Published by Viking
Publication Date: 25th April 2024
Book Description:
My Thoughts:
Not my usual go-to genre, but sometimes we all need a bit of a palette cleanser to mix things up a bit. When I spotted a copy of this book sitting on the shelf at my local library within 24 hours of my daughter telling me she had picked up a copy at hers then it felt like Fate - and a buddy read was born.
This was my first proper experience of Emily Henry's writing - I'd dipped a toe in to a copy of Book Lovers, but I realised I had a deadline coming up to review another book so I put it aside without getting further than the first chapter or two. I'd heard lots of good things about her work on social media, but a lot of Book Tok recommendations don't appeal to me (maybe it's my age or something?). So in we went to form our own opinions. First of all, we both found we quite liked Daphne's character although we did feel she needed to expand her horizons and find out who she was outside of being Peter's fiancee. We cautiously warmed to Miles, too - he was clearly hurting very badly, possibly even moreso than Daphne early on and it soon became clear that Peter had done a personal character assassination of Miles purely out of spite and jealousy.
Overall the plot of the book was quite predictable, but this didn't spoil the enjoyment of Daphne & Miles developing relationship - obviously helped along its way by the likes of Daphne's work colleague Ashleigh who proved to be a bit of a dark horse herself, having held back the majority of her personal life facts from Daphne. Both the girls needed to learn to trust other people a lot more, and it was nice seeing this friendship blossom as well as the Daphne and Miles situation.
The respective exes of both main characters proved to be as unlikeable as they were first portrayed - I think my daughter hit the nail on the head while describing her thoughts about Peter, that he could "get in the bin" at one particular part of the book, which made me chuckle. Thank goodness they were both as despicable as they were suggested to be, otherwise a lovely relationship would never have developed - it came across that both Daphne and Peter realised that what they previously thought was love actually fell very short of what they really wanted out of a relationship: those little thoughtful details that make the day-to-day more bearable - things that raise a smile and a warm feeling within you when they happen, even if they don't seem significant to anyone else. Then there are the bigger actions that people make for you, going literally the extra (few hundred) miles and way out of their comfort zones to try and make life better for you. Yeah, all of that gets covered in this thoroughly enjoyable rom com.
There are some moments which are heart-breaking, many which are heart-warming, and some great comedy scenes too - not to mention a bit of good old double-entendre along the way. The chapter headings change along the course of the book to give a bit of a barometer to where the story's at, which was interesting that both my daughter and I had noticed independently of each other.
So yes, a predictable, easy to read romantic comedy which ticked all the necessary boxes and left us both satisfied that the author had indeed fulfilled what was asked of her at the outset. 4 out of 5 from both participants of the buddy read this time.
About the Author:
Emily Henry is the #1 New York Times bestselling author of People We Meet on Vacation and Beach Read. She studied creative writing at Hope College, and now spends most of her time in Cincinnati, Ohio, and the part of Kentucky just beneath it. Find her on Instagram @emilyhenrywrites.
