Review: IT ONLY HAPPENS IN THE MOVIES by Holly Bourne
FACTS ABOUT THE BOOK
Title: It Only Happens In The Movies
Author: Holly Bourne
Publisher: Usborne Publishing
Price: 7,99€ (Amazon)
Author: Holly Bourne
Publisher: Usborne Publishing
Price: 7,99€ (Amazon)
Pages: 411
Genre: Movies, Love Story, Feminism
Year: 2017
Genre: Movies, Love Story, Feminism
Year: 2017
BACK OF THE BOOK / WHAT IS IT ABOUT?
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 ...
-
Audrey is over romance. Since her parents' relationship imploded her mother's been catatonic, so she takes a cinema job to get out of the house. But there she meets wannabe film-maker Harry. Nobody expects Audrey and Harry to fall in love as hard and fast as they do. But that doesn't mean things are easy. Because real love isn't like the movies...
The greatest love story ever told doesn't feature kissing in the snow or racing to airports. It features pain and confusion and hope and wonder and a ban on cheesy clichés. Oh, and zombies...
YA star Holly Bourne tackles real love in this hugely funny and poignant novel.
MY THOUGHTS ON IT
Where shall I even begin...
I read my first Holly Bourne novel, Am I Normal Yet? (click here for my review) not too long ago and had a lot of thoughts on it. Mainly negative ones because I had a huge issue with the protagonist of that book. But I really liked the writing style of the book, it was quick and interesting and sucked me into the story. And it also was very feminist, which I loved. So I was still very keen to read more books by Holly Bourne, with high hopes that the next main character would be more relatable for me.
And well, I hit the jackpot with this one. :)
I mainly bought this book because I'm just so in love with this cover and the back of the book and the whole yellowness of it, the popcorn, the font, even the turquoise colour of the author's name - which is also on the inside of the cover - and yeah, also because I briefly scanned what the book is about and analysing romance movie clichés in a romance novel seemed quite intriguing to me.
Besides, another thing that I really enjoyed in the first Holly Bourne book I read was the Britishness of it, and she definitely delivered on that aspect superbly again in It Only Happens In The Movies.
I have written down lots of notes for this review because I just had and have a lot of thoughts and feelings for it.
So, I had quiet a hard time trying to convey the feelings the book gave me while reading it when I wrote down my notes, and I still think that the best way to tell anyone what this books feels like is to shove it at them and demand them to just read it without doing more talking about it. So if I've already convinced you to do that, then I wish you the most amazing time with this book, which you will most definitely have if you are anything like me. :)
In contrast to Am I Normal Yet?, I found the main character of this book, Audrey, to be instantly likable and I could relate to her A LOT. Although she already started out as a great character, she even developed throughout the story into an even stronger and more reflective version of herself and I really admired her for that process. She was a character that I looked up to, that I could highly identify with, from whom I could learn and who I loved to follow every step of her way. I really want to read more about her or read more books with main characters like her. She is so well-rounded, deep and layered and still so normal and relatable. I can only applaud Holly Bourne for writing such a great character.
Almost from the very start of the novel, the story stays extremely true to its title and its cover, which I adored! The book teases with movies and it SO delivers on that point!
Audrey starts working in a cinema and spends the whole novel doing a media project on analysing romance movies, while simultaneously working on making a movie herself. So this book really stroke a chord for my movie-loving self in multiple ways.
I just lived for the cinema scenes because I found it so interesting to get a sneak peek behind the scenes of a cinema and just enjoyed reading them so much. There was such a great chemistry between the three employees at the cinema and I could just really relate to them, even though I never worked at a cinema myself.
Many of the chapters even start with Audrey's analysis of a typical romance movie trope and the chapters that follow that always have something to do with that trope, which was just such a clever and creative choice of structure.
I've said it a hundred times in my reviews, but I have to say it again: Praised be short chapters!
This book consists out of a huge amount of short chapters and it made me read through it in three days although I was very stressed when I read it because of my term paper and hadn't thought I would finish a book for my entertainment until I had finished that paper. This book really provided me with such an escape from this stress and was basically like an amazing treat after my work and I really devoured it.
Because of all the short chapters I just kept reading on and on and on until I noticed that I've just read 200 pages in one sitting. And although this is not unlikely when I read outside in summer, it was very surprising to me because I thought my head would be too full with my term paper to be able to concentrate on anything else. But this book, with its interesting topics, its great main character and the electrifying chemistry between Audrey and her love interest, just made me get completely lost in the book, and I loved this so much and am also very thankful for it, because it gave me a great time when I wasn't thinking I would be able to have one.
If you have followed my reading this year, you'll know that I've read quite a lot of queer romance books. And I often got accused of only liking something because it's queer and/or only not liking something because it's not queer.
And I must admit that I even began to think that myself because I just couldn't really relate to straight romance stories anymore.
But then Harry came, saw, and conquered.
I often saw people on Bookstagram or Booktube talk about their "Book Boyfriends" and never quite understood how they could say that about any fictional male character (other than Jamie Fraser of course). Well, I guess I have now found a new book boyfriend.
This book has just shown me that no, I'm not against straight romance, I just need CHEMISTRY between the two people falling in love. Concerning the chemistry and sexual tension between Audrey and Harry, and also the feeling of not being able to stop reading it because it's so exciting to read, this book actually reminded me a lot of my reading experience with the AFTER series by Anna Todd (which I still haven't finished - I know, shame on me.)
Harry was such a great, fun, charming, very British character that managed to make even me fall for him, which is also why I could identify a lot with Audrey's struggles concerning him.
And because these two had such a great chemistry, I just loved every scene of them because it's always the best and easiest to read when two characters just bounce off each other because of their great dynamic.
I also always love books that include references to other passions of mine and this book totally delivered in that aspect, too. When you write a book about movies, it's a must to include popular movies into it but I was still so positively surprised by all the great references that were incorporated in such different and creative ways into the story. As a fangirl myself, I can just relate so much more to a story if there's also some fangirling going on there aswell. I especially remember a cheeky Lord of the Rings quote, a cool way to use Marvel and an interesting analysis of Dirty Dancing.
I will talk a bit about the ending of the book after my rating in the spoiler section but I just want to add that I really loved that Holly Bourne has included a list of her favourite romance movie recommendations as a treat for the reader at the very end of the book. I always love such extras.
I read my first Holly Bourne novel, Am I Normal Yet? (click here for my review) not too long ago and had a lot of thoughts on it. Mainly negative ones because I had a huge issue with the protagonist of that book. But I really liked the writing style of the book, it was quick and interesting and sucked me into the story. And it also was very feminist, which I loved. So I was still very keen to read more books by Holly Bourne, with high hopes that the next main character would be more relatable for me.
And well, I hit the jackpot with this one. :)
I mainly bought this book because I'm just so in love with this cover and the back of the book and the whole yellowness of it, the popcorn, the font, even the turquoise colour of the author's name - which is also on the inside of the cover - and yeah, also because I briefly scanned what the book is about and analysing romance movie clichés in a romance novel seemed quite intriguing to me.
Besides, another thing that I really enjoyed in the first Holly Bourne book I read was the Britishness of it, and she definitely delivered on that aspect superbly again in It Only Happens In The Movies.
I have written down lots of notes for this review because I just had and have a lot of thoughts and feelings for it.
So, I had quiet a hard time trying to convey the feelings the book gave me while reading it when I wrote down my notes, and I still think that the best way to tell anyone what this books feels like is to shove it at them and demand them to just read it without doing more talking about it. So if I've already convinced you to do that, then I wish you the most amazing time with this book, which you will most definitely have if you are anything like me. :)
In contrast to Am I Normal Yet?, I found the main character of this book, Audrey, to be instantly likable and I could relate to her A LOT. Although she already started out as a great character, she even developed throughout the story into an even stronger and more reflective version of herself and I really admired her for that process. She was a character that I looked up to, that I could highly identify with, from whom I could learn and who I loved to follow every step of her way. I really want to read more about her or read more books with main characters like her. She is so well-rounded, deep and layered and still so normal and relatable. I can only applaud Holly Bourne for writing such a great character.
Almost from the very start of the novel, the story stays extremely true to its title and its cover, which I adored! The book teases with movies and it SO delivers on that point!
Audrey starts working in a cinema and spends the whole novel doing a media project on analysing romance movies, while simultaneously working on making a movie herself. So this book really stroke a chord for my movie-loving self in multiple ways.
I just lived for the cinema scenes because I found it so interesting to get a sneak peek behind the scenes of a cinema and just enjoyed reading them so much. There was such a great chemistry between the three employees at the cinema and I could just really relate to them, even though I never worked at a cinema myself.
Many of the chapters even start with Audrey's analysis of a typical romance movie trope and the chapters that follow that always have something to do with that trope, which was just such a clever and creative choice of structure.
I've said it a hundred times in my reviews, but I have to say it again: Praised be short chapters!
This book consists out of a huge amount of short chapters and it made me read through it in three days although I was very stressed when I read it because of my term paper and hadn't thought I would finish a book for my entertainment until I had finished that paper. This book really provided me with such an escape from this stress and was basically like an amazing treat after my work and I really devoured it.
Because of all the short chapters I just kept reading on and on and on until I noticed that I've just read 200 pages in one sitting. And although this is not unlikely when I read outside in summer, it was very surprising to me because I thought my head would be too full with my term paper to be able to concentrate on anything else. But this book, with its interesting topics, its great main character and the electrifying chemistry between Audrey and her love interest, just made me get completely lost in the book, and I loved this so much and am also very thankful for it, because it gave me a great time when I wasn't thinking I would be able to have one.
If you have followed my reading this year, you'll know that I've read quite a lot of queer romance books. And I often got accused of only liking something because it's queer and/or only not liking something because it's not queer.
And I must admit that I even began to think that myself because I just couldn't really relate to straight romance stories anymore.
But then Harry came, saw, and conquered.
I often saw people on Bookstagram or Booktube talk about their "Book Boyfriends" and never quite understood how they could say that about any fictional male character (other than Jamie Fraser of course). Well, I guess I have now found a new book boyfriend.
This book has just shown me that no, I'm not against straight romance, I just need CHEMISTRY between the two people falling in love. Concerning the chemistry and sexual tension between Audrey and Harry, and also the feeling of not being able to stop reading it because it's so exciting to read, this book actually reminded me a lot of my reading experience with the AFTER series by Anna Todd (which I still haven't finished - I know, shame on me.)
Harry was such a great, fun, charming, very British character that managed to make even me fall for him, which is also why I could identify a lot with Audrey's struggles concerning him.
And because these two had such a great chemistry, I just loved every scene of them because it's always the best and easiest to read when two characters just bounce off each other because of their great dynamic.
I also always love books that include references to other passions of mine and this book totally delivered in that aspect, too. When you write a book about movies, it's a must to include popular movies into it but I was still so positively surprised by all the great references that were incorporated in such different and creative ways into the story. As a fangirl myself, I can just relate so much more to a story if there's also some fangirling going on there aswell. I especially remember a cheeky Lord of the Rings quote, a cool way to use Marvel and an interesting analysis of Dirty Dancing.
I will talk a bit about the ending of the book after my rating in the spoiler section but I just want to add that I really loved that Holly Bourne has included a list of her favourite romance movie recommendations as a treat for the reader at the very end of the book. I always love such extras.
CONCLUSION
I absolutely loved this book and had such an amazing time reading it! I read it in a very stressful phase and it provided such a fun, entertaining and thrilling escape for me which I'm very thankful for. I just could not stop reading it because it was both so easy to read and also had such a great story that felt as if it had been written especially for me. I could relate so much to the main character and wish there were more novels with such strong but layered female characters. I even fell for the love interest of the story because he was written in such a charming but realistic way and because he and Audrey had such an electrifying chemistry that made me cheer for them and enjoy their scenes together a lot. After having finished it, I wanted to read another book by Holly Bourne asap and I'm still so excited to read other novels by her. This is definitely one of the best books I've read this year and I can highly recommend it to anyone who's looking for a highly entertaining book that is unlike any other and provides for a great time. And it's especially a treat for movielovers like myself and for people who demand more of romance novels than the usual package.
RATING
I award this book with 5 out of 5 stars.
SPOILER
WARNING
I just want to quickly say something to the ending of the book and since that was quite surprising for me I would advise you not to read on if you still want to read the book.
As I said, I was really surprised or rather shocked of the ending of the book. Although this is a book about criticising and deconstructing romance clichés, I still had expected for the couple to have a happy end, especially because Audrey and Harry had this electrifying chemistry. And so I would have actually been okay with them ending up together and was therefore really shocked when that didn't happen.
What happened was exactly what I want to happen at the end of every romance novel that portrays a toxic relationship: for the girl to get the hell out of it and finally put herself first.
Audrey did that and although it surprised me, it didn't take me long to love Holly Bourne's decision to end her book like that. That ending showed the amazing self-love journey that Audrey went through during that book and I am so here for that.
Still, it was hard to let go of both Audrey and Harry and I would love to read more about them - not to get them together but just because I enjoyed these two flawed and relatable characters so much.
Tell me what you thought of the ending here or on my Instagram: isleepnaked :) ♥
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