BETTER THAN THE MOVIES is a stand-alone YA romance by Lynn Painter. Liz Buxbaum is your average teenager in many ways, but her mother’s death when she was younger still reverberates and affects her attitudes and behavior in ways she’s not totally aware of. When it comes to certain things, and certain people, Liz can compartmentalize and be very rigid. There are certain things that she refuses to do with her stepmother because she thinks it will be like turning her back on her late mother. She had a huge crush on Michael when they were kids, so she thinks it’s fate that they be together when he comes back to the neighborhood. She always sees Wes Bennet as the goofy kid who was a lowkey jerk to her when she was younger, so she can’t see him as anything else. I like Liz despite her quirks and baggage. Everything in BETTER THAN THE MOVIES is age appropriate fun with a PRIDE AND PREJUDICE vibe at times.

Liz’s goal in BETTER THAN THE MOVIES is to get Michael to see her in a romantic way, have a romcom-style meet-cute, and have a relationship blossom. Romcoms were the thing that Liz and her mom shared, therefore attaching a greater significance to them and their zany logic when Liz was at an impressionable age. The films have influenced her life and remain one of the last connections to her mom. As a music geek, she creates soundtracks in her head for all her life major (and not so major) moments. Her BFF tries to ground her a little more in reality, but it’s a hard thing to shake. Lynn Painter details epically funny (for the reader, not so much for Liz) vignettes where Liz and Michael are almost having that swoon-worthy movie magic moment before things blow up and some calamity happens. Ironically, the person who is usually there to do damage control in an effortless way and recue Liz’s bacon is Wes. To be fair to Liz, Wes never straight out told Liz he likes her and his behavior over the years could be hard to decipher for a young woman. I like that Wes never dumps on Liz, even though he seems unable to successfully convey his true feelings for her.

BETTER THAN THE MOVIES is loads of fun with complex characters and a few surprises. I like how there’s resolutions for most of the relationships in this story that fit the characters. There are a lot of moments that pull at the heartstrings without seeming manufactured or forced. I’d love to read more YA romance by Lynn Painter.