When Falling In Love Is The Punchline

I recently finished reading Funny Feelings by Tarah Dewitt

POSSIBLE SPOILER ALERT

  Rating: 4/5 stars

"Farley Jones is a loud, chaotic, and hilariously clever standup comedian on the way to stardom. The only thing she loves more than the rush of telling jokes in front of a revved-up audience is her hot older manager Meyer, though he doesn’t have a clue. Keeping her feelings hidden from him is agony (a tragedy, even―in lieu of flowers, please send cash...) but Meyer has been Farley’s closest and most treasured friend, not to mention vital to the trajectory of her career. She can’t risk ruining their relationship by telling him how she truly feels. After all, who else would have the patience to put up with a hot mess like her?

A former standup star himself, single father Meyer Harrigan left the stage years ago in order to focus on raising his deaf daughter Hazel. Farley has been everything to them since she came into their lives three years ago, and despite his grumpiness, his protectiveness over Hazel, and his disdain for public attention, Meyer will do anything to make her standup dreams come true.

When the biggest opportunity of Farley’s career comes along and forces the pair to fake-date in order to stir up publicity, it doesn't take long for their act to bring all those other funny feelings out into the open. Like most matters of the heart, it quickly begins to feel like anything but a joke."

Funny Feeling was (unsurprisingly) funny, along with being uplifting, emotional, sometimes sharp, and intimate. Farley is a standup comedian who’s starting to get more recognition and Meyer 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.

The strength of this story, 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.

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.

Check out Funny Feelings and discover what happens when you fake date your best friend.

Happy Reading :)