To All the Boys I've Loved Before
Jenny Han
This book features a protagonist navigating love and relationships, with elements of scheming and romantic tension.
Better Than the Movies
by Lynn Painter
A warm, funny YA rom-com about a movie-obsessed teen who tries to stage her own perfect love story and finds real life messier and better.
What It's About
Liz Buxbaum is a high school senior who believes in love the way the movies sell it: grand gestures, meet-cutes, and the boy you have always wanted finally seeing you. When her childhood crush Michael moves back to town, she decides this is her chance and sets out to win him, ideally with a prom date as the prize. Her problem is that the person best placed to help is Wes Bennett, the next-door neighbor she has bickered with for years. So she strikes an uneasy deal with him, and the scheming begins.
Lynn Painter writes in Liz's first-person voice, which is chatty, dramatic, and self-aware about the genre she loves. The book openly plays with rom-com tropes, including enemies to lovers, fake relationships, and the friend who is right in front of you, while letting Liz slowly notice where her movie scripts fail. Underneath the banter runs a tender thread about grief: Liz lost her mother, who shared her love of romantic films, and her attachment to those stories is tied to that loss.
The reading experience is quick, light, and comforting, with plenty of laugh-out-loud exchanges and a few genuinely touching moments about family and change. It is best enjoyed as a cozy, swoony escape rather than a surprising story; the pleasure lies in watching familiar beats land well.
Read this if you…
- love classic rom-com movies and want that feeling in book form
- enjoy enemies-to-lovers stories with lots of banter
- want a quick, feel-good read with a bit of emotional depth
Skip it if you…
- want a plot full of genuine surprises rather than familiar tropes
- find dramatic, self-absorbed teen narrators hard to tolerate
Key Ideas
- 1
Movie romance versus real connection
Liz measures her love life against film scripts, planning moments she expects to feel magical. The novel gently tests that habit, showing how scripted gestures can miss what actually matters, and how real affection often grows from ordinary time spent together, honesty, and being seen as you are rather than as a character in someone else's fantasy.
- 2
Enemies-to-lovers banter done with affection
Much of the fun comes from Liz and Wes trading insults and pranks as neighbors forced into an alliance. Painter leans into the trope knowingly, letting the sparring be playful rather than cruel, so readers who enjoy sharp, flirty dialogue and slow-dawning realizations will find the central dynamic satisfying and frequently funny.
- 3
Grief hidden inside a comedy
Liz's mother's death shapes everything from her film obsession to her resistance to change at home, including her father moving on. These threads give the light story emotional weight, exploring how holding on to a parent's memory can sometimes mean refusing to let your own life change shape.
- 4
A love letter to the rom-com genre
The book is packed with references to classic romantic comedies and structures itself around their familiar beats. It works both as a homage for fans of those films and as a gentle commentary on how such stories shape teenage expectations about love, dating, and what a perfect moment is supposed to look like.
Limitations
The story is predictable by design; most readers will guess where things are headed early, and the appeal depends on enjoying the journey. Some find Liz frustrating, since her fixation on her crush and her scheming can make her seem oblivious or selfish for long stretches. The supporting cast is thinner than the leads. Although it is shelved under children's books in some places, it is really young adult fiction, with high school parties, some drinking, and mild language, so it suits teens and adults more than younger children.
Questions Readers Ask
- What age is Better Than the Movies appropriate for?
- It is a young adult novel best suited to readers around 13 and up. It contains teen parties, some underage drinking, mild swearing, and kissing, but nothing explicit. Many adults who enjoy rom-coms read it too, since the tone and humor travel well beyond a teen audience.
- Is there a sequel to Better Than the Movies?
- Yes. Lynn Painter followed it with Nothing Like the Movies, which continues the story of Liz and Wes. Reading the first book beforehand is strongly recommended, because the follow-up builds directly on the relationships and events established here.
- Is it similar to To All the Boys I've Loved Before?
- They share a lot: a romantic, imaginative heroine, a fake or staged relationship, a lost mother, and a warm family backdrop. Better Than the Movies leans harder into comedy and banter, while Jenny Han's book is quieter and more focused on sisters. Fans of one usually enjoy the other.
- Published
- 2022
- ISBN
- 9781534467637
- Difficulty
- beginner
- Category
- Children's Books
Book details and cover from Google Books.
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