Name: It Only Happens in the Movies
Rating: 3.830128205128205 (156 reviews)
ISBN: 9780358172062

Holly Bourne

Audrey gave up on romance before meeting aspiring filmmaker Harry at the cinema where they work, but soon they are deeply in love--and not like it is portrayed in movies.

It Only Happens in the Movies

Gabriella Parker

smiling is sometimes the only way to stop yourself crying. 

I just wanted to be difficult. I was so fed up of being amenable to everybody. 

what a fine day for a book to call me out

The way he looked at her, it made me wish someone could look at me like that.

A tiny part of me that wasn’t angry and numb – if you can even be those things simultaneously – recognized that I was the problem, not them.

Harry grabbed me again. “This is awesome! I wish you’d hurry up and get over the fact that I will end up kissing you, because I totally want to kiss you right now.”

Bad boys turned good, kisses in the rain, climbing through bedroom windows... It only happens in the movies. When Audrey meets Harry, it’s the start of a truly cinematic romance – or is it? Audrey knows that Harry is every movie cliché rolled into one. But she still chooses to let him into her heart...

Teresa Bonifácio

3.75 
I loved the ending. I loved how Audrey grew through this book. And I loved how feminine it was. 
Audrey made some weird choices in the beginning, but she learned in the end. Sometimes love is not enough and we need to think about ourselves.

becky oh

** spoiler alert **
           I liked it. A bit. Not really a 5 star book. Though. It really doesn't have a happy ending. For some reason, a lot of Holly Bourne's books DON'T have happily-ever-afters...maybe because she thinks no one deserves happy ending(which I REALLY disagree) I think Aydrey DID love Harry, only I just...Holly twists things a bit. At the ending, where Harry did something soooo sweet to Aydrey and asked will you go out with me, she said no....WHY?????I mean, Holly doesn't really like happy stuff, maybe and and that's why this book....i don't know

Temi Awani

Steph L 

This novel was fantastic! As someone who loves romances, both in books and in movies, this books was the cutest.

Characters- The characters in this novel were so cute. Audrey was a drama student, and as someone who also loves theater, I wanted to keep reading the moment I found that out. Harry was a character who started off as a bad boy and then was really sweet when you get to know him.

Plot- I loved the story. Sure, it was trope-heavy at times, but that’s kind of the point of the story. I loved the sweet elements, as well as the real elements of the story as the plot progresses.

Writing- I loved the writing in this novel! I’m going to read more writing from Holly Bourne.

Romance- This was opposites attract kind of a story. The end had me in tears, and I melted at the end. The build-up of the romance was also sweet.

Recommend for/ Enjoyment- I recommend this for those that enjoy RomComs, and those that love a good YA novel. I really enjoyed this.

** spoiler alert **
           I give this book 3 stars because I liked it but it was very boring at first and hard to get into.

I expected it to be a classic "girl meets boy-swears she won't fall for him-falls for him-they get together-they break up-they get back together-the end" kind of story, but I guess that's the catch. I loved the ending, in her place I would have done the same.

Rebecca Browne

** spoiler alert **
           I’m glad she didn’t end up with him in the end, but even though she was like I hate cliches and romance movies.. this was basically one. Also the mother’s storyline didn’t really fit and at times I didn’t want to read it. Could’ve also included some trigger warnings for it.

Flora Nátura

Just beautiful. Heartbreaking. This wasn’t the classic romance we are used to. And I enjoyed every bit of it. And it did left me crying my eyes out. And I did love it so much.

2 ✨

I was really hoping for a cute romance or at the very least one that ended in a positive way. This book was just not what I was looking for. 

*MINOR SPOILERS*

Audrey has just started her new job at a fancy movie theater, which is where we meet her new coworker Harry. She is told multiple times that he is a flirt by different people. She does not listen and continues to fall for him anyway. We learn that her past relationship ended soon after having their first time and that her father left her mother for another woman.

I think one thing that this story did well was that Audrey learned how to demand respect from others, including herself. Her dad was a complete jerk, as was her ex boyfriend. Personally, I did not like the majority of the characters and sometimes I did not like Audrey. I thought that the romance was slow to start, but then it transitioned to just cut scenes of a relationship. They moved so quickly once they started that I never really grew to feel for their relationship. 




Read the full review at : https://vinylsandstars.wixsite.com/hi...

Ella Bouic

Definitely not my favourite book Holly Bourne has published but yet it's still such an incredible story and Holly Bourne is such an incredible writer who makes you connect to the characters so easily. Would 100% recommend to ANYBODY! Loved it so much well done Holly Bourne once again for an amazing story

Jelke Lenaerts

This book has content warnings by alcoholism, drug use and self-harm/suicide attempt.

This book surprised me with how quickly I fell in love with the romance. It had a propper build and just completely had me swooning. I also really liked the main character. I think this book dealt with the issues she had well. She went through some AMAZING growth and I loved that. I feel like most books just excuse the flaws of the characters and make evey character that disagrees with them look like the villain but this book called out the main character for her flaws and forces her to grow and that's just what I stan. I also really liked the family aspect in this book. It just added in more depth to this story and made everything feel more real. I mean a character being cynical of romcoms because of her parents' divorce rahter than just a bad break-up makes so much more sense and I loved that. I mean the main character just flipped a lot of tropes and made it all just feel more realistic. Talking about flipping tropes, so did the love interest. I loved him so fucking much. It was such a great flip on the player trope. I mean, he was actually a good person not just the bad boy who is only sweet for the main character. I LOVE it. Now, you may wonder why this isn't a five star if I loved everything so much. Well, the main characters flip to tropes so well but the side characters were so one dimensional and besides her family all of them just kind of there only to further the plot and I don't know. It was just such a big contrast with the main character and her love interest that it bothered me. I also just HATED the ending. I mean, it makes sense. The conflict was a bit predictable, but that was mainly because it was the biggest trope there is. The resolution of it makes sense with the theme of flipping tropes and in any other book I would have loved it. Why I didn't? Oh, that's becausr the conflict that caused the whole ending was SO out of character that I just can't function. It just felt like the author threw it in because she needed a trope to flip on it's head but failed to check if it actually made sense. So yeah, this could have been a new favourite but the ending had to go and ruin that for me.

Emily

** spoiler alert **
           Thank you to Edelweiss and HMH Books for Young Readers for supplying me with an advanced copy of this book for review! The U.S. release date is December 1!

4.5 stars

You keep claiming you're dead inside, but you weren't looking at him like you were dead inside. Don't think he would be different for you, Audrey.

This might be the most satisfying book I have ever read. This hit every mark I wanted it to- it went in every direction it should have. It Only Happens in the Movies is a warning, and something that every girl needs to read. It has such a chance to be horrible, to fall into the exact tropes it picks apart, but, thank goodness, it does the exact opposite. 

Audrey is an incredibly relatable character, and her thoughts flow in the same way every teenage girl's does-- even when it's hard to admit. She's logical, so you can't help but respect her, but still, she questions what she knows because of hope. Hope that may have been right in the end, maybe if she gave him a second chance, but we all know she can't. Not if she wants to do right for every girl reading her story. 

Harry might have been a good guy who made a stupid decision, but every girl needs to know that they deserve not to have to find out, especially when they're already as broken as Audrey. Who, might I add, is not 'not like other girls' like Harry suggests, and she so satisfyingly DESTROYS for saying that. 

This book, as difficult as it was to read at some times because you can FEEL every trap she's falling into and you STILL have hope she'll be mistaken, is a triumph and something I think I'll find myself thinking back to quite frequently.

It Only Happens in the Movies

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