This was an excellent book! With a riveting plot, and detailed - and realistic - character development, you will definitely enjoy reading this title!

Thank you so much @HMHTeen & @NetGalley for giving me this eARC in exchange for my honest and unbiased review (Release Date | 01 December 2020)

SYNOPSIS | Audrey escapes her parents messy divorce by getting a Summer job at her local cinema where she meets Harry. He is a budding film maker and Audrey is a budding actress (although she chose to quit drama to avoid her ex) and as she gets closer to him, she learns that he has a bit of a reputation

WHAT I LIKED:
- this book was just so self-aware & a pleasure to read (albeit kinda raw in parts)
- that each chapter focused on a rom-com trope
- the entire rant against the "not like other girls" trope
- the ending

WHAT I DIDN'T LIKE:
- the whole zombie movie subplot
- i think consent should have been a bigger discussion point

It Only Happens in the Movies, by Holly Bourne, is a smart and thoughtful take on romcoms and Hollywood love stories. Audrey is a protagonist dealing with real emotional trauma, from her parents' messy divorce, her father's abandonment and her mother's mental instability, and a particularly awful breakup of her own. So when she meets the excessively charming Harry at her new movie theater job, she doesn't need to be warned by everyone who knows him to stay well away. Still, he seems irresistible...

Bourne fills this otherwise typical teen story with more honesty and reality than most books manage, taking down one unhealthy Hollywood glossification of romance and relationships after another, like Audrey's reaction to being told she's not like other girls: “I am like other girls, Harry. Don’t misinterpret my hatred of romance as some kooky, laid-back, manic pixie nonsense. I am damaged. I am not cute. I am emotionally fucking traumatized right now, okay? ... that’s why I seem different. That is not sexy.”

Clever, feminist, moving - there's a lot going on here, and all of it rolling toward a fabulous, refreshing ending.

Content warnings: divorce, parental neglect, suicide attempt, self-harm, alcoholism, sexual assault

Thank you to NetGalley and HMH for the advance review copy.

Audrey, who works at a movie theater, doesn't believe in the kind of romance she sees in movies. Her parents are just finalized their messy divorce with her on the sidelines. At work, she meets Harry, an aspiring horror filmmaker and they develop a friendship. As she analyzes the romantic messages she sees in the movies for a film class, she learns more about herself, and about what's necessary to make a real relationship work. There were definitely good aspects to this one, and I liked that it had more depth than the typical rom com but the pace was a little slow for me.

This book has a delightful and refreshing take on relationships. And all the references it has to how things work out in movies... chef's kiss.

The only reason this is not getting 5 stars is because I found the beginning rather slow but, once you get passed the half way mark, it just keeps getting better and THAT ENDING. I loved the ending.

The story follows Audrey, a 17 year-old girl who's going through a rough patch relationship-wise. Her now ex-boyfriend recently broke up with her and started dating someone else, her dad left her mom a couple years ago and now wants them to sell their home because well, he needs the money to buy stuff for her new wife (*cough* asshole *cough*).

The result? She dropped drama (her favorite subject), distanced herself from her friends, and is left to take care of her mom's delicate mental state while her older brother is off in college. With all the pressure on her shoulders she needs an escape, and that's how she ends up working at Flicker, a posh cinema where she meets Harry, who would be the charming bad boy of the story.

Having shut herself from romance, when she is asked to pick a part of the media to critically analyze for her media studies class project, she goes with "why is love never like the movies". Let me tell you, this addition to the story was GENIOUS. At the same pace as the story progresses, certain chapters start with a witty critique to an aspects of romance movies like: how the good girl falls for the bad boy, even though they have nothing in common, and for inexplicable reasons she is special and makes him want to change his ways; how there's always a formal event the couple goes to so that the boy can realize just how beautiful the girl is (because god forbid he would fall for her for some other reason); or how one of the lovers (usually the boy) always makes a big mistake about 70% into the movie because they can't simply meet, get along, kiss and that's it.

Overall, I really enjoyed reading this and, while still having every element of the "cliché contemporary", I can say it's different to all other contemporaries out there. Just read it.

A huge thank you to NetGalley and the publishers for the e-ARC in exchange of an honest and voluntary review.

I thoroughly enjoyed It Only Happens in the Movies. In it we have Audrey, a feminist MC writing a report on the ridiculously unrealistic romantic comedy genre. This book is smart, moving, a bit funny and heartbreaking at times, and ultimately, I found it to be very satisfying.

I really enjoyed the movie theater setting and the characters we meet at the cinema. Harry, our love interest, is wildly charming and a hopeful film director. He somehow manages to rope Audrey into acting in his newest zombie film, where she meets his group of friends who are even more wild than he is.

Audrey is facing her own issues at home. Her parents are recently divorced and her mother isn’t handling it well. Her brother, away at college, is very little help and her father seems to be lacking any sort of empathy. There were so many times I wanted to reach through the pages and shake her father. And her brother. Honestly, her whole family. All of them are so wrapped up in their own feelings that they can’t see or don’t care that Audrey is struggling. In this way, I really connected with Audrey’s character.

This book is a big story in a small package. There is so much to unpack, there is so much character growth, and so many satisfying scenes as Audrey finds herself and learns to put herself first. I really really liked this one and would recommend it to pretty much anyone.

Thank you to NetGalley and Houghton Mifflin for the e-ARC of this book in exchange for a review. I loved everything about this story from page 1. I was Audrey. I relate to this cynical, sarcastic character on a molecular level. My heart breaks for her mom. Kuddos to the author for including a parent with mental health. That's a tough subject and I thought she did it very gracefully. I love the choice to include bits and pieces of the media project, text messages, and letter. I can't wait to see the finished book! And THAT ENDING THOUGH!!!! Such an incredible ending! Loved that Audrey stayed true to herself and her beliefs! One MILLION stars!!

I received a free digital copy of this book from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.
Honestly, this book was okay-but I tired of the amount of pressure that was put on Audrey-she was supposed to deal with her mom’s struggle with a divorce, get her dad to not sell their house, work at a theatre, and go to school.
The best part-when she turned down the guy at the end.

I very nearly did not like this book at all. As many of my readers know, contemporaries can often be very hit or miss for me. <em>It Only Happens in the Movies</em> by Holly Bourne , despite having an interesting premise, was very much a miss. At least, it was right up until that ending. You see, the story and the characters are pretty generic. I feel like, at some point or another, I've read about them before. The difference, however, lies in the ultimate direction of everything.

<b>Parental Troubles</b>

Audrey has become a cynic. After the cheating and painful divorce of her parents, spearheaded by his father getting a much younger woman pregnant and basically ditching his family, and her boyfriend dumping her after they'd had sex <em>once</em>, she's sick of romance. Since we're a world surrounded by the lies of romance movies, it's no surprise that she turns her ire on them.

Books like this, typically, tend to be romantic comedies that follow the young protagonist realizing that her previous experiences do not account for <em>all </em>experiences as she falls madly in love with someone who just so happens to be the perfect guy for her. We've all seen the movies, we've read the stories. Even Audrey has, as accounted for by her newfound annoyance with the films. I was over the moon about the fact that Bourne flips this expectation on its head.

<b>My Fear</b>

Honestly, my biggest fear going into this was that Audrey would end up having all her love problems fixed by forgiving the people in her life who hurt her. We see this happen time and time again and cheating is, ultimately, treated so cavalierly as if it doesn't even matter because "love." And there are numerous instances of this with varying changes.

It's kind of obvious early on that something bad is going to go down between Audrey and the new love interest, Harry, who helps "heal" her from her past bad experiences. As they flit through the frankly incredibly boring day-to-day moments of their lives, they fall in love and experience conflict. Honestly, everything outside of this plot including Audrey's school, friends, and experience in drama that lands her the leading role in Harry's zombie film are pointless and irrelevant filler.

The real story is deeper than that, encompassing intricate feelings that surround her perception of her parents divorce, mother's alcoholism, father's insensitivity, and her relationship with Harry, whom almost everyone warns her away from. And really, the big takeaway I get from this book is that love isn't like the movies. We should never aspire for it to be like the movies. And, at the end of the day, the best thing any of us can do is take care of ourselves and our needs before partnering with others.

And those who hurt us don't necessarily deserve our forgiveness.

<b>I Loved that Message</b>

<em>It Only Happens in the Movies</em> is not the love story you think it might end up being. It's somewhat of a cautionary tale. The book is shameless in warning its readers that falling for the façade of love films often give us is not the blueprint for love we should be following. In essence, life is messy. Love is messy. And we all do our best to navigate it.

I could not be more supportive of Audrey choosing herself, making the healthy decisions rather than the in the moment emotional ones. We delude ourselves often in this world and make terrible decisions based on how we feel. To recognize in oneself the things they need to live an emotionally healthy lifestyle is a skill so many of us, myself included, lack. And I could not be more excited to see a book with a main character so mature and aware that she's able to recognize those needs and act on them.

<em>I was provided a free copy of this book via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.</em>

British novelist Holly Bourne brings us a delightful not-quite-rom-com in this new novel. Main character Audrey has a lot on her plate. With older brother Dougie away at uni, Audrey's left to be responsible for her divorced mother, whose mood swings are often hard to manage. Her ex-boyfriend dumped her and now flaunts his new girlfriend in front of her. She's dropped drama class to avoid them, and drama was her big thing. So she takes a job at Flicker, a small, two-screen movie theater, in the attempt to not have to spend so much time at home.

It's at Flicker that she meets Harry, a coworker, who was in her brother's year at school. Audrey's sworn off boys, especially after the embarrassing event that caused her breakup. But Harry's charming, and even though everybody's warned her off of him, when he finds out she's an actress, he begs her to star in a zombie film that he's making.

In addition to being cynical about love (the dissolution of her parents' marriage and her father's relationship with his new wife didn't help), Audrey's also doing a project for her media studies class that focuses on the danger of romance movies, and how they wrongly teach people that there's always a happily ever after.

This book is a delight and it's not so overly "British." Audrey is a wonderful universal character who just happens to live in England. It's a lovely read. I enjoyed Audrey's journey in this novel, and though I never do spoilers, I was completely enchanted with the ending. I would definitely read more by Holly Bourne.

This definitely wasn’t the book for me. I think a large part of it was I didn’t care about the characters one way or the other. Audrey’s ability to call out the many wrongs was overshadowed by the fact she was an incredibly whiney character. There were two Audreys, and it didn’t mesh for me. There was a lot of potential for this to be a super cute storyline, but I never got into the groove of it. So while this wasn’t the book for me, so many others have really liked it, so I think if it feels up your alley, go for it. Thank you, HMH, for sending this along.

I’m having a hard time rating this book.

It took me a while to actually get into it and I’m not sure I ever really did.
The biggest challenge I had was liking the characters. I found Audrey to be very annoying and immature. She blew up at people for the littlest reasons and it got to be super frustrating.

I also didn’t care for the “romance” at all.
It lacked sparks and Harry was just awful from the start. Audrey knew he was a player yet was still surprised with the outcome?

Overall the story was just okay for me though I did like the writing.

Thank you netgalley for letting me read this book.

It Only Happens in the Movies by Holly Bourne is a book that has a lot of potential but failed to deliver, in my opinion. I loved the feminist messages as well as the indie cinema setting, but I had trouble connecting with the main characters. As well, I am not the biggest fan of books in which the message is made explicitly clear and is constantly pushed on the reader, and that is what happened in this case. While this one wasn’t my favourite, there are still some aspects I found enjoyable, and those interested in books about cinema, feminism, and mental health might enjoy it.

This book tells the story of a girl who is frustrated with the way relationships are portrayed in the movies, and she gets a job at an indie cinema as an escape from home. Also working at the cinema is a boy who is making his own zombie movie, and what follows is a romance unlike that depicted in the movies. I loved the indie cinema setting as well as the scenes of Harry and Audrey actually making the movie, and the book challenges many common romance tropes. This is a feminist story that feels realistic, and it is a fresh take on a rom com.

❀ MAIN CHARACTERS AREN’T STELLAR

Honestly, I didn’t love either of the main characters. Both of them are fine, but not stellar. There are aspects I loved about Audrey, such as her strength and her ability to call out misogyny (both in the movies and in society), but also, something about her didn’t sit right with me. She seemed whiny to me at times, but I also feel like she expects too much from Harry. Before they got together, multiple people warned her about him, and she knew he did certain things she didn’t like. Yet, she still had expectations that Harry would never have been able to meet. I was also put off by a scene near the end of the book, which I won’t spoil, but to me, it contradicted everything Audrey stood for earlier, especially about consent. I never really felt a spark in Harry and Audrey’s relationship, and I had trouble connecting with them.

❀ FEMINIST MESSAGE

I think part of the reason why I had some trouble with this is book is because I enjoyed its feminist message, but I didn’t really like the way this message is delivered. This might just be me, but I feel like there are more subtle ways to get the message across than telling us why a certain romance trope is harmful at the beginning of a chapter and then immediately subverting it. I feel like the author comes across as though she’s trying too hard to subvert conventional rom com tropes, and while the book does contain important messages, I got sick of having them pushed in my face. Also, I’m not sure how I feel about all the criticism of romance movies and how they aren’t realistic. Yes, there are absolutely some problematic tropes, but others are less harmful to me, and romance movies are generally are not meant to be like real life. Sometimes, we just need an escape, and I think that we should be allowed to have our fun.

❀ A BOOK WITH A LOT OF POTENTIAL

Ultimately, It Only Happens in the Movies by Holly Bourne is a feminist novel with an interesting setting. The book has a lot of potential, but I couldn’t connect with either of the characters, and I wasn’t a fan of the way each trope is explicitly subverted, really pushing the message of the book at the reader. However, I know that many will find this book empowering, and I would recommend it to cinephiles.

It Only Happens in the Movies is a refreshing romance.
Audrey is going through some stuff and is very disillusioned with love, especially Hollywood’s portrayal. Her commentary on different tropes in romance movies was beautiful and highlighted the differences and similarities in Audrey’s own romance. (I loved the scene where she lectured Harry for telling her she’s “not like other girls”)
Audrey’s growth throughout the book was terrific. She’s trying to handle the fallout from her parents’ divorce, she feels humiliated by how her relationship ended, and she’s depressed. She’s drawn into herself. She starts to find her confidence and joy in the thing she loves again: acting. The Girls, as she refers to her friends, were wonderful. Instead of being a source of conflict, they support her and are still there for her – I thought it was a great depiction of friendship.
It Only Happens in the Movies is honest, funny, sad, and heartwarming all at the same time. I couldn’t put it down. I’ll definitely be checking out the author’s other books!

The storyline is cute. Girl gets her heart broken, gets a job to distract herself from her heartbreak and the issues between her parents. Meets a guy at her job, and ends up falling for the guy even though she was sworn off romance. Everyone warns her about him, and yet, she falls for him. In doing so, she learns a lot about her self.

This book was a so-so for me. I really wanted to love it. I tried to love it. It just wasn't a love for me. I didn't really connect with the characters like I wanted to.

This was a very cute, smart YA romance that I'd definitely recommend to fans of Sophie Kinsella romances or YA novels by Erin Hahn, Jennifer E. Smith, etc. The love story between Audrey and Harry was both sweet and realistic, and Audrey's experience with her parents' divorce is something I think other kids of divorce will relate to. Overall really enjoyed this one and it made me want to read more from Holly Bourne!

This book destroyed me in the best way possible. Everything about it was so unexpected but lovely at the same time. I loved Audrey as a character and her relationships with all of the other characters were so great and real. I am so thankful that I got to experience It Only Happens in Movies.

I haven’t read a lot of British YA? Anyway, this was really really good, super feminist, and I really liked the message. (Side note: it’s very - exclusively? - white, so if that’s a thing you are avoiding, just an FYI). Audrey is dealing with a lot - her parents’ bitter divorce, a terrible break-up that left her with some hang-ups, abandoning things she previously loved to avoid her ex, feeling detached from her friend group, and wondering what it all means. So when the manic-pixie-dream BOY appears in her life, she tells him off and he is chastened. But they get together of course.

A lot of this book felt really, really believable to me. Have we not all been Audrey to some degree? And it was a satisfying ending on many fronts, particularly some things with her family that REALLY pissed me off while they were happening (this poor girl, leave her alone!!!), but they do come through in the end.

It’s not all sunshine and rainbows, but it felt pretty realistic and it was fun to get lost in this world for a while.

THE perfect enemies to lovers romance for this pandemic period, if you want to think about something else and just appreciate a good old romance, this one's for you. A lighthearted novel that just transport you and will warm you heart and just make you smile, Holly Bourne just hits the nail on the head with this novel and if you read it you just gonna spend a good time with the characters.

This book really bothered me because the relationships were so toxic. I was glad that Audrey stood her ground when Harry tried to get her back after cheating on her. The relationship with her mother was not good also. I pretty much ended up skimming the majority of the book.

Thanks to NetGalley for the ARC. All opinions are my own.