I really enjoyed this book and it was not what I was expecting based on the cover. The characters were well developed and the story was intriguing. I found the conflict and miscommunication a little laughable but maybe that was the point. Either way I will be reading more by this author!

I liked the time jumps and how each scenario matched with the other. Chani was a harder character to like than Gabe. His growth and recovery was believable, hers, on the other hand, felt very one-dimensional. Overall, it was a fun read up until the ending. I thought it could have a bigger payoff.

Overall, I enjoyed this book. I wanted to LOVE it, but it wasn't quite a hit for me.

The pros: Amusing, engaging voice and entertaining banter. Fun second chance/instalove aspects, but...

The cons: Ehh, the questionable journalistic ethics left me feeling uneasy. The flashbacks and article snippets threw me, too. When I first started reading, it took me a while to get settled in. Then, I tended to need a bit of readjustment with each time change or article exerpt.

This is an amazing romcom debut!!!!!! You fall in love with the characters from the first page until the last. This author will go far with her career in this readers opinion

I don't know what I was expecting from this but I didn't really like what I got. I didn't even know it was a romance novel because the cover doesn't show it at all. And I certainly didn't believe the romance. It was incredibly far-fetched and seemed desperate. If she was going for soulmates, that's not how it felt. I liked Gabe and his family a lot. But I didn't like Chani. She was too dramatic and where does this idea come from that female journalists only get scoops because they sleep with the clientele? Blah that's just dumb. Is this factual? I don't run in journalist circles so hell if I know. But that also didn't feel very believable. The epilogue -->Gabe Parker-Horowitz 🤢 Why the hell did he hyphenate his name? I hated that.

Funny You Should Ask begins with a celebrity profile of Gabe Parker, who has recently and controversially been picked to be the next James Bond. The writer, Chani Horowitz, is struggling to make a name for herself and this profile is her chance. Over the course of a weekend, Chani and Gabe get to know each other, starting in a restaurant, heading to a movie premier, and ending at a party thrown at Gabe’s house. The will-they-or-won’t-they tension that percolates sets the stage for a reunion piece ten years later. In the time that has passed Gabe has seen success at the box office as well as personal setbacks, including two stints in a rehab facility. Chani, who’s career took off following the publication of her article ten years earlier, is living in the aftermath of her divorce. Together once again, Gabe and Chani reflect on past events as readers discover what parts of the famous profile really happened, and what was left out.

The “then” portions of this book are based on a real 2011 GQ profile of Chris Evans written by Edith Zimmerman in advance of his filming of Captain America. If you read this book and then go back and read the profile as I did, you can see how closely Sussman stuck with not only the events that took place but also the writing style of Zimmerman’s original piece. The “now” sections of the book are, I have to imagine, an invention of Sussman’s imagination of what could have been if what took place between the lines played out in reality. The result is a charming and clever read, in which I unwittingly became immersed.

A super fun, cute, smart, sexy rom com. Perfect for readers who loved THE EX TALK and second chance love stories!

I've said it before and I'll say it again -- my favorite romance trope is 100% celebrity and norm! FUNNY YOU SHOULD ASK is as delightful as everyone says it is. A high concept story that only an author who is acutely in tune with pop culture could pull off. The idea that a journalist and a movie star (a James Bond movie star, no less) could have such chemistry and come back together 10 years after a fateful weekend is just too juicy to ignore. I loved it and thought the end, especially, was supremely swoon-worthy.

I really wanted to like this one, and it WAS entertaining… it just fell a little flat for me. The articles inserted didn’t add much to the plot, and I thought the ending felt a bit rushed. Disappointed because I know people who raved about it but in the end it left me wanting more.

This book was witty, cute and very enjoyable! Definitely an easy read. I loved the slow burn relationship between Chani and Gabe and the juxtaposition between the then and now timelines. I didn’t feel that it was confusing to follow and really enhanced the overall plot.

Also the cover deserves 5 stars on its own! The most eye-catching, unique cover I’ve seen in a while.

Thank you to Penguin Random House for the ARC in exchange for an honest review.

I am sick and miserable and it is very hard to find anything I want to do right now. But know what I did? I listened to Funny You Should Ask all the way through and it took me away from my runny nose and cough drops and hot tea and fully transported me to another world.

Ten years ago, Chani was hired to write a profile piece about her favorite actor - Gabe. They had an amazing connection and the article helped launch both of their careers and led many to question how well they really knew each other. But they haven’t been in contact until Chani is asked to meet with him again for a follow up profile ten years later.

I loved this book and the alternating timelines. Perfect escape! Thank you to the publisher and Netgalley for the free review copy.

Although there were some lovely bits, I found this read ultimately anti-climatic. Especially with the second chance nature of the romance - I was looking for some emotional payoff, but it sort of read as a hallmark movie ending more than anything else.

I love the cover of Funny You Should Ask - but that's all I love (or like). Bonus points for the Jewish representation though. I hate to do a brutal review, but this book was really not it.

Funny You Should Ask is a twist on second chance romance with Hollywood magic. In Funny You Should Ask, Chani Horowitz is hired to write a profile of her celebrity crush, Gabe Parker. They spend three days together. The infamous article comes out and everything assumes they slept together (they did not). 10 years later, Chani and Gabe meet again, continuing their *love story*.

Ethics aside, Funny You Should Ask was painful to read.

- The book keeps switching between their meet-up 10 years ago and present day, so it was just plain confusing (and added to the disconnect in their love story)
- Are we supposed to believe that people fall in love that quickly? Call me a cynic but...

I understand what the author was trying to do. In an interview with Shondaland, the author, when asked about her inspiration for the book says, "The idea was inspired by Edith Zimmerman’s interview with Chris Evans, but also [Taffy Brodesser-Akner’s] Tom Hiddleston interview, and then there’s the Channing Tatum one. It was interesting to see female journalists inserting themselves in the story in a way that played with our ideas of parasocial relationships and how celebrity exists. It was very self-referential about how weird those interviews were. So, that sparked the idea: What if that happened to you?" But I have issues with the execution.

Elissa Sussman's 'Funny You Should Ask' is a smart, sophisticated, time-jumping story about the undeniable connection between a journalist and a movie star. It also scratches at the dissonance between public persona and private self, especially for creatives as they share pieces of themselves with the world.

This was a lovely piece of fiction that I read in a single afternoon. The main duo are sweet and steamy, and can they be my friends!? When the world is so stressful at times, it was nice to spend an afternoon with this adorable couple and be silly rom-com hopeful for the future. Appreciate the advanced copy!!!!

Chani, a reporter looking for her big break, is in her twenties and she gets the chance to interview and profile her idol, Gabe. The book is told in alternating chapters between their original meeting and the 72 hours that followed and meeting up 10 years later. I really wanted to find out what was going to happen and if their story would end!

Such a good book! I enjoyed the story, especially how it compared the present to the past. The character development was very good. I really enjoyed this book.

Really fun, juicy celebrity romance! Sussman's writing is so sharp and clever, and I really loved following Chani and Gabe's stories in both timelines. A great read for fans of Emily Henry or Christina Lauren!

This was a great story that was hard to put down. It was cute and fun to read! The story was told with chapters on both the past and present, interleaved with blog posts and articles about or by our two main characters.

The romance in the book was a slow burn, but done right. It didn't feel unnecessarily stretched out. The story did a great job justifying the time and distance between the two main characters.
The second chance romance between them is really quite beautiful. I especially loved the way Gabe loved Chani. They both make mistakes in their long history together, but you can feel their connection throughout, their love always feels honest and real. The author also does a great job in building up the tension and chemistry between them, and showing how much they care for each other even when apart, even when they can't see it themselves.

I also really appreciated the issues that Chani faced being a woman journalist, people's assumptions around her success, and her own self doubt.

Some of the side characters really shined too! Especially Ollie immediately stole my heart. And of course the doggy, Teddy!

On the other hand, I'm not convinced that reading full chapters on the past was that necessary. Especially considering the fact that we first got a summary via characters talking about it, then a longer summary via the article talking about it, then actually reading it happen, I kind of would have preferred to just focus in the present.

Also, It did bother me a little how incompetent Chani seemed during her first interview of Gabe. Sure, it makes for a cute and funny story and maybe makes her more relatable, but I love reading about capable women doing amazing things.

This was a slow-burn, second-chance romance with lots of chemistry and many real moments.
Overall rating: ⭐⭐⭐⭐

Thank you very much to Random House Publishing Group and NetGalley for the ARC for this great read!

Although I don't usually read contemporary romances, especially about Hollywood, I made an exception for this one and am glad I did. I adored Gabe and Chani and their vulnerabilities. I always wondered how happy movie "stars" and music "idols" can be with all the paparazzi and problems that go along with being famous. This novel seems a fair depiction of the cons of stardom, in spades. Although it takes 10 years, these two finally get together, and I agree with Gabe, they probably wouldn't have worked 10 years ago. Both of them had to grow up first! Montana has got to be a better place to raise kids than Hollywood! I received an eARC of this book from NetGalley and these opinions are my own!