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Title: Funny You Should Ask
Author: Elissa Sussman
Sub-genre: Contemporary
Release Date: April 12, 2022
(Disclosure: Elissa and I have a personal relationship–I coordinated her wedding!)
Look at me managing to post more than one book review in a month for the first time in forever. Pardon my tangent, but I am finding it more difficult to write these posts now that a) I know what it feels like to have your book reviewed and b) I find myself creating more personal relationships with fellow writers. Of course it can be hard to be subjective sometimes, but I’m really trying to only write about books I genuinely love with my whole heart. I don’t want to write negative reviews (they suck for writers, which is what I am now and I can’t just set that aside), but I also don’t want to or plan to hype books that I didn’t enjoy. So suffice to say, if you see me writing a review about a book, I really and truly loved it! And this one is no exception!
Chani is a journalist who ten years ago, had her career made when she sat down for an in depth interview with then up and coming heartthrob (and next James Bond) Gabe Parker. Chani and Gabe end up spending the whole weekend together and her subsequent article launches her career and helps Gabe win over the public (who don’t think he should have been cast as Bond). Over the course of the decade that follows, the two speak rarely, but think of each other often. Now, ten years after their first meeting, the two are being asked to come back together for a sort of anniversary article. Both of their careers have taken twists and turns, as well as their personal lives, and both have their own reasons for wanting to do the piece, and also resisting the idea. It becomes clear when they meet up again that there are lots of unresolved *feelings* they must sort out as they hash out the past and discover what might be possible in the future. And this is a romance, so they get their shit together in time to make it all work out!
Okay. So this book is fucking brilliant. Literally one of those that by the time I got to the end of the first chapter, I was completely hooked. The book is told in dual timelines, which I sometimes have trouble with because I can never remember which time we’re actually in, but the way Elissa merges the two stories is totally seamless and yet the past and present stories are each totally distinct. One of my favorite things about the book is that in the present day, Chani and Gabe are both older (like late thirties, he might even be forty gasp!) which is just something we don’t see enough of in romance. But mostly what I loved about this book is how I just completely lost myself in their world. You know I am here for Hollywood romances, and this one just felt so real. Like the gritty, not so glamorous side of Hollywood that we don’t often see. The LA vibes are captured here so perfectly (if you’re a fan of Taylor Jenkins Reid’s LA set books, you’ll love this one). The voice, the characters, the setting, the way the story unfolds, it was all perfect and I didn’t want it to end! I cannot wait to read this one again (and again and again).
Overall Rating: 5 stars