Rating: 97% | ★★★★★
Synopsis (from NetGalley): 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. Spoiler-Free Review: The first review of the new year, and it centers around a fantastic novel—you and I, dear reader, are in luck. I seem to be on a Hollywood-novel-NetGalley binge recently (see last year's reviews of Birds of California and Funny You Should Ask) and I'm not complaining; Nora Goes Off Script is the latest addition to what has been a truly amazing string of novels about celebrities and those caught in the celebrity crossfire. Monaghan's novel is a beautiful, earnest look at motherhood, second love, and relationships in today's world. I found myself crying often, grinning from time to time, and always on the edge of my seat—not an easy thing for a contemporary romance novel to incite. Monaghan writes deftly, with an elegance that comes naturally and perfectly captures the vicissitudes of life. When Nora mourns her past, the reader mourns with her; when Nora contemplates her future, the reader is neither exasperatedly ahead of her nor perplexedly lagging behind her—they run exactly parallel to her track. The entire cast of characters in Nora Goes Off Script is perfect, from the impossible-to-hate Nora to the heart-on-his-sleeve Leo to even the despicable Ben, who will be so unfortunately familiar to any reader. And, of course, this review would be incomplete without a mention of Nora's two adorable and three-dimensional children, Arthur and Bernadette, who will worm their way into any reader's heart. The one critique I had after finishing Nora was that I felt the novel should have been longer—if only to prolong my time with Nora and Leo, to delay my goodbye. In short, this is a novel for anyone who needs confirmation that they are deserving of love and for anyone struggling to love themselves. Thank you to NetGalley and PENGUIN GROUP, Putnam, G.P. Putnam's Sons for providing me with a copy of this novel in exchange for an honest review. Nora Goes Off Script is available June 7, 2022.
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