Rating: 3.75/5 stars
Some minor spoilers below!
Synopsis: 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?
Cue the song “Waaar is oooover…”
I have finally finished all of the Emily Henry books in my possession.
This one fell right in between Book Lovers (4.5 stars) and Happy Place (3 stars). I was almost disappointed in this one. Almost.
Daphne is the FMC in this world, and she is very much going through it. Her fiancé calls off the wedding to be with his “best friend that Daphne doesn’t need to worry about.” Collective eye rolls from everybody in the room. A tale as old as time. Daphne is a full-on people pleaser, so I could definitely relate to her on that. It brought up a lot of moments to self-reflect, which is always a plus.
Miles, our MMC, was a dang dream. But almost too good of a dream. And what do you mean he looked better without a beard? I will never believe it. Ever. But he is very much the golden retriever personality. If you like the dark and broody type, you will probably not enjoy this book.
The banter sometimes felt clunky, especially with Ashleigh (side character.) That friendship felt like it was being forced to work. But I actually laughed out loud many times throughout this book. One of my favorite quotes was the following:
“Apparently, we were married in a past life,” Dad says, like Can you believe that coincidence?
Starfire nods. “Several times.”
“Oh,” Miles says. “Well. Congratulations.”
“I was an heiress on the Titanic,” Starfire explains. “And Jason was a handsome artist, but he was so, so poor. My social circles never would have approved. But we had a torrid love affair, and he saved my life.”
“So just,” I say, “exactly like the plot of the movie, then.”
Starfire’s head cocks to one side. “What movie?”
Funny Story by Emily Henry, page 256
With this book being just under 400 pages, it did seem to drag at some points and also become repetitive at others.
With all that being said, it was a very average romance book for me. Did I have a good time? Yes. Would I feel the urge to pick it up to re-read it? No, probably not.
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Next book on the review list: Darkest Sins by Neva Altaj