𝖧𝖺𝗉𝗉𝗒 April!! 🌷🪻💐🌺🌼

All of the following thoughts and opinions are my own, and I'm just so grateful to read this one prior to publication, so a huge thank you to Emily Henry, Berkley Romance, Berit Talks Books, PRH Audio and Netgalley!

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

What can I say about this gem that hasn’t already been said? The banter, the Michigan village setting that was so charming and realistic that it made me want to visit. The characters, who began to feel like my own friends and family. The swoony romantic subplot that truly complemented all of the growth for both Daphne and Miles. The heartwarming library references. Every comforting cup of milky chai, plate of homemade, farmer’s market-supplied food, taste of Michigan cherries, and glass of crisp Michigan wine.

Ahhh, I loved this one so, so much. It was such a heartwarming, heartbreaking, make-me-cry-and - then- heal my-heart comforting read, and the fact that @justjuliawhelan narrated it was the absolute cherry on top. Daphne and Miles are so lovable, and even the characters I disliked truly lent themselves to making the resulting happily ever after so much more wonderful.

This one is utter perfection. Pre-order it, read it, love it, and messsge me about it because I love nothing more than gushing over a book with fellow book-loving fans 😍 It hits shelves April 23, so don’t miss it!!

4 stars

Thank you to NetGalley and Berkley Publishing for providing me with an ARC in exchange for an honest review!

Daphne's picture-perfect engagement crumbles when her fiancé confesses his love for his best friend. Stranded in a charming small town that doesn't feel like hers, she seeks solace in the most unexpected place: with her ex-fiancé's new girlfriend's ex-boyfriend, Miles. This unlikely pair couldn't be more different. Daphne, the practical librarian, clashes with the free-spirited, heartbreak-ballad-and-wine-loving Miles. Yet, a shared need for revenge (and loneliness) leads them to hatch a plan to attend their exs' wedding together. As their fake summer romance unfolds, the line between pretend and reality starts to blur.

Listen, nothing brings me more joy than fake dating and I love Emily Henry, but when I read this book summary I had my doubts. I wasn't thrilled about the idea of two newly-single people jumping into relationships with their exs' exs' (did I do that right?), but I actually really loved this story. As a librarian myself, I felt really connected to Daphne and Miles was, of course, a total love. There is a sort of realness about him that you don’t often see in fiction. Overall, another fun, feel-good read from Emily Henry.

I cannot express how much I adored this book. Once again, Emily Henry has knocked it out of the park with her witty banter, whimsical locations, and beautiful relationships. I laughed and cried and related to so many parts of this book on such a deep level. (Hello, my name is Ashley and I’m a librarian!)

Thank you so much to NetGalley and Berkley Publishing Group for an ARC in exchange for an honest review.

5⭐️

I am an Emily Henry Stan for life. If she writes it I will read it and I already know I will love it! She has a way of writing that instantly draws me in from the very first chapter.

My love for Miles & Daphne just know no bounds. I was instantly drawn to not only Daphne ( simply bc I felt so seen by her character) but Miles as well. It just amazes me each time I read Emily how she writes her characters. They are so real and so raw. You feel what they are feeling, you just simply FEEL. And I know that no matter what book she writes that I will get that from her. I will go through every single emotion while reading her books.

I can’t explain enough just how much I loved this book. Daphne’s growth in this book was amazing. She was so brave. So real. So simply herself but knew she deserved more. Better. And Miles… my goodness. This man. This selfless man who puts everyone before himself, kind, outgoing, friendly, adventurous man. A man who doesn’t realize that he also deserves the kind of love that he shows everyone else. I LOVED HIM SO MUCH!

I can’t put into words just how much I loved watching Miles & Daphne’s friendship slowly grow into something more. It was special, it was sweet, and it just felt so natural to me.
And it was HOT 🥵 like I was so surprised at how hot it was! I was here for it!

And please don’t get me started on that epilogue 🥹🫶🏽

Thank you so much NetGalley & Berkeley for the arc!

the easiest 5⭐️ I’ve given this year. Emily Henry does it again with another story that will have you riding the roller coaster of emotions from beginning to end. I thoroughly enjoyed every page, sentence, and word of this book and how quick it felt. I also really enjoyed our MCs and their imperfections and how they grew and healed. 100% recommend!!

4.5 stars. A warm, funny (as you might guess from the title) forced proximity romance, as two people whose partners dumped them for each other become reluctant roommates. Daphne and Miles are quirky and sweet together.

My only quibble with the book is the preciousness with which Daphne approaches her job as a children's librarian. Authors often write librarians with a breathless vocational awe, which is not unique to Emily Henry. But as a librarian who regularly deals with angry patrons, bodily fluids, and frequent calls to law enforcement, I get frustrated by the gauzy, idealistic lens that public libraries are seen through in fiction. Of course I'm happy that Daphne loves her job, but it's not all sunshine and storytime in real life.

Thanks to Netgalley, the publisher, and the author for the ARC to review. All opinions are my own.

Another great love story by Emily Henry! I really loved the set up and characters.

I didn't love the third act break up - there were some parts that seemed silly to me, but it resolved nicely.

Emily Henry does it again! I really enjoyed this one, though it was a bit of a slow start for me. Like many of her books, the friendships and family relationships factor in nearly as heavily as the romance. And it's a lot of good, messy stuff, mostly quite realistic. And for a book that is ostensibly fake dating, it really doesn't lean into that much, for which I am thankful. This book does rely on a lot of miscommunication for conflict, but in a way that rings true for me, with the kinds of faulty assumptions people make and out-of-proportion responses people can have in vulnerable moments. And if you like a charming small town romance, this book's town has a lot of charm.

This was such a fun romance and I really enjoyed the banter and chemistry and the friends to lovers trope. Daphne finds out her fiancé is ending their engagement weeks before their wedding with his childhood best friend and she ends up moving in with the best friend's new ex-boyfriend, Miles. This was light-hearted and fun while still dealing with some more serious issues, such as family trauma. I loved how Daphne is a librarian and planned a Read-a-Thon!

Thank you to the publisher and Netgalley for an advanced copy. 4.5 rounded up

Buckle up Emily Henry fans, because she is back with another fun contemporary romance that is bound to be another summer hit!

Her newest is set in the small town of Waning Bay, MI and has some forced proximity, a dash of fake dating, and your typical wholesome vibes. Daphne originally moved to the small town for her fiancé, but weeks before their nuptials, he has left her for his childhood best friend. With no place to go, she finds herself rooming with Miles—the ex of the woman she was left for. Daphne is counting down the days until she can leave Waning Bay, but of course things get complicated once she and Miles form a friendship of sorts.

As is usual with her stories, there was a lot of heard and sweet moments that I did enjoy about this book. I appreciated the in depth and messy backstories of both our MCs and I did find them to be pretty likeable. Though I guess it helped that their exes really did them dirty! Aside from that, I liked the themes of self discovery, starting over, and finding yourself a home. There was also a fun and erratic cast of supporting characters that added some good vibes.

I do think I struggled a bit to fully connect with the characters and the story like I have with EH books in the past and that lack of relatability for me personally, made me not enjoy quite as much as I had hoped for, particularly when compared to her past work. However, that’s where reading is super subjective because while I may not have connected with some things, I am positive there will be many others who will and will love it because of that!

Overall this was still nice read with a sweet ending and I am excited to see what everyone else will think once it finally releases to the world!

4.5 stars
I feel like the more I read, the more rare it becomes for me to find a book where I'm genuinely and actively enjoying myself the entire way through. And yet, somehow, Emily Henry manages to do it every time. One of the things that I found so compelling about Book Lovers was the way she subverted the typical romance trope to explore what happens to the woman left behind in those small-town romances, so I loved seeing the similar elements here as we focus on the partners left behind after the childhood friends become lovers.

I think one of the biggest things that always make EH's books so enjoyable for me is the way she makes her characters feel like they have real and full lives. It's so easy (and fairly common) in romance books for the romance to be so front-and-center that the characters are rarely defined outside of their relationships with one another. With Henry's books, though, I feel like you could remove the romance entirely, and while the book likely wouldn't feel quite as complete, it would still have some solid legs to stand on.

All that to say, it was thoroughly enjoyable to follow Daphne's journey to rediscover her identity and what it means to be an "I" rather than a "we". She felt very much like a real person in her thirties as we see her struggle to make new friendships, find new hobbies, and discover the things she enjoys outside of her job. While it a super minor element, I also really liked the depiction of Daphne's mom as someone making her own full and fulfilling life as a single woman, without needing a relationship to "complete her arc".

I also just really enjoyed the pairing between Daphne and Miles. Even though the breakup with their respective ex's was what brought them together, it felt like that wasn't a device used to keep driving their proximity longer than it needed to. After having read so many romance books lately where it felt like the only justification for why the opposites attracted and wanted to be together was "just trust me bro", I appreciated the emphasis on the aspects of their personalities that did truly complement one another. As much as I love a slow burn, I do also tend to appreciate when her characters act on their obvious attraction before the 4th act, rather than denying it for 300+ pages just because that's the convention of the genre.

Only reason this wasn't a full 5 stars for me was just because I didn't think the B plot in this book was quite as strong as I'm used to with her other books. The main thing giving structure to the book was the countdown to the readathon that was reinforced in every chapter header, but because it was just a thing that was mentioned but that we never felt involved in until it happened, it didn't feel like the glue holding the plot together as well as it was intended to. Thus, at least for me, the plot outside of the romance felt a bit more haphazard than I'm used to with her work.

Even if this isn't my new favorite Emily Henry book, I did unquestionably have a great time with it, and she will never stop being an auto buy author for me.

I am a huge Emily Henry fan, and this book lived up to all of my expectations and EXCEEDED them. It was so different to her last books but in a good way. I loved the banter between the main characters and seeing Daphne find herself and her individuality. I related to Daphne so much and saw myself so much in her. Miles was also the most adorable, greatest green flag of a man i ever seen. Thank you NetGalley and Berkley for the Arc of this book! Truly an honour.

Omg guys, Emily Henry does it again!

💙Fake Dating
💙Roommates
💙BANTER
💙Opposites Attract
💙Friends to Lovers
💙Revenge to Exes 😈

I am obsessed with this book. I kept telling myself one more chapter…one more chapter and I kept saying that til I got to the end of the acknowledgments. I just couldn’t stop reading.
When Daphne’s fiancé leaves her for his childhood best friend, Petra she’s crushed. Her whole life was Peter and with nowhere to go she ends up living with the guy Petra dumped for her fiancé. She plans to leave and move once her read a thon is over at the library.
Both of them are heartbroken but they develop a friendship with each other. Now, Daphne isn’t so sure if she wants to leave….
I loved the characters. Miles and Daphne are the perfect opposites attract and I just love their story.

Thank you so much to Netgalley and Berkeley for a copy.

I absolutely adored this book! Emily Henry truly knows how to craft characters that are funny, relatable, and unique. The chemistry between the two main characters in this book was so incredibly palpable and such a joy to read. This book had me laughing out loud multiple times and I finished it in two days, as I couldn't put it down!

I really enjoyed this book! I have read others by Emily Henry and wasn't that impressed, but this story really got my attention and I liked that the main character is a librarian. A perfect summer read and I'm definitely going to be recommending this one to others.

Maybe Emily Henry's best book?!? She somehow just keeps getting better and better. Or maybe I just really love this fake dating/forced proximity/opposites attract/friends to lovers set-up. And she nails it! Like well and truly creates flawed, realistic characters that don't always click, but their chemistry (their chemistry!!!) is off the charts. So they try and make it work and it gets messy in the process. Just like life!

That's what I enjoy the most about Henry's romances: yes they have a lot of the tropes and cliches you expect in a romance novel, but the paths she takes us on to get to those outcomes don't feel cliched.

Also this book is so New Girl-coded. Daphne Vincent is a buttoned-up librarian with commitment issues and Miles Nowak is an easy-going bartender with like three other side jobs. Daphne is left with almost no choice but to move in with Miles when her fiancé Peter leaves her for his best friend, and girlfriend of Miles, Petra. What else are two dumpees supposed to do when their lives built around their 'perfect' partners are completed upended?! Move into his warehouse loft and pretend like they are happier together.

But then of course, feelings start to arise and Daphne's fear of building her life around someone just to be disappointed—like she was with her absentee father most of her life and her fiancé who just abandoned her before their wedding—arises.

What Emily Henry does over the next 400 pages is nothing less than giggly, romantic, sweet, silly and page-turning perfection. No notes. I loved it. Great side characters too. A really realistic 3rd act conflict that doesn't make you want to pull your hair out. A setting (Michigan in the summer!) that makes you want to run away to the lake and drink white wine and eat cherries and dip your toes in the water.

I loved the relationship between Miles and Daphne, if there’s such a thing as book boyfriend Miles is it!! It was so cute to watch them slowly open up to each other. There’s also so much more to the story too, the way Daphne finds herself rediscovering who she is and all the new possibilities that life throws at her. Her character was so relatable! I loved it!

Daphne and Peter’s meet cute was a love story worth telling. And so Peter did- over, and over… and over. Until, of course, he decided he was in love with someone else, leaving the rest of their love affair unwritten.

Now forced into a rewrite, Daphne moves out of the house she loved, and into an apartment with a fellow newly inducted member into the lonely hearts club, Miles Nowalk. Although the two don’t know each other well, they each know what it’s like to be loved and left, their exes leaving each of them for one another.

As the lovelorn librarian throws herself into her work, she also can’t help but commiserate with her new roomie. Subscribing to the adage, misery loves company, the jilted pair haphazardly hatch a plan, curating a make believe relationship to make their former significant others green with envy. But some stories, no matter how mapped out, can still go off course. In this new chapter of their lives, is it too much to wish for a happily ever after?

The incomparable Emily Henry once again seems to be unable to disappoint her legions of romance readers. Unlike her most previous angst ridden release and the love ‘em and leave ‘em jumping off point of this one, Funny Story is decidedly lighter fare all around. I enjoyed Daphne and Miles, both separately and together, and have high hopes others will too. No joke, Funny Story a serious contender in the swoon-worthy sector.

This book was just alright for me. Nothing great, but not terrible either. I love the writing style, but overall this book just left me kind of bored and wanting more. I didn’t feel any amazing chemistry between the main characters. I would have loved to see some more tension and more development of their feelings. What I did love about this book was the aspect of found family for the FMC.

I think Emily Henry writes in a really beautiful way where you picture the story playing out in front of you. I felt that in this book as she described Michigan I could just imagine spending a summer day there.

I liked that aspect of the story, but I felt overall that it fell flat for me. It was too long, so certain parts dragged and I found myself getting bored. I wasn’t as engaged with the characters enough to go through the motions of their relationship, and was just kind of waiting to see how the book would end.