Lynn Painter

Lynn Painter grew up a devoted reader, though writing wasn't always part of the plan. Born in Champaign, Illinois, she spent her early years moving around before her family settled in Omaha, Nebraska, where she still lives today. Her first instinct was to become a teacher, and she initially attended college with that goal in mind. It was only after her sister nudged her towards writing that she reconsidered, eventually returning to study at the writer's workshop at the University of Nebraska–Lincoln.

The path to publication wasn't short. Painter wrote several unpublished novels first, including adult romances and a young adult story that came close but didn't quite make it. Her agent's suggestion to try a young adult romantic comedy proved to be the turning point. That advice led directly to what would become her debut novel, and the genre she's now synonymous with.

Better Than the Movies arrived in 2021, a YA romantic comedy steeped in the energy of classic rom-com films. A surge in reader enthusiasm the following year turned it into a breakout hit, accumulating hundreds of thousands of reader ratings and establishing Painter as one of the standout voices in contemporary romance. A sequel, Nothing Like the Movies, followed in 2024, continuing the story readers had fallen for.

Her adult fiction arrived alongside her YA output. Mr. Wrong Number, published in 2022, introduced her to a broader readership with its witty premise of an anonymous wrong-number text blossoming into something more complicated. The Love Wager, a spinoff, followed in 2023. Since then, Painter has maintained a steady pace, releasing at least one YA novel and one adult novel per year — a rhythm that speaks to her productivity as much as her range.

Across both audiences, Painter's novels are built around the mechanics of classic romantic comedy: the banter, the slow-burn tension, the comic misunderstandings, the undeniable pull between two people who probably shouldn't work but absolutely do. Her books are frequently compared to beloved rom-com films, and that's very much by design. She's cited titles like You've Got Mail and 10 Things I Hate About You as personal favourites — the kind of cultural touchstones that clearly shape how she constructs a love story on the page.

Other notable titles include The Do-Over, Betting on You, Happily Never After, and Maid for Each Other, each carrying the breezy, emotionally satisfying tone her readers return to. Her 2025 YA novel Fake Skating expanded her reach further still, winning a reader-voted award for Young Adult Fiction and attracting a film adaptation deal with Sony Pictures, with Will Gluck attached as producer.

Painter also branched into middle grade fiction in 2025 with The Wish Switch, demonstrating an appetite for reaching even younger readers without abandoning her characteristic warmth and humour. Her short fiction has appeared in anthologies alongside other leading names in YA romance.

Beyond her novels, she has contributed regularly to the Omaha World-Herald's parenting section, a thread of her life that connects the domestic and the literary. She lives in Nebraska with her husband and children, and is, by her own cheerful admission, far more likely to be watching a rom-com than doing anything particularly crafty.