In Nora Goes Off Script by Annabel Monaghan, a scriptwriter & divorced mom of two falls for a famous movie star. But can a relationship between a superstar and a small-town supermom ever work? Or make a great novel? Hmm… YES!
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.
Nora Goes Off Script plays with every writer’s fantasy when a heartfelt writing project gets made into a movie.
Even better for Nora, the movie is being filmed at her home, AND an awkward but intriguing chemistry develops with the leading man.
The story also feeds off our perceptions of the rich and famous, as if they’re an alien species we poke, prod, and study but are incapable of understanding. Celebrities must be what? Arrogant? Self-obsessed? Elitist? Lucky? Spoiled jerks? Or could they possibly be regular people who simply scored amazing jobs?
When first meeting actor Leo Vance, he seems like a typical movie star. I imagine him as a younger Brad Pitt or Keanu Reeves—It’s crucial he has a “smolder,” which also makes me think of Flynn Rider from Tangled. That’s my favorite Disney princess movie, btw.
This is an aside, but I can’t help it… JUST FOUND OUT that Christina Lauren is writing a contemporary romance based on Tangled, set to be released next year! It’s called Tangled Up In You, and, damn, I wish I’d thought of it first! I can’t wait to get my hands on it, given how much I adored The True Love Experiment.
Anyway, back to my review…
Leo acts like he owns the place, and though he’s never a “diva,” I found myself asking, “Gosh, who does this guy think he is?” Well, he’s Leo Vance. He’s accustomed to adoration, never grocery shopping or preparing meals, and quality linens.
We get to know him as Nora does, through the lens of someone still recovering from a terrible marriage and who doesn’t trust what’s happening. Why should she? He’s freaking Leo Vance. Even so, their friendship turns quickly to love. He even develops wonderful relationships with her kids and the community. It’s a writer’s fantasy turned Hallmarkian dream, an irony because Nora usually writes shallow, formulaic scripts for “The Romance Channel” to make money. Now, she’s living what she writes.
Or is she? Da, da, da.
No spoilers…I cannot give away what comes next.
But there are two great takeaways. First, it reminds me how much I love a first-person narrative. Through Nora’s storytelling, we not only understand her Mom/writer/trying-to-make-ends-meet reality, but we love her for it. From her frustration with her ex to her skeptical but curious moments with Leo and beyond to her devastation and triumph, Nora took me on an emotional roller coaster ride… in a good way.
Second, I love that it’s Hallmark but not. It’s all those lovey, sweet, romantic bits from a Hallmark movie but with “the more” that’s always lacking and has you asking, “That’s it?” Real-life complications, messiness, heartache, sex—it’s all in there. You know, like life. That’s how it kept me guessing, too. At parts, I wasn’t sure what would happen—or what I even wanted to happen! That’s a rare thing for a reader, and especially a writer. And that it pokes fun at “the romance channel” in the process is a bonus.
Oh, and p.s… Another Nora? Check out my book review of The Night of Many Endings for more on Nora’s. It’s a popular name lately.
So, anyway, it should be no surprise that I’m recommending Nora Goes Off Script to anyone who enjoys:
Friends to lovers
Fish out of water stories
Opposites Attract
Second Chance Love
Different Worlds
Small Town
I’ll also add some I don’t know are “real” tropes, but maybe they should be, like…
Mom as Hero
Damsel saves herself
Divorced but Okay
Writer as MC (This one always hits home for me)
Romance at Home (this is one I used in my soon-to-be-released novel One Thing Better & I love it!)
Home but Different (The movie studio takes over Nora’s home for a few days, and Leo stays longer… It’s like her comfort zone is temporarily upended)
Also, Tangled.
