FUNNY STORY by Emily Henry
Publication Date: April 23, 2024
Genre: Contemporary Romance
Named a Most Anticipated book of 2024 by TIME ∙ The New York Times ∙ Goodreads ∙ Entertainment Weekly ∙ Today ∙ Paste ∙ SheReads ∙ BookPage ∙ Woman’s World ∙ The Nerd Daily and more!
A shimmering, joyful new novel about a pair of opposites with the wrong thing in common, from #1 New York Times bestselling author Emily Henry
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?
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I enjoyed this contemporary romance. I honestly expected it to be all light and fluffy but was pleased to see how both Daphne and Miles’ past baggage molded them. Nothing earth shattering, but how their early lives shaped their behavior and expectations in a realistic manner. It explained so much about their personalities and added a nice depth to them. I loved how the author quickly and clearly invested me into their world, smiling at their banter and flirting as they tried to just be friends. The people around them rounded out their characters in a delightful way as well. The author’s writing style is such that I will now add her to my TBR list. She provided a fun escape.
*Review copy provided by Penguin in exchange for an honest review.
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Kindle | Hardback
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Emily Henry is the New York Times bestselling author of Beach Read and People We Meet on Vacation. She writes stories about love and family for both teens and adults. She studied creative writing at Hope College and the New York Center for Art & Media Studies, and now spends most of her time in Cincinnati, Ohio, and the part of Kentucky just beneath it. Find her on Instagram @EmilyHenryWrites.
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Reading in Pajamas 