I was so excited to read this one, a famous actor staying at a regular woman's home and sparks fly? Count. Me. In. Nora has been through a hellish relationship and she deserves happiness! I liked the setting out the house and the dynamic of the three person family. As a single mom I can relate. I also loved how Nora was done with her ex and knew her worth! She didn't grovel, she didn't beg, she stood tall and let herself heal. The kids were also fun to read about.

Now I was a bit bummed out when it came to the romance. Leo didn't have much personality, he was very flat feeling and he was clueless in everyday life things. I can understand him not shopping in a very long time, but not ever? What about before he was famous? He never went to a family holiday where his parents asked him to go grab something from the store? It's unbelievable. It was cute, but to far fetched.

The misunderstanding trope was wild in this one. I did like the reasoning behind the major issue and thought that was believable and understandable. What I couldn't believe was the timing. I think the person would have confessed after seeing Nora so upset, not after nearly an entire year. Also a normal adult would have some talk about what they were told. Even a simple text from Nora to Leo saying she was disappointed in how things went. OR a drunken call from Leo to Nora, since he was a drinker.

These two cannot be 'in love' and give up that easily. When he saw her in person he could have even said "No husband?"

And the resolution was so fast and a huge leap. Was I happy to read it in a fantasy world? Yes. Was it believable? Not really. Am I happy that all the town snobs were wrong? Yes.

I'm conflicted on this one, but I do think it was a cute read.

Nora Hamilton is a recently divorced romantic movie screenwriter who wrote a movie about her divorce that’s being filmed at her house in the exact tea house where the split happened. Playing Nora and her ex-husband Ben are two of the hottest stars in Hollywood: Naomi Sanchez and Leo Vance. When filming wraps, Leo stays behind at Nora’s house to get a break from his everyday Hollywood routine, but he quickly becomes wrapped up in Nora’s life and the lives of her two kids.

This one was a little far fetched, but generally pretty adorable. It was a sweet tale of a single mom growing through tough times and finding support in the most unlikely of places, but it does rely heavily on the miscommunication trope which I personally find pretty frustrating. Overall, I found myself rooting for Nora and Leo’s relationship. I loved how she immediately integrated him in her daily routine of taking the kids to school, getting the shopping done, etc. and how these things interested him so thoroughly.

For me, the pacing of this book was a little distracting because there were moments when scenes seemed to drag on followed by a months long jump in the next scene. I did like, however, how the book seemed to follow the “romantic movie formula” that Nora explains while writing her next movie.

I would recommend this book to people looking for a relatively light and fun read. It’s more fiction with hints of romance rather than the other way around. The real life elements like having to plan dinner and facing credit card debt kept this book grounded while the main character falls in love with a movie star.

Thanks so much to NetGalley and G.P. Putnam's Sons for the ARC in exchange for my honest review.

I liked this a lot! Nora was an compelling character and the setting worked for me. I wish we got into Leo's head a little more.

Reminded me of The Actor and the Housewife by Shannon Hale, which I remember loving when it came ou

I liked this one, I didn't totally connect with Nora but I could relate to some of what she was going through.
I like seeing that a lot of other people really liked this one because it does really have great potential I just wasn't connecting with it.

Thanks NetGalley for this ARC!

A fun read but it moved way too quickly through a couple of things I would have like to see fleshed out.

I truly enjoyed this book and will be recommending it to everyone. A sweet story with great characters. The writing was very good and I literally couldn’t put it down until I finished it in the wee hours of the morning.

I don't know what it is about this book but I really, really enjoyed it. It drew me in by surprise - I did not go into it expecting to like it as much as I did - and I can't even figure out why I liked it so much. Maybe it's just Nora and how realized she is. The <i>Evvie</i> comparison is apt, but I don't want to define it by that. I just really liked this book. There was one thing I didn't enjoy and I'm a little uncertain about that, but I'll ride the wave of 'wow, this was good' and leave it at 4 stars for now.

I’m so sad this book is over!! I loved it so much. I fell in love with the characters, even the kids added so much to the story and I loved the dynamic between everyone. The red carpet spin on things was fun and the love story was everything. I found myself laughing at times and tearing up at others. Loved it and highly recommend!

Nora Hamilton is a writer of romance movies. Her own life has taken a few turns along the way and now her latest script is being turned into a Hollywood movie, complete with big name stars. For authenticity, parts of it are being filmed at Nora’s house. Enter Leo, the star of the movie; handsome, charismatic, but not really happy.. What follows is kind of predictable to a point, but Monaghan makes you actually care about the characters and root for that happy ending. I enjoyed it and will be looking for more by Annabel Monaghan.

I received an e-arc of this book through Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.

DNF @ 44%

To sum up why I decided to DNF in just a few words, I was bored. I really wanted to push myself to read this but being at almost 50% and with the romance starting to kick off I should've been more invested in our characters and the budding relationship. Ultimately what I did read of this was cute and I enjoyed the relationships between Nora and her kids and Leo and the kids I just didn't feel the connection fully between them. He was just suddenly there and taking an interest in her daily life and inserting himself in it. I wish I could've felt more connection and pushed through but I knew as soon as I was checking how farther to the next chapter consistently that it just wasn't holding my interest.

Again there was ultimately nothing wrong with the book from what I read, it just wasn't the book for me.

This is one of my favorites of the year and it’s not even out yet! I love the self-awareness that this book has about romantic comedies and how the conversations about the genre are never talking down to it. I love getting this story from Nora’s point of view; I think she has a great sense of humor and a pretty strong grasp on reality, which is often not the case in romance storylines (a characteristic I accept and love). Leo was great too; it’s always nice to like the characters because then you’re glad when they *spoiler* find Happily Ever After’.
I love so-called ‘second act’ stories about characters who are older than the average ingénue. I find it allows me to get more into the story and appreciate the ending more because the characters have more realistic expectations about life. It makes me more able to look at the ending and think it’s good and solid and permanent. And the kids! How could I forget? Bernie and Arthur are absolutely one of the highlights of this story. They each have such strong characters and carry a lot of weight in the story for better or for worse.
This is my first time reading Annabel Monaghan, and now I’m hungry for more. This book is as sweet as any romantic could want but canny enough to appeal to a cynic and I say that with authority as I am paradoxically both of those things.

OMG!
I loved this book, from the characters to the plot, to the writing.
The main characters was a take no bull strong independent woman! She didn’t immediately fall for the love interest charm, and I love that in a book. She shows that women can support their family and still do what they love. I never found any of her actions annoying or unjustified. This book does include a miscommunication trope which can be generally annoying, and especially when the miscommunication is both sided.
The PLOT!! Omg it was so lovable. There’s so many different things that keeps the book moving and it so lovely. There was no one big even that they were building up to, so we just follow Nora and her family through their life. It’s realistic and builds the characters like they are real people for me. I never saw them as characters, but instead it felt like I was reading a news article about real people.
The WRITING! This book is like no book I’ve read before. It wasn’t written like a normal romance book, but instead felt like a love letter to suburban moms. From soccer games to movie nights, the book was exciting and shows how hard mothers have to work. It was descriptive but not to the point of boredom. I love that the other skipped some events that were background event and didn’t drag us through thousands of pages of normal life. Instead the author highlights the beauty of such normal things. In the best way, it felt like watching a Greta Gerwig film. It was artsy and beautiful. The book was also self aware. As a romance writer, Nora is able to value the cliches and see them for what they are.
All together it’s a wonder of a romance book.

*i received an ARC of this book via NetGalley, but this post is not sponsored

While a first glance this book contains all the typical romance tropes (husband abandoned the family but they are just fine without him, main character falls in love but then there is a misunderstanding, and of course a happily every after), the way they are put together, this contemporary romance hits the emotions in an interesting way, pulling me into the story in a way most other books in this genre don't. Very well done!

Mark your calendars for this cute romance book coming out June 2022!

This was a cute romance/woman's fiction book and a 2 star read. I personally really struggled with this book. There was a lot of telling rather than showing throughout the story and I didn't jive easily with the writing style. I had to force myself to pick this book up to read it but thankfully it is a short book.

This book would be perfect for fans of: Hallmark movies, woman's fiction, descriptive writing

Thank you Netgalley for an ARC in exchange for my honest review.

I really enjoyed this book. It was full of heart, and the writing style felt like you were having a coffee with your best friend. It was a “real world” love story that also had shades of unrealistic, and I was hooked.

I loved the fact that the main character, Nora, was a writer, and she was divorced & a single mom. There’s not many books out there highlighting this type of
main character.

& Nora and Leo. Need I say more? I loved them together.

The only flaw for me was the miscommunication that got in the way for a while in the book, but it had to happen!

This just felt so real to me, and I’ll be thinking about to for a long time.

I really enjoyed this romance. Nora has been supporting her family well before her do-nothing husband left them. Ben had grown up rich and didn’t realize that to make his own money would take more than endless ideas, it took actual work. Nora is glad to see him go to a degree because he only ever belittled the work she did—writing scripts for The Romance Channel—but of course it’s hard on 10-year-old Arthur and 8-year-old Bernadette to have a father who occasional calls and makes promises about visits that never happen. Instead of sticking with the formulaic scripts that have been paying the bills for years, Nora writes a version of her life story. The sexiest man alive, Leo Vance, plays Ben, and the drop-dead actress Naomi Sanchez plays Nora.

The shooting on Nora’s 100-year-old property only takes a couple days, but when it’s done, Nora finds Leo camped out on her porch well on his way to being drunk. He asks if he can hide out from the spotlight in her old, out-of-the-way home for a week. He’ll pay $1,000 a day, money that would help her fix up some things and help with the debt that Ben racked up. Yes, Nora and Leo fall for each other and yes, there are misunderstandings along the way, but I loved Nora, Leo, her friends and parents, and Arthur and Bernadette. The conflict and resolution were well done.

Thanks to NetGalley for the opportunity to read this novel, which RELEASES JUNE 7, 2022.

Nora Goes Off Script is a story of a divorced mother of two who is learning to juggle motherhood and her career. Nora is a writer of cookie-cutter Hallmark romance movies. Only after her divorce does she spin up a dark, emotional story without a happy ending. After Nora’s agent pitches it to studios, Nora ends up signing a deal to turn her story into a movie. It is on set, at her house, that we’re introduced to Leo, main male character and lead of Nora’s ex in the movie.

Leo is not at all what I expected him to be. He is out-of-touch, nosy, and overall quite immature. At the end of filming Leo sneaks off and hides at Nora’s house while the rest of the crew leaves. When the crew gets back to the city, and realize that their star is missing, is when Leo comes out from where he’s been hiding and asks Nora if he can stay at her house for the week. No strings attached, he’ll even pay her $1,000 a day just to house him. From what we know of Nora thus far, her allowing him to stay felt quite out of character for her. Somehow, over the course of the week, Leo connects with Nora and they begin to form a bond.

I went into this expecting it to be a story about an actor falling in love with the writer, and the writer learning to love again. Instead, the romance felt too out of character for both parties and I had trouble rooting for either of them. Leo, who talks about the struggles of having an apartment that “feels like a hotel” and who has trouble understanding what purpose reusable grocery bags serve, wasn’t a man who I championed. Similarly, Nora spends her days working and helping out her children with school. She clearly has a strong bond with her kids, but there were times where I wondered why she acted so differently with Leo around. For example, she ends up leaving to take her daughter to dance practice and leaves her son alone with Leo while she’s away. Does it make sense for a woman to leave her ten year old son alone with a man she’s only known for a few days? No, it doesn’t.

2.5 stars rounded up to 3. Cute story but I found the characters to be too unbelievable for me to really root for either of them. Thank you to NetGalley for the earc in exchange for a review.

https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/4545859379

Nora Goes Off Script is an enjoyable and unique read! I absolutely loved this one and devoured the book in a day because I was truly invested in Nora and her life. So not only is the cover gorgeous (it's one of my favorites) but everything inside is just as wonderful! I highly recommend this one!

I absolutely LOVED Nora Goes off Script! It was smart, witty and incredibly fun. I enjoyed the characters, and it was a quick read. I found the writing to be engaging and entertaining; I had an enjoyable time reading this and it held my attention the entire way through that I finished it within the day!

It was easy to get lost in this story of love, loss, an unexpected misunderstanding. Both Nora and Leo love with all of their hearts and family is the love that sustains us. At the heart of the novel, it’s just a beautiful story.

Thank you to Penguin Group and NetGalley for sending me this eARC! I thought the flow in the first 20% of this book was really weird, and that’s why I didn’t give this 5 stars. I just felt like it read very jumpy, and there was no flow from one scene to the next. Also, they fell in love in two weeks which I am never a fan of. I did love the rest of the timeline and the way Nora was trying to understand her life with and without Leo. The kids were also really well written. I enjoyed this book!