So Sad It's Over Already!

 

TITLE: Funny Story

AUTHOR: Emily Henry

PUBLISHER: Berkley

PUBLISHING DATE: April 23, 2024

PAGES: 400   

SOURCE: Library

FROM GOODREADS: Daphne always loved the way her fiancé Peter told their story. How they met (on a blustery day), fell in love (over an errant hat), and moved back to his lakeside hometown to begin their life together. He really was good at telling it…right up until the moment he realized he was actually in love with his childhood best friend Petra.

Which is how Daphne begins her new story: Stranded in beautiful Waning Bay, Michigan, without friends or family but with a dream job as a children’s librarian (that barely pays the bills) and proposing to be roommates with the only person who could possibly understand her predicament: Petra’s ex, Miles Nowak. 

Scruffy and chaotic—with a penchant for taking solace in the sounds of heart break love ballads—Miles is exactly the opposite of practical, buttoned up Daphne, whose coworkers know so little about her they have a running bet that she’s either FBI or in witness protection. The roommates mainly avoid one another, until one day, while drowning their sorrows, they form a tenuous friendship and a plan. If said plan also involves posting deliberately misleading photos of their summer adventures together, well, who could blame them?

But it’s all just for show, of course, because there’s no way Daphne would actually start her new chapter by falling in love with her ex-fiancé’s new fiancée’s ex…right?

MY THOUGHTS: When the notification came into my inbox that this had arrived on Libby, I immediately dropped everything else I was reading and started it.  I have read all of Henry's other adult books and have loved them all, so I was excited to see what this one was all about.  The only complainant I have is that I read it so fast and now it's over and I'm going to have to wait another year or so for her next new release.

Daphne gave up her job and friends to move to Michigan when she and Petr became engaged.  She got a new job she loved in the local library, and they bought the perfect house she could finally make her own.  However, the night of Peter's bachelor party, he comes home and tells her he is leaving her for his best friend Petra.  Daphne has always been accepting that Peter's best friend was someone he knew since childhood, had a huge connection to him and his family and was female.  Peter gives Daphne two weeks to move out so she decides to move in with Petra's ex who was also dumped, Miles.

When Miles and Daphne get a wedding invitation from Peter and Petra, they accidentally mention they are now a couple as well.  They start "fake dating" and before they know it, they are growing closer and closer as the days pass.  However, both of them have a lot of baggage from their childhoods and aren't too sure they are even relationship material anymore.  Can they continue the ruse until the wedding takes place or will they discover maybe there's a funny story in their future for how they both ended up together.

I loved the characters in this book, especially Miles.  Henry's books always contain some deeper subject matter and issues that most rom-coms I pick up and I love how she is not afraid to include some messiness within the pages.  I also loved Daphne and her friendship with her coworkers at the library and Miles and his relationship with his zany sister. 

I saw someone compare this book to an entire season of Gilmore Girls.  That didn't come to mind for me but after seeing it, I definitely agree.  If you love that kind of drama, then this might just be the book for you.  Now I just need to figure out how to convince Henry to write faster!

MY RATING: 5 Paws