Rating: 5/5 stars (of course)
Tuesday, April 23rd was an amazing day for the book community. The day us book girlies waited aaaaallll year for: Funny Story’s release. Every romance reader desperately looks forward to the month of April each year to get new content from the queen herself, Emily Henry. And I am no exception.
Funny Story proved to me that I will absolutely love every single written word she will publish for the rest of her life. I mean, of her five books, I’ve given four a perfect rating, and the fifth was a 4.75 out of 5. So clearly, she never misses.
My favorite thing about her books is that they are never just romance stories — they all have an element of strong personal growth and development which makes the reader so deeply connected to the characters. And this book was no exception. Daphne’s journey of healing from the end of an all-consuming relationship was so beautifully written, making it another classic Emily Henry plotline.
And the romance between Daphne and Miles? Absolutely swoon-worthy. I think this story is one of the best at showing how opposites attract. Miles was exactly what Daphne needed but never thought she wanted. I mean she found her “perfect match” in Peter and look how well that one turned out. Miles helped bring his carefree energy into her world and she helped bring some structure into his. Their personalities complemented each other so well and it was a very very fun time watching them fall in love.
One thing that I appreciated about this book is that it did not fall into my least favorite fake-dating trap: where the characters spend too much time droning on and on about whether or not their fake partner is showing them affection for the bit, or because they actually care. That is my main gripe with the fake-dating trope because it becomes so repetitive and annoying, but this book didn’t have too much of that which was much appreciated.
What I did love about this fake dating story was the pettiness involved. I only really enjoy when book characters get really petty if I hate the character said pettiness is directed at. And booooy did I hate Peter. The audacity that man had was insane, so every time he was jealous of Daphne and Miles I was giggling like a child. Revenge is oh so sweet when it comes to Peter (Petra too but Peter really sucks).
And the highlight of this book for me was totally and 100% Miles. He was such a golden retriever sweetheart who had my heart melting all 300-something pages. I think that he is very different from the other Emily Henry leading men and I loved him just as much as the others, if not more. It genuinely pained me to hear about the sadder parts of his backstory, but it made me so happy to see him so happy in the end. I just want to give him a big, huge, fat hug.
Now, I know you are all wondering the biggest and most important question: where does it fall in my Emily Henry master ranking? And to you I will say, I have not one singular clue. The magic of her writing is that when I’m reading one book, it’s always the only one on my mind. I know that Happy Place is my favorite and People We Meet on Vacation is my least favorite, but beyond that, it pains me to pick and choose. And as someone raised by a father who loves to rank things, I am the first to acknowledge that a wishy-washy answer like that is annoying. But oh well it’s my page so I can do what I want.
Okay, I could go on and on all day about Funny Story and Emily Henry, but I will stop yapping for now and leave you all to the rest of your days. If any of you are still reading this, I love you with all of my heart, and I will catch ya next time.
Hope you enjoyed my first review!!!