Ok ok ok. I’m like the BIGGEST Wes and Liz stan around. I can pinpoint the day in college when I finished reading Better Than the Movies and how consumed I became and how wonderful I felt each time I opened up the pages of that book. So I have LITERALLY been waiting like 4 whole years for Wes and Liz to return to the big screen. My expectations were through the roof and I don’t think any author could’ve made them allll come true, but all in all before my words, thank you Lynn for hearing the cries of the Buxbaum-Bennett fanverse and giving us just ONE more Wes and Liz motion picture. For that, I will always be grateful :,)


Now that that’s out of the way… the book was, sorely disappointing :( 
And it PAINS me to say that. Some things that I loved, for me, were having Wes’s POVs - a duh. I honestly would’ve loved just having Wes’s POV the entire time, I think it would’ve made for an interesting dynamic considering BTTM was all in Liz’s and it made sense for Liz’s character in that moment. And I don’t think Liz’s POV served us all that well in the end.

We enter the scene with Wes returning back to UCLA to chase all his dreams after he thought they’d crumbled at his feet and I think that’s such a powerful opening. He’s got baseball, he got college and a degree he’s excited about, and he’s got plans to get Liz. Boom! Great book set up. 

But he was clearly still struggling with his dad and the weight his loss, his mom’s changes,  his responsibility with taking care of his family, and Sarah and we just never got to see that resolved and it was SUCH a significant part of his character development - or had the potential to be and I think that’s a huge loss to the readers and to him. He can still hear his dad’s voice and

( I loved the small shift at the end when it changed to Liz’s voice, but we never get to see that process development and there was time for that!!)

he never stops to readjust and make sense of that voice…there’s no journey for him to really reconcile that voice with something good…there’s like a big sudden reveal versus the dialogue with himself or even a relationship with one of his coaches to mediate and guide that convo or even

the conversation he has with Helena and spending more time with that story and unpacking it..

So much potential. 

All that to say. Our Wessy could’ve grown IMMENSELY, but I don’t think he was given the opportunities. 

I also REALLY struggled with him not being able to love Liz as she was now. LIZ IS FUCKING. COOL. she’s an ICON then and NOW !!!! I get what Lynn was trying to paint. That Wes loved her then and he loves her now. That’s great. He can do that by listening to hear when she says “I’m not Little Liz” anymore because she’s not. She’s Lizzie, and Lizard, and Liz, and Buxbaum, Buxxie, Bux, and moreeee. I do love that he had to earn back Lib and Libby. GROVEL WES. CRAWL. I just - I think it could’ve been incredible to watch him also come to terms with that and say “ok, she’s just NOT Little Liz, but she’s more and in determined to find out and show her that I can and still do love ALL of her.”

It would’ve made his goal to get back with Liz a little less egotistical and “mine, mine, mine.” And more gentle and like the Wes we know who KNOWS our Liz and loves to know her better…


And finally. My last biggest complaint.

WTF WAS UP WITH THE ASHLEY AND FAKE CHEATING PLOT!? No no no no nooooo. Not cheating. No fake cheating. It’s just not even in either characters MO… it was SO. LEFT. FIELD. Wes would never and she could’ve easily just made the New Years Party a plot point where he treated her harshly and she was like he’s over me. It’s over. Cool. Sadness. Next. Continue on. NO CHEATING. It was SUCH a hard stop as I was getting into the story. It took me out pick time and made me hesitant to go back in…

.  But for Wes and Liz, I endured. I will always endure. They deserve the world.

Last and certainly, I hope, the least… I wanted more for the ending. The big revelations. But as I’m reflecting, maybe it was just right? Wes has changed and because of Liz was living a more grandiose view of life like her and her movies  and it’s like the reversed roles and I loved it. I mean CHECK this confession. I SWOONED.

SWOON WORTHY WORDS MR. BENNETT.

Liz too, had changed and with that her grand gestures became small and intentional and I think that small moment between her and Wes, the quiet and the real fit the bill perfectly for them now and their little future. And I cry. Because I had the little smile and butterflies return with those last chapters, watching them in tumultuous to harmonious bliss.  *deep sigh* “this is the lifffffeeee!”

All this to say. I wanted more. I wanted all the anguish and groveling from Wes, because Liz deserved it. and I warned the healing for him like Liz got with her mom and Helena and Joss. I wanted that for Wes. I think those two major missed plots points really make a difference. But I’m grateful to have spent the last 48 hours with these two and let’s be real. I’ll probabaly return soon, because I can never stay away for too long.