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Funny Story by Emily Henry
3.5

๐ŸŒž๐Ÿ ๐Ÿ‡ต๐Ÿ‡น PORTUGAL MENTION!!!! ๐Ÿ‡ต๐Ÿ‡น๐Ÿท๐ŸŒŠ

(Just joking, but I found the whole โ€œWhat's in Portugal?โ€ โ€œPastรฉis de nata, and beautiful beaches, I thinkโ€ slander funny. I love my country, but it was kind of spot on.)

On a more serious note, what I enjoy most about Emily Henry's work is how well she develops her characters. Both Daphne and Miles had complex backstories that explained their behaviour. Sometimes, things even hit too close to home. For a reader like me, who likes to connect with the characters, that made up for a lot of the reading experience.

Despite this being a romance novel, I loved the other forms of love that the author explored: family, friends, community, and most of all, self-love! Daphne's journey of self-discovery was beautiful, which is why I gave this book such a generous rating.

I enjoyed this story and found it, well, funny in some respects, so, in a sense, it delivered what it promised. However, it was also rather messy for my liking. This was evident in many areas, from Miles' seemingly harmless use of Crocs to the entire switch-up-of-couples aspect. Most of these complaints surround the main couple and their relationship, though. The overall setup and even their attitudes made me a little uncomfortable! For example,
Miles casually helping Petra take her things from Peter's house, or him being so in the moment that he's late for things or goes MIA on people who care about him
. Daphne wasnโ€™t perfect either; they both had a lot of work to do on themselves, and I liked that about them. It's the dynamic that left me with mixed feelings.

I was also looking forward to the most chaotic experience amidst all the plot chaos:
Miles and Daphne going to the wedding as a fake couple
. Love quadrilaterals arenโ€™t my favourite, but the quintessential trope I was looking forward to was missing! The book was hell on earth in every other possible way, so it was disappointing that this wasn't included.