RLbooks (in and out)'s Reviews > Funny Feelings

4.5 stars

To start, the dedication and author’s note were powerful. I was so touched by the author’s words. Multiple friends have mentioned that I needed to try one of her books so that was one of my goals for 2024 and I’m so glad I did, I can’t wait to read more. Some tropes in this book though are age gap (10 years I think), friends to lovers, single dad, fake relationship, and mutual pining.

Funny Feeling was (unsurprisingly) funny, along with being uplifting, emotional, sometimes sharp, and intimate. Farley (h) is a standup comedian who’s starting to get more recognition and Meyer (H) is her best friend and manager. The story moves between present day and scenes of their past as it highlights their relationship. The initial meeting between them was tumultuous and lovely in the best way. I wasn’t in love with the flow of the present and past chapters though, despite the value and insight I thought they brought. It just threw me off sometimes.

The strength of this story imo was the characters and their experience, how their scenes were imbued with the magic of their personalities, care for each other, and the deep respect and love their relationship was built on (from a friend perspective as well as more). This book doesn’t shy away from the messier aspects of the main characters’ inner thoughts and emotional turmoil, but it also balances those out with loads of laughs, stirring feels, and a touch of steam.

Written in first person, dual POV. No ow/om drama (though one past scene does have an ex of the h’s in it but no on page steam with him) and neither were virgins (H had been celibate for several years and h was celibate for I think about a year - so he wasn’t with anyone after meeting her but she had been after meeting him). The H is a single dad but his child was the result of a ONS and the mother died in childbirth.

I appreciated that Farley and Meyer were equally dependent on each other and that, with Meyer’s daughter Hazel, there was a special family feel to their connection. Also loved the inclusion and representation with Hazel being deaf. Every scene with Meyer’s daughter was adorable and her relationships with both her father and Farley were touching. Farley and Meyer do have many scenes without Hazel too.

The banter was excellent and the mutual pining ratcheted up the tension of when their feelings would come to light. There’s openness and excellent communication except when it came to their romantic feelings and a bit of how it affected their work. That pining was well written while also making me want to hold their faces together and force them to cross those lines, and I thought they could have been honest with each other earlier. As their fake relationship prompted them to talk more about their real feelings, I was almost squealing. Once the steam came about too, I was on cloud nine. It’s not the spiciest steam, though it is satisfying.

The middle did drag for me unfortunately and the flow of the writing sometimes felt off. However I loved the positive therapy discussions and mentions of supporting mental health. Some of the humorous moments were zany and others more tongue-in-cheek. Farley’s sense of humor is raunchy at times so there are some jokes that mention bodily functions, for example. The romance is gooey without being too syrupy. Side characters supported the main ones and moved along the plot of Farley getting the next step in her career. Absolutely adored the strong female friendship vibes.

I wish the climax and mini-conflict wasn’t quite what happened but there’s no third act breakup at least. There’s still a grand gesture that was swoony. The epilogues (yep two) had a tender, perfect HEA tone to them. One is an article format of a journalist interviewing Farley some years later and it provides details of where they are. Then the other happens before that one chronologically and is their wedding day. It was just the best note to end the book on.