Author: Owen Nicholls
Genre: Romance
Publisher: Ballentine Books
Publication Date: February 11, 2020
Book Description: A film-obsessed romantic rewrites the script to understand why his “picture-perfect” love story crashed and burned in this wonderfully clever debut.
Ellie had the quizzical eyebrows of Broadcast News–era Holly Hunter and the neon-red hair of Kate Winslet in Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind. At least that’s what caught Nick’s attention when he met her on the night of 2008’s historic presidential election. A cinema buff and devotee of great love stories, Nick always fancied himself the Tom Hanks of his own romantic comedy, and when sparks flew with Ellie that night, he swiftly cast her as the Meg Ryan of his story. For four blissful years, Nick loved Ellie just as he loved his job as a film projectionist: wholly, earnestly, cinematically.
But now Ellie has moved out, convinced that “the fire’s gone,” and Nick is forced to sift through his memories to figure out where it all went wrong. That night was a perfect meet-cute, yes, but was their romance as destined for a “happily ever after” as he’d thought? Was he really the rom-com hero he believes he’d been? Or did this Harry let his Sally down? Peppered with references to beloved movies, Love, Unscripted explores how even a hopeless romantic can learn that in real life, love isn’t—shouldn’t be—like what we see in the movies.
Rating: 3 Stars
Review: This is the story of Nick who was recently dumped bu his long time girlfriend Ellie. Nicholls’ tells this story over 3 timelines, the night Obama was elected in 2008, 4 years later post breakup and then there are 4 interludes that help fill in the blanks.
Nick is in search for so many things in this book, what went wrong with his relationship, his career or the so called job he has a projectionist that he is in fear of losing over modernization, and there also big changes that are happening with family.
There are many movie references that occur, though I have to say some of them went over my head for this book. Comparison to Waiting For Tom Hanks it is not. However, there is some merit to this story on its own. It is labeled as a rom-com, but this much deeper than that. Nick is depressed most of this book, at least it feels that way. He is extremely introspective, and his entire goal is to figure out what went wrong with his relationship with Ellie.
While this book is a bit on the down side, no worries, because I felt completely uplifted at the end, and not in a cheesy HEA way. I am definitely interested to see what else Owen Nicholls writes.
Thank you NetGalley and Ballentine Books for an Advanced Reader’s Copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.
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