Funny Story by Emily Henry

Title: Funny Story

Author: Emily Henry

Publisher: Berkley 2024

Genre: Romance

Pages: 400

Rating: 5/5 stars

Reading Challenges: 52 Book Club - Set in a city (state) starting with “M”; She Reads Romance - Fake Dating

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?

The newest romance from Emily Henry has jumped to my second favorite Emily Henry book. It didn’t beat Book Lovers to the top spot, but I absolutely loved this one. Right away we get a fake dating trope and a sunshine and grumpy (sorta) trope. I fell for Miles almost immediately although I had no idea who he and Daphne were going to work as a couple. Thankfully this book includes so much more than just the romance element. Henry always allows us to dive into her characters and learn their backstories. We get to see how their pasts have shaped their present. We get to see growth and change on the page. All while infusing the characters with so much romantic longing. I will say it again: Emily Henry is forever on my auto-read list. She just writes smart, grown-up, contemporary romances.

Next up on the TBR pile:

Happy Place by Emily Henry

Title: Happy Place

Author: Emily Henry

Publisher: Berkley 2023

Genre: Romance

Pages: 388

Rating: 4/5 stars

Reading Challenges:

Steam Rating: 4

Harriet and Wyn have been the perfect couple since they met in college—they go together like salt and pepper, honey and tea, lobster and rolls. Except, now—for reasons they’re still not discussing—they don’t.
 
They broke up five months ago. And still haven’t told their best friends.
 
Which is how they find themselves sharing a bedroom at the Maine cottage that has been their friend group’s yearly getaway for the last decade. Their annual respite from the world, where for one vibrant, blissful week they leave behind their daily lives; have copious amounts of cheese, wine, and seafood; and soak up the salty coastal air with the people who understand them most.
 
Only this year, Harriet and Wyn are lying through their teeth while trying not to notice how desperately they still want each other. Because the cottage is for sale and this is the last week they’ll all have together in this place. They can’t stand to break their friends’ hearts, and so they’ll play their parts. Harriet will be the driven surgical resident who never starts a fight, and Wyn will be the laid-back charmer who never lets the cracks show. It’s a flawless plan (if you look at it from a great distance and through a pair of sunscreen-smeared sunglasses). After years of being in love, how hard can it be to fake it for one week…in front of those who know you best?

Another solid contemporary romance from Emily Henry! I have enjoyed all four of her novels. This one wasn’t my favorite, but I still really enjoyed it. Her romances are not light and fluffy. They have a lot of substance and serious conversations. In this one, we get a possible second-chance romance happening. One half of the story is told in the present when we know things between Wyn and Harriet are not great. In flashback chapters, we get to see their love story (and breakup). I wanted to absolutely fall in love with the two main characters. Actually, I was conflicted throughout most of the book. I didn’t know if I wanted for them to get back together or not. It sounds like I didn’t like this book, but I really did. I love how Henry writes very realistic characters. These could be my friends. There is not completely unrealistic situation and friendships. Sometimes I want super fluffy romance and sometimes I want something with more substance. Henry is definitely my go to for substance.

Next up on the TBR pile:

Book Lovers by Emily Henry

Title: Book Lovers

Author: Emily Henry

Publisher: Berkley 2022

Genre: Contemporary Romance

Pages: 377

Rating: 5/5 stars

Reading Challenges: 

One summer. Two rivals. A plot twist they didn't see coming...

Nora Stephens' life is books—she’s read them all—and she is not that type of heroine. Not the plucky one, not the laidback dream girl, and especially not the sweetheart. In fact, the only people Nora is a heroine for are her clients, for whom she lands enormous deals as a cutthroat literary agent, and her beloved little sister Libby.

Which is why she agrees to go to Sunshine Falls, North Carolina for the month of August when Libby begs her for a sisters’ trip away—with visions of a small town transformation for Nora, who she’s convinced needs to become the heroine in her own story. But instead of picnics in meadows, or run-ins with a handsome country doctor or bulging-forearmed bartender, Nora keeps bumping into Charlie Lastra, a bookish brooding editor from back in the city. It would be a meet-cute if not for the fact that they’ve met many times and it’s never been cute.

If Nora knows she’s not an ideal heroine, Charlie knows he’s nobody’s hero, but as they are thrown together again and again—in a series of coincidences no editor worth their salt would allow—what they discover might just unravel the carefully crafted stories they’ve written about themselves.

I didn’t think that I could love a new Emily Henry book any more than her last two. I was wrong! This one is her best yet. I absolutely fell for the relationship between Nora and Charlie. Their banter was absolutely on point. The steamy scenes were very steamy. And the connections two the side characters were great. But what makes me absolute love Henry’s books is the emotionally connection. I felt completely drawn into this story and these two main characters. I was desperate that they work everything out and get a HEA. I would even read a sequel to this story as Nora and Charlie continue their lives after the events in this one. I would have loved to stay with this couple longer. We don’t but I still absolutely adored this one so much!

Next up on the TBR pile:

People We Meet on Vacation by Emily Henry

Title: People We Meet on Vacation

Author: Emily Henry

Publisher: Berkley 2021

Genre: Fiction

Pages: 382

Rating: 5/5 stars

Reading Challenges: Modern Mrs. Darcy; Seasonal TBR

Poppy and Alex. Alex and Poppy. They have nothing in common. She’s a wild child; he wears khakis. She has insatiable wanderlust; he prefers to stay home with a book. And somehow, ever since a fateful car share home from college many years ago, they are the very best of friends. For most of the year they live far apart—she’s in New York City, and he’s in their small hometown—but every summer, for a decade, they have taken one glorious week of vacation together.

Until two years ago, when they ruined everything. They haven't spoken since.

Poppy has everything she should want, but she’s stuck in a rut. When someone asks when she was last truly happy, she knows, without a doubt, it was on that ill-fated, final trip with Alex. And so, she decides to convince her best friend to take one more vacation together—lay everything on the table, make it all right. Miraculously, he agrees.

Now she has a week to fix everything. If only she can get around the one big truth that has always stood quietly in the middle of their seemingly perfect relationship. What could possibly go wrong?

I’ve seen so many mixed reviews of this book. As in, if you liked Emily Henry’s first book Beach Read, you won’t like this one and vice versa. Somehow I fall into the very tiny camp of really really loving both of them. At first glance, we get a straight up romantic comedy with flawed but lovable characters and a slightly exaggerated plot. Seems on par with the rest of them. But then Henry really infuses her characters with very real insecurities and problems. We see two people who, on paper, shouldn’t be together and yet we know that they should. We see them struggle with events and people from their past. We see them attempt to communicate, but often do it wrong or make some missteps that lead to more obstacles. And finally, we know that their story will have a resolution. It may not be a HEA, but I don’t always need those anyway. We get some kind of understanding with the characters. I read my fluffy romances that I know will end in a HEA. But I also really love these real romances where we everything (well, almost everything) could happen in our world. Emily Henry is definitely going on my must-read list.

Next up on the TBR pile:

Beach Read by Emily Henry

Title: Beach Read

Author: Emily Henry

Publisher: Berkley 2020

Genre: Contemporary Romance

Pages: 384

Rating: 5/5 stars

Reading Challenges: Modern Mrs. Darcy 2020

Augustus Everett is an acclaimed author of literary fiction. January Andrews writes bestselling romance. When she pens a happily ever after, he kills off his entire cast.

They're polar opposites.

In fact, the only thing they have in common is that for the next three months, they're living in neighboring beach houses, broke, and bogged down with writer's block.

Until, one hazy evening, one thing leads to another and they strike a deal designed to force them out of their creative ruts: Augustus will spend the summer writing something happy, and January will pen the next Great American Novel. She'll take him on field trips worthy of any rom-com montage, and he'll take her to interview surviving members of a backwoods death cult (obviously). Everyone will finish a book and no one will fall in love. Really.

This one was a surprise. I was expecting a light-hearted romcom and instead I got a much more serious story involving a romance. Even with that shift, I loved this book. Henry has created two very human characters full of strengths and weaknesses. This was one of the most realistic romances that I have ever read. We have two characters with lives and backstory that come together and connect. I was completely along for the ride. I loved January and Gus both individually and as a couple. I ended up flying through this book putting aside laundry and cooking just to keep reading. So good!

Next up on the TBR pile: