me with a digital copy of this book in exchange for an honest review***

I loved Kerry Winfrey's first book, but was sadly let down by the follow up. The plot moved along at a glacial pace and I could only get through about half of this book.

This book is your classic rom-com! I was so excited that Chloe and Nick we’re getting a book! Chloe was my favorite character in Waiting For Tom Hanks. I was hooked from the very beginning and didn’t want to put it down. While there was mentions of the classic Tom Hanks Tom coms it wasn’t constant like in the previous book. Although there were points where I was wanting to shake Chloe! Overall it was a great read!

Was given an arc for an honest review

Why are these books so cute? I loved this one, maybe even more than the first one. This one for sure had a little more depth to it, but overall I loved them both,.

Fun sequel to Waiting For Tom Hanks. This is a more realistic adult relationship than the first book.and I enjoyed the story. The caregiver storyline hit home for me and was very realistic and added dimension to the book.

#partner Thanks to Berkley Jove for the ARC.

I absolutely adored Kerry Winfrey's WAITING FOR TOM HANKS. It was exactly what I want a rom-com to be: a couple to root for with a balance of witty humor and sweet romance. Her follow up, NOT LIKE THE MOVIES once again delivers on all those components. I just felt happy when I was reading it. Plus- I found myself laughing out loud (LOUDLY) on more than one occasion.

Chloe and Nick's journey from frenemies-to-more was positively delightful but not without struggle and conflict. The grand gesture culmination was so fabulous! I will admit that I've read the last chapter of WFTH at least 5 times. I keep going back to it when I need a pick me up. I've already done the same with NOT LIKE THE MOVIES. So yeah- I liked it. A lot.

Light on the steam.
PUB DATE 7.7.20

I love romcoms! I love their cheesiness, the clichés, the illogical coincidences, awkward positions the characters they find themselves into, misunderstandings, entertaining sidekick characters, so much groveling, tears and finishing with over emotional happy endings with the great gestures one of the characters does to win the other’s heart back.

As I examine this book, it mostly fits the formula I wrote above. Chloe Sanderson, golden-hearted, caregiver, wearing vivid, colorful dresses, always smiling to share her positive energy, listening to motivational, entertaining songs is our heroine, looking like Meg Ryan but her indecisiveness, stubbornness and the way of sabotaging her relationship with our hero irritated me a lot. She may be written like a Meg Ryan character but her inner Anne Hathaway (we mostly hate her, don’t we?) may emerge at the most scenes and ruined the soul of the romcom.

Chloe works with Nick: charming, introvert, secretive, enjoys his daily banters with Chloe, always supportive and chivalry.
From the first book we’ve met Chloe’s scriptwriter bestie Annie who just used Chloe’s life and her undeniable attraction with her boss as her inspirational material to write her last romcom movie and voila! It turned into a hit after the trailer’s release. Annie wasn’t creative enough to change the names ( she changed Nick’s name as Rick)

So now everybody talks about movie and everybody thinks Chloe and her hot boss in affair. But Chloe insists to reject her own feelings because she doesn’t believe in happy endings (which contradicts her positive, sunshine and flowers approach to the life) she is already exhausted to take care of her father who suffers from Alzheimer, hospitalized in a facility. And her troublemaker, irresponsible brother Milo comes back to town in out of blue, accompanied by his hot supermodel boyfriend Fred moves with their childhood friend Mickey Danger (reminds me of Michael Keaton’s Johnny Dangerously). He promises he will help her to take care of their father but Chloe has hard time to believe him because of her past disappointed experiences.

After a rainy night, stuck in the café with Nick, lights go out and they share a special kiss. But Chloe achieves to ruin this moment by telling him that was mistake and they have to forget it. And later she starts to date with Mickey Danger ( he’s totally stoned, having underage kid eating habits, enjoying the sharp knife commercials as if he’s binge watching You’s second season but Chloe thinks he resembles disturbed version of Jake Gyllenhaal) which is really silly move. And this is not the first and only immature thing she’s done throughout the story. Sometimes I wanted to kidnap Nick who didn’t deserve to be treated like doormat and I wanted to insert him into another romcom with more tolerable heroine.

The positive elements of the book: Great references to romcoms including Proposal, When Harry met Sally.
The strong and adorable supportive characters: Milo, Fred, Chloe’s adorable father and their loyal customer Gary were my favorites. I didn’t like the first book so much but Annie and Drew turned into better supportive characters at this book.

I loved the plot, main characters’ chemistry, Chloe’s heartbreak after being abandoned by her mom at young age and her hard lesson involving only depending on herself and her family affair parts. But at romance parts she acted like selfish moron. ( Sorry about my language but Nick was great catch from the beginning and she acted like blind person not to see it.)

Overall: It was fun, sweet, swoon and one of my fastest readings. I came back between three and four stars because of my hatred about the heroine’s illogical actions but finally I’m rounding 3.5 stars to 4 because I enjoyed this book so much more than the first installment.

Special thanks to NetGalley and Berkley Publishing for sharing this sweet Arc with me in exchange my honest review!

I received an egalley from Berkley Romance in exchange for an honest review.

I absolutely adored Waiting for Tom Hanks so when I was contacted to review the second book in the series, I jumped at the chance. Waiting for Tom Hanks was definitely a book that fell between you either loved it and it's rom-com goodness or you hated it because it was too dramatic a lot of the times. I fell into the category of loving it but I can't help but feel Not Like the Movies will have the same impact. Unfortunately, I did not like this one.

It started out brilliantly. This book follows the relationship of Chloe and Nick after Annie's movie is auctioned off and the trailer comes out. Chloe and Nick are constantly hounded by people and the media because the movie is so popular from the trailer and they just needed to know if this was the couple that the movie was loosely based off of??? We get to learn more about Chloe's life and how hard she works to juggle everything. She has a father suffering dementia, a brother who left her to handle everything on her own, a business degree that still needs finishing, and pies to bake for Annie's wedding. What she really doesn't need is to think about Nick!

What Nick really needs is to not have someone toy with his emotions. And that's exactly why I didn't appreciate this novel. I had major issues with Chloe's inability to make decisions on pursuing her love-life and hurting someone in the process. Yes, she's not selfish because she spreads herself too thinly and helps everyone as much as she can. But when she finally decides to be selfish, she decides to string Nick along and make him believe that she's in 100% when really, she's just there for a quick lust session. It broke my heart when I saw Nick so hurt by it.

What I did like was the representation. We had someone who was taking care of a loved one with a debilitating disease, we had a gay brother, we had a bisexual main female character, and so much more. I also really liked the banter Chloe and Nick shared. And of course, the sexual tension.

DNF at 16%

I had to quit early; the book is fine and I'm sure many will adore the premise and the romantic arc. But the writing style/voice is not working for me and it would be unfair of me to continue if I'm not enjoying the book. YMMV so read a sample first.