Such a wonderful YA book with the beauty and complexity of falling in love and heartbreak. She manages to encompass some very adult feelings into words. I found myself fighting sleep to keep reading this. Such a great read, Painter never misses. Sequal to 'Better than the Movies' I hope she releases a third one because I love Wes and Liz too much.

❣️⚾️Nothing Like The Movies by Lynn Painter⚾️❣️
⭐️⭐️⭐️💫

Wes & Liz broke up. He cheated on her and dropped out of college. She’s moved on and is a different person, thriving in her chosen career path. What Liz wasn’t prepared for is for Wes to make his comeback to college and end up being the centre of her portfolio work for her internship. Wes is determined to win Liz back, but she doesn’t want that and she doesn’t think she’s the girl he’s in love with anymore.

I did enjoy this book but I wasn’t overly excited to pick it up. I liked the music references throughout and it did make me want to listen to the playlist! I part read this on kindle and part listened to it and the mixture definitely worked well for me. Definitely one for younger adults who like a sport romance!

#nothinglikethemovies #betterthanthemovies #sportsromance #wesandliz #romance #youngadult #2025inbooks #bookstagram #yabooks #booksta

I loved this. I absolutely loved falling back in love with Wes and Liz. I loved watching them work out whether they were going to find their way back to each other.
The references were so good and I want to read it all over again. An absolute joy.

This book hurt in the best way possible. I often worry about sequels like this story but I think this was handled with so much care. It was a story that needed to be told and you still love the characters just as much.

This is the sequel to "Better than the Movies" and picks up 2yrs down the line after Wes and Liz have broken up. They went to college together but only 2 weeks into their first semester, Wes's dad died and he had to move home to Omaha to take care of his family and he didn't want Liz waiting for him when she should be living her life, so he lies to her and tells her he cheated on her.

Now he's back at UCLA as a freshman, playing baseball again and he's determined to win Liz back but she's not interested in reliving the heartbreak from the first time around. So she fake dates her roommate and colleague, Clark but nobody really buys it because they've always acted like siblings.

The story is really cute but it would have been better if Wes had put the time into getting to know Liz now, rather than trying to appeal to the girl she once was. She's grown up a lot and changed quite a bit from when she was 18 as she's made new friends and had new experiences but Wes is holding onto the girl he fell in love with and doing whatever he can to win her back.

I also don't like the fake dating between Liz and Clark. She should have been honest with Wes and told him from the start she didn't want to get back together or be friends again but instead she drags her close friend into it and makes him lie. Even when Clark starts to befriend Wes and can see what a good guy he is.

I'm glad they were able to work things out between them by the end though, even if it did take something drastic to get Liz to finally realise her feelings.

Thanks to NetGalley and Simon and Schuster UK Children's for the opportunity to read and review this ARC.

This is a rom com movie in book form. It has all the tropes you'd expect from a rom com - a protagonist with a tragic story, a feisty heroine who doesn't date and a life changing opportunity that thrusts them together. Wes and Liz were together in high school and left to go to college together but a death in Wes' family change his plans. When he drops out of college to support his family, rather than talking to Liz about what is going on, he tries to put on a brave face on how left behind he's feeling. Then he decides to end things, leaving Liz heart broken. Cut to sometime later, Wes has a second chance at college and has decided he is also going to get a second chance with Liz. She meanwhile has been getting on with her life at college. She's heavily involved in the college newspaper, reporting on the different sports teams. She has been offered the opportunity to work with a real life media company, reporting on the baseball team, the team that Wes has rejoined.

While I am a bit of a sucker for romance and happy endings, I did find some aspects of this book frustrating. The usual, why didn't they just talk about things and why did Wes make decisions for both people in the couple without speaking to Liz being the most obvious. I guess a story where people talk about the fact that they're having a hard time and feeling like they're holding the other person back wouldn't be as interesting but from a feminist point of view, I did find myself annoyed that Wes decides it was for the best for them to split up and then decides he is going to get Liz back. It frustrates me that I was rooting for them to get back together while also kind of thinking that it would serve Wes right if Liz was to turn around and say that he'd missed his chance. In this way, the book left me a little conflicted. However, it is a fun read and I did enjoy it.

This is not the usual type of book I would read.
I know very little about either baseball or US colleges YET I got really drawn into the two main characters and how they were feeling about their lives and one another.. An amazingly (for me) good read

3.75
I have to admit that like everyone else when Lynn announced that there was a sequel and that they BROKE UP I was scared. But I can understand that the breakup was the best for them both so they could grow and mature.

This book made me SOB which i was not expecting but i probably should have.
I loved the way wes grovelled (rightfully so after what he did), he was determined and was refusing to give up which made me fall more in love with him

I loved the little movie references at the top of every chapter but it didn’t hit the same because liz didn’t mention or reference the films anymore. I feel like one thing that made me love bttm was liz’s cute cute and fun personality where she would wear dresses and make playlists which they didn’t have at all in nltm. However, I kinda of loved and admired how she didn’t just back down to wes after he broke up with her the way he did.

thank you netgalley and Simon & Schuster Children's UK for an arc!!

I had previously loved Better Than The Movies and was expecting big things for this novel. I am a huge fan of Lynn Painter as an author.

I personally was heart-broken to hear of Liz and Wes' split - I really enjoyed their relationship growth in the first book, but I felt obliged to figure out exactly how the second book would pan out and how their development would progress.

It felt like home returning to the characters and Painter did such a fab job at keeping these characters alive - it felt divine to see how they had gotten on and it felt like I was learning about friends. I found my emotions towards Wes to change a lot and, due to his narrative being so complex, I had mixed emotions learning about how he has changed and what he did.

It was wonderful to see Wes winning Liz back, and the way in which he showcased his emotions was second to none (of course it was) but I can't help and feel that there was something missing and I can't quite pinpoint exactly what it was.

That being said, it was an enjoyable read from start to finish.

This unfortunately ended up being a DNF for me, but I can see why other readers have enjoyed it.

Thank you so much to Netgalley, the publisher and the author for the arc. 🫶🏻

I feel like I'm in the minority with this one as I loved it but I'm a sucker for a second chance romance and watching two people who are meant to be learn from their mistakes. I love Wes and Liv and seeing how they reconnected and fit back together so easily was joyous. This was well written keeping me gripped and not wanting to put it down. I loved the characters and the friendships and this was a great ya romance.

How could I ever give a book that made me kick my feet and giggle at stupid hours (that probably made my neighbours believe I had company) anything less than 4 stars?
That's right, I can't.
And I am very much okay with it.

"She rolled her eyes, raised her chin, and I wanted to drop to my knees."

I was late to the party, okay? I was late because I read Better than the Movies only in October. I was late because I did not understand the hype until halfway through. I was late because I did not immediately devour Nothing like the Movies as I should have.

"I looked into the eyes that I saw every night when I closed my own and said, 'Okay, I will do it.'"

Maybe I did not deserve to get the advanced readers copy. But you know what? It does not matter, because this book, yes book number two, made me feel like BTTM only managed to in the second half. The POV's of Wes? The love confessions in his mind? The chaos? The drama? The fun? The lovable friend group? The REALISTIC reason for them to break up in the first place? The grief, the hurt, the angst, the stress, the anxiety, the everything. I loved it! I laughed, I giggled, I kicked my feet, and I teared up and cried numerous times during my read.

"Fucking yes, tease me, Buxbaum"

And what I would not give to have a man like Wes Bennet in my life who does not take himself too seriously, puts other people first, and speaks poetry...

"I am just Wes fucking Bennet, Lib, the guy who can't remember a single day in his life when he didn't love you."

I don't understand why so many people are this unhappy about the book. I had a great time, because I love to torture myself, and this one had the perfect balance of heartache in every way possible. It showed the reality of life but mixed with movie worthy romance.

I loved that it moved slow and the only reason that I did not give the full five stars is
1. that is always very hard to reach and
2. that the very ending felt rushed after everything else moved at a perfect speed.

Thank you, thank you, thank you, Simon & Schuster Children's UK and Lynn Painter for the advanced readers copy!

This was amazing!! I loved book 1 and was so pleased to start this one. I loved the ‘fake dating to intentionally (or not) make Wes jealous’ part, and Liz will forever remain the best character in this series! I loved seeing both characters (and their friends) succeed at their dreams and seeing Wes trying to win Liz back was beautiful. I really enjoyed this and would recommend this to anyone looking for a cute romcom, especially any fans of the author and the first book in this series!

I was so nervous to read this as I LOVED Better than the movies so so much and was worried that I wouldn’t love this one as much… but I did!

I did a re-read of BTTM before I read this and I’m so glad I did because for me this felt like just a continuation of the first book rather than a standalone, it felt that it was written just for us, the readers!

I think it was definitely more ‘real life’ than the first but for me it was done in still such a fun and beautiful way. It really did feel like this is what would have happened to them as people and as a couple and I’m so happy with how the ending went!

I really really enjoyed it and I’m so happy that @lynnpainterbooks gave us a little bit more of Liz and Wes’s world!

From the blurb -
For a few beautiful months, Wes and girl-next-door Liz were together. But right as the two were about to set off to UCLA together, tragedy struck and their relationship ended.

Flash forward and Wes and Liz find themselves in college, together. In a healthier place now, Wes knows he broke Liz’s heart, but is determined to make her fall back in love with him. And he has a foolproof plan to win her back with the rom-com worthy big gestures she loves. Only … Liz will have none of it. Wes has to scheme like a rom-com hero to figure out how to see her. Even worse, Liz has a new friend…a guy friend.

Still, Wes won’t give up and is determined to win back Liz’s affection. But after his best efforts get him nowhere, he’s is left wondering if their relationship is really over for good.

ARC from NetGalley

This book was so cute !!! I loved that we got a follow up to Liz and Wes and we really got to see how much Wes loved her. Second chance romance done right !! Loved it

There were so many things I loved about this book: the banter, the baseball, based in LA, movie and song quotes throughout, references to Taylor Swift, loveable side characters, happily ever after

It was though a second chance romance
WITH miscommunication and I think this is the bit that I didn't like. It's not that it didn't work for the storyline because it totally did it's just that those tropes are not for me

Overall, I highly recommend for light easy reading and you love a bit of YA romance

"Nothing Like the Movies' is the second book by Lynn Painter about Liz and Wes's epic love story. While the end of the first book gave hope for a happy ever after, at the beginning of the sequel we are immediately informed that Wes is back at home (Nebraska) while Liz is still studying at UCLA. Even though they are no longer together Wes cannot stop thinking about Liz, especially now that after a 2-year break he is coming back to UCLA. Liz on the other hand, feels hurt and tries to avoid Wes at any cost, which is no longer possible since one of her internship tasks is to record the baseball team with their new sports star' Wes Bennett.

Feel warned that this book once started needs to be read to the very last page. I couldn't help myself, I just had to read it all at one go. There's so much tension between two main characters that you will be engrossed in the story immediately. The banter and swoon-worthy moments are the best parts of the book,- I can asure you that there are more of them than you would have ever expected. Flesh and blood characters, an epic love story and fast-paced plot make the book a great read! I wholeheartedly recommend it!

This was ok, took me a bit to get into it. I think sis mostly me and lynn Ya books. But definitely fun for a teen. Got a copy for my niece she would love it 100% . Great follow up to the first one.

lynn painter hooked me in with book 1 and i was pretty nervous regarding book 2. but once again, she knocked it out of the park and left me wanting more!!

So freaking cute!!
I loved Better Than The Movies. It felt like a warm caress, and I couldn't help but smile while reading it. When I heard about the sequel, I was both scared and excited, but Lynn Painter did not disappoint. Nothing Like The Movies is a perfect reflection of life: sometimes it throws obstacles your way, ones you aren't ready form, and it can feel overwhelming. But just like in life, there's always a light at the end of the tunnel.

Wes thought he had it all with Liz, the girl next door he loved, until tragedy messed everything up right before college. Now they’re both at the same school, and Wes is pulling out every rom-com move he can think of to win her back—but Liz isn’t having it. Is their story really over or can they have their happy ever after?

I loved this one and I couldn't stop reading it! I'm going to miss these characters so much! They've become so dear to me, and it's hard to say goodbye!
If you love YA books, you should def pick up this duology and if you have read the first one, don't be scared and pick this up!

Tropes:
- Second chance romance
- Dual pov
- Dual timeline
- College setting

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Arc received by NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.