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lit_with_lauren's review against another edition
emotional
lighthearted
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.5
Content Warnings
Graphic: Alcoholism
Moderate: Death
stephsbooktalk's review against another edition
funny
lighthearted
fast-paced
5.0
Thank you so much to NetGalley, Elissa Sussman & Random House for an advance copy of this!
"Funny You Should Ask" is out today, April 12th.
"One of the most beautiful men in the world - my personal celebrity crush - was treating me like I belonged. It was an intoxicating feeling."
This book takes place during two timelines 10 years apart between the past and present. Chani was asked to interview her ultimate celebrity crush which was a whirlwind weekend of partying in which her article ended with the audience thinking "did they or didn't they." Fast forward 10 years later, Chani is asked to strike magic again by being asked to interview Gabe for an upcoming project. Chani was reluctant as so much had happened between the 10 years since their enthralling weekend.
This book will likely be in my top 5 books of 2022. I am calling it now. I knew it was going to be a 5 star read just from the first few chapters. I felt like I was reading myself if I were Chani. The parallels of her being a journalist and me wanting to work for Rolling Stone magazine growing up just so I could interview celebs was not dawned on me. How Elissa was describing Chani’s feelings towards Gabe Parker leading up to her interviewing him is exactly how I would feel if I had to be around any celebrity but in particular Justin Timberlake, Harry Styles or Zac Efron. It was just all so relatable!
I love the duel timelines and how they intertwine with one another. This helped so much with the pacing of the book and made me want to continue reading to find out what happened next in their story. And then have the news articles also playing a role in what is happening in the plot was great. It gave me flashbacks to Taylor Jenkins Reid’s “The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo” and Grady Hendrix’s “The Final Girl Support Group”.
Also, not sure what the storyline could be but could we get a spin off with Ollie?! He was a fabulous side character.
Some quotes that made me laugh:
"Until this morning, a shirtless phot of him had been the lock screen of my phone. I had zero chill when it came to Gabe Parker."
"Even when I was single handedly torpedoing my career, I was still very, very horny for him."
"We're not even the same species, but tonight, they're letting me pretend that we are."
"You're ridiculous," I told myself, "No one, is going to waste cocaine on you."
"You've read them," I say instead.
"I thought we'd established that I've read everything you've written"
It's one of the hottest things anyone has ever said to me.
If you love a slow burn with a Hollywood twist. This is the book for you!
I cannot wait to read more from this author.
CW: alcohol, rehab, sexual content
"Funny You Should Ask" is out today, April 12th.
"One of the most beautiful men in the world - my personal celebrity crush - was treating me like I belonged. It was an intoxicating feeling."
This book takes place during two timelines 10 years apart between the past and present. Chani was asked to interview her ultimate celebrity crush which was a whirlwind weekend of partying in which her article ended with the audience thinking "did they or didn't they." Fast forward 10 years later, Chani is asked to strike magic again by being asked to interview Gabe for an upcoming project. Chani was reluctant as so much had happened between the 10 years since their enthralling weekend.
This book will likely be in my top 5 books of 2022. I am calling it now. I knew it was going to be a 5 star read just from the first few chapters. I felt like I was reading myself if I were Chani. The parallels of her being a journalist and me wanting to work for Rolling Stone magazine growing up just so I could interview celebs was not dawned on me. How Elissa was describing Chani’s feelings towards Gabe Parker leading up to her interviewing him is exactly how I would feel if I had to be around any celebrity but in particular Justin Timberlake, Harry Styles or Zac Efron. It was just all so relatable!
I love the duel timelines and how they intertwine with one another. This helped so much with the pacing of the book and made me want to continue reading to find out what happened next in their story. And then have the news articles also playing a role in what is happening in the plot was great. It gave me flashbacks to Taylor Jenkins Reid’s “The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo” and Grady Hendrix’s “The Final Girl Support Group”.
Also, not sure what the storyline could be but could we get a spin off with Ollie?! He was a fabulous side character.
Some quotes that made me laugh:
"Until this morning, a shirtless phot of him had been the lock screen of my phone. I had zero chill when it came to Gabe Parker."
"Even when I was single handedly torpedoing my career, I was still very, very horny for him."
"We're not even the same species, but tonight, they're letting me pretend that we are."
"You're ridiculous," I told myself, "No one, is going to waste cocaine on you."
"You've read them," I say instead.
"I thought we'd established that I've read everything you've written"
It's one of the hottest things anyone has ever said to me.
If you love a slow burn with a Hollywood twist. This is the book for you!
I cannot wait to read more from this author.
CW: alcohol, rehab, sexual content
Content Warnings
Graphic: Sexual content, Addiction, and Alcohol
Moderate: Death and Death of parent
maybeangela's review against another edition
emotional
funny
hopeful
lighthearted
medium-paced
5.0
i'm about to make this book my entire personality.
just based on the summary of the book, i knew it'd be something i'd be into. it checks a lot of boxes for me: celebrities, celebrity culture, journalism, famous person/normal person romances, etc. i loved this book even more than i was expecting to.
chani and gabe were an amazing pair. even though i did spend so much of the book trying to figure out the exact amalgamation of celebs sussman used to create gabe (i have so many thoughts), he still felt wholly original. he was so charming, as james bond should be! but i especially loved how kind and thoughtful he was, the way he turned chani's questions around onto her just because he was genuinely curious. and chani was an incredible match for him. she felt familiar, reminding me of my own best friend (especially during her rant about 'angels in america'). and together, in both the then and now sections, it was impossible not to root for them. also, i absolutely adored ollie. he was a fabulous side character and i loved that in the "now" sections he wasn't just there for gabe, he was there for chani, too.i also really appreciated how seriously chani took the fact that ollie was placing a lot of trust in her to not reveal his sexuality before he was ready. this book could have very easily included some kind of outing plot and i'm glad it didn't.
i also really loved the way this story was structured and the way sussman didn't reveal all of the information at once. it made me want to keep reading to understand the things chani was referencing in her internal monologue. outside media, like other articles, are integral to this story as well; i liked how they filled in the gaps and informed character decisions from a detached pov.
thank you to netgalley and random house for the advance copy in exchange for an honest review.
just based on the summary of the book, i knew it'd be something i'd be into. it checks a lot of boxes for me: celebrities, celebrity culture, journalism, famous person/normal person romances, etc. i loved this book even more than i was expecting to.
chani and gabe were an amazing pair. even though i did spend so much of the book trying to figure out the exact amalgamation of celebs sussman used to create gabe (i have so many thoughts), he still felt wholly original. he was so charming, as james bond should be! but i especially loved how kind and thoughtful he was, the way he turned chani's questions around onto her just because he was genuinely curious. and chani was an incredible match for him. she felt familiar, reminding me of my own best friend (especially during her rant about 'angels in america'). and together, in both the then and now sections, it was impossible not to root for them. also, i absolutely adored ollie. he was a fabulous side character and i loved that in the "now" sections he wasn't just there for gabe, he was there for chani, too.
i also really loved the way this story was structured and the way sussman didn't reveal all of the information at once. it made me want to keep reading to understand the things chani was referencing in her internal monologue. outside media, like other articles, are integral to this story as well; i liked how they filled in the gaps and informed character decisions from a detached pov.
thank you to netgalley and random house for the advance copy in exchange for an honest review.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Alcoholism
Moderate: Death and Death of parent
booksfourlife's review against another edition
funny
informative
inspiring
lighthearted
slow-paced
4.0
Thank you to both Random House and NetGalley for an ARC of this book in exchange for an honest review! The reason why I loved this book so much was that this was my first time reading a book that took place in Hollywood and was a second chance romance! This book did an excellent job at describing the true realities of what actors faced when they hit the big-screen. Funny you should ask features Chani who is an aspiring writer and Gabe Parker that is set to play James Bond in his new upcoming movie. The way Chani and Gabe’s friendship developed over the book really set the tone. Their banter was amazing! Our hero Gabe was truly just a great guy and I loved that no matter what he was always respectful towards Chani. As the story unravels readers can see how both characters were in a sticky situation in their romantic lives and they had to work hard in order to find their way back to each other. While I fully understand why Chani was upset at Gabe in the book I do love how Gabe also holds Chani accountable in their situationship. Funny You Should Ask features conversations about divorce, addiction, and insecurities so I recommend checking the full trigger warning list before you start reading! My only criticism of the book was that the slow-burn aspect of it made it hard to follow along at times. If you love the slow-burn trope this book might be for you!
Content Warnings
Graphic: Death, Toxic relationship, Alcoholism, and Misogyny
mal_bookedatfirstsight's review against another edition
emotional
funny
hopeful
4.0
Synopsis:
When Chani, a young writer, gets hired to write a profile of her celebrity crush and the newly cast James Bond, she knows this opportunity will open big doors for her career. When what was supposed to be just one interview with the famous Gabe Parker turns into a weekend full of jello shots, a red carpet movie premiere, and Hollywood house party games- the tabloids are left to question..what really happened that weekend between Chani and Gabe?
Written in alternating timelines between then and ten years later- Chani still gets questioned about THE profile of Gabe, the one that skyrocketed her successful writing career 10 years prior. When Gabe’s PR team reaches out to Chani to recreate the interview for positive publicity, she hesitantly agrees. Because after everything that’s happened, she needs to know if he still thinks about that weekend too.
Thoughts:
I really enjoyed this book so much! This would be a perfect book for anyone that is going through a reading slump because of the alternating timelines and the multiple media segments scattered throughout- it’s highly engaging and found myself laughing out loud during some parts *cough cough* (dog bed).
I fell in love with Sussman’s writing style- it’s both humorous and addictive! This is a messy, complicated love story with morally-grey love interests. Some of their actions are not my favorites to see in romance novels, and even at times, I had mixed feelings about these characters, but in the end, I found myself rooting for them to get it together!!
I do wish that the media intertwined throughout the book had dates on it, just to help with the timeline. Although I understood generally when things were, 10 years is a long time and I would have enjoyed seeing when some things were spaced in relation to others; A lot happened that weekend and a lot happened in those 10 years both publicly and personally for these characters, and I feel like a couple of those events/components were mentioned but not fully fleshed out.
With that being said, this was a fun read and I will absolutely look into picking up Sussman’s other books!! Thank you to Netgalley, Random House Publishing, and Elissa Sussman for this copy in exchange for my review :)
Content Warnings
Graphic: Addiction
Moderate: Death
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