Daphne’s life takes an unexpected twist when her fiancé Peter dumps her for his childhood bestie, Petra, turning Daphne’s dreamy love story into a solo journey in scenic Waning Bay, Michigan. Job-wise, she landed her dream role as a children’s librarian, but financially, it’s a tight squeeze. In a cruel twist of fate, she ends up sharing a roof with Petra’s former boyfriend, Miles Nowak—a man whose life playlist is a mix of heartache anthems and who’s as far from Daphne’s orderly life as can be. Despite their differences, they hatch a plan fuelled by fake summer flings plastered over social media—purely for show, of course. Or so Daphne thought, until her heart hints she might just be scripting a new love story with the most unexpected co-star: her ex’s ex’s ex.
Fake dating and opposites attract? Gimme! I love opposites attract romances where the characters realise that they aren’t really that opposite to begin with—and that first impressions, much less what other people tell you about someone can be oh so wrong. Miles is charming and sweet and adorable and basically has everyone he meets wrapped around his little finger but doesn’t even realise it or tries to exploit it because he’s just that kind of an upstanding man. He’s the kind of man who would help his ex move even after she dumped him. You just don’t meet guys like that in real life.
Daphne, meanwhile, just deserves all the love. She’s a kind, smart, stubbornly amazing librarian who would go to the ends of the earth for her dream job and the kids who frequent the library. She’s turning kids into readers and gives them the safe space in libraries the way they were for her when she grew up. That storyline especially hit home for me because libraries often have this wrong connotation of being stuffy or boring but for so many kids – and adults – they can be a soft place to land.
Miles and Daphne’s love story is just so wholesome. They have incredible chemistry, their banter and especially their “join me in my wallowing because we’re literally in the same boat” moments had me in stitches sometimes. Both Daphne and Miles are struggling to move on from believing they were already with the loves of their lives only to accept that that was never what it was for either of them. But what really worked for me was just how invested they were in each other’s dreams and goals for life. Miles is so attentive when it comes to Daphne’s needs and Daphne meanwhile is so attuned to what Miles wants—for example when it comes to his relationship with his sister and his parents—that he himself doesn’t want to acknowledge. To me, these are the best kinds of romances: not just when characters are devoted to each other, but when they make each other better.
Lest you think this is just about wholesomeness though, don’t fret: Henry delivers some exceptionally steamy scenes that will have you look at your own kitchen counters with a whole new set of eyes.
Beyond the romance, Funny Story also deals with what it means to see your whole life come crashing down and having to rebuild it from the ground up. Peter and Petra are despicable and I wanted to strangle them for how they treated the people they thought they were going to spend the rest of their lives with—I would have not dealt with it as well as Miles and Daphne do (even though they also have a long journey when it comes to healing from that).
Henry has an extraordinary talent for making catastrophes feel like just another challenge we can face as long as we are strong enough to stand up again when life knocks us down. Daphne and Miles face their fair share of grief and loss over the life they thought they’d live but also see the worth and value in what they already have— great jobs, a supportive network of friends if only they’re brave enough to reach out to it and family members (well, some of them at least) that just want you to be happy.
Speaking of family members, there’s also a storyline concerning parents and neglect that had me bawling, so thanks for that, I’ll need some good therapy sessions after Daphne’s struggle with her dad and Miles’s family situation. In the end, though, it’s cathartic to speak your mind and not let the past define your future.
I’ll stop singing the praises of this book but I just want to mention that Waning Bay also proved to be the perfect setting for this story. The small-town vibes were impeccable and added a lot to the way Daphne and Miles go about their days—especially with the constant fear of running into their exes.
All in all, this is another banger by Henry. I don’t know how she keeps interweaving all these different plot strings and making them work so exceptionally well but I hope she never stops.
Lovers of small-town romances, opposites attract and the superior found family trope are sure to devour Henry’s Funny Story, a book that proves that true love often hides in the unlikeliest places.
Funny Story is available from Amazon, Barnes & Noble, and other good book retailers, like your local bookstore, as of April 23rd 2024.
Synopsis | Goodreads
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?
