Liz Buxbaum loves rom coms because it connects her to her mom who passed away when she was a child. She dreams of having her own romance her childhood crush, Michael, who moved away when they were kids. Now, Michael has moved back to town. Liz wants to have her rom com moment with Michael and go to prom with him. She convinces her next-door neighbour and frenemy Wes to help her get Michael to notice her. However, the more time Liz spends with Wes, she wonders if he’s meant to be the romantic lead in her love story.

This was such a cute romance! I loved all the references to rom com movies and books. Liz was living her own rom com. At first, Wes convinced her to change things about herself to attract Michael. Liz eventually had to learn the hard lesson that it’s important to find someone who loves you for who you are, not to turn yourself into someone different to please someone else.

Better Than the Movies is a cute YA rom com!

Thank you Simon and Schuster Canada for providing a digital copy of this book!

This was a fun YA romance of enemies to lovers and fake dating. I loved the use of rom-coms throughout the book and the little references to them. Wes and Liz are very fun and I enjoyed reading their story. This book has great explorations of family dynamics and how the death of a parent can affect someone. It also highlighted the importance of friendship and being honest with them when you're struggling. The love story was cute and the little bit of will they won't they. I have heard amazing things about this book and I really liked it, I just didn't love it. Lynn Painter is a fave of mine so I will definitely be reading the sequel when it comes out later this year.

“Enemies-to-lovers—it’s our trope, Buxbaum.”

This book was EVERYTHING I love about YA. I was utterly charmed by Wes and Liz and their witty banter. I loved the songs, the rom com references and movie quotes at the beginning of each chapter, their fights over the only available parking spot. I can’t think of a thing I didn’t love.

When Liz’s once-upon-a-time crush, Michael, moves back to town, she’s determined to turn his head and go to the prom with him. After she realizes her annoying neighbour, Wes, is friends with Michael, she asks for his help to win Michael over. The feelings that develop for Wes confuse her and she has to figure out what she wants before it’s too late.

I don’t even know what to write about Wes. I adored him, from his heart-on-his-sleeve vulnerability to his smartass mouth to his teasing. I adored Liz too! Liz is perfectly, classically teen. Does she say mean things? Yes. Does she make lots of mistakes? You bet! But she learns from those mistakes and grows. She’s figuring out who she is and what she wants and missing her mom and I loved every moment. I thought Painter did an amazing job showcasing how something perfect for us can be right in front of our eyes and we miss it because we’re focused on something else, showing how something can seem like one thing but be completely another. In fact, while writing this, it made me want to read this book again.

***Thank you to NetGalley, Simon & Schuster Books for Young Readers and Lynn Painter. I voluntarily read and reviewed this book. All opinions are my own.***

This was SUCH a delight!!
Such a cute and perfectly YA romance. This is a genre I still really enjoy because of how big everything feels as a teen. I really felt for Liz and was rooting for her to get her romcom but also just wanted to yell at her to communicate with her friends and family!!! I really loved this and I’m so glad I read it.

I adored this book. I am a big fan of romcoms and loved the way they tied in to this book. I liked that these characters felt like actual teenagers and their flaws and conflict made sense in that context. High school can be such a chaotic place and there are always misunderstandings that can seem like the end of the world at the time but turn out to be just minor layer. I think it was great that this story didn’t pretend those didn’t exist and instead used those realistic conflicts to move the story along. I also just think Wes sounds like a dreamboat, and all of the normally cliche tropes just fit so perfectly into this story. It managed to make use of all these potentially played out ideas and become an entirely unique story.

Better Than the Movies is the book that reignited my love of YA romance and romcoms. It hit every mark and exceeded them.

The banter between Wes and Libby is *chefs kiss*; fake dating; perfect movie references; and just a pure delight to read. Be prepared to get a little emotional and have a perma smile at the end.

Thank you to Simon & Schuster Canada and Netgalley for the copy to read and review.

I really enjoyed this book. It was light hearted and fun but had seriousness intwined in it as well.

The story focuses on a quirky fun, loveable characters named Lizzy who has a crush on a neighbour boy who moves back home after being away for a few years. She makes a deal with her annoying neighbour boy who always pests her in order to get there old pal to notice her. These two have the most hilarious relationship but don’t like each other.

There are several other relationships in this novel. Lizzy and a step mom , her best friend Joss, other high school friends have very small rolls. There is also a powerful message in this book that I loved, be your authentic self. LOVED THIS message.

I can totally see this becoming a movie and I would totally watch it.

BETTER THAN THE MOVIES was a rom-com about rom-coms and it was really, REALLY well done. It’s about a girl, needing the help from her bad boy neighbour to get noticed by a childhood crush. Of course this plot is nothing new and has been done before. But I couldn’t have cared less about that, because it was such an adorable and fun YA rom-com. Light hearted, entertaining, and sure a bit predictable too. But that didn’t take away from the overall enjoyment.

I LOVED the couple. Really loved them. I loved their enemies to lovers neighbour vibe. And I loved their banter, especially their banter. They had such a great connection. Both just knew how to push the other’s buttons. And Wes was one of the swoon-iest YA heroes I had the luck to come across.

The entire novel was delightful. From the rom-com quotes at the beginning of each chapter, to the many rom-com references. This is such a great book for any rom-com fan. Also the writing was just so on point. It was fun, flirty, and smart. The novel was an easy read, that was enjoyable from beginning to end. I had fun with it. And from the cast to the plot it’s been one great read. It’s a book I can only recommend, especially if YA contemporary is your jam.

Better Than the Movies by Lynn Painter was absolutely amazing. Enemies-to-lovers trope, which I love, grief, friendship and finding love. Liz and Wes' banter was just perfect and laugh-out-loud funny. I even shed a tear or two when Liz was talking about her mother. READ IT!!!! I think it's my first favourite of 2021!

Thank you NetGalley and the publisher for the free ebook copy in exchange of a honest review.

Ahhh this book was amazing! From the writing style, to the plot and characters, I definitely loved every bit of this. It was so cute and I was definitely rooting for Liz and Wes, so when I got to their scene when they [SPOILER] get together again when she was in her car, I was totally squealing. The scenes were written so perfectly, and I really just loved every element of this book, from Liz's personality and backstory, to Wes's amazing character, to the themes of family and friendship strung throughout. Definitely recommend reading this book!

What a treat! RomCom movie lovers will love this book. Every chapter makes some sort of reference to all my favourite movies, from the 80's to the present.

This book is absolutely adorable, with a little bit of drama and lots of heart yearning romance.

Four stars!

Better Than The Movies
by Lynn Painter

Do you love rom-coms? This book is a rom-com about the love for rom-coms! Dare I say it’s my favourite YA romance of the year!? Yes, I just said that, and it is!!

Liz is a hopeless romantic teenager looking to secure her long time crush, but in the most romantic gestured way, you know the one with the perfect music in the background, the foot-popping kiss. She’ll do anything to bring this fantasy to real life, including enlisting the help of her awful neighbour Wes. This is an enemy to lovers trope done in the best possible way!

I could not wipe the grin off my face while reading this, I laughed out loud, and cried. All of the emotions of a perfectly laid out romance.

Each chapter has a quote from a famous romance movie which will make your heart have all the feels! There is also a specially curated playlist for this book, as if it could get any cuter 💗

It’s lovable, adorable, and extra sweet. But also includes dealing with grief, the struggle of adulthood, and remembering to not judge a book by its cover.

I’ll probably be talking about this book for the entire year! Thank you to @netgalley and @simonschusterca for this ARC. A special shout out to @lynnpainterkirkle for writing this book, which by the way I will be buying so it can have a permanent home on my bookshelf. I can not wait to see what you write next.

Ohhhhh this book was CUTE!! Everything YA that I love!! Adorable main character, secretly in love with handsome popular boy for years and a deal made with pain the ass other boy to help get previous boy to fall in love with her back.
Was this book predictable? Oh yeah!
Did I smile the entire way through? 100%

Liz is a rom-com junky. She has seen every movie known to man, and is sure she is destined for a great love and romance. She’s even more sure of this when Michael, the boy of her school yard crush days, moves back to town. After not seeing him for years, she needs an in and convinces her nemesis neighbour Wes to bring her to a party.

They make a bet that Wes will help Liz get Michael to ask her to prom and in exchange, if he’s successful, he gets the parking spot he and Liz have fought over for months.

The book makes light of its predictably and even mentions the enemies to lovers trope. There are a million amazing pop culture references and songs mentioned throughout the book I loved as well.

There was also some depth to the book as Liz is forced to deal with the emotions of going to prom and graduating without her Mom, who passed away years earlier.

I thought this was one of the sweetest books I’ve read and if you love YA romances, fake relationship and/or enemies to lovers tropes, this book is for you. I highly recommend for a cute, light read - 4.5/5

3-3.5

i'm actually surprised i ended up liking this. during the first third of the book i kind of thought it was really cheesy, liz's love for michael was essentially built upon him being nice to her when they were kids & it was just a very shallow kind of love, almost like she just chose him because of her own imaginings of who he grew into in a sense. i realized during the second & final thirds of the book that there was more depth to the story & more of an explanation as to why liz the way she was, & it became an incredible journey of realization & growth for her & the romance ended up being really sweet.

liz experienced a lot of growth as the story progressed. i loved liz's realization of life being unpredictable, & the fact that you really can't plan out who you'll fall in love with & be with. i loved that she was able to let helena in without holding on to her initial worry of losing her mother's memory if she let someone else in. i loved that she eventually healed her friendship with joss & came clean about everything. i loved that she finally gave in to her feelings for wes. it was just such a heartwarming journey to read about, i was so pleased with how lynn painter went about it.
wes was such an amazing character from the beginning. i was rooting for him from the start. he was so kind & caring towards liz even though he was also a pain & bothered/teased her a lot. i think it was just incredible that whenever something happened to liz he was the first to show compassion & actually did something to help & thheir relationship? it was actually adorable, i loved their whole process of getting to know each other, their playlist, the time they spent together in the 'secret area' it was all just so pure, like they were genuine interactions & feelings between them.
i really appreciated how there was a rom com quote at the beginning of each chapter, i liked how it truly ended on a solid note.
life isn't a rom com, but it can still have something that resembles a rom com love & overall i did appreciate this story, it was just a bit difficult to get through at the beginning, but it definitely picked up & became a great story about love, loss & forgiveness.

Omgosh, what an absolute joy this book was to read. You won’t be able to not fall in love with this main characters, even though you might want to shake some sense into them both at times. Truly had some of the best of enemies to lovers, faking dating and boy next door tropes as well as some great witty banter and “ can’t believe that happened” moments. Also, I enjoyed all the rom com mentions and quotes as well as the playlist at the end of the book.

Thanks to the publisher for providing an eARC in exchange for a review.

Better Than the Movies is a cute romance contemporary YA book that has the enemies to lovers sort of aspect which I love to read in books. Although I found some parts of the book to be predictable, I still enjoyed reading it, I like how the author wrote the characters (although Liz was a bit annoying in the beginning, she really did grow on me) I loved Wes and his character.

I would recommend this for a quick read if you are in a reading slump or looking for a rom com movie but in book form! I can't wait to buy a physical copy of this book when it is released.

Took me a while to get into this book and I gave it another chance, which THANK GOD because it got a lot better! The characters became more likeable and the main character wasn't as annoying as she used to be in the beginning. Trigger warning for me on the death of a parent though. I am hopeful that any other work from this author is better than this as I found it predictable and not at all what I thought it would become.

Thank you to netgallery and Simon and Schuster for this ARC in exchange for an honest review.

This rom-com has it all! Movie references, hilarious scenes that will make you laugh out loud, playlists and the sweetest characters. So cute! I loved everything about this book. Wes is my favourite!Highly recommend to any one who enjoys romance and YA. You won’t want to miss this gem!

Thank you to Netgalley and Simon and Schuster Canada for providing me with an arc copy in exchange for my honest review.


Rating: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
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This is such a cute YA Romance novel! I love how it was a romcom within a romcom so inventive! I cannot wait to get my hands on a physical copy! One of the best YA romance I’ve read!

Better Than the Movies is a YA rom-com. This book was so cute and charming. I really enjoyed it.

The story takes place in Omaha, Nebraska. The narrator is high school senior Liz (1st person POV).

The beginning of each chapter has a quote from classic romance movies like When Harry Met Sally and Bridget Jones's Diary. I thought that this added so much to the story.

Liz's mom died when she was a kid. And now that it is her senior year she is finding that it is difficult not to have a mom. Liz is a quirky heroine. She plays the piano, loves classic rom-coms, is obsessed with movie soundtracks, and dresses in vintage dresses. She does everything that reminds her of her mom.

I thought that this part of the story was incredible. I liked that even though this book was a romantic comedy it also had elements that were serious.

Liz has had a crush on Michael since they were kids. But then he moved away. Now that he is back what will happen? There is also the boy next door Wes, who she dislikes. I really enjoyed the dynamic between Liz and the two males in the story.

This was such a cute fun book. Could it have been more unpredictable? Yes. But it was still such an enjoyable quick funny read.