I definitely enjoyed this a lot more than the first book. There wasn't anything wrong with the first one, it is just harder to connect with YA things, because you get annoyed that they are acting like teenagers. Which is on me not the book 🤣 overall I felt like it was a natural progression of the story and I enjoyed the banter for the most part. Worth reading for a clean fluffy romance.

Lynn painter has done it again! These characters had my heart in Better Than The Movies and I didn’t think I could love them more. WRONG! This book had me sobbing one moment and kicking my feet and giggling the next. Wes and Liz go through so much together and apart in this book and I found it was done so well. The transition from high school to college was well done and I loved seeing how much both characters grew as they’ve gotten older. If you are scared to read this sequel don’t be! I would be more scared of the reality check you will have when you remember these characters aren’t real! Is it crazy to ask for a third book, but it’s just Wes and Liz going grocery shopping????

I loved Nothing Like the Movies! Lynn Paonter is my favorite ya romance author. I’m soo glad Wes didn’t actually cheat on luv and that he lied bc I was angry.

Lynn Painter does it again! The charming story of Libby and Wes continues in Nothing Like the Movies, in a more mature and more serious setting, but equally adorable. For all who loved the first book, this is a must read!

Thank you Simon and Schuster for the Digital ARC on NetGalley, you made my dreams come true with this book!

Going into this book, I didn’t know what to expect. *Better Than the Movies* is perfection, so I was unsure about a sequel to the story. However, this book had me in a chokehold from start to finish. It picks up around two years after BTTM, and unfortunately, Liz and Wes are hit with a case of real life. They split two years ago, with Liz now enrolled and thriving at UCLA. Meanwhile, Wes has returned to go back to school, determined to reclaim his life and his former love.

I absolutely loved this book. It’s just as good, if not better, than BTTM. It had me on an emotional rollercoaster, and I didn’t expect to be so moved by their journey. Wes reminded me a lot of Conrad from The Summer I Turned Pretty—I just wanted to give him a hug. 🥹 The story introduces a little bit of a love triangle, but the additional characters and the overall message of the book was absolutely lovely. I enjoyed every moment and if you are on the fence, I can promise you won’t be disappointed.

The book isn’t released until the end of September, but I highly recommend checking it out when it comes out. It’s a fantastic addition to Wes and Liz’s story. 🌸💕🫶

A massive thank you to the publishers and NetGalley for an early copy of this book! I felt truly honored (haha and a bit cool) to get the opportunity to read this one early. I honestly can’t say enough good things about this book. I loved everything about this! Lynn Painter took two beloved characters and gave them a story that went way deeper than the previous book. I already loved Wes and Liz and this book made me love them even more! I LOVED that this was dual POV and we got both of their perspectives. And I absolutely loved Wes in this book! The things this man had to go through and the emotional punches to the heart his story gave me 🥺. You can’t help but root for Wes Bennett in this one and pray for a well deserved happy ending for him. This was an emotional ride for me I laughed, I cried, I cheered, I groaned, I swooned, and I found myself believing in love again 😭. If Lynn wants to write a third book for this series.. I wouldn’t be opposed 😏🙏.

𝑵𝒐𝒕𝒉𝒊𝒏𝒈 𝑳𝒊𝒌𝒆 𝒕𝒉𝒆 𝑴𝒐𝒗𝒊𝒆𝒔 was so completely adorable and a fantastic sequel to Better Than the Movies. I LOVED IT. Also, the fact that this book was dual POV is everything. Getting Wes’ POV and seeing the depth of his feelings for Liz added to the story immensely. Returning to these characters felt nostalgic. They’re familiar, lovable, and they make me smile. Yes, their split was incredibly sad but their journey back to each other was so sweet. The famous Wes + Liz dynamic is still there but you get to watch them find each other and fall in love all over again. It was nothing short of perfection.

Once again Lynn Painter has crushed it with the rom-com references for each chapter. I love how she incorporates so many classics into the story. I also adored the Charlie + Bailey cameo. Fans of Betting on You are going to be living for that moment.

Tropes:
💕 Second Chance
✨Fake Dating
⚾️ College Baseball
😍 Boy Obsessed
✌🏼 Dual POV

Thank you so much Simon and Schuster Children's Publishing, Lynn Painter, and NetGalley for the ARC in exchange for my honest opinion.

THIS BOOK! 💀😭🥰 so many feelings. I COULD SCREAM ABOUT IT ALL DAY.

I know the book has cover copy, but I think everyone should go in as blindly as I did. I read Lynn's first draft last spring, so I was expecting it to be an iteration of that. But it was so different, and I LOVED the surprise!

Because of that, I'm going to be vague(ish) here. I'm personally sold on books based on the amount of flailing and screaming surrounding it, rather than hearing repeatedly what it's about. and, listen, IM FLAILING AND SCREAMING, OKAY?!

I could not have asked for a better sequel to my (tied for) favorite YA novel! Sequels make me nervous. I feel very strongly that once you pull off an amazing book (or movie/TV show), you should leave it alone. (I still pretend like Gilmore Girls: A Year In The Life doesn't exist!). And Wes and Liz had the perfect book with the most perfect ending. I was SO SCARED Lynn was going to ruin it for me.

But fear not. She took care of our babes.

I mean, she broke them (and therefore me), but she put us all back together by the end. My heart was in pieces. I cried—sad tears AND happy tears AND tears of relief.

Lynn pulls off an incredible, believable second chance romance (I know, I couldn't imagine them NOT together either!)—with a dash of forced proximity—that will make you swoon. It's a beautiful and poignant story of healing and grief and second chances but still manages to be FUN and SWEET and even angsty! The friend groups are amazing, and you will fall in love with all the supporting characters at college. I've been asked whether there's a love triangle. Again, I'm here for no spoilers. All i'll say is: there's no real love triangle 😏.

Guys, I cannot wait for you to get your hands on this book in September so we can scream about it together. It's a perfect sequel to a perfect book. Thank you @lynnpainterbooks for writing the best teen couple ever and taking care of them through loss and heartbreak and college (and jealousy 😉).

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