A review by amateur_bookworm
Funny Story by Emily Henry

funny hopeful lighthearted medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

My summary: Daphne Vincent is devastated when her fiancé, Peter, breaks up with her on the morning after his bachelor party—for his longtime *platonic* best friend, Petra. In desperation of needing a place to live, Daphne ends up moving into the apartment of Petra’s ex, Miles. Her and Miles generally stay out of each other’s way for weeks until one night of wallowing leads to a fake dating lie in an attempt to make their exes jealous. As the fake dating ruse leads to friendship, the blur between which feelings are real or fake becomes more confusing. 

My thoughts: 

This is an absolutely hilarious story of a jilted bride going on to fake date her ex-fiancé’s new fiancée’s ex. But there is also a lot of depth to the story as well. You can’t help but immediately fall in love with Daphne and Miles—and then, in turn, root for them to fall in love. 

I devoured this book in two days. I really appreciate the character arcs of both Daphne and Miles. Although I wanted a warm and fuzzy romance with the only strife being the whole jilted bride start to the story, I think it was so much better because of the focus on the personal issues that Daphne and Miles each face and overcome. It IS a warm and fuzzy love story, but with a lot of layers to it that give it a rawness that I wasn’t expecting yet thoroughly enjoyed. 

I always enjoy the book-oriented characters in Emily Henry’s books and this one features Daphne as a children’s librarian. I really enjoyed that element of the story and I love my local library so I appreciate the homage to small local libraries. 

I avoided romance as a genre for my most of adult life—too many Nora Robert’s-style romances as a 13-year old kind of ruined the genre for me. Then Emily Henry’s Beach Read came along years ago and it was my first of what I would call a contemporary romance. And I absolutely adored it and the way I felt while reading it. It opened up romance as a genre to me and now I have found myself mostly reading romance in the years since. Beach Read will likely always be my favorite of hers for this reason—but Funny Story is a darn close second place for me. 
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