Nora Goes Off Script, Annabel Monaghan
I love this book on so many levels. Let's start from the beginning.
Nora lives in upstate New York with her two kiddos in a rundown yet quaint home with a formal tea house out back. Nora is a screenwriter and has sold her soul for the tried and true same-old romance films that have netted her enough money to get by. Nora's ex, a too-good-to-work kinda guy, left about a year ago, and Nora has just landed a deal with her latest screenplay about her life, in a fictionalized way, of course. And guess who's starring in it, the uber-famous, most handsome bachelor star, Leo Vance. Opposite Leo is the stunning Naomi.
The crew comes to Nora's house for filming, slated to last three days. During that time, Nora and her kids' lives are turned upside down by town gossips (nosey bodies), 18-wheelers on her lawn (cast and crew), and all things Hollywood. But the beautiful thing is that Leo has taken a shine to Nora's kids, and they to him. Upon wrapping up the show, Nora figures its all finished, until she walks out the next morning to find Leo asleep on her porch swing.
Leo turns out to be just a guy, an ultra-famous one, but just a guy nonetheless. He falls for the kids, helps out at the school play, signs autographs for the locals, and, surprise, falls in love with Nora. Then come the twists, the turns, the split, the get back together, the happy ever after.
But let's talk about what struck me here - Leo ghosts Nora for days that turn into weeks and months. Of course, in the book, there is a back story we don't learn until the end, and all works out. But if any of you have ever been ghosted 🙋 That sh** is devastating, and Annabel Monaghan captures it perfectly. I was reading along, enjoying the heck out of this book, and wham! right upside the head (as it happens in real life), Nora is ghosted. Monaghan describes the intensity of Nora's feelings, her spiraling, self-deprecating thoughts, to a tea. She really nails it. So much so that I felt nauseous as if it were happening to me all over ago. That's awesome writing!
Nora Goes Off Script is so much fun. Annabel Monaghan has written a realistic (almost, because I doubt many of us (a) write screenplays for a living and therefore (b) ever get the chance to meet the world's biggest star - but isn't that what good writing is all about, the dream?!) novel about an average mom who finds herself dressing way too much like Carole King, who has kids, in her average home that has a leak in the attic, windows that need to be replaced, and a rickety porch. Nora is not gorgeous, she's not super this or spectacular that, she's just a good and decent person who finally has good come her way.
Read Nora Goes Off Script - before it becomes a movie because I'm sure it will, and the book is always better than the movie.