Review: Not Like the Movies (Waiting for Tom Hanks, #2)
I absolutely adored Waiting for Tom Hanks. I did not want to pass up an opportunity to review Not like the Movies. Waiting for Tom Hanks was definitely a book that if you love Nora Ephron and the Rom- Com genre you would love this book. It was the perfect sampling of funny and over the top dramatics that we have come to expect of the genre. Not Like the Movies while well with in the same genre there is a reason why most NE Rom-Coms don’t get sequels and follow ups.
The Books started out Fantastic! The book follows the relationship of Chloe and Nick after Annie’s movie is auctioned off and the trailer comes out. Chloe and Nick are constantly hounded by people and the media because the movie is so popular from the trailer and they just needed to know if this was the couple that the movie was loosely based off of? We get to learn more about Chloe’s life and how hard she works to juggle everything. She has a father suffering dementia, a brother who left her to handle everything on her own, a business degree that still needs finishing, and pies to bake for Annie’s wedding. What she really doesn’t need is to think about Nick!
What Nick really needs is to not have someone toy with his emotions. This was the difficult part of the story for me. I had issues with Chloe’s inability to make decisions on pursuing her love-life and hurting someone in the process. Chloe comes off as self-centered, but she is over committed. She works to hard at pleasing everyone around her leaving very little for herself. When she finally decided that she is going to think of herself and do something for herself she strings Nick along. Give Nick hope that she is committed to him when that is not it at all.
The way that Chloe hurts Nick was a hard pill to swallow. It made it very hard to feel good about Chloe and root for her. What I did like was the diversity and realness of the book. We had someone who was taking care of a loved one with a debilitating disease, we had a gay brother, we had a bisexual main female character, and so much more. I also really liked the banter between Chloe and Nick. Also with a good Rom-com we got plenty of sexual tension.
Kerry Winfrey is an excellent writer. I really have enjoyed both books I have read by her. This was a solid 4/5 read for me. While Chloe’s choice are very real life, I just felt it was almost too real and not enough from what I want of a Rom-Com. This was more Chic-lit than romance this time around.
