Wow! This book was everything and more! It was angsty, swooney, and gave me all the feels! Wes and Liv(Lib,Libby,Lizard) will forever live rent free in my mind. I wouldn’t change a thing about this book! I’m just sad that is over.

wowie wowie wowie!! i will admit! i was super skeptical of this book at first. i am a very firm believer that happily ever afters should stay that way!! and we don’t need to mess with them just for a sequel!! however, nothing like the movies and lizwes 2.0 took me by complete surprise and i think i MAY! like it even more than i loved the first.
the GROVELING! the PINING! the YEARNING! wes is a true true true lover boy and god did i love seeing all the patience and persistence he had with liz. and my perfect little liz ohhhhh she was breaking my heart (in the best way possible). she was truly following the january andrews fairy princess lover of love turned anti romance footsteps and it was KILLING ME!!!! but getting to watch these two characters slowly fall back together after all the seperate and joint hurt that they shared was so so beautiful. lump in my throat just thinking about it type of beautiful.
the only only things i didn’t entirely love with my whole heart were some of the pop culture references (ie. taylor) (coming from a full time swiftie). a lot of them were done very well and necessary to the story for sure (illicit affairs reference took my breath away) but some of them felt out of place and unnecessary, just making it feel a bit tacky at times!!
i also, personally felt like the ending fell a bit flat. it was still phenomenal and i was still sobbing my eyes out of courseee! but after all that liz and wes went through it felt maybe rushed and like they deserved a bit of a better end than what they got. i wish we could’ve seen liz come back to her lover of love roots a bit more!!!!!
even so!!!! this sequel so so so pleasantly surprised me and i loved it with my whole heart!!!! lizwes will always be so perfect to me!!!!

also, can’t not mention my beloved helena. one of my favorite fictional chapters. love that woman to pieces. HELENA YOU WILL ALWAYS BE FAMOUS!!! WE NEED A HELENA BOOK!!!!!

Lynn Painter for the win!! She writes the BEST books. I loved the continuation of this small series. Made me fall in love with Wes' character even more. Can't wait to see what is up next. Definitely recommend this series and this author!!

#NetGalleyARC Love, Love, Love this book/series. Painter creates characters who are just the right amount of romantic without being overly romantic or cheesie. Liz and Wes continue to be relatable and life-like characters that make you believe in love stories but also make the feeling feel attainable. I love that this story took us into their college years and I think we need a wedding novella next. A definite buy for my HS library.

This was another 5 star read from Lynn Painter! Wes and Liz are back, however now we’re following them through college. I loved being back in a universe with some of my favorite fictional characters, and being able to see them a few years down the line from the previous book. Seeing how much they’ve both grown was everything to me. I loved that Lynn Painter included the romance quotes at the start of each chapter again, and all the music references throughout the story to really immerse the readers. (I especially appreciated because i have the same taste in music as Liz.) If you were a fan of Better Than the Movies, you are in for a treat!

this was one of THE most anticipated releases of 2024 for me and saving it for my birthday was an excellent decision. I would do anything for Wes and Liz so getting to spend more time with them was a delight.

as excited as I was for this one, I was also nervous because sequels for romance novels have to mean the couple broke up and as far as I was concerned, Wes and Liz went to college together and were happy forever. but picking up two years after they break up because Wes drops out of school to move home after his dad’s sudden death, this was a moving and poignant yet fun story of them finding their way back to each other.

Lynn Painter is a master of her craft, especially when it comes to YA, AND she knows her audience (I mean the reference to an unreleased Gracie Abrams song that’s used for Better Than the Movies TikToks? *chef’s kiss* I practically screamed. side note: Gracie plz release In Between!!!). the banter was bantering and watching these 20 year old idiots deal with their big feelings was truly heartwarming. we hit big themes like grief and trauma, and Painter does a great job of subverting expectations of what’s romantic at the expense of agency. the heavy elements are balanced with truly funny scenes and an excellent cast of side characters. I especially loved the focus on Liz’s career expectations and internship—I so badly wanted to watch the content she was creating for the team.

there were extremely tiny things that kept this from being a full on favorite but I love these characters so much that I could see this winding up on my end of year list regardless. Lynn Painter is a mastermind and I cannot wait for this one to finally hit shelves (on 9/24!)

Thank you to Lynn painter and NetGalley for the arc. I have been patiently waiting for this book to come out in october. After reading, i can tell that this isn’t just another sequel for the sales. Lynn truly loves these characters and she works hard to make us love them. I definitely wasn’t disappointed and this is a 5 star read for me!

I love Wes and Liz so much. They’re so near and dear to my heart. I will always love reading about just how much Wes is willing to go through for Liz and how perfect they are for one another. I did however think that Liz was being a little too stubborn at the end. I get she was hurt but she has the entire book to be hurt and then during the 3rd act conflict was hurt AGAIN. I feel like Wes deserved more in that retrospect because he was literally just doing what he thought was best. He was young and just didn’t know how to do so properly. I’m so glad we got more of Liz and Wes though and Lynn Painter always kills it when it comes to romance <3

Lynn Painter does it again!! Better Than The Movies is one of my all time favorite books so when I heard a sequel was coming out, I was both excited and nervous. Because Better Than The Movies was so loved, I had extremely high expectations for Nothing Like The Movies. I’m happy to report that this book lived up to my crazy high expectations!! I loved the dual pining and the chemistry/banter that we know and love between Liz and Wes. Finished the book in one day. 10/10. (Plus bonus points for all the Taylor Swift Easter eggs!)

I just want to start by saying a huge huge HUGE thanks to lynn painter and NetGalley for providing me with an arc. If you saw my face when I saw this book in my NetGalley shelf… This both was the perfect sequel to BTTM and I couldn’t have asked for more. Often times when authors announce a sequel to a stand alone book simply for the fact that the original became popular it usually ends up with the characters acting totally different from the original and random plot lines being construed together simply so they can say there is a sequel: This book was nothing like that. A heartfelt portrayal of wes and liz and college that made me root for them harder in this book than i did in the original. Having Wes’ pov might have been one of the aspects of this book that I loved the most and now I need to original from his point of view. ALSO the music intertwined the book worked so well not only for the fact that Liz wants to be a music coordinator but also because Lynn knows her audience and trust me gracie abrams & noah kahan girlies this is for you. Anyway I can’t wait until October when everyone gets to read this and I can get my hands on a physical copy.

Oh my god. I didn't realize how much I missed Liz and Wes until I read this. I absolutely loved this. I was a little skeptical when I saw it was a second chance romance because... those are my babies, but wow. I loved it. So much tension, so much emotion, so much nostalgia. Anything below 5 stars would just be a lie for me.

Wes' nightmares really brought me back to when I had nightmares just like that. Trauma and PTSD can really shake someone up.

Nothing Like The Movies

“There will never be anyone else for me. Hard stop.”

Thank you to @simonteen and @netgalley for the advanced copy of this book! I am so grateful! All opinions are my own.

Let me start by saying that Better than the Movies is one of my favorite books of all time and Liz Buxbaum and Wes Bennet are characters who have lived in my heart for quite a while now. I love them, so when I saw that Lynn was writing a sequel, I was ecstatic but I was also scared to death. As it turns out, I had nothing to worry about because Lynn Painter is masterful and this book is everything that I hoped that it would be and more. I loved it and I liked it and there are parts of this story that I know I will go back to and reread again and again.

Full disclosure, most of this book absolutely broke my heart. It ached as I read how the happy ending we were promised in Better than the Movies became a reality where Liz and Wes find themselves apart and alone. Seeing them in pain was devastating but those feelings of sadness soon morphed into a greedy hopefulness that despite everything they would find their way back together. Liz and Wes’s journey is messy and sad, but it is also honest and so full of love.

This book is such a beautiful testament to the fact that you can fall in love with characters both for who they were and for who they become. Liz and Wes are not the same people that they were in high school -- because of course they aren’t. They have been through things that have changed them. Their personalities are deeper and more layered but at their core they are still the same fun loving beautiful friends and soulmates that you know and love.

I adored this book and I can’t wait to have it in my hands and on my shelf on October 1st

Lynn Painter does is again! The highly anticipated sequel to "Better than the Movies" did not dissapoint!
This book was dual POV!!!! I loved getting to learn more about Wes and his inner monologue was *chefs kiss.*
This book was still YA vibes but a little more PG-13 than the first book as far as language and dialog went. The parallels between Wes's and Liz's trauma was beautiful in the sense that they could easily understand one another, and they I'm so happy they got their HEA.

4.25 Stars!

I liked Better Than the Movies better than this one, but it was still an enjoyable read. The story alternates between Liz and Wes's points of view, which I enjoyed. It was nice to get some more of Wes's story, and the interactions between him and Helena were entertaining and heartwarming. The Rom Com quotes at the start of each chapter are a cute touch!

I want to start by saying that I LOVEEEED Better than the Movies. That was an instant 5 star read for me. Unfortunately, because the original was so good, this sequel fell flat for me. Don’t get me wrong, I still love Wes and Liz. But that’s what made some of their actions in this book so unrealistic. The book was good. But it just did not live up to the original. Thank you for the ARC in exchange for my honest opinion!

As a reader who fell hard for Wes and Libby in Just Like the Movies, the sequel didn’t disappoint! Both favorite characters and new ones made this story fun, engaging, and had me rooting—once again—for them to find their happily ever after.

I am so thankful that I was chosen to read the ARC of Nothing Like the Movies! This was truly my most anticipated read of the year. It was SO much fun to see Wes and Liz all grown up. Without giving too many spoilers, I would have loved to see more of the two of them getting to know the new and older versions of themselves! While they obviously have a ton of history, I think it would have been really nice to see them acknowledge that a lot can change over a few years and that it's okay to grow and change. There was a bit of this but I thought it could be pushed even further! Overall, it was really sweet. I love second-chance romances and this one was done pretty well! I felt like the conclusion wrapped up rather fast but overall, I really liked this novel. It doesn't come close to the first one in my opinion, but it was a fun bonus read.

For a few months, Liz and Wes had it all. They went from enemy neighbors to deliriously in love and were so happy together. But as the pair left to start at UCLA, Wes's life came crumbling down. Left to sort out the fallout, Wes had no choice but to let Liz go or risk pulling her down with him. Now, a few years later, Wes is in a good place and is ready to start over. He's back at UCLA, back on the baseball team, but more importantly, he's ready to win back his girl. Wes knows he broke Liz's heart, so he's prepared to take a page out of the romance movies Liz loves so much and win her back with a grand gesture. But Liz is having none of it, and worse yet, she seems to be dating another guy. Wes has come too far to get deterred, but Liz rebuffs all of his advances, leaving Wes to wonder if he's missed his chance with his dream girl for good.

Honestly, I was very conflicted when I heard about this one. On one hand, I was so excited to revisit these characters because I loved BTTM so much. But on the other, the first book worked so well that I didn't think it needed a sequel. Unfortunately, I stand by my latter thoughts. Admittedly, it was fun to see these characters again, but they were missing the spark that made me fall in love with them in the first place. Both Wes and Liz felt like different characters to me. I guess you can chalk that up to them growing up and maturing, but I missed the lighthearted playfulness they had. Whereas the first book felt bubbly and bright, this was heavy and dealt with tough topics, such as grief and anxiety. Despite not meeting my expectations, I'm still glad I read it, but I wish the first book stayed a standalone.

This is my first Lynn Painter book that I have read and not listened to the audiobook. I love her sense of humor and characters. This book missed the 5 stars mark for me because it was stretched out and could have been shorter. I like that Lizzie and Wes evolved as young adults in this story , but Lizzie’s stubbornness really ruined the connection in this story. The ending was predictable but rushed. I may just love the audiobooks more than reading.

A GIGANTIC THANK YOU to the author, Lynn Painter, and the publisher, Simon and Schuster Children's Publishing, for giving me the greatest opportunity to read and honestly review this ARC.

I expected nothing less! This cooked, just like the previous books from Lynn Painter. It's always such an honor and grace to be able to read such a masterpiece of a writing. The way the whole book played out and the way it wasn't boring in the least. I bet all of us would want to see Liz and Wes again! They truly have become the trademark faces of BookTok and the book community altogether.

Set on UCLA campus, the author gives us a deep-dive insight of the separate (then conjoined) lives of freshman Wesley Bennet and junior Elizabeth Buxbaum as she tries to navigate from him and he tries to navigate toward getting her back, for good. It's wonderful and cozy. Just read it. For the plot. aka Wes Bennet :)