Nothing Like the Movies by Lynn Painter Book Summary
Check out Lynn Painter’s contemporary romance novel, Nothing Like the Movies, that’s such a unique love story full of rom-com movie quotes, comic relief, and emotional depth. If you’re a fan of Lynn Painter’s other books or just sweet rom-coms in general, this one is a must read.
This summary is to help remind you of the main points before you read my honest review. If you haven’t finished the end of the book yet, I highly recommend it to get the full effect of one of my favorite romantic comedies.
If you haven’t already, you should read the first book, Better Than the Movies, before reading this second installment. I have a fullreview and summary of that one as well.
Nothing Like the Movies Summary
Two weeks into freshman year of college at UCLA with Liz Buxbaum, Wes Bennett’s dad dies of a heart attack, and after the funeral he never goes back to school or baseball. After a few weeks of long distance, Wes breaks up with Liz because he thinks that’s what’s best for her. At a New Year’s Eve party that year, he sees her for the first time, and turns down a dare to kiss her in front of all their high school friends.
Chapters 1-2
A year and a half later and in a much healthier place, Wes restarts freshman year at UCLA and playing baseball while majoring in engineering. He’s so grateful and excited to have a second chance that he’s trying to do everything with his best efforts. On top of everything else, he’s trying to win back Liz, still his dream girl, as well.
Starting her junior year after staying in LA for all breaks, Liz has an internship with Lilith Grossman, a famed documentary producer who’s working with UCLA athletics to make a documentary. This is a great opportunity for Liz who does the social media for the athletic department and also wants to go into music and film.
Chapters 3-4
The first week of school and practice, Wes starts taking bull pen, and word spreads he’s the new ace pitcher. He loves playing baseball again, but doesn’t like that people are constantly filming them. Wes agrees to go to a party on Friday with his teammates.
Liz is also at the practice, but photographing the batters where she doesn’t run into Wes. Because she’s friends with a lot of baseball players because of work, she invites them to the party at her apartment. Her roommate and co worker, Clark is also there photographing and invites so more baseball players.
Chapters 5-6
Wes goes to study at the music library instead of the regular library hoping he’ll run into Liz, but hasn’t had a luck yet. He has so much homework and baseball the first week, he hasn’t gone looking for Liz yet. Then, he gets ready and goes to the party with his three teammates and roommates, AJ, Mick, and Wade.
As they arrive at the party, Liz sees Wes walk into her apartment and thinks she’s going to pass out. At parties she’s always the DJ since she doesn’t love drinking or socializing. She thought she was completely over Wes, but she goes out onto the balcony to get some air and get away from Wes who’s walking closer.
Chapters 7-8
Wes’ friend Wade is looking for Liz’s roommate Campbell, who he’s obsessed with, and before Wes knows it, Wade pulls him out onto the balcony to ask Liz. Quickly, Wade leaves them to go find Campbell, and Liz starts making small talk with Wes like they’re strangers. He understands that she may still be mad at him, but still tries to talk to her about what happened.
After shutting down the conversation about their past, Wes tries another tactic of getting under her skin like he used to. Then, Clark walks out to talk to Liz, and Liz says Clark is her boyfriend. Wes appears to not care, but inside is furious and also crushed she’s dating someone.
Once Wes goes back inside, Liz fills in Clark about Wes, and Clark agrees to fake date Liz for a little. Liz convinces him that she’ll just avoid Wes at all costs.
Chapters 9-10
Wes has to leave the party because he can’t stand to see Liz with someone else. On the walk home, he calls his sister Sarah who tries to convince him to tell Liz the whole truth. Then, the little alarm on his phone that Liz set and her never deleted goes off at 12:13 AM, the time they had their first kiss on prom night.
Liz is still avoiding Wes when she has a meeting with Lilith, and finds out the documentary is going to be about the UCLA baseball team because they have the top recruiting class of the year. Over the fall, Liz is supposed to follow the baseball players to get footage of their every day life, as well as practices and games. Liz dreads that she’ll see Wes so often, but insists that she can keep her feelings separate.
Chapters 11-13
Liz has asked Clark to help with the documentary so she can get as much footage as possible. Wes finds a very annoying that car has to be around all the time, but he keeps trying to find excuses to talk to Liz. and Liz can’t help but notice he’s the same as two years ago only more grown-up and attractive now.
When Liz is sitting in the music library, she sees Wes nearby, and he comes to try to talk to her. She still seems annoyed with him, but he tries to be nice anyways. Wes tries to find out more about Liz and Clark’s relationship but no one knew they were dating. This gives Wes hope that it’s so new he can change Liz’s mind.
Chapters 14-15
Liz finally told her roommates the full story of Wes, and she thinks back to how he broke up with her over the phone. And then when she confronted him on New Year’s Day, he said it was because of another girl named Ashley. Later, Liz is filming content at baseball practice, and can’t help but admire the way Wes play baseball.
Wet notices he pitches better when Liz is at practice, and then he finds out he is the starting pitcher for their first exhibition game. He’s over the moon about starting, and causes his sister Sarah, who is a freshman Stanford, to come down from the game. But the day of the game, he’s too afraid he’s gonna mess it up, and keeps hearing his dad‘s voice heckling him to pitch better.
Chapter 16-17
Liz can tell somebody’s wrong with us just by looking at his face through the camera. To try to help him, she writes a note on a piece of paper, and has Clark deliver it to him in the dugout before the game. When he comes out for the game, she can tell he looks much more ready.
Wes feels so good after pitching a good game, and he knows Liz‘s note helped. He goes out to dinner with his sister after who still tries to convince him to be honest with Liz. That night, Wes texted Liz, but she never responds.
Chapters 18-19
Liz is waiting for Wes after one of his classes, and she asks him to do the interview that he’s repeatedly refused over emails with Lilith. After refusing at first, he only agrees because Liz says it will help her career, but only on the condition that she is the one asking him questions. He says it’s because he only trusts her with something like this.
Chapters 20-21
At the interview, Liz starts the questions about baseball, but when questions about Wes’s dad start, Liz leaves the interview. Clark takes over the questions, and Wes tells him about his mom not coming home after his dad died. There was no one but him to take care of his sister and pay the bills.
Eventually his mom got better and got help. Then, Michael shocked him out of it by throwing baseballs at him after bringing him to the field. Wes eventually starts pitching again, and he drove to LA to talk to the UCLA coaches in person.
Chapters 22-23
Afterwards, Liz watches the tape of the interview and didn’t know any of the stuff about Wes’ mom. After Lilith also watches the video, Lilith likes it and asks if Liz will go with her to Liz’ hometown of Omaha to film at Wes’s house. Clark tries to convince Liz to forgive Wes, but she says he cheated on her.
Chapters 24-25
After Wes agrees that Liz, Lilith, and Clark can film him at his house in Omaha that he’s going home to sell, they all fly back there. Liz is so happy to see her family, but
Wes remembers the fight with his dad the morning he died. His dad was yelling at Wes that Liz was a distraction from baseball, and Wes told his dad that he didn’t want him coming to any of his games in the fall.
Chapters 26-27
While Liz is visiting her mom’s grave, she finds keys in front of Wes dad, and picks them up thinking Wes dropped them. Wes had really left them there on purpose. Later that night, Wes calls Liz drunk, and after he hangs up, she’s worried about him.
She uses the keys she found to go over where she finds him having a nightmare. When she wakes him up, he cries in her arms that him telling off his dad is what caused the heart attack later that day. Liz consoles him enough that he calms down and thanks her for coming over before she goes back home.
The next morning, they finish the interview. Wes and his sister also say their final goodbye to the house.
Chapters 28-29
Wes, Clark, and Liz meet up with a lot of high school friends for dinner, and Clark suddenly decides to fake break up with Liz without discussing it first. Then Clark shows Liz a video of Wes’ mom admitting that Wes blames himself for his dad’s death while he also got two jobs to pay the bills and took care of his sister, Sarah.
Liz confronts Wes about why he didn’t originally tell her any of this, and Wes says he didn’t want to pull her down with him after she skipped college things to talk to him all the time.
Wes also admits that he never cheated on her, he just use the rumor so that Liz would get over him. Liz yells at him that he can’t choose those kind of things for her before she storms off. We admit to his sister that he’s happy because Liz’s rage means she’s not over it.
Chapters 30
That night when Liz talks to her dad about everything, he tells her it’s OK to be confused about Wes’s past actions and not know what she thinks if she never has to give Wes an answer. He encourages her to stop over analyzing the past. She goes back to school and tries to forget all of it, but can’t stop thinking about how Wes said she was the only one for him.
Back at school, West gets an idea for a foolproof plan for grand romantic gestures for Liz, even though his friends make fun of him. He climbs onto her apartment balcony to put flower petals and candles along with a sign he made. But while he’s lighting the candles a crazy neighbor thinks he’s lighting a fire and sprays him with a hose.
Everything you set up gets knocked over and he slipped while climbing off the balcony hurting his ankle. The next day was confront him about the scene on the balcony, but he never directly admits it’s him. He does say the person will not give up and that Liz should brace herself.
Chapters 32-33
The next day, Wes’ friends show her pictures of the balcony that Wes took before it got ruined as well as photos of him prepping it. Liz doesn’t know how to feel, but she acknowledges the old Liz would have loved it. Later, Liz calls Wes to ask why he did it if they just got into the fight, but Wes tells her the fight didn’t change anything about his feelings.
During the phone call, they end up making a bet about a Halloween party they’re both going to whether Wes can find Liz in the crowd because everyone’s required to wear a mask.
Helena calls Wes about something Sarah left in their old house, but also tells him a conversation Helena had with Wes’ dad a few weeks before he died. Because Helena was upset about an argument with Liz, Wes’ dad told her that kids say stupid stuff all the time without meaning it.
Chapters 34-35
Liz dresses up as Bat girl because she thinks Wes won’t recognize her in such a revealing costume she’d normally never wear. But Wes does find her at the party when he recognizes her lips. To hear over the noise of the party, he pulls her into a room that’s actually the attic, but the door locks from the outside behind them.
While they wait for their friends at the party to find a key, they play twenty questions to learn new things about each other. Wes admits that Clark confessed to the fake dating, but he isn’t mad when Liz tells him its because she panicked. It ends with them kissing a lot which Wes thinks is the best kiss of his life because he has Liz again.
Chapters 36-37
Before they can talk about the kiss, Liz’ friends get the door open to let them out. Back at in the party, Wes has to leave right away to help his friend, but tells Liz he’ll pick her up tomorrow for the date he won because of the bet. The next night, Wes is super nervous about the date because he thinks this is his real chance to win Liz back.
Wes takes her to the famous restaurant from her old favorite movie, La La Land, but it reminds Liz too much of the past which she doesn’t want to think about. When they get to the restaurant Wes’ roommates car breaks down, and they have to wait for a tow truck and miss their reservation.
Chapters 38-39
While waiting for the tow truck, Wes has McDonald’s delivered along with a tablecloth and fake candles to have a picnic on the car. Liz enjoys this more than the restaurant and feels like they’re two new people on a date. She realizes that if she can pretend the past didn’t happen, she wants to be with Wes again.
As the tow truck is bringing them back to campus, Wes has Liz get out with him near the high school baseball field yo continue their date.
Chapters 40-41
They climb the fence to the baseball field and take some playful BP together. As they’re messing around, Wes grabs Liz to stop her from getting to home plate, and it turns into them kissing. During the kiss, Wes tells Liz he loves and misses her, but she says it’s too soon for him to be saying that.
Wes insists that he can because his feelings never changed, and they can’t just pretend they’re strangers. Liz is about to explain her side when a cop shows up because they broke into the baseball field when it was closed.
Chapters 42-43
After the cops dropped them off separately, Liz ignores Wes’ calls to think by herself. She realizes that being with him does still feel like she loves him, but isn’t sure if he’ll do it again when something hard happens. By the next day, she goes to the athletic department before the baseball scrimmage where Wes comes to find her.
Liz tells Wes she needs time to think alone, but Wes again declares his love for her, and says there’s no one else for him. Then, he says he’s thinking in song lyrics because of her, and none of this will ever change. He leaves before her reply to warm up, but now he’s hearing his dad’s voice in his head saying he’s going to mess up.
Chapters 44-Epilogue
At the scrimmage, Liz wants to ignore Wes’ presence because she doesn’t know what to do, but he gets hit with a line drive to the chest and collapses. As he lay not moving on the field, Liz realizes that she has always loved him, and there’s no one else for her either. After Wes wakes up and is driven away in an ambulance, Clark drives her to the hospital where she confesses all of this to Wes.
He thinks he’s hallucinating from pain meds because he says it’s too good to be true. Liz admits that he’s still perfect for her, and wants to always be with him.
Six months later, Wes is pitching in the championship game of the College World Series, and he sees Liz in the crowd wearing his jersey. He remembers that she wrote you got this, just pitch in the note she passed him during his game.
Read My Book Review
Now that you better remember what happened in the book, check out my full book review. I also have other book recommendations if you enjoyed this Lynn Painter book. Whether you like witty dialogue, emotional authenticity, or grand gestures, I have some book recommendations for you!
