NORA GOES OFF SCRIPT

A romance writer’s successful screenplay shows her what she really wants out of relationships—and life.

When her husband left her, all Nora Hamilton felt was relief. A newly single mom with two kids and a mortgage, she poured her feelings into a screenplay, and, instead of selling it to The Romance Channel as she usually does, Hollywood comes calling—and they're going to shoot the movie right in Nora’s house. Between school runs and errands, Nora tries not to watch actors Naomi Sanchez and Leo Vance, the hottest leading man in Hollywood, reenacting the end of her marriage in her backyard. When production wraps, Nora is ready to have her life back only to wake up and find Leo still on her porch. He doesn’t seem eager to go back to his own life, so he offers to pay her $1,000 a day if he can stay for a week; despite her hesitation, Nora could use the money, so she accepts. Now she’s trying to live her daily life with a movie star following along at her heels, her kids excited but confused, and the other moms at school incredibly jealous. And she’s starting to like it. Monaghan takes a fairly basic rom-com plot (average person spends time with famous person and they fall in love) and flips it on its head by making the focus not the love story but the inner growth of the heroine, Nora. While Leo is, of course, very important, Nora’s discovery of her own needs and desires, especially in contrast to the person she had made herself into when married to her ex, is the driving force of the narrative. Because the romance isn’t the focus of the novel, there is a noticeable lack of scenes showing Nora and Leo actually falling in love—a few more could have made the second half of the novel stronger, but it’s a happy trade for more Nora.

A light romance that’s heavy on self-care and acceptance.