❥ Thank you for the free audiobook, PRH Audio.
Synopsis
Daphne always loved the way her fiancé Peter told their story. How they met, fell in love, and moved back to his lakeside hometown to begin their life together. He was good at telling it…right up until the moment he realized he was in love with his childhood friend Petra.
This 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, Miles is exactly the opposite of practical, buttoned up Daphne. 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?
Thoughts
This, my first Emily Henry novel, was a stellar story! I have picked up a few other books by the author, as you can see, and I look forward to reading them. This was a very grown-up romance story with a wonderfully crafted cast. More than anything, I was taken by Henry’s masterful mix of humor and insight.
Of course, I enjoyed the story’s romance, but I loved the depth. The flawed main characters and their romantic relationship were all believable. The banter was witty. The chemistry was hot. The pop culture references and humor hit the mark. The tangents led somewhere meaningful. I feel as though I could have annotated this book heavily because of its many profound thoughts. The way the title tied into the story left a smile on my face, too.
❥ Experiencing this story via audiobook was fantastic. Narrator Julia Whelan did an excellent job.
Quote
“I spent our whole relationship auditioning…”