Review: Funny Story

Title: Funny Story 

Author: Emily Henry

Publisher: 25th April 2024 by Penguin UK - Fig Tree, Hamish Hamilton, Viking

Pages: 384 pages

Genre: General Fiction (Adult) | Romance | Women's Fiction

Rating: 5 crowns

Synopsis:

A shimmering, joyful new novel about a pair of opposites with the wrong thing in common.

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?

My Thoughts

I think I have to come right out and say it … I am officially an Emily Henry fan. Funny Story is a rom-com/drama about Daphne, a librarian, whose fiance leaves her for his childhood best friend, Petra. With nowhere to go, Daphne moves in with Miles, who also just happens to be the ex-boyfriend of Petra. Events would have it (… of course … that is why we read these books!) that Daphne and Miles pretend to annoy their exes by fake dating. The plot then moves to close proximity romance but rest assured, there is always much more to an Emily Henry novel than pure romance.  

‘It’s more, controlling the expectations you have for certain people. If a person lets you down, it’s time to reconsider what you’re asking of them.’

Funny Story may start with all the rom-com chuckles but romances are never all smooth sailing. Apart from dealing with being dumped, both Daphne and Miles have personal family issues that need to be faced. So while romance is what we are all about here, there are equally important personal issues to be addressed in each character's growth arc. 

‘… it matters way more that you’re present than that you’re perfect.’

What I love here is … yes, okay, Miles! He is wonderfully sweet. The respect and friendship that develops between the two is heartwarming. There are also wonderful side characters that bring depth to the story, particularly with a view to Daphne’s growth in what it is to be a friend. The fictional town of Waning Bay, Michigan is also brought to life wonderfully well - from wine bars, to beaches, to the library and coffee shops it all adds to the story. 

‘All those moments throughout the days, weeks, months that don’t get marked on calendars with hand‑drawn stars or little stickers. Those are the moments that make a life. Not grand gestures, but mundane details that, over time, accumulate until you have a home, instead of a house. The things

that matter.’

Funny Story seems to veer more towards drama rather than straight out romcom which I like. With issues of family and friendships, identity and abandonment put under the spotlight it gave so much substance to an already swoon worthy plot. It is everything readers of Emily Henry have come to love - the banter, the angst and the underlying themes of being brave and embracing change. 

‘I want to know myself, to test my edges and see where I stop and the rest of the world begins.’

Visit Helen @ Great Reads & Tea Leaves

This review is based on a complimentary copy from the publisher in exchange for an honest review. Opinions expressed in this review are completely my own. The quoted material may have changed in the final release.

 

Review: The British Booksellers

Title: The British Booksellers

Author: Kristy Cambron

Publisher: 9th April 2024 by Thomas Nelson

Pages: 384 pages

Genre: Historical Fiction | Romance | Women's Fiction

Rating: 5 crowns

Synopsis:

Synopsis:

Inspired by real accounts of the Forgotten Blitz bombings, The British Booksellers highlights the courage of those whose lives were forever changed by war—and the stories that bind us in the fight for what matters most.

A tenant farmer’s son had no business daring to dream of a future with an earl’s daughter, but that couldn’t keep Amos Darby from his secret friendship with Charlotte Terrington . . . until the reality of the Great War sobered youthful dreams. Now decades later, he bears the brutal scars of battles fought in the trenches and their futures that were stolen away. His return home doesn’t come with tender reunions, but with the hollow fulfillment of opening a bookshop on his own and retreating as a recluse within its walls.

When the future Earl of Harcourt chose Charlotte to be his wife, she knew she was destined for a loveless match. Though her heart had chosen another long ago, she pledges her future even as her husband goes to war. Twenty-five years later, Charlotte remains a war widow who divides her days between her late husband’s declining estate and operating a quaint Coventry bookshop—Eden Books, lovingly named after her grown daughter. And Amos is nothing more than the rival bookseller across the lane.

As war with Hitler looms, Eden is determined to preserve her father’s legacy. So when an American solicitor arrives threatening a lawsuit that could destroy everything they’ve worked so hard to preserve, mother and daughter prepare to fight back. But with devastation wrought by the Luftwaffe’s local blitz terrorizing the skies, battling bookshops—and lost loves, Amos and Charlotte—must put aside their differences and fight together to help Coventry survive.

From deep in the trenches of the Great War to the storied English countryside and the devastating Coventry Blitz of WWII, The British Booksellers explores the unbreakable bonds that unite us through love, loss, and the enduring solace that can be found between the pages of a book.

My Thoughts

I first came across Kristy’s writing a couple of years ago with The Italian Ballerina and found it to be wonderful. Therefore I was quite excited to read her latest, The British Booksellers and I found this to be even more remarkable. Of course there were many things that readily ticked the box for me - historical fiction, two timelines, romance and it involved a bookstore! So imagine my delight when it was all of that and so much more!

‘I was willing to give up my entire world for you, Amos. I thought you were too. Weren’t we to make a new world together, you and I?’

Kristy’s books are special in that they are so detailed and intricate in their plotting (mind blowing if truth be told) but also provide twists and turns that kept me hooked until the last page. She keeps dropping little ‘crumbs’ that will have you following the trail to a fitting conclusion. Charlotte and Amos are in both WWI and WW2 timelines, so the narrative jumps back and forth for that. However, the greater part of the story is dedicated to the WW2 timeline and the focus being the ‘forgotten blitz’, the deadly Coventry bombings. 

“Perhaps days like this are exactly why we have books in the world. To remember that not all is lost, even if we find ourselves in the unknown. I like to think we provide a haven for the wanderer. And help him remember he has a place to call home.”

This is the kind of narrative to just lose yourself in for it certainly has it all and I am now a firm fan of Kristy’s writing. It is deeply emotional and pulls at the heartstrings - two wars, two romances, two ways of living (before and during war) that make this book memorable. I think perhaps Kristy’s secret is the little things that are memorable like a book, or a cello, or a pocket watch. 

‘… things she’d loved once. The cello, books, childhood dreams, and a farmer’s son who’d shared them.’

This book is not only rich in historical details but equally rich in storytelling with characters that will long be remembered. Kristy Cambron is a wonderful storyteller weaving this epic tale of family drama across the decades.

“War does not change everything; it cannot change secrets of the past.”

Visit Helen @ Great Reads & Tea Leaves

This review is based on a complimentary copy from the publisher in exchange for an honest review. Opinions expressed in this review are completely my own. The quoted material may have changed in the final release.