Funny Story by Emily Henry Full Book Summary
Check out a summary of Funny Story, from the popular romance author Emily Henry. The latest of Emily Henry’s romance novels focuses on the story of Daphne, a children’s librarian, who’s fiancé Peter leaves her for his childhood best friend, Petra. With no other options in their small town, Daphne has to move in with Petra’s ex-boyfriend, Miles, who’s the total opposite of Daphne at first glance.
This summary is to help you remember everything that happened in the book before you read my full book review. If you want to get the full effect of the slow burn romance with all the little things that build the romantic relationships, you should read the whole book if you haven’t yet. If you’re a fan of the fake dating trope with a happy ending, go read the entire book.
Chapters 1-2
After moving to a small Michigan town, beautiful Waning Bay, to get married to Peter Collins, Daphne Vincent has to move in with Miles Nowak after her ex-fiancé left her for Petra, Miles’s girlfriend, and Daphne can’t find anywhere else to live. Miles is watching Bridget Jone’s Diary, but she declines partially because of the messy room and weed smell. Peter’s, his long time best friend, Petra, confessed she was in love with him the night of his bachelor party, and he realized he also loves her.
Chapters 3-4
When Daphne gets home from her job as a children’s librarian, Miles shows her that they both got invitations to Peter and Petra’s wedding. As they start drinking wine from the winery Miles works at because of the wedding invitation, he suggests they go out instead of staying in to mope. When they go to a local bar, another guy keeps buying them both drinks because of their situation, and Daphne, who hates small talk, is in awe of how charming and engaging Miles is with talking to other people.
Chapters 5-6
After Miles and Daphne RSVP’d yes for their exes’ wedding while drunk, Peter calls Daphne to say she doesn’t have to come because it’ll be so hard. In a rage, Daphne tells him that she is coming with her boyfriend Miles while Peter can only scoff in disbelief. Miles thinks it’s a great idea to get back at both of them with a fake relationship, and even has Daphne post a selfie of them together on her social media.
Because Daphne’s friend group after moving here was all Pete’s friends, she doesn’t have friends to hang out with, so she agrees to go to the winery with a coworker Ashleigh to make some new friends. Daphne hasn’t even heard from her best friend Sadie because Sadie got married to Peter’s best friend. Ashleigh says she heard Cherry Hill winery has a hot bartender, and when they get there, Miles is the one she’s talking about.
Chapters 7-8
Miles tells Daphne that his coworkers heard from Petra that he had a new girlfriend, so they tell everyone at the winery they’re dating. Ashleigh goes home with someone she met at the winery, so Miles takes Daphne to his favorite drive in for dinner. While they both are still sad about the breakups, Miles tries to joke with Daphne to make her feel better.
He brings her to the beach that only locals know about because Peter never did, and Daphne acknowledges that even though they’re a pair of opposites, their unlikely friendship is very enjoyable.
Chapters 9-10
After Miles gives her his sweatshirt because she’s cold, Daphne admits that her and Peter did everything he liked and on a schedule, so now she doesn’t know what to do. Daphne confesses that she wants to move away at the end of summer, but Miles convinces her that he can make her love the town and want to stay if she hangs out with him. After talking, Daphne realizes that Miles is one of the most genuinely nice people she’s met.
On Sunday, Miles brings Daphne to a bunch of local farm stands that all seem to know and love him. He buys their local food for the winery, and Daphne loves it too. But when they end up at a lavender farm, they run into Peter.
Chapters 11-12
When Peter asks to talk to Daphne alone, he warns her away from Miles saying he’s not good enough for her while also badmouthing him, but Daphne tells Peter off. Then, she kisses Miles while Peter is watching and ends up really enjoying their kiss. The next weekend they decide to do things that their exes would never do with them, starting with watching action movies that continues every night of the week.
But while watching a movie and joking around, Daphne and Miles get too close and end up kissing again. It’s leads to making out and a little more, but they decide they shouldn’t sleep together. Then, Miles reluctantly leaves to answer his phone that his younger sister, Julia, keeps calling.
Chapters 13-14
Julia, called to tell him she’s at the nearest airport to come stay with him unannounced to help him feel better. When Miles and Julia get back to the apartment, Daphne and Julia get along really well and have a fun time together. The next morning, Miles and Daphne go sunrise kayaking on Lake Michigan together and end up talking about their families and childhoods.
Chapters 15-16
Later that night, Miles and Daphne go to a bar with Julia and Ashleigh, and Daphne realizes that she feels jealous when other girls give Miles attention. Daphne starts going to monthly poker night with Ashleigh and their boss, Harvey, and is surprised to see two women, Barb and Lenore, from one of the farm stands Miles took her to. For the first time, Daphne is feeling like she has her own life and may enjoy staying in this town.
Chapters 17-18
Daphne agrees to go to an unknown event with Miles on Saturday that turns out to be a ‘senior prom’- a town fundraiser attended by mostly elderly folks, but Peter and Petra show up. After Peter makes a snide comment about Miles, Daphne and Miles kiss again while they’re watching. And then while dancing and kissing one more time, Daphne runs out.
Chapters 19-20
When Miles catches up and starts driving her home, Daphne admits she doesn’t want to fake things because things have changed for her now, and Miles kisses her again admitting that he always wants to kiss her because things have changed for him too. But as things go further, Miles stops them and admits that he always messes up relationships and hurts people he loves because growing up his mom punished him for any negative emotions. Their family revolved around her emotions, and they couldn’t do anything to make her look bad or inconvenience her or she’d gaslight them.
Daphne understands that he doesn’t want to hurt her or mess up their relationship, so she hangs out as just friends with Miles and Julia, who decides to stay an extra few weeks. Then, Julia has her stuff from home shipped to their apartment, and tells them she’s looking for a new job there. When she needs more room for her stuff, she finds the closet full of wedding stuff that Daphne hasn’t gotten rid of.
Chapters 21-22
Ashleigh and Julia help Daphne catalog and list everything online to sell, but make her try on her wedding dress. When she comes out of the bathroom after a while, they’re gone, but Miles is there now saying she looks beautiful. Then, he has to help get the zipper unstuck, and Daphne knows she still wants Miles.
Chapters 23-25
Later that week, Daphne’s very flighty father, who rarely comes to see her, shows up unannounced at the apartment with his new wife, Starfire, that Daphne has never even heard about. They say they’re staying in town a few days on their cross country road trip, so Miles agrees to help Daphne show them around. They all go boating together, and, while her dad is acting so nice, Daphne is torn because she’s expecting him to leave her again.
Chapters 26-27
Daphne’s dad spends another good day with her, but when they’re supposed to meet the next day only Miles shows up. Miles tells her that her dad and Starfire left a note saying they were leaving early, and Daphne still feels hurt even though this is what her dad always does. Miles takes her to his favorite secluded beach that afternoon to feel better.
Chapters 28-29
When they get back to the apartment, Miles kisses her, and they end up sleeping together. She tells Miles that all the men in her life make her feel not worth it, and she’s scared of when he realizes she’s not worth it. Miles reassures her that he really wants her all the time, and those other guys have problems with themselves not her.
Chapters 30-31
When Daphne gets to work on Monday, she realizes that she missed Ashleigh’s birthday on Saturday when she had insisted to Ashleigh weeks earlier that she’d come over to paint her bedroom. Ashleigh is mad that Daphne is making Miles her whole life like she did with Peter, and then Miles never shows up to pick Daphne up from work. Miles doesn’t come home that night or the next day, but Daphne does get a call about interviewing for a great job in Maryland near her mom.
Later, Peter shows up to Daphne’s apartment saying that Petra is all wrong for him, he only left because he panicked about marriage, and that they’re perfect for each other. Daphne kicks him out as she sees that she doesn’t want to get back with him at all. Before he goes, Peter tells her that Miles spent yesterday helping Petra move, and that they’ll get back together soon enough.
Chapters 32-33
After work the next day, Miles shows up to say he’s sorry for panicking and not showing while also admitting to giving his truck to Petra move while taking her car. Daphne is still too upset that he left her feeling not good enough, too, and then Miles confesses that he loves her. Daphne gets mad he’s saying it now in this situation and leaves.
On the phone, her mom convinces her not to run from problems, so Daphne goes over to paint Ashleigh’s bedroom like they had originally planned for her birthday. They make up, and after Daphne tells everything that happened with Miles, Ashleigh convinces Daphne to stay at her house for a few days.
Chapters 34-35
Daphne does the virtual interview for the dream job in Maryland which goes really well. Then, she goes back to her apartment to get some things where she runs into Julia, and Julia says that Miles only panicked because their parents made him believe he would always let others down. The next day, Daphne goes to the library to prepare for the Read-a-thon, the fundraiser she spent all summer putting together where kids stay late or overnight reading at the library.
A few volunteers call in sick, but Ashleigh says she’ll take care of it as Daphne takes a call from her dad. While he’s calling to say good luck about her event, he tells her that on the day Miles was supposed to pick her up from work, Miles had driven up to Mackinac Island to chew out Daphne’s dad for leaving and missed the ferry to get back. Miles didn’t admit this to Daphne because he didn’t want her to be upset that her dad chose not to come back to see her, and Miles was trying to protect her from being hurt more.
Chapters 36-37
When Daphne starts setting up the volunteers, she sees Julia and Miles have come to help. After a successful Read-a-thon, she asks Miles to walk with her, and she thanks him for going to see her dad. He clarifies that when he said he panicked, he meant after he went to see Petra, who was hysterical on the phone causing him to worry, and Petra told him that he was all wrong for Daphne who needed someone stable.
Miles again apologizes and tells Daphne he loves her, and Daphne tells him that she loves him too. Daphne admits he’s not who she pictured for herself, but he’s better than he could have imagined and exactly what she needs. She wants to be with him and stay here at her job but is going to get her own apartment to build her own life.
412 Days Later
At the end of the book, Miles and Daphne buy a small house in town together. They invite all their friends over for a house warming party, including Daphne’s mother, who’s come to stay with them.
Read the Full Book Review
Now that you’re reminded of the main points of the book, check out my full book review here. There’s also more recommendations in the book review if you’re looking for more romance books, something similar to Emily Henry’s works, or even my favorite Emily Henry book.
