By: Annabel Monaghan
This book irritated the crap out of me. I have been trying to think of a more clever opening sentence, but nothing better describes my feelings about this book. These two characters annoyed me so very much. The story is told from the heroine’s point of view, so maybe that is not the hero’s fault exactly, but this literally all could have been avoided with one simple conversation and so I RAGE.
Nora Hamilton is a romance channel screenwriter: she knows all the tropes and uses them on the small screen. Or at least she used to. A few months prior, her college sweetheart husband, Ben, left her and her two children, Arthur and Bernadette. Nora had been, if not unhappy, simply resigned to her marriage with him and doing her best to raise the kids and provide for her family. She is the (only) breadwinner in her household, as Ben usually spent too much money or time on his next failed venture. She lives about 90 minutes from New York City in a crumbling Victorian home that Nora absolutely loves, including a small tea house in the back, which she uses as her writing studio. To help process her feelings, Nora writes a script about her failed marriage and is surprised when her agent sells it to be made into a feature film, starring Oscar winner and heartthrob actor, Leo Vance, who has been cast as the husband. To lend authenticity to the movie, the director decides to use Nora’s home and her Tea House as the film set.
It is clear that this is a monumental moment in her small hometown and her smallish life. When Nora first meets Leo, he appears slightly intoxicated and he doesn’t introduce himself but barges directly into her kitchen. Then he does that several more times and she never ever confronts him about this strange behavior, but just seems to roll with it. She is all “homey,” with her buying chicken on sale, etc., and all I can really tell about Leo is that he is handsome and apparently charming? But we don’t really see him being charming, just that people are charmed around him. There is a lot of exposition about how they talk about a lot of things, but not exactly what those things really were, so Leo remains a mystery. When he has to leave suddenly, even after he has promised Arthur’s school that he would direct the play, and then he stops responding to Nora’s texts, I think— yeah, this sounds plausible. Like, who even is this guy?
ALSO! If my calculations are correct, he stayed about 20 days after the movie and they were really only together for two weeks. He is a world famous movie star and not to say he would not be happy in her small town or whatnot, but they literally never spoke about any of those logistics so when all of the sudden they were declaring they were in love with each other, and he is basically living at their house and taking the place of her children’s father, I thought– this seems a tad fast? This might be confusing to the kids? Shouldn’t we discuss how this might look as a future together?? OR MAYBE WE WON’T DO THAT at all. These people are 40 years old. She like pines for his love for 10 months and they knew each other for 3 weeks. I am tired.
ALSO, ALSO! After Arthur’s big confession, I was ANNOYED when Leo told Nora that he was coming back after he filmed in New Zealand and if she thought he wasn’t coming back, she should say something to him “like a normal woman.” Ummm, hello? You received a text from a 10 year old, who, given his experience with his own father, would obviously be upset with you for missing his play that you previously promised to attend, and YOU DID NOT ASK HIS MOTHER FOR ANY FOLLOW UP QUESTIONS?? Like, I heard from your minor child that you are back with your ex-husband so good luck with that?? Who are YOU to say that to HER? She also described his placing the wedding band on her finger like he was “capturing a hostage.” I. Don’t. Like. Where. This. Is. Going. It just made me rethink of the scene where Leo finds out that Ben cheated on her with Vicky and he is surprised that Nora was not more upset about the whole thing. He kisses her in the middle of the sidewalk in the afternoon (presumably so everyone could see and gossip about it) and then he laughingly says, “I knew it. You are so into me.” It just sounded creepy.
Nora dislikes any confrontation, which I can understand, but this all could have been handled in a 2 minute phone call by either of the two adults in this relationship and so, no thank you. NEXT.
Rating: 🌟🌟/5
Barnes & Noble: https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/nora-goes-off-script-annabel-monaghan/1140141848?ean=9780593420034
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