{Synopsis} –Pretty and popular track star Marijke Monti is confident about almost everything – she’s got great friends, a great family, and she’s on her way to the State Track Championship. In fact, the only thing Marijke isn’t confident about is her relationship with Tommy Lawson.
Lily Spencer has spent her entire high school career preparing for the future – she’s participated in every extracurricular activity and volunteer committee she could. But, at home, she watches her mother go on date after date with dud-dudes, still searching for “the one.” Lily realizes that she’s about to graduate and still hasn’t even had a boyfriend.
While they live on each other’s periphery at school, Lily and Marijke never seemed to have much in common; but, after a coincidental meeting at the movie theater, Lily gets an idea – why can’t life be like a movie? Why can’t they set up their perfect romantic situations, just in time for their senior prom, using movie techniques?
Once the girls come up with the perfect plans, they commit themselves to being secret cohorts and, just like in the movies, drama ensues.
{My Thoughts} – Marijke Monti and Lily Spencer are the two main characters in this book.
Marijke is a track star with a popular boyfriend, but she seems to be having boy troubles. She seems to have problems trusting Tommy and no matter how much he tells her she has nothing to worry about she still gets really upset. She strikes me as an insecure girl who thinks that the guy should revolve their life around them as opposed to living their life by including them. Her parents appear to have the picture perfect marriage but things aren’t always the way they seem.
Lily is the complete opposite of Marijke. Lily isn’t dating anyone, and she seems to have her life wrapped up in the school newspaper and school government stuff. One day she goes to see Titantic and Marijke apparently was going to see the movie to and she ends up being friends with her after she watches her shatter to pieces from a fight with Tommy.
After the movie the two girls decide that they want to win the boys they love or are crushing on by using scenes in a movie. They want to get their movie happily ever after and are willing to try and do what ever they can to get it, even if it means making a fool out of themselves in public.
I have to say that I can’t disagree with wanting a scripted movie happily ever after like they do. I mean what girl wouldn’t want a guy to admit and profess their love to them in the most romantic way possible. In a sense throughout the book many of their classmates got just that when the boys were doing their special over the top prom proposals for the girls they wanted to take to prom. Not every girl had been asked to prom though and not every girl asked got a movie scene type invite either.
I remember what it was like to be in High School, to be in love. I remember what it felt like when I knew I wasn’t really the guys first priority. I know now how little sense that means because people have to live their own lives. You can’t make people live their lives around you and you can’t live your life around them. Most relationships like that are more or less doomed from the beginning.
If you want to find out what happened to Marijke and Lily – read the book. It is a nice fast and wonderful read!
{quotes i liked} –
01} I want your son to love me, so I’m acting out movie scenes. Say anything is just the beginning. There are a dozen others I’m willing to try. Haven’t you ever wished you could fall in love like they do on screen?
02} My parents truly are too cute, like they’ve been carved out of something fluffy and pastel colored. Sometimes they are a little obnoxious in their high-school-sweetheart love. Being the by-product of my parents relationship can be a burden too. It’s a lot to live up to when you’re the end result of the world’s most adorable love story.
03} There’s a reason all these things work in movies. It’s because their fiction.
04} I guess my life’s like the movies after all – just not in a good way.
05} “And I can’t believe you’d let him. Love, real love- it’s worth fighting for, you know? It’s worth doing everything you can to save it. Even if it means losing the person you love in the end. As long as you’ve really tried- well, then you know that you’ve done all you can.”
06}Maybe it’s because it seems like Marijke and I have come to a conclusion we can both respect- that the movies didn’t bring us love, but they did bring us friendship. That the movies aren’t a solution for problems, but they are a place to forget the problems you have. At least for awhile.
07} At the movies we’ve watched and studied and copied- well, they all had happy endings, despite potential outside variables. That’s not how real life works, I guess. No director, no writer, no second or third or fourth takes. You get one shot to do it right the first time and, when it doesn’t work, you have to live with the outcome.
08} There’s a good reason why romantic comedies are so successful: They are predictable. They are perfect. They have a script to follow and a formula that creates the perfect chemistry and connection every time. That’s what Lily and I forgot when we put together our master plan. Life isn’t always predictable like a movie. Life isn’t a formula to follow.
09} And there it is- the last aspect of the perfect romance: chemistry. It’s the one thing that the movies capture that real life has in common. It’s the one thing you can’t fake, because it’s as certain as science.
Final Conclusion: 5 Star Rating.
