Many thanks to Simon & Schuster for providing an advanced reader copy via NetGalley in exchange for a review. All opinions are my own.

Just in time for cozy fall reading, “Nothing Like The Movies” sets off fast paced and familiar, seamlessly connecting “Better Than The Movies” with its sequel. We catch up with Liz and Wes separated by two years, a family tragedy and half a country. But just as Liz is watching her dream life unfold before her eyes, Wes has his own plans to reinsert himself back into the picture…This book is full of swoon worthy moments and the unmatched tension between two people who are meant to be together but life got in the way. Loads of “will they or won’t they moments” and cozy pop culture references from “Gilmore Girls” to Taylor Swift. I enjoyed this even more than the first book. The character development is phenomenal, the transition from high school to college has a “grow with the characters” feel. Wes has become one of my favorite MMC’s! This is the perfect rom-com to add to your Fall TBR.

Big thanks to Edelweiss and Simon & Schuster for the ARC! I’m obsessed with Wes and Liz—Lynn Painter really brought them back with a bang in this sequel! This book made me laugh, cry, and feel all the emotions in between. Liz is a little different now—more serious, but still lovable—and Wes? Total heartbreaker in the best way. Their chemistry and banter? *Chef’s kiss*. The side characters, especially Clark, were a blast, and the story was full of all the pining and yearning I love. The ending had me on the edge of my seat, and I’m still recovering. Can’t get enough of this series!

The way Wes loves Liz is the way I feel about this book. 

First, thank you NetGalley for allowing me to read this book early. I was really shocked when I saw my request approved. Was it a mistake? I don’t care, I read this book so fast, so no takebacks! 

Ugh, what an excellent sequel to a beloved book. It could have gone all wrong, but it didn’t, it was perfect. I’m seriously about to start a Lynn Painter fan club. 

College is such a special time for change and growth. I was excited to see how Lynn used that with Wes and Liz. Everything felt very grounded and real. It started with growth from Wes and Liz, but Lynn continued it throughout the rest of the book. In life, you are always growing. 

I’m always skeptical of books that claim something “tragic” happens but what Wes went through broke my heart. I just wanted to hug him the whole book. At some points, it was difficult to know everything Wes went through, but it was inspiring to see him work through his hardship and fight for what he wants growing into a great young man. 

Honestly, I’m such a sucker for a second-chance romance. 

I loved the college crew! It made me miss my undergrad days studying in an old library, parties, and college sports. I used to study in the back of the old TCU library basement and I can't lie that’s where I pictured Liz and Wes studying. 

TCU’s campus made, lots of appearances in my mind, it's my main frame of reference for a college campus (sorry not sorry).

The book had angst, tension, and love. Can't forget about the trademark banter.
I was just so giddy reading this book.

Wow, another great book by Lynn Painter! This book was cute, emotional yet still funny. I loved the first book and the characters so I was so excited to read this second book. This book also had Taylor Swift references which i absolutely loved. Wes is one of my all time favorite book characters, he is literal boyfriend goals.

This was just as good as the first! I had so much fun revisiting Liz and Wes and watching them fall back? Into love. Did we need this book? No. Was it worth reading? YES.

I'll admit I was skeptical going into this, but Lynn Painter did it again (and THEN some!). In Nothing Like the Movies, she somehow pulled off believable angst between Wes and Liz, creating the breakup we never saw coming—AND shows us how they're still meant for each other, and will fight for each other to the end. The new setup gave us the same enemies to lovers vibes, a fun callback to fake dating shenanigans to incite jealousy, and rich themes of family, friendship, and college reinvention. Somehow, this sequel made their love story even swoonier and even stronger. A masterpiece and a marvel!

A strong 4 1/2 stars! Man I love Lynn Painter's YA work!! NOTHING LIKE THE MOVIES gave us what BETTER THAN THE MOVIES didn't: Wes's point of view! And it was well worth the wait. Watching Will battle with his internal demons and seeing how he struggled with letting Liz go was heartbreaking.

The story starts three years after BTTM, and we learn that tragedy befall Wes's family, which caused him to leave UCLA and Liz. After months of struggle, she got on with her life, but ended up changing her personality and clothing as a way to protect herself from ever thinking back to how things were during that amazing summer with Wes.

Wes fights his way back to UCLA, and now that baseball is going well, he wants to also try to win Liz back. But she isn't interested. She's terrified of being hurt again, and can't forgive him for their past.

The story was a joy to read. All of Wes's usual quips—that made BTTM so enjoyable—are present. And the push and pull between Wes and Liz is ::chef's kiss.:: It's also a quick read with a fast-moving plot.

The only complaint I had: I would have liked to have seen an additional epilogue showing where Liz and Wes were after they got back together. Something maybe further into the future.

I highly recommend this book to anyone who loves quirky heroines and sarcastic heroes, and second chance romances. Lynn Painter really is the queen of YA romance. This was such a delightful read. Thank you for the chance to read an advance copy!

If you liked Better than the Movies, then you’ll enjoy this sequel. It starts with Wes and Liz broken up over miscommunication - the start of any good romcom. The whole book Wes tries to win Liz back. Painter does what she does so well in the first book, which is that slow burn closed-door romance. I binged this read and you should too!

Huge thanks to NetGalley and Simon and Schuster Children's Publishing for the ARC.

4.5 - arc review

ALL I HAVE TO SAY IS WES. BENNETT.🫶🏼 I did not think I could love Wes Bennett even more but there goes Mrs. Lynn Painter to prove me wrong! I am a huge sucker for second chances and this one was so beautifully written! I laughed, cried and giggled like a teenager the entire book. Mrs. Lynn Painter you have done it again! 💜


(the only reason it’s not 5 it’s because the miscommunication was dragged for way too long but other than that I have no complaints)

6/5 stars!! Firstly I want to say this book was incredible and was my first arc! The feeling of reading book that isn’t out yet is so CRAZY!!

Wes and Liz and are my favourite couple ever! Their story is so palpable and Painter did an incredible job developing their relationship in this book. We follow the journey of their breakup to them finding each other once again.

I was feeling joy, heartbreak, anger, sadness, awe, and SO MUCH MORE while reading this book. Following them through so many hardships had me really emotional and I felt like I could see them grow, not only together but as individuals as well. Wes and Liz are so perfect, their relationship felt so real. Painter’s way of writing them on a college campus was so great. We got to explore Wes and Liz on a deeper more sensitive level and it was SO GOOD.

In all honesty this book has been my favourite this year . So so incredible and I can’t wait for everyone to become as obsessed as I am with it. Thank you Lynn Painter for being the amazing woman you are, and thank you netgally for the arc. THANK YOU!!

"Better than the Movies" was a little bit of a struggle for me, so I actually enjoyed this sequel a lot more. It felt more realistic for how evolving adult relationships work. That may not be true for how a college drop out gets back on a D1 baseball team after two years away, but it was refreshing to watch Wes and Liz figure out how to navigate real struggles and real trauma. I wish they had figured out how to communicate sooner than 2/3 of the way through the book, but they eventually got where they needed to be. Their happily ever after felt cemented with this second book, which doesn't always happen when you get a sequel to a beloved romance.

I have such conflicted feelings about this book. In some ways, I liked it much more than the first. Wes's POV was everything he was so down bad for Liz the entire book. Like, this is basically just a whole book of him being obsessed with her, and I'm not complaining about that.

I know a lot of people were upset at the idea of Liz and Wes breaking up and not just letting us imagine them happily together, and while I think that's valid, I think the breakup made sense. But I feel like a lot of people who LOVED the first one aren't going to love this one and might be better off just reading the road trip short story Lynn added to her website because this almost felt like a completely separate book, like a really fun college sports second chance romance with lots of pining, but not quite the sequel to BTTM.

Personally, I was here for the breakup plotline. It was like picking up a second chance romance where you have an entire first book of the couple's relationship before the breakup. The whole thing with the second chance trope is it's a couple that should have worked out but sometimes life gets in the way. So I don't think the breakup ruins them or their dynamic, and the reasoning for their breakup, and the subsequent changes, felt in-character to me. I mean, Wes spent the entire last book putting Liz before his happiness. Literally, that's what the promposal moment was. So Wes's actions make complete sense to me (and he was also going through a really hard time, so it's not like he'd be thinking through a super-rational lens).

Liz's character change in this also made sense to me. I mean, her entire worldview was centered on romance and being a hopeless romantic, and even though that was shifted a bit in the last book because she realized that life didn't play out exactly like the romcom plotline she'd constructed for herself, she still ended up getting all the things she dreamed about, this whirlwind love and grand romantic gestures and this person she got matching tattoos and saved a cat with. For anyone, that would be a big deal, but for someone who's spent their whole life putting love on a pedestal? And then for that to fall apart and for "the love of her life" to utterly break her heart? Yeah, I can completely understand being anti-romance after that. It's very, very normal to go through phases of your life, especially as you're growing up, where you want to reject everything from your past and show that you've changed, especially in college, and ESPECIALLY after someone significant in your life hurts you.

That being said, I think maybe Painter went a bit too far in making her act different because she almost didn't feel like the same character, and there were these weird "she's so chill" and "she's one of the guys" narratives throughout. "She watches football on the weekends instead of romcoms, isn't she so cool now?" And then we never get to see her start reclaiming some of the old pieces of herself. I'm not at all saying she needed to be high school Liz again, because that wouldn't even be realistic, but more of an older blend of the two. Maturing is sometimes getting past those periods of throwing out everything from your past self, learning to love pieces of younger you, and figuring out what's healthy to leave behind and what you actually never needed to "grow out of." Like, in this instance, dressing up in unique clothes and watching romcoms. I kept waiting for us to reach that point with Liz, but then that never came. Liz's character shift will probably be the most upsetting for big fans of the first book, so, just a warning there.

The writing felt much more mature in this one, and even though the first made me feel for the characters, this one had me wanting to cry at so many points. Especially when we see how much has changed over the years, it left me with this intense ache and nostalgia. I loved the friend group in this and the little college found family they formed, I loved Sarah and the way she supported Wes, and the way Liz's family supported her.

So while this book felt off at times and had some weird choices added in, this was still a fun time with so much pining that made me feel all the butterflies while still maintaining an emotional undercurrent.

As someone who immensely loved the first book, this didn't feel like Wes and Liz at all. Liz was unrecognizable and I don't think the reasoning given behind such a things felt valid. They finally started to feel like the characters I knew 80% into the book but really, the book as a whole, felt unnecessary. I think they were better off left as they were after Better Than the Movies.

Sadly I did not love this book as much as the first book. Honestly I didn't feel like it needed to be written. I felt like it was vastly different from the first book and the characters felt off.
I still love Liz and Wes, always will. I just think their story was wrapped up so nicely in the first book that this one wasn't needed.

I really like “Better than the Movies,” but I absolutely loved “Nothing Like the Movies.” We find out so much more about Wes as an individual with dual POV which heightens the emotions aspect while reading. I love Liz so much in this book as we see her grow in college and become an ambitious adult. I was absolutely obsessed with the character's chemistry throughout the entire book and Wes' efforts to get her back were so adorable. The storyline was very fluid and I could not put it down. I finished it in one setting. Absolutely a 10/10.

I loved this book! A super cute follow up after Better Than The Movies. I loved BTTM more but I still really enjoyed this book, perfect banter and although it’s YA it still was a fun read as an adult. I love all the characters and the friendships.

I'll never get enough of Liz and Wes but Nothing Like the Movies was a fitting happily ever after for my favorite YA couple.

Nothing Like the Movies drops you in the middle of Liz and Wes' break up. While I didn't love that, I really enjoyed Wes' journey for a second chance with the love of his life. It's a joy to revisit these characters and to see how they have all grown up.

Four stars. Lynn Painter doesn't miss.

Thank you to Simon Teen and Netgalley for sending me the eARC of Nothing Like the Movies by Lynn Painter in exchange for my honest opinion. I honestly really enjoyed it.

I had such high hopes for this book, especially since I adored the first installment. Approaching it with an open mind, I genuinely wanted to love it, but unfortunately, it fell short of my expectations. The fact that it took me much longer than usual to finish is never a promising sign.

The interactions between the characters often felt contrived and awkward, and the storyline itself became repetitive. I’m not a fan of the miscommunication trope, and this book leaned heavily on it. It was frustrating because if the two main characters had simply communicated honestly with one another, the entire plot could have been resolved in a fraction of the pages.

Additionally, the overdone 'I’m breaking up with you for your own good' cliché felt not only tired but also insulting, both to the characters and to the reader. While Liz does confront Wes about his behavior, she never truly holds him accountable. Both characters were in desperate need of therapy, and their dynamic throughout the book felt deeply toxic.

All in all, while I wanted to enjoy this story as much as the first, the reliance on tired tropes and lack of meaningful character growth left me disappointed. What was once a compelling narrative with strong character arcs has devolved into a predictable and frustrating plotline. The emotional depth and complexity that made the first book so captivating were missing here, replaced by shallow conflicts that could have been easily resolved with honest communication. Unfortunately, rather than exploring the characters’ personal growth or offering insight into their struggles, the story resorted to clichéd misunderstandings and surface-level resolutions. It feels like a missed opportunity to create something more profound, leaving me with a sense of dissatisfaction as the book didn’t live up to its potential."

The perfect conclusion to Wes and Liz! I highlighted so many lines. They were fun, hot, and sweet! I love how this story played out and we had time with each character while they navigated a really hard time in a young person’s life. I’m so happy they found their way back to one another.

And that Halloween kiss!!! Everything!

Sometimes, some books just need to remain stand alones. This is especially the case with "Nothing Like the Movies". In their respective points of view, both Wes and Liz were nothing like the characters we saw in "Better Than the Movies". Liz had lost all of her romantic spirit and the subject of her mom (a huge focal point of the first book) was barely discussed. Wes had an insufferable and at times uncomfortable inner monologue that was a struggle to read. And overall, the book was poorly written at times and included unnecessary pop-culture references that felt out of place.