While I read some classic books, I’m not a huge fan of classic movies. I’ve seen many over the years but there aren’t my first choice when I take some time to lounge in front of the TV.

This book takes you on an adventure in remembering some of these classics and blends them perfectly into the setting created.

DISCLAIMER: This review could contain possible spoilers based on my opinions. All opinions and views are my own.

Book review: You, Me and the Movies by Fiona Collins #bookreview #fionacollins #chicklitbooks #romancebooks #contemporarybooks #booktwt #bookaddict #booktwitter

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Challenge prompt: The letter Y in the A-Z Book Challenge 2022
Originally published: 2019

Pages: 368
Format: Paperback

Plot from GoodReads:

He only speaks in movie references but they make her remember everything…

After a marriage which threatened her entire sense of self, Arden Hall is divorced, doing a lacklustre job and living a quiet, rather unexciting life. But one day, visiting a friend in a London hospital, she suddenly re-encounters her former lover from thirty years ago, charismatic Film Studies lecturer, Mac Bartley-Thomas, who is lying in a bed on the same ward.

Suffering from a brain injury and unable to converse, all Mac can utter is short references to the famous films he and Arden once watched together, back when she was a student and they conducted their affair: Casablanca, Bonnie and Clyde, Some Like It Hot and more…

These movies spark both bittersweet memories of their passionate relationship and the potential for a more reflective Arden to finally fulfil the promise of her younger self. And in the course of her visits to Mac, she starts to reconnect with the world in a way that she didn’t think was possible…

Thoughts:

The book has two timelines running alongside each other, the Now and the Then. The Now covers the present time with the characters, and the Then tells their story, starting with how they met all the way through the affair and what happened later on. The back and forth switch was smooth and easy to follow.

Arden wasn’t an instantly likeable character; distant and cut off from relationships with others. Her story slowly unfolds with small flashbacks into the past during her married years and you slowly get around to understanding her demeanour and why unhappiness has befallen her. Certainly a much different character than the one you get to know in the Then timeline.

A cross of multiple heavy themes addressed in the book; with a strong emotional theme present in almost every setting, there’s enough to around: grief, anger, happiness, hope and so many more emotions to work through.

I liked how the characters, pretty much all of them, were flawed and had their own issues, and this made them realistic beyond the romance trope.

Overview:

A romance book for classic movie lovers and fans of the second chances trope, an emotional read with different themes addressed to give you all kinds of feels.

My Rating:

The book has a rating of 3.78 on GoodReads. I gave it a 4.

You, Me and the Movies by Fiona Collins #bookreview #fionacollins #chicklitbooks #romancebooks #contemporarybooks #booktwt #bookaddict #booktwitter

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Have you read You, Me and the Movies?

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