Bookish Witch

Nora Goes Off Script by Annabel Monaghan

A Rustic Mind

Blurb (as on Goodreads):

Nora’s life is about to get a rewrite…

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.

Genre: Fiction/Romcom
Pages: 272
Format: Paperback/Hardcover/eBook
Price (as on Amazon):
-Paperback: ₹631/$9.99
-Kindle eBook: ₹250.75/$3.11

My Rating: 4/5

Romance screenwriter Nora Hamilton’s life is itself loveless after her husband walks out on their marriage and two kids. When she turns this bit about her life into a non-romantic script, she lands herself in a bigger heartbreak than before; and this time at the hand of a much-bigger, much-better person, viz, the lead actor of her life story, the sexiest man alive, Leo Vance. Why did Leo disappear, just like Nora’s ex? He seemed genuine, so did his feelings, his multiple promises and his many I Love Yous. What went wrong? Is Nora destined to attract and fall for men who walk out on her?

What I liked about the book:

  • A cute, feel-good romantic comedy which worked as the perfect palate cleanser after some of the heavy/trashy books I’d read lately.
  • One of the most refreshing things about this book was how the children were invested and involved right from the beginning, which doesn’t seem to be the case with a lot of typical romance novels with single parents as their MCs.
  • More than the leads, I really liked the supporting characters, like the BFFs, the parents, the siblings, and even the film cast and crew. They add flavour and comic relief to the story

What I did not like about the book:

  • Some bits felt left-out or rushed. The story is definitely missing plotlines and dialogue. There are even points where the dialogue and the narration run together and this is only wrong at a grammatical/linguistic level, but also very confusing.
  • The alcohol consumption is treated normally when it really sticks out as over-consumption or bordering on addiction. The leads are shown to be drinking every single day and not addressing it.

Quotable quotes:

  • If you own up to not being perfect, life gets easier
  • To write is to re-create something as you’d like it to be.
  • At the corner of arrogance and cluelessness, you find the worst kind of person.
  • Time and sunshine bring growth, and life unfolds just the way it’s supposed to.
  • It’s the classic self-correcting problem. If someone leaves you, it’s because they didn’t want to be with you. All you lost was someone who didn’t want to be there anyway.
  • The secret to a happy marriage is that you give a hundred and ten percent to him and he gives a hundred and ten percent to you.
  • Two people who love each other and are looking in the same direction can build a wonderful life.
  • If you own up to not being perfect, life gets easier.

Check out the book:

Author’s social media links:

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This book review is a part of #ReadingWithMuffy challenge hosted by @kohleyedreads. I picked this book for its April prompt, ‘A book with a green cover’. You can check out my detailed post with the books I’ve picked for the challenge here. You may also check out my reviews for the books read as part of this challenge so far:

  1. Charlotte’s Web by E.B. White
  2. The Colour Purple by Alice Walker
  3. milk and honey by Rupi Kaur

I’m participating in Blogchatter’s #TBRChallenge.

This post is part of the Bookish League blog hop hosted by Bohemian Bibliophile.

For more bookish updates, you can also follow my Bookstagram account: @bookish_witch88

Thank you for reading.

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