Library Loans - The "Story" Edition

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How to End a Love Story by Yulin Kuang
Published by Avon on April 9, 2024
Age/Genres: Adult, Contemporary, Romance

Goodreads

Two writers with a complicated history end up working on the same TV show... Can they write themselves a new ending? A sexy and emotional enemies-to-lovers romance guaranteed to pull on your heartstrings and give you a book hangover from brilliant new voice Yulin Kuang.

Helen Zhang hasn’t seen Grant Shepard once in the thirteen years since the tragic accident that bound their lives together forever.

Now a bestselling author, Helen pours everything into her career. She’s even scored a coveted spot in the writers’ room of the TV adaptation of her popular young adult novels, and if she can hide her imposter syndrome and overcome her writer’s block, surely the rest of her life will fall into place too. LA is the fresh start she needs. After all, no one knows her there. Except…

Grant has done everything in his power to move on from the past, including building a life across the country. And while the panic attacks have never quite gone away, he’s well liked around town as a screenwriter. He knows he shouldn’t have taken the job on Helen’s show, but it will open doors to developing his own projects that he just can’t pass up.

Grant’s exactly as Helen remembers him—charming, funny, popular, and lovable in ways that she’s never been. And Helen’s exactly as Grant remembers too—brilliant, beautiful, closed off. But working together is messy, and electrifying, and Helen’s parents, who have never forgiven Grant, have no idea he’s in the picture at all.

When secrets come to light, they must reckon with the fact that theirs was never meant to be any kind of love story. And yet… the key to making peace with their past—and themselves—might just lie in holding on to each other in the present.

After thirteen years, Helen finds herself reunited with a man she shared a very complicated and painful past with. Would she be able to make her dream a reality with his involvement?

I don't think complicated really covers the history shared between Grant and Helen. Poor Grant was driving the car that resulted in Helen's sister's death. Needless to say there were some hard feelings between them, and time didn't seem to heal this wound for Helen. I couldn't imagine how they felt when they were reunited, but Kuang did a magnificent job pulling me into their heads and helping me feel their painful and conflicted feelings they had for each other.

It was surprising to see them form a bond, and I don't believe it was trauma bonding. I felt their sparks and connection. I actually thought Grant could understand Helen on a different level because he experienced the event though in a different way.

And I was really impressed with how much I enjoyed this rather angsty story. I usually have trouble buying into stories like this, but I really loved it. I was fully invested and whole-heartedly wanted these two to forge a future with together. I understood all the obstacles, but it had been over a decade and it was an accident and people grow and change. They just worked as a couple.

Overall, I adored this emotional love story. It made me laugh and cry and cheer, and I couldn't help but want everything for these two.

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Funny Story by Emily Henry
Published by Berkley on April 23, 2024
Age/Genres: Adult, Contemporary, Romance

Goodreads

A shimmering, joyful new novel about a pair of opposites with the wrong thing in common.

Daphne always loved the way her fiancé Peter told their story. How they met (on a blustery day), fell in love (over an errant hat), and moved back to his lakeside hometown to begin their life together. He really was good at telling it…right up until the moment he realized he was actually in love with his childhood best friend Petra.

Which 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—with a penchant for taking solace in the sounds of heart break love ballads—Miles is exactly the opposite of practical, buttoned up Daphne, whose coworkers know so little about her they have a running bet that she’s either FBI or in witness protection. 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?

What happens when your fiancé leaves you for his childhood best friend? Well, you move in with that woman's ex, of course which was kind of a funny story that led to an HEA for both Daphne and Miles.

This was an amusing setup which was deftly executed by Henry. I started out with Henry back with The Love that Split the World, and I love the way she has evolved. Her writing has a beautiful quality that conveys and evokes emotion, but here in the romance genre, her humor shines through. The snappy banter and fun scenarios produced miles of smiles for me, and the well drawn, layered characters were too easy to love and root for.

But it wasn't only Daphne and Miles who won my heart, the book was set in the charming town of Waning Bay and packed with many wonderful and quirky characters. One of the big eureka moments Daphne had following the breakup was that she allowed herself to disappear into her ex's life. Post breakup, she began to build her own life, find her own friends, blaze her own path as she began to see Waning Bay as her own home. I was not only happy for her, I was proud of Daphne as she made so much personal progress and built a life filled with what she had been seeking and she did it all on her own.

I was not so sure about Miles when I first met him, however, the more I learned about him, the more I grew to adore him. His family was problematic with only his sister being worth caring about. There was damage, but Miles still was able to become a decent man who wore his heart of his sleeve and loved hard.

Overall, Funny Story was another solid book from Henry who continues to delight me with her entries in the romance genre. She is my queen of snappy banter and always seems to find the perfect balance of drama and humor while infusing her stories with so much heart and warmth.

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