When February comes around, most people think of Valentine’s Day and all of the romance that comes along with it. Now, don’t get me wrong, I do too (Valentine’s is super cute), but I am more focused on the rom-com aspect of this day. Most people think that rom-coms are cheesy and that there is no plot whatsoever to the story. They get together, break up, and then get back together anyway. End of story. However, I feel as though they are so much more than some cheesy love story written for women to watch.
Lynn Painter Books:
Some of my favorite rom-coms are from books I have read. Queen of Rom-coms, Lynn Painter, does an excellent job portraying the essence of romantic comedies and the average teenage experience in her YA novels. She has several popular books, such as Better Than The Movies, Betting On You, Mr. Wrong Number, and Fake Skating (my personal favorite right now). Each of her books has a specific playlist that goes with the couple she’s writing about, and the music choices are impeccable. Lynn Painter is very popular with the YA crowd (14-18 year olds), and all of her characters are relatable to the given age range. Dani Collins, Fake Skating, struggles with social anxiety, bullying, and overthinking issues, which is something most teens can relate to. In The Do-Over, Nick Stark struggles with the death of his brother, Eric, and bringing him up to other people until Emilie comes along; then he feels like she is the only person who truly understands him.
Her most popular book is Better Than The Movies (BTTM), which definitely lives up to the title. The book focuses on the story of Liz (Elizabeth) Buxbaum, and Wes Bennett, who are next-door neighbors who have despised each other since they were kids. Liz is a hopeless romantic obsessed with rom-coms and making playlists after her mom’s death, all while trying to navigate senior year without her, and Wes is Liz’s annoying next-door neighbor that she considers a nuisance. They are both polar opposites, yet they could not be more alike.
The novel starts off with Liz’s childhood crush, Michael Young, moving back to town during their senior year, and her buried love for him comes back up. She finds out that Wes has a pretty good connection with Michael and begs him to bring her with him to the party he is attending. Liz offers Wes the one thing he wants, the parking spot (The Spot) in front of her house, which they fight over all the time, and he accepts.
Throughout the rest of the novel, a few kids at their school (and Michael) start thinking that Liz and Wes are dating, which gives Liz the idea to fake date Wes so Michael would stop thinking that she was still a weird little kid who was obsessed with creating plays. She offers Wes the parking spot for another week if he helps her, but he counters her proposal by requesting to have The Spot forever. Liz defeatingly agrees, and the two start their fake dating plan. The rest of the novel covers their adventures (dates, shopping, prom…) and ends with a happily ever after.
My most recent rom-com read was The Do-Over by Lynn Painter, which takes place on Valentine’s Day and follows Emilie Hornby, a junior in high school trying to live the perfect life and do everything she can to get into a good college, and how she has to relive the same Valentine’s Day where her boyfriend cheats on her over and over again and she repeatedly crashes into her chem partner Nick Stark’s car and finds herself intrigued by him every time they meet.
There are so many quotes in Lynn Painter’s books that just scream 2000s rom-com. A lot of them come from Better Than The Movies, but it should be a given since it is in the title. My favorite quote from BTTM is after a freak accident when Wes’s car slid off the road. The two go out in the pouring rain to look at the damage on the car, and Wes notices her curls. Even though he says he misses them, Liz counters with the fact that he was the one who told her to straighten it. Wes gets all swoony over Liz and tells her, “I was. And I think I regret all of it…You look best when you’re you” (Painter 259). There’s just something about this scene that I adore. Maybe it is the fact that they are in the rain and Wes is looking at her with so much love and simply admits that Liz is perfect exactly the way she is, even if certain crushes think she is a little weirdo. It finally clicks in her head that Wes is definitely a better option than Michael.
Another one of my favorite quotes is in Fake Skating when Alec ends up in the hospital and Dani and her grandpa come to make sure that he is okay (even though they are broken up), and he finds out that she only broke up with him to make sure that the fight he got into with a rich kid would not hold back his chances of being a good hockey player. In the hospital, Alec confesses to Dani, “Better and worse don’t matter with us—they don’t—because it’s all better with you,” and it is such a sweet moment between the two of them because they have known each other since they were kids, and now Alec is telling Dani that his entire life is better with her in it (Painter 418). It is just too good a scene not to talk about.
Rom-com Movies:
If books are not really your speed and you would rather watch a movie, I have a ton of those for you. In the last two years, I have watched a lot of rom-coms, and there are some I think are better than others. My favorite is La La Land, but that is only because I cried watching the end of the movie (pro tip: skip the last eight minutes if you want a good ending). Also, if you are looking for a rom-com you can cry to, La La Land and Me Before You are your best options.
La La Land stars Emma Stone and Ryan Gosling as their two main characters, and it is really only sad near the end when Mia (Emma) and Sebastian (Ryan) have their third-act breakup because it truly sets a blue tone for the other parts of the movie. It is a musical, and I am constantly listening to the music from this movie because it is all so well written and fits the emotions of the movie perfectly. That being said, Me Before You stars Sam Claflin, who plays Finnick Odair in The Hunger Games, and is about Louisa, a girl who switches jobs often to provide for her family. She ends up taking a job to take care of Will Traynor after he ends up paralyzed from a motorcycle accident. She tries to make Will realize that even though he cannot do what he used to, there are still so many things out there for him to see. This is a sad movie near the end, but you’ll have to watch it for yourself to find out why. My final note is this: Louisa and Will’s relationship goes beyond the normal third-act breakup and offers such a sense of longing and love through simple acts of help. They know each other so well (hint: bumble bee tights), and the way their relationship flourishes is extremely well written.
If you are looking for a chick flick or a 2000s type of movie, How to Lose a Guy in Ten Days, 27 Dresses, Confessions of a Shopaholic, and She’s All That are definitely great movies to watch. 27 Dresses is the movie I go back to whenever I just need to put on a movie because the plot is easy to follow and the main characters (Jane and Kevin) are so likable. All of these movies have great soundtracks that give off rom-com vibes with songs such as “You’re So Vain” by Carly Simon, “Bennie and the Jets” by Elton John, and “Kiss Me” by Sixpence None the Richer. A soundtrack completely defines if a movie has a rom-com feeling, and these four movies have great song choices. Each one offers a lovey-dovey type of idea and makes the movie come together really well. There are typical montages shown of the couples doing cutesy things, but it adds a lot more to the plot and the scenes at the end of the movie. It really builds their relationship up.
After all of this, two of my favorite rom-coms have left me with a quote that I think about all the time. Both Wes Bennett (Better Than The Movies) and Luke Brandon (Confessions of a Shopaholic) end up in a situation where their female lead assumes that they like another character (Liz being worried about Alex after prom and Rebecca worrying about Alicia, who is extremely wealthy) when in reality, they only ever think about Liz and Rebecca. These scenes create the perfect quote of “she’s not you,” fully showing that Wes and Luke care about nothing else but Liz and Rebecca.
In all honesty, I think rom-coms are such beautiful movies. They show that love can happen all around us and to complete opposite people. There are so many stories told about characters who believe they will never find love (like Jane from 27 Dresses), only to realize that it was following them around wherever they went. I love the “I love you” confessions in the rain, them arguing and not meaning a single word, and the scenes where the girl says, “You wrote me letters?” Even the third-act breakups make you feel like you are the one being dumped, even though you know they will get together anyway. Rom-coms are just a beautiful presentation of love; whether they are cheesy or completely sentimental, this genre of movies/books has so much to offer, no matter the time of year. Hopefully, this Valentine’s Day, you have found new movies to watch and books to read filled with the magic and hopes of rom-coms.