It Only Happens in the Movies

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It’s time for another Holly Bourne book, and if you’ve been following along my reviews, then you know what to expect by now: incisive, excellent narration from a teenage girl who is at a turning point in her life, some kind of crisis moment, and a lot of honest discussions about mental health, sex, romance, and friendship. A firm favourite in a brilliant series, it runs parallel alongside Empire of Storms in the Throne of Glass series. Everyone finds life an utter nightmare sometimes, and there’s no ‘normal’ way of dealing with it… There is no normal, Evelyn. I cringed for Audrey at this point, and part of me regrets the inevitability of Audrey and Harry becoming a thing—but I really like how, overall, Bourne handles the entire relationship, especially the ending.

But I can assure you - as an Italian that grew up with romantic movies - Nuovo Cinema Paradiso is one the best movie you can see in your life, and I was astonished when Harry described it as one of the best films ever because no one ever remembers it. A feast of feel-good funniness and feminism that cleverly contrasts the impossible magic of movie romance with the heady complexities of real-life love. The premise for this book is absolutely superb and the execution is just on point – she really conveys the movie cliches as there are and the cold, harsh reality that the romance you see in films aren’t the whole picture. I got the point of what Holly Bourne was trying to achieve with this book but I found that the actual story itself fell a little short. With each lovestory cliché that DOES come up, there is a twist and turn you didn't necessarily see coming.If I were to describe the story of It Only Happens in the Movies it would be that it's a unflinching raw truthful look at 'Why love is never like the movies'.

A sequel novel, The Scarlet Veil, featuring vampires also released recently and I'm looking forward to checking it out.I loved it just as much as the first time in this fantasy with a dark romance thrown in as Sonya becomes the Sovereign Auraseer, a position of great honour in the empire of Riaznin.