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?
Funny Story by Emily Henry is her best one yet and that's saying something. So nice, I read it twice. That is my review in a nutshell. I happily discovered Emily Henry a few years ago when I read Book Lovers. I have been a fan ever since.
Funny Story really hit me on a couple of different levels. Our main characters Daphne and Miles are thrown together after having been tossed aside by their respective fiancés. Daphne left her job and friends to move cross country to her fiancé's hometown of Waning Bay, Michigan to live closer to his family. While at HIS bachelor party Peter decides he really is in love with his childhood best friend, Petra, who is ALSO at the party professing her undying love!
Miles arrives on Daphne’s doorstep absolutely devastated after Petra hies off to the Amalfi Coast with Peter to bask in their love. He invites Daphne to move into his apartment until she can get a plan together. Her plan is already formulating in her mind. Stay in Waning Bay at her children’s librarian job until the end of the summer, get another job elsewhere in the country and move on.
They fall into an easy roommates situation pretty much staying out of each other’s way until they each receive an invitation to Peter and Petra’s WEDDING scant weeks after what would have been Daphne’s own day. While commiserating they snap a selfie of themselves and post it on social media. P & P see it and assume they are now dating while Daphne and Miles play up like champs.
Soon lines seem to blur and Daphne and Miles fight a growing attraction which her work friends and his sister see a mile away. Daphne is understandably hesitant. She needs to protect herself but Milles is turning out to be irresistible in the sweetest of ways. He is not the lazy stoner Peter went on about. Miles, for his part, campaigns to show Daphne what a great place Waning Bay is and how incredible she really is.
I just loved every one in the book with the
obvious exception of Peter and Petra! Emily Henry crafts such fantastic
characters. They are well defined and completely believable. It really is a
funny story about how two people can be thrown together by horrible
circumstances and are able to find real, lasting love. Go Daphne and Miles!
OH MY! This sounds like a fun story and I thank you for the review. This is a new to me author and I have checked it is evident she writes really good books. Everyone loves them. Thanks again for the review and the introduction. And Peter and Petra deserve one another.....obviously.
ReplyDeleteI've been a fan of Emily Henry since I found Beach Read at my local library. Been looking forward to this one! And, now, more so after reading this review.
ReplyDeleteIt is a definate keeper!
ReplyDeleteThanks so much for the review. It sounds like an enjoyable and interesting read. Uprooting your life for someone to then have them leave you alone in a new place is a difficult thing to have to endure.
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