Book: It Only Happens in the Movies

Author: Holly Bourne

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.

It Only Happens in the Movies is a really interesting book, my first by Holly Bourne. The title says it all, what the book is going to entail, a realistic approach to how most movie romances are fictitious, dangerous and rarely ever happens that way in reality.

This book is a complicated book to review because there is so much going on in it. I mean the story is so cute, it will have you rolling your eyes at antics by characters, and there are times it will cause major emotional turmoil. It has themes such as marriage, cheating, love, family, romance, feminism, friendship, religion etc.

We have Audrey, who is having a teenage crisis like her life is at the worst it could be for a normal everyday teenager. That justifiably is a very good reason for her resenting romance, especially in the movies she used to love. In need of a major distraction because of life as she knew it was crumbling fast around her, she starts work at a fancy cinema and there comes the ever charming Harry (a very British name) who it was obvious from the onset, she would fall for even though she kept denying it to everyone, even Harry. She goes through so much and has to deal with so much, that it has made her a very insecure mess. I couldn’t help but feel her pain, and I just can’t with her dad. I love how good Audrey tries to be, I love how humane she was, but at the same time her naivete really had me wanting to shake her and clue her in.

I to be very honest did not like Harry and that fact is because he was portrayed as realistic as possible because he’s the prime example of someone his age if we are being realistic and most of the guys his age are douches in real life, especially when it comes to relationships. Okay, I just know that Harry is the kind of guy I would not date, he is everything and adorable but he still has a lot of growing up to do, in fact, they both do.

I love the portrayal of friendship in this book, it was really positive and I love the message it was sending, I love how it wasn’t a bitch/jealous fest with friends lashing out and causing harms towards each other especially with words, despite Audrey and the girls’ issues, plus they work it out.

I love how this book educated us. Because it taught me a lot, I already don’t support how romance in movies are, but research was done for this argument, opening up my eyes to more theories. I love how Audrey being a feminist, also calls out major issues we ladies still fall prey to from our love interests, who don’t know any better. I love the feminist undertone and vibes Audrey pushed throughout the book.

Family is a tough one, Aundrey is one hell of a strong lady and she is the single thread holding their tattered family together and I love her so much for it, and when there is so much pressure piling on, the thread obviously will snap and it made my heart ache so much and I wish I could hug Audrey so tight.

I love the ending, it was perfect for this book and I love how Audrey finally matured enough to know she should never take less than she deserves. I love how she found her voice and strength when it came to the relationships she had mostly with the various men in her life.

This is a very interesting book like I said above, it’s contemporary-ya and it’s great to read, it’s fun, cute and also serious on the low, but still shouty (if that made sense).

Check out Shealea’s Review of the book.