Better Than the Movies

Some mornings start badly—burned earlobe, a cat-deposited hair ball in your slipper—and then your infuriating next-door nemesis shows up draped across the hood of your car before you've even made it to school.

Lilly is a die-hard romantic who has practically written the screenplay of her own love story. She knows exactly how it ends: with her childhood crush, finally back in town, realizing she's the one. All she needs is the perfect meet-cute, the swelling music, the cinematic moment. What she does not need is Wes Bennett—annoyingly charming, perpetually smirking Wes—complicating everything.

But fate, as it turns out, has a terrible sense of humor. When Lilly's grand romantic plan requires an unlikely alliance, Wes is suddenly less nemesis and more... something she can't quite categorize. He's still aggravating. He still gets under her skin. The problem is, lately he's getting under her skin in a completely different way.

Set against the backdrop of contemporary small-town life, Lynn Painter's beloved story is a pitch-perfect blend of razor-sharp wit