I received an ARC of this book thanks to NetGalley and publisher Headline Review in exchange for an honest review.

Oh boy. I can't believe Holly Bourne's name is right there on the cover promoting this book.

Love, Unscripted is the story of Nick, one of the most insufferable protagonists that I've read about for a while. Nick is a projectionist at a local movie theatre and also a self-destructive, unaware moron.

The blurb of this book frames this as a 'boy gets left by girl and re-evaluates his life' kind of story, but this is actually a massive lie. In fact, it is a 'boy dumps his long-suffering girlfriend because he's too much of an ass to realise that he is dumping her, then mopes about and tells everyone she dumped him' kind of story.

I get that the point of this book is Nick is meant to go through personal growth and realise the error of his ways, but Nick is not a teenage boy. He's a grown man who should know better at his age than making his girlfriend do all his emotional work for him. He is so self-focused that it becomes deeply unpleasant reading about every other character trying to patiently accommodate him and his self-made problems. He is so unaware of their feelings that it makes him completely irredeemable as a protagonist.#

I cannot recommend this book even a little bit. I adore romance books of many shapes and sizes, but I have no patience for the lack of awareness this book seems to have about its own main character

An enjoyable read that had a good storyline and realistic characters. However this story simply wasn't for me. Because of this, and the fact that I dont believe this book deserves a negative review, I shall leave my review here.

Thank you to NetGalley and Headline for an advance reader copy in exchange for an honest review.

I have so many thoughts about this book my brain is still in processing mode. I really liked the love story running through this book, set to the timeline of the 2008 - 2012 presidential elections, I thought it was a really unique thing to do, and quite honestly a brave move to make as I know this would disinterest a lot of people who don't like politics in their contemporaries where they're not necessarily needed to be.

The backdrop of cinema to this story, ugh, bliss, chefs kiss, ok hand emoji. Blessed. The perfect mix of cinema and story, beautiful, top class, A+.

Unfortunately this book didn't blow me away, which I really really wanted, but I think this book is still beautiful and worthy of a four star rating. For me, the cinema references just sold the book so well and the premise I just can't get over my feelings, but I think that's probably why I can't warrant this book a five star rating because I care more about the film references than Nick and Emily's love story.

The world needs more books like this, and don't mind me whilst I go and watch In Bruges, thanks a lot!

Please note that this book is not for me - I have read the book, However I had to DNF and because i do not like to give negative reviews I will not review this book fully - there is no specific reason for not liking this book. I found it a struggle to read and did not enjoy trying to force myself to read this book.

Apologies for any inconvenience caused and thank you for the opportunity to read this book

I did not dislike ‘Love Unscripted’; I simply think that this book was not for me and that’s why I am giving it two stars.

‘Love Unscripted’ is about Nick and Ellie and the story of what eventually lead to the downfall of their four-year relationship. This book is told from the perspective of Nick as he works through what he believes is the reason why his relationship with Ellie ended.

My main problem with this book is that I could not connect with Nick at all. I felt like he blamed all of his problems on everyone but himself, and he even spent the first 10/20% of the book telling us that it was Ellie who ended their relationship, when it was actually him who ended the relationship and put the blame on her.

This book felt like it was the same thing over and over for 300 pages as it was just Nick complaining and not really having any character development until about two chapters before the end of the book.

However, I did like the way this book was written. I liked the way this book was set in present day (which is 2012 in the book) with Nick dealing with the breakup and then it would flip back to 2008 when Nick and Ellie met for this first time. I did also like that the ending was left open so that we could imagine what was going to happen between Nick and Ellie once the book had ended.

Overall, I don’t think this is a bad book, just a book that is not for me but I am sure someone else might like it more than I did.

Nick is comfortable with this life. His world revolves around his job at the cinema, and he feels settled with his girlfriend Ellie who he met at the perfect (for him) meet-cute. But he’s become complacent and is about to have the ground crumble underneath him.

I found this story to be a difficult to review as there were parts of the book that I found interesting in particular the cultural aspects regarding cinema, music and politics. As a cinephile, I adored the fact that Nick is protectionist who is genuinely in love with cinema and this kept me reading. However, Nick was an immature, frustrating character who didn’t hold my attention enough which was a problem since it’s his story. I also wished Ellie was more than two-dimensional. Overall, the novel was well written and I liked the style and the setting just not the main players. I think that was part of my problem, though the supporting characters that revolve around Nick were refreshing.

I have rounded up my rating as the cinematic references were joyous. I am curious at what Nicholls will write next despite not finding enough magic in Love, Unscripted to wow me.

Love, Unscripted by Owen Nicolls a four-star read that will take you away like the movies. I had such high hopes for this one, I really loved the blurb and what I was hearing about this story, maybe that’s why I didn’t enjoy it as much as I had hoped I would, too much anticipation. The story has such good bones and it made me smile many a time, especially with the movie bits and pieces, and references, they made me chuckle more than once and they are why I gave it four stars.

Nick has been been working in his dream role as a film projectionist and has been dating Ellie for the past four years and when Ellie suddenly moves out, Nick goes on a self discovery journey of how the relationship came to the point of breaking down. This book flickers between a couple of timelines, the night they met, key points in the relationship to the present day of living alone. I didn't mind the flicking between timelines I was a bit lost in the beginning but soon found that I could easily keep track of where we were in the relationship once I got into the book.

I quite enjoyed reading a book based on the male perspective I don’t normally read books like this. However I did find myself struggling in the middle of this book to carry on as I felt it was a bit drawn out. That been said I’m glad I powered on as the ending nicely tied the whole story together and was a good satisfying ending. I really enjoyed the movie references throughout and some of the chapters written from a film point of view I felt these went really well with the Nick movie geek character perspective we were reading from. The main characters Nick and Ellie were enjoyable to read about, the whole book was a good easy contemporary romance read.

I really, really disliked this book. I was on the verge of not finishing it at least 3 times - everything about it annoyed me. The writing style, the characters, the pacing, everything. I had serious problems with Nick, he was such a miserable, whining character that I struggled to see why Ellie would have been interested in him in the first place. I wanted to scream at her to run a million miles from his toxic awfulness.

The writing style was painful - I got the impression that the author was trying to convey Nick's awkwardness (possible social disability?) through the writing but it just came across as convoluted and awkward. I read bits out loud a few times to my husband just because I couldn't believe how bad they were! The key one that sticks out for me was at the beginning of the novel, when Nick is describing how Ellie sleeps - on her front, with her left hand up to her forehead, her right hand on the small of her back and her crotch pushed into the mattress. Has the author never actually seen someone lie in a bed to sleep?!

Love, Unscripted by Owen Nicholls is a contemporary romance told from the perspective of Nick, a projectionist who is experiencing a breakup with his girlfriend Ellie. It follows Nick’s journey as he attempts to find out the answers as to why their relationship ended, whilst his life begins to crumble around him, or was it always crumbing? Filling the narrative is also film and music references, accompanied by witty and sharp remarks from the characters, which complement each other very well.

Yet character development is a critique I would have, particularly as I feel that Ellie, a very likeable character, could have been developed much more, perhaps with more of the story told from her own perspective and not just constantly through Nick’s. Nick himself, although I completely empathised with most of his emotions, also constantly elicited a response of me wanting to shout at him, telling him to stop or to do the things that he wanted instead of just thinking them. Another critique I would have is the constant shifting from different timelines which became a little confusing, but also repetitive. There are three timelines- when Nick and Ellie first meet, when their relationship is over, and the process of Nick trying to figure out what actually went wrong, causing lots of disjointed flashbacks. In addition to this, there were also small intermission sections, which were actually a nice touch to the structure and Nick’s writing pursuits. I think this could have overall been improved by making the transitions into flashbacks smoother, to structure the timelines in different ways, or to just decrease the number of timelines. The narrative also seemed to move very slowly at times, and I think this perhaps may have been due to Nick’s constant perspective; again, an improvement for this would be if Ellie and her perspective featured more.

Aside from these critiques, the book had some very funny moments. One that was particularly memorable is when Nick experiences the world of online dating and his awful, but hilarious, experience when he goes on a date with someone he has met online. Again, the characters themselves had witty and sharp moments, which were entertaining and engaging. Nick’s relationship with his sister Gaby was also really engaging, especially as she was a great, humorous character too. Film and music references complemented the narrative as interests of both Nick and Ellie, as a connector of both of them, and as something that can remain after a break-up.

If you’re looking for a book that is both romantic and unromantic, comical yet also filled with elements of sadness and growth, of self-reflection and learning to undertake this process, accompanied by film and music references, then this book will be perfect for you!

I really enjoyed this book. It is an easy read which I was very quickly drawn into. It would make an ideal companion for your beach holiday.
The timeline jumps between the present day after Ellie has moved out and flashbacks to when they met and various significant moments between, which builds up the picture of how Ellie and Nick got to where they are now.

I loved the romance and nostalgia of “proper” cinemas with projectionists, which took me back to memories of my teenage years!
Because there were a lot of film references and quotes it made the story feel more grounded in real life to me.
There is some good humour woven between the romance and emotions.
I also liked that the main character Nick, was actually a bit under confident and unsure of himself (even though he was obviously lovely) - and not a tall dark arrogant alpha male who seem to be the common romance protagonists these days (can’t stand those!).
All in all I got through this in just a couple of days and really enjoyed it.
Sometimes you need something not too heavy but enough to wrap a warmth around you and believe in love and this has hit the mark for me.
I rated this 4⭐️ and will certainly be looking for others by this author. Recommended for those who are nostalgic romantics at heart 👍

I really struggled to like this book, it felt like I was wading through rather than having an enjoyable read. Eventually gave up at 67%. Not for me unfortunately

** Thanks to Netgalley and Headline for the advanced copy in exchange for this review.

Love Unscripted follows Nick, a film projectionist at a London indie cinema and his complicated relationship with photographer Ellie. At the beginning of the story we find out about the pair’s relationship and that Ellie has just moved out. You then move between present day as you discover why the pair aren’t like the protagonists of a rom-com, to their first meeting at a party for Obama’s election in 2008.

The characters are quite juvenile - I really was quite surprised to read that Nick was meant to be almost thirty. Whilst it touched upon more “adult” issues and themes inadequacy, there was always a sense of it not quite reaching its full potential and falling a little flat.

There are SO many film and pop culture references, some of which I didn’t really understand so I’m not sure how much they add to the book or offer points of confusion unless you’re a proper film buff.

There are also so many film cliches like parts of the book being called “end of second intermission” which felt like a punch in the face every time and a constant reminder to be like “you’re reading a romance book with a connection to films by the way, in case you forgot. Did you forget??” Also the ending is tooth-achingly cliche and predictable that I literally groaned when I realised what was happening.

It was a nice sentiment to have a film geek idolise a girl at a party and want her to be his leading lady, but this book is like a lack lustre movie sequel; been done before, and should’ve been left after the first one.