by Emily Henry

Funny Story by Emily Henry, was truly that. I found myself actually laughing out loud to the witty comments made by the very likeable main characters in this fun, sweet, semi-spicy rom-com. I was a little worried going into this book, because I have tried Emily Henry’s books before and had a little difficulty getting through them. I got through The People We Meet on Vacation with some difficulty and didn’t finish Book Lovers. But I’m glad I got this book!

The book begins by introducing us to Daphne, a Librarian (with the clothes to match the job) who’s ex-fiancé, Peter, has just left her for his stunning female best friend, Petra. Daphne ends up moving in with Petra’s ex-fiancé, Miles, (who was also dumped when Petra got together with Daphne’s fiancé) and together they’re trying to wade through the heartbreak.

One night, Miles and Daphne decide it will be a good idea to make their exes jealous by pretending to be together. They decide to spend genuine time together and Miles is determined to keep Daphne in town, instead of her plan to move away at the end of the summer, by showing her everything their small Michigan town has to offer. What follows is a sweet, slow burn of a rom-com that has mild spice, funny scenes, some awkward run-ins with the exes and great relatable characters.

I’d say one of my favorite things about this book was the genuinely funny banter between the two main characters. They are using almost constant sarcasm with each other, and it’s one of those adorable friends-to-lovers stories where they basically school-yard tease each other and slowly develop romantic feelings.

I do think this book was unnecessarily long, however. When I was about 300 pages through, I checked to see how many pages were left (I read this book on my iPhone Books app) and I still had over 300 more to go, and it didn’t seem like there was much more places to go at this point. I was just waiting for the classic ‘big fight’ that breaks up the main characters, only for them to come together in the end. I think there was probably a lot of parts to the book that could’ve been left out and it would’ve been just as good.

I know there was some controversy over the description of the main male character and that the author, herself, said she was a little worried about how fans would accept Miles. Miles is a pot-smoking, beard-wearing, tattooed, bartender that listens to sappy love songs and texts like a 14-year old. I actually really liked his character, the only turn off for me was when she described a big Popeye tattoo on Miles’ leg. Cartoon character tattoos on a grown man?

Pass.

There were also times where I felt the author maybe forgot to tell us a couple things. There would be times Daphne would meet up with folks and describe them like we were supposed to know who they are, but I had no clue who these people were and there was never a formal introduction. Also, small details like the book would say, “She silenced the phone call from her dad.” But we didn’t know he was calling in the first place, so it seemed like a sentence got left out. That happened a couple times, where I went back to see if I missed something, but I hadn’t.

So let’s get to pros and Cons!

Pros: Funny, witty, cute story. Loved the main characters. The descriptions of the town where they lived gave me New England vibes and for the first time ever, I think I want to visit Michigan. (No offense to Michigan!). A great lake day read.

Cons: It was a little long, I think a lot of stuff could’ve been cut out, had a couple missing details, the spice was pretty low-level. I’d have loved a little more of it.

Overall rating: 7/10 tattooed bartenders! Give it a read!