Better Than the Movies

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Better Than the Movies features quotes from the best-loved rom-coms of cinema and takes you on a rollercoaster of romance that isn't movie-perfect but jaw-dropping and heart-stopping in unexpected ways.

I knew exactly what she meant. I watched my mom’s beloved rom-coms practically every night, using her DVD collection I’d inherited when she died. I felt closer to my mother when I watched them; it felt like a tiny piece of her was there, watching beside me. Probably because we’d watched them together So. Many. Times. Also my prediction for the future is that ✨Lying Liz✨ will return to the dark side and Wes and her will break up in college.

No, all the stories in this novel are fictional. Are they making a movie on Better Than the Movies by Lynn Painter? Ginny and Harry are in relationship throughout much of the book, but Harry breaks up with her for safety. Similar to Better Than the Movies, Lina lost her mother at a young age like Liz. Although she meets another boy she thinks she should fall for, in reality her heart knows exactly who’s right for her. On her wedding day, Naomi gets a call from Tina saying she needs help. Although Naomi knew her fiancé wasn’t right for her, she took Tina’s call as confirmation that she needed to get out of there. Michael watched Wes’s disappearance before looking down at me and drawling, “He lit out of here so fast, I didn’t get to ask. Is it casual dress?”

He turned and walked away from me like I hadn’t been speaking. Just… walked toward his house in that relaxed, overconfident way of his. When he got to the porch, he opened the screen door and yelled to me over his shoulder, “Have a good day, Liz!” Adding to that, there was the screaming fact that shopping with Jocelyn’s mom for dresses was just a huge reminder that my mom wasn’t there to join us, which made it a wildly unappealing outing. My mother wouldn’t be there to take pictures and get teary as her baby attended the final dance of her childhood, and nothing made that hit home quite like seeing Joss’s mom do those things for her.

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After her best friend starts falling for a guy Olive went on one date with and wasn’t at all interested in, she needs to find a way to reassure Anh that she’s totally fine with her dating him. An eyebrow raise told me just how ridiculous he thought I was. From our many less-than-pleasant encounters, I knew the narrowing of his eyes meant he was sizing me up, and that we were about to throw down about the most recent annoyance he’d brought upon me. And when he was bright-eyed like he was right now, his brown eyes practically freaking twinkling with mischief, I knew I was screwed. Because mischievous Wes always won. Mr. Fitzpervert left a hair ball in my slipper, I burned my earlobe with the straightener, and when I opened the door to leave for school, I caught my next-door nemesis suspiciously sprawled across the hood of my car. Because Wes Bennett got off on messing with me—he always had. In grade school, Wes was the guy who’d put a frog in my Barbie DreamHouse and a decapitated lawn gnome’s severed head in my homemade Little Free Library. In middle school, he was the guy who’d thought it was hilarious to pretend he didn’t see me when I was lying out, and then water his mom’s bushes, “accidentally” spraying the hose right over me until I screamed. Harry's farewell with the Dursleys is omitted from the film, including Dudley thanking Harry for saving his life. (But it is a deleted scene in the adaptation.)