Nora Goes Off Script by Annabel Monaghan

 

Amy     
Lynnie  

romance

Nora is a screenplay writer who recently wrote a movie mimicking her own recent divorce. When the production company uses her own outbuilding, which she calls her Tea House, in the film, the lead actor convinces Nora to let him rent her Tea House for a week so he can unplug from his life. It doesn’t hurt that Leo was once America’s Sexiest Man Alive.

 

Amy's Review

I LOVED THIS NOVEL! Apparently, this was the novel I needed to read right now! I needed a fun, happy story. This is the first non-fantasy/non-historical fiction romance to which I’ve ever given 5 stars. I loved the interactions of all the characters, Leo’s and Nora’s back stories and personalities, and the anticipation. I found myself smiling a lot. Of course, the foreshadowing was not subtle at all.  Nora wrote scripts that always followed the same basic storyline until the one she wrote about her own life.  And now her new romance was destined to be like all the ones she had written but never experienced in real life.  Therefore, Nora Goes Off Script didn’t follow the typical romance novel trope of forcing the reader to suffer through the entire novel in frustration about when/how the couple would get together but, rather, when/how the interference would start and whether the relationship would survive. (Of course, you always know they’ll end up together in a romance novel, though.)

This was the second romance I’ve read where one member of the couple is a famous movie star falling for a non-famous person. I was worried it was going to be similar (and feel unlikely) but it was not (and did not)! I could easily relate to many of the characters in this novel, particularly Nora. Perhaps because she was older than the typical romance character, she felt real and authentic and could have been a friend of mine. I think this is the main reason I liked this novel so much. Her concerns were always valid. Her mindset was genuine. This compelled me to keep reading to find out how the rest of the story would play out for her. I kept thinking about her when not listening to the audiobook.  Thank you, Annabel Monaghan, for a thoroughly entertaining read! I’m definitely going to read more of your books.

The audiobook narrator was Hillary Huber. Her tone was too snarky in the beginning for my liking but she did a good job with her voice acting and vocal repertoire. I’ve heard her narrate two other books in which she was not snarky-sounding. So this was a choice on her part. Since I wish she hadn’t made that choice, I’m going to knock her down to an A-. 

Lynnie's Review

Nora Goes Off Script was a sweet and lovely romance, but I didn't love it as much as everyone else seems to have. I loved every character in this book! From Nora and her children to Leo, their friends and family,  and all the townspeople - real friends, great family and the kind of support we all hope for! And yet I was dissatisfied for a good chunk of this novel.

We all know the formula, which Annabel Monaghan herself makes fun of throughout the book as her main character Nora writes formulaic romance movies for cable television. Main characters meet, fall hopelessly in love, drama is manufactured to keep them apart, they reunite. Except, in this novel I felt like the manufactured drama lasted much longer than was needed and frankly, made me not want to continue reading. I persevered because frankly, I needed the happy ending I knew would materialize.

I listened to the audiobook, narrated by Hillary Huber and I did not love her voice (which I admit may have affected my enjoyment). I thought she sounded sarcastic a lot of the time - and maybe Nora was sarcastic, certainly she had a big wall around her emotions - but it didn't make for exciting listening. I do think she did a great job narrating the variety of other voices in the story, particularly the men because some narrators have a tough time differentiating between genders. I give her a B.