Lynn Painter’s Nothing Like the Movies is a 2024 contemporary romance novel. It is the second novel in Painter’s Better Than the Movies series. In Nothing Like the Movies, Painter picks up Liz Buxbaum and Wes Bennett’s story. Written from the protagonists’ alternating first-person points of view, the narrative is primarily set in California, where Liz and Wes attend the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA). Two years after Wes’s dad dies, he starts college over and rejoins the baseball team. Meanwhile, Liz starts a new internship at HEFT Entertainment. Both characters are determined to focus on the future. However, running into each other on campus complicates their ability to succeed academically and athletically. They broke up two years ago but are still attracted to each other and unsure of how to reconcile their present lives with their romantic history. The novel employs romance tropes to explore themes like the Journey Toward Healing and Forgiveness, Balancing Expectations and Reality, and Personal Growth and Coming-of-Age Journeys. 

This guide refers to the 2024 Simon & Schuster hardback edition.

Content Warning: The source text and this guide discuss mental health conditions (including post-traumatic stress disorder), alcohol abuse, the death of a parent, and grief.

Plot Summary

Liz Buxbaum and Wes Bennett have been dating since high school, and Wes decides to break up with Liz shortly after his dad, Stuart, dies. On New Year’s Eve following their breakup, Liz and Wes find themselves at the same party in their hometown of Omaha, Nebraska. Liz has been attending UCLA, and Wes has been living in Omaha since dropping out of UCLA to care for his sister, Sarah, and his mom. At the party, Wes avoids Liz, afraid that they’ll get back together if they start talking. The next morning, Liz goes over to Wes’s house and confronts him about a rumor she heard. She wants to know if it’s true that Wes cheated on her when they were together. Wes confirms the rumor, leaving Liz heartbroken.

Two years later, Wes moves back to California, restarts his freshman year at UCLA, and rejoins the Bruins, UCLA’s baseball team. When the fall term starts, he’s feeling happy and positive. He goes for runs, attends his first classes, gets along with his roommate, and tries to apply himself at practice. Meanwhile, he tells himself that he’s going to win back Liz’s affection.

Liz is shocked when Wes shows up at a party that she and her roommates are hosting at the start of the fall term. She’s just started a videography and production internship with HEFT Entertainment and doesn’t want anything to get in her way of succeeding. Seeing Wes again overwhelms her with memories and emotions. She introduces her friend, roommate, and coworker Clark Waters to Wes as her boyfriend. Clark goes along with the scheme because he knows that Liz is still upset about Wes and wants to protect her.

Liz’s new boss, Lilith Grossman, informs her that she and Clark will be covering the Bruins preseason. Liz is worried about spending so much time in Wes’s company but tells herself that their relationship is in the past and that she doesn’t have feelings for him anymore. Meanwhile, Wes is glad that Liz is filming and interviewing his team because he wants to tell her that he loves her again. However, the setup is also challenging because he hates seeing Liz with her alleged boyfriend, Clark.

One day, Lilith and Liz convince Wes to give an interview for the documentary they’re making on the Bruins. Wes is reluctant to talk about his recent experiences when he dropped out of UCLA. However, he finds that answering the interview questions helps him feel better. He tells Liz and Clark how hard it was when his dad died and how much he took on for his family. He decided to drop out of school when he realized that his mom’s grief was keeping her from raising Sarah and paying the bills. He also explains that returning to UCLA and rejoining the Bruins is his second chance.

Shortly after the interview, Wes agrees to let Lilith and her team accompany him to Omaha when he sells and empties his childhood home. Once back in his hometown, Wes visits his dad’s grave. He feels guilty all over again for Stuart’s death. Wes and Stuart got into an argument on the phone two years prior. Wes yelled at his dad about being too hard on him, and Stuart hung up without responding. Shortly thereafter, Stuart died of a heart attack. Overwhelmed by remorse, Wes returns home and starts drinking alone.

Meanwhile, Liz realizes that Wes is having a hard time. She goes to his house and finds him lying drunk on the floor and having a nightmare. She wakes him up and reminds him of where he is.

Before leaving Omaha, Clark breaks up with Liz, afraid that they’re hurting Wes. Liz and Wes also talk through their feelings, and Wes reveals that he never cheated on her. When they return to California, they decide to go on a date. They spend the night together, and Liz realizes how happy she is being in Wes’s company. However, when Wes tells her that he loves her, she retreats.

Not long later, Liz films Wes’s baseball game. A ball hits him in the chest, and he collapses. Seeing him in pain, Liz realizes that she loves him. She races to the hospital where Wes is getting some tests and professes her love to him.

Six months later, Liz and Wes are in a committed relationship. Wes plays the championship game and hears his dad telling him that he’s going to do well.