Our Nicola isn’t feeling the love for latest Owen Nicholls romcom

Love, Unscripted by Owen Nicholls

I’m a sucker for a romcom. Whether it be a book or a movie, I love the excitement of two characters coming together and living happily ever after.

I was initially excited to read Love, Unscripted. As Owen Nicholls’ debut, I had high hopes for a romantic read from a male point of view. Do men write about love as well as women? Do we go through the same emotions and come to the same conclusions?

The book begins with the news that Nick Marcet and his girlfriend of four years, Ellie Brown, have broken up. Nick is a projectionist at his local cinema and has been for years. He’s a massive movie buff and doesn’t everyone know it? At any given chance, Nick will slide in a film or pop culture reference, and does so repeatedly.

He meets Ellie on November 4, 2008, at a US presidential election party at a mutual friend’s house. The two spend the evening together and begin a relationship.

Nick and Ellie’s story is told in the past and present. In the here and now, we see how the pair are dealing with their parting of the ways. Nick refuses to admit his part in the break-up and Ellie seems to be dealing with the separation as an adult. As the story progresses, we go through life with Nick as he comes to terms with how his life is changing and how he needs to take charge to get to where he wants.

Before I picked Love, Unscripted from my reading pile, I’d heard and read a lot about Nicholls’s writing. Reviews from far and wide rated it as not to be missed but, unfortunately, I can’t say I’m as enthusiastic about this one as I thought I’d be. I found Nick, a geeky guy who is stuck in a rut and unable to move forward, quite difficult to get along with. Some of his personality traits I enjoyed, like his devotion to Ellie and love for his job, but I couldn’t get past the constant movie quotes. I get it, you love cinema, but give it a rest for an hour at least.

Ellie, on the other hand, is a fabulous character. Driven, independent, caring yet serious, I wish the story had got to know her more. She was a fantastic support for Nick but he projected all of his life’s motivation on her which must have felt like an overwhelming burden.

I struggled to keep up with the time-hopping telling of the story. In some aspects of the chapters set in the past, Nick declares that he’d kill to spend more time with Ellie, then later on in the book he states he wants to keep their meeting as “one perfect night”. Wait, what? Do you like her and want to see her more or what? Get your head out of the clouds, boy, and live your life in the real world, not like in one of your movies.

The pacing felt very slow and it didn’t appear all that much happened in the months the present-day chapters developed. The night of Nick and Ellie meeting felt like it dragged on for days rather than hours. They seemed to get so much done in an unrealistic timeframe that I found it hard to believe.

I really wanted to shout from the rooftops about Love, Unscripted. The premise sounded so interesting and the idea of weaving movie analogies throughout sounded like a stellar idea but it just didn’t work for me.

Perhaps I live too much in the real world and should be more like Nick and idolise the golden age of cinema?