Kelly Fiore

{my thoughts} – Marijke Monti and Lily Spencer are the two main characters in this book.

Marijke is a track star with a popular boyfriend, but she seems to be having boy troubles. She seems to have problems trusting Tommy and no matter how much he tells her she has nothing to worry about she still gets really upset. She strikes me as an insecure girl who thinks that the guy should revolve their life around them as opposed to living their life by including them. Her parents appear to have the picture perfect marriage but things aren’t always the way they seem.

Lily is the complete opposite of Marijke. Lily isn’t dating anyone, and she seems to have her life wrapped up in the school newspaper and school government stuff. One day she goes to see Titantic and Marijke apparently was going to see the movie to and she ends up being friends with her after she watches her shatter to pieces from a fight with Tommy.

After the movie the two girls decide that they want to win the boys they love or are crushing on by using scenes in a movie. They want to get their movie happily ever after and are willing to try and do what ever they can to get it, even if it means making a fool out of themselves in public.

I have to say that I can’t disagree with wanting a scripted movie happily ever after like they do. I mean what girl wouldn’t want a guy to admit and profess their love to them in the most romantic way possible. In a sense throughout the book many of their classmates got just that when the boys were doing their special over the top prom proposals for the girls they wanted to take to prom. Not every girl had been asked to prom though and not every girl asked got a movie scene type invite either.

I remember what it was like to be in High School, to be in love. I remember what it felt like when I knew I wasn’t really the guys first priority. I know now how little sense that means because people have to live their own lives. You can’t make people live their lives around you and you can’t live your life around them. Most relationships like that are more or less doomed from the beginning.

If you want to find out what happened to Marijke and Lily – read the book. It is a nice fast and wonderful read!

{quotes i liked} –

01} I want your son to love me, so I’m acting out movie scenes. Say anything is just the beginning. There are a dozen others I’m willing to try. Haven’t you ever wished you could fall in love like they do on screen?

02} My parents truly are too cute, like they’ve been carved out of something fluffy and pastel colored. Sometimes they are a little obnoxious in their high-school-sweetheart love. Being the by-product of my parents relationship can be a burden too. It’s a lot to live up to when you’re the end result of the world’s most adorable love story.

03} There’s a reason all these things work in movies. It’s because their fiction.

04} I guess my life’s like the movies after all – just not in a good way.

05} “And I can’t believe you’d let him. Love, real love- it’s worth fighting for, you know? It’s worth doing everything you can to save it. Even if it means losing the person you love in the end. As long as you’ve really tried- well, then you know that you’ve done all you can.”

06}Maybe it’s because it seems like Marijke and I have come to a conclusion we can both respect- that the movies didn’t bring us love, but they did bring us friendship. That the movies aren’t a solution for problems, but they are a place to forget the problems you have. At least for awhile.

07} At the movies we’ve watched and studied and copied- well, they all had happy endings, despite potential outside variables. That’s not how real life works, I guess. No director, no writer, no second or third or fourth takes. You get one shot to do it right the first time and, when it doesn’t work, you have to live with the outcome.

08} There’s a good reason why romantic comedies are so successful: They are predictable. They are perfect. They have a script to follow and a formula that creates the perfect chemistry and connection every time. That’s what Lily and I forgot when we put together our master plan. Life isn’t always predictable like a movie. Life isn’t a formula to follow.

09} And there it is- the last aspect of the perfect romance: chemistry. It’s the one thing that the movies capture that real life has in common. It’s the one thing you can’t fake, because it’s as certain as science.… (altro)

{my thoughts} – Marijke Monti and Lily Spencer are the two main characters in this book.

Marijke is a track star with a popular boyfriend, but she seems to be having boy troubles. She seems to have problems trusting Tommy and no matter how much he tells her she has nothing to worry about she still gets really upset. She strikes me as an insecure girl who thinks that the guy should revolve their life around them as opposed to living their life by including them. Her parents appear to have the picture perfect marriage but things aren’t always the way they seem.

Lily is the complete opposite of Marijke. Lily isn’t dating anyone, and she seems to have her life wrapped up in the school newspaper and school government stuff. One day she goes to see Titantic and Marijke apparently was going to see the movie to and she ends up being friends with her after she watches her shatter to pieces from a fight with Tommy.

After the movie the two girls decide that they want to win the boys they love or are crushing on by using scenes in a movie. They want to get their movie happily ever after and are willing to try and do what ever they can to get it, even if it means making a fool out of themselves in public.

I have to say that I can’t disagree with wanting a scripted movie happily ever after like they do. I mean what girl wouldn’t want a guy to admit and profess their love to them in the most romantic way possible. In a sense throughout the book many of their classmates got just that when the boys were doing their special over the top prom proposals for the girls they wanted to take to prom. Not every girl had been asked to prom though and not every girl asked got a movie scene type invite either.

I remember what it was like to be in High School, to be in love. I remember what it felt like when I knew I wasn’t really the guys first priority. I know now how little sense that means because people have to live their own lives. You can’t make people live their lives around you and you can’t live your life around them. Most relationships like that are more or less doomed from the beginning.

If you want to find out what happened to Marijke and Lily – read the book. It is a nice fast and wonderful read!

{quotes i liked} –

01} I want your son to love me, so I’m acting out movie scenes. Say anything is just the beginning. There are a dozen others I’m willing to try. Haven’t you ever wished you could fall in love like they do on screen?

02} My parents truly are too cute, like they’ve been carved out of something fluffy and pastel colored. Sometimes they are a little obnoxious in their high-school-sweetheart love. Being the by-product of my parents relationship can be a burden too. It’s a lot to live up to when you’re the end result of the world’s most adorable love story.

03} There’s a reason all these things work in movies. It’s because their fiction.

04} I guess my life’s like the movies after all – just not in a good way.

05} “And I can’t believe you’d let him. Love, real love- it’s worth fighting for, you know? It’s worth doing everything you can to save it. Even if it means losing the person you love in the end. As long as you’ve really tried- well, then you know that you’ve done all you can.”

06}Maybe it’s because it seems like Marijke and I have come to a conclusion we can both respect- that the movies didn’t bring us love, but they did bring us friendship. That the movies aren’t a solution for problems, but they are a place to forget the problems you have. At least for awhile.

07} At the movies we’ve watched and studied and copied- well, they all had happy endings, despite potential outside variables. That’s not how real life works, I guess. No director, no writer, no second or third or fourth takes. You get one shot to do it right the first time and, when it doesn’t work, you have to live with the outcome.

08} There’s a good reason why romantic comedies are so successful: They are predictable. They are perfect. They have a script to follow and a formula that creates the perfect chemistry and connection every time. That’s what Lily and I forgot when we put together our master plan. Life isn’t always predictable like a movie. Life isn’t a formula to follow.

09} And there it is- the last aspect of the perfect romance: chemistry. It’s the one thing that the movies capture that real life has in common. It’s the one thing you can’t fake, because it’s as certain as science.… (altro)

Due to me only really loving half of this book (the book that shows the POV of Lily Spencer) and feeling all kinds of irritated with the other POV in this story (Marijke Monti) I ended up just giving this book 3 stars. The book ending also was pretty rushed and I had a hard time with the final resolution with both of the girls in this book. I also thought the author waited a bit too long to have their individual stories sync up and I had a hard time with their not-so-meet cute.

I liked the premise of the book enough. Two girls who want their lives to be more like movies (or more realistically like romance and romantic comedies) and for them to get their guys. The premise doesn't really work for Marijke because she's dating the guy she wants to get through almost the whole book (yeah that part was confusing).

Marijke is a track star at her school and even though she's doing great in track and school, she still stresses that her boyfriend Tommy doesn't love her like she loves him. This is because he has never said he loves her. I would also add that he doesn't seem to know her name since he calls her "baby" all the time. When Marijke loses it on Tommy after finding some texts in his phone from her ex, they have a ugly fight which leaves Marijke determined to make Tommy say he loves her because only then will that prove that he cares about her. No it doesn't make much sense to me either.

Lilly Spencer is the queen or organization at her school. However, not too many people know her. And the guy she crushes on Joe, definitely does not know that she exists. When she runs into Marijke at a movie theater showing "Titanic" for one day only, Lily feels sorry since it seems that Marijke is in the midst of a meltdown. The two girls go off and after speaking to each other for like 10 minutes have unloaded their life stories and decided to use movies to get their men.

I maybe groaned a bit, but did feel sympathetic because this is nonsense that 17 year old me would have totally done and had no sense of shame of trying to do. I did hard cringe a bit in some of the scenes because Marijke and Lily do put themselves out there to their oblivious boyfriend/crush.

That said, other characters in this book are very underdeveloped. I think that happened because Stultz is trying to tell two stories simultaneously. The character of Tommy makes less sense after Marijke reveals his wealthy family origins. And the way he talks like he is a character in a James Dean movie was annoying. I did side with him a lot during the book though because there is no excuse for Marijke to constantly be thinking that Tommy is cheating and going through his phone (STALKER ALERT) and instead of feeling badly about any of this she blames him since hey if he would just say I love you, everything would be okay. I do think that in the end the character of Marijke finally gets her head out of her butt when she realizes that she is the only one constantly giving up things to be in this relationship. Stultz throws in some stuff concerning Marijke's parents that felt off and I don't know if they were a cautionary tale to Marijke in giving up everything to be with her high school boyfriend or what.

Lily Spencer's crush Joe also did not feel very developed at all. We know he likes motorcross. And I think his eyes were green. That's all I got. I didn't get any idea why Lily even liked the guy. And in the end I maybe rolled my eyes on how they got together. It was too neat and maybe I screamed out this would only have happened in the movies. Maybe. Lily's home life was far more interesting to me. Lily's mother is a cautionary tale in watching movies and wanting that to be your reality so much you ignore the terrible men you are dating. There is finally a conversation between Lily and her mother, but once again it felt too rushed.

The writing felt off in so many places to me. I think it's because I know of no teenager that would call another one "scrumptious". Usually Marijke's dialogue read wrong to me. I did like it when the author focused on her love of track. Those are the parts that felt real to me.

The flow was off in the beginning until the two girls finally meet up. Probably because I thought I was reading separate stories for a good bit until the story-lines merged.

The ending was a bit of a letdown to me honestly. I really thought Lily's resolution was not realistic and rushed. I thought Marijke's was interesting, though I had to say that once again I thought that was not earned either.… (altro)