The same universe that dispassionately takes things away can bring you things you weren’t imaginative enough to dream up.
Funny Story
by Emily Henry
Genre: Contemporary Romance
About: Daphne was supposed to marry Peter. And Peter was not supposed to be in love with his platonic best-friend-who's-a-girl, Petra. But somehow Petra has moved into the house Daphne had with Peter, and Daphne is left to room with Miles, Petra's now ex. When they both get invited to Peter and Petra's wedding, it's the last straw and Daphne blurts out that she and Miles are now dating. Because why not? Why should she be the lonely pathetic girl Peter sees. And as fake boyfriends go, Miles is at least hot. When he isn't crying over Bridget Jones' Diary, that is.
Thoughts
So this was a little too cosy/cute for me. Emily Henry absolutely nails the banter, as always, and the chemistry between Daphne and Miles was great, as were so many of the side characters (Ashleigh is maybe my fav best friend of any of Emily Henry's books). But the plot... I just didn't feel any conflict. Daphne feels completely over Peter from page one - there was never a moment I thought she missed that life or Peter, Miles seemed instantly perfect for her, and the thing the plot was hurtling towards was not Peter and Petra's wedding, but a Read-a-thon. That was the big event of the book, the thing the clock was ticking down for. Which was just, yeah, low stakes.
I think I would have enjoyed this more if we'd started the story way earlier. If I'd been with Daphne for a little bit while she was still in love with Peter, experienced her life while she was all excited for the wedding and then BAM Peter goes from perfect guy to douche, instead of just being a douche from the get go. The heartbreak just didn't read real to me because she honestly didn't seem to like any part of her life with Peter except that is was stable, until it wasn't. Which was cool that she learned this, but it felt like she learned it right from the beginning. The scene of her and Peter at the end meant nothing because there was nothing between them anymore and hadn't been throughout the book. Even the moments he was with Petra or he saw her and Miles together, I couldn't feel the tension of those scenes because she already felt way over him.
I guess this didn't work for me because as soon as Daphne noticed Miles was hot, there didn't seem to be any reason why they shouldn't genuinely get together. They didn't feel like two people struggling to get over their exes, they felt like two single people who were into each other but had a nearly 400 page book to fill up before they could admit that.
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