Book Review: Nora Goes Off Script by Annabel Monaghan

Rating: ★★★★
Audience: Contemporary Romance
Length: 272 pages
Author: Annabel Monaghan
Publisher: G.P. Putnam’s
Release Date: June 7th, 2022
Image & Other Reviews on: Goodreads

BOOK SUMMARY:

Nora’s life is about to get a rewrite…

Nora Hamilton knows the formula for love better than anyone. As a romance channel screenwriter, it’s her job. But when her too-good-to work husband leaves her and their two kids, Nora turns her marriage’s collapse into cash and writes the best script of her life. No one is more surprised than her when it’s picked up for the big screen and set to film on location at her 100-year-old-home. When former Sexiest Man Alive, Leo Vance, is cast as her ne’er do well husband Nora’s life will never be the same.

The morning after shooting wraps and the crew leaves, Nora finds Leo on her porch with a half-empty bottle of tequila and a proposition. He’ll pay a thousand dollars a day to stay for a week. The extra seven grand would give Nora breathing room, but it’s the need in his eyes that makes her say yes. Seven days: it’s the blink of an eye or an eternity depending on how you look at it. Enough time to fall in love. Enough time to break your heart.

Filled with warmth, wit, and wisdom, Nora Goes Off Script is the best kind of love story–the real kind where love is complicated by work, kids, and the emotional baggage that comes with life. For Nora and Leo, this kind of love is bigger than the big screen.

ENJOYABLE.

This is another, I wasn’t going to read this book until everyone else convinced me otherwise. And while I don’t have a RAVE review, I do have a solid one that I would still stand on as a recommendation for a short, fast paced romance.

I think this is the first movie star romance that I actually liked. Leo is sweet and caring, and full of charisma that sweeps you up. Nora and Leo get off to a fast pace start that shows truthfully how connection can spark. I adored how Leo fit right into their family and made an effort in being there.

The conflict and how it started made me tilt my head a bit. I didn’t love it because I think a simple, is this true? could have fixed it real fast. I don’t know, the fast nature of their relationship might have played into it being apart of their downfall for a bit, but it still bugged me.

I loved the small town setting, the kids were sweet, and Nora was able to find steady ground again. I like that she found her happiness and the complicated joy that comes from having falling in love.

Overall audience notes:

Contemporary Romance
Language: some
Romance: vague open that fades to black
Trigger/Content Warnings: mentions of infidelity (from the ex-husband), spousal and child abandonment, alcoholism