Sam can’t escape the smash hit “Lost Boy” because, well, he is the lost boy. His pop-singer ex immortalized him in a song about his childish ways, and now his comedy career is on the line.

At least he still has Bree, his best friend and confidante. Bree has always been there for Sam, but she’s never revealed her biggest secret: she’s in love with him. To help herself move on, Bree applies for her dream job across the country―and doesn’t say a thing to Sam.

But as Sam tries to resuscitate his career, he turns to Bree for support―and maybe more. In the confines of her tiny apartment, they share a different dynamic. A charged dynamic. But she’s his friend. He can’t be falling for her.

Except he is.

Are his feelings for Bree just funny business? Or is their smoldering attraction the real deal?

I love a good friends to lovers story. Especially paired with the will they, won't they yearning. I really enjoyed this story. Will recommend to others.

Troubled man. Supportive female best friend. Ignored feelings. It's a tale as old as time and yet Emma Barry infuses this story with a fresh perspective with compelling characters.

Sam, is a paid funny guy suffering the humiliation of his foibles aired in public via his pop-singer ex-girfriend's song. His brand of comedy is caustic, borne out of his childhood, but now he's seeing tables turned on him.

With his career in near-tatters, he yet again comes to rely on his long-suffering best friend Bree, who is hiding not only her feelings for him, but her plans for the future which involve physically distancing herself from him. Both of them are bonded from their shitty childhoods, with Sam suffering from the after effects, while Bree has managed to carve out a successful career as an urban planner.

This book was such a surprise as the cover made me think it was going to be an easy-breezy and slightly cliche friends-to-lovers book. Not that there's anything wrong with that, I love an easy read, but I also love the challenge this book brought. Barry infuses the inner turmoil and self-sabotage of Sam well He knows he has massive issues and needs to sort himself out, while also trying not to deal with his long hidden feelings for Bree. You could see that his ways of coping weren't serving him well and struggling to be a better man. I loved him slowly taking a younger comedian under his wing as through that, he could see he truly was worth something.

I also love that when we open the book Bree has already made a decision to finally deal once and for all her feelings for Sam, but moving forward with her life - literally and figuratively. Too often I read books where the heroine is stuck in the same loop over and over. While that is relatable and realistic, it was refreshing to see Bree make the difficult but necessary step to set herself free from a man she can't have.

This book is sharp, witty, but also poignant. I really felt the character's vulnerabilities and how that made them not communicate directly with each other. Now I want to go through Emma Barry's back catalogue. If you love a good friends-to-lovers trope, this one should be added to the top of our TBR pile.

4.5 stars rounded down. Loved this one! This book was both funny and touching, with complex and relatable characters. The hero Sam was a celebrity stand-up comedian working on an SNL-type show, and he gave just enough Pete Davidson vibes to be sexy and damaged without being full-on crazy. The heroine, Bree, was a smart and savvy urban planner (be still my nerd heart).

Bree and Sam grew up together in circumstances that were at best poor and unhealthy, and at worst neglectful and abusive. They’re now 30+ and have remained best friends, but Bree can’t let go of her unrequited feelings for Sam. I normally don’t enjoy friends to lovers with pining, but this worked for me because the story flowed well and there were believable reasons why they hadn’t hooked up.

Great character growth is one of my favorite things, and both Bree and Sam matured through the book. While the end conflict was predictable, it was also understandable and the author devoted enough time to a satisfying resolution. All in all, a great read!

I love Emma Barry and her writing style so much and this was not an exception. This was fantastic and one of the few I haven’t read yet but I loved it so much and kept turning the pages.

REVIEW
⚠️cw: childhood trauma, abuse⚠️
When snarky comedian Sam Leyland's ex writes a less-than-flattering song about him, he's humiliated. Seeking solace from the constant barrage of attention, he temporarily moves in with his best friend. Urban planner Bree Edwards grew up with Sam in a trailer park and has been in love with him since she was fifteen. Now 32, she knows she needs to set herself free. But Sam might have other ideas.
This was a moving story. As someone who really hates musicians trading on openly humiliating their exes, I immediately felt for Sam. He was a really interesting character. Outwardly snarky, yet internally incredibly vulnerable and self-sabotaging. He could sometimes come across as needy around Bree but was also an absolute sweetheart with her. I also loved how he looked after Marc, the new writer. Sam struggled with imposter syndrome and had a massive destructive streak, but I really loved him as a character, especially as the story progresses, and we learn all the little ways he'd been there for Bree. I loved Jane and Roxy, his colleagues at the SNL style comedy show.
My heart broke for Bree so many times. In many ways, she was just as vulnerable as Sam, and you could feel how much her seemingly unrequited feelings were exhausting her. I could empathise with her worries about potentially ruining their friendship if he only loved her as a friend, given how close they were. While I'm not a fan of miscommunication, Sam's initial reaction confirmed Bree's fears, and once. That said, they were SO cute together, and the intimacy was hot but also incredibly sweet. I LOVED the resolution and really appreciated that Sam did the work to exercise his demons.
This was a nuanced, emotional ride, and I loved it.

Overall Rating: ❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️
Heat Rating: 🔥🔥
Emotional Rating: 😬😂👏🏻💔💓😢💓🥰💔😢💓😬🙈😍😢💓🥰🤦🏻‍♀️😢💔😢💓👏🏻🥰😍

*Thanks to NetGalley for the opportunity to leave an honest review. Funny Guy is published on 16th May in the UK*

Favourite Quote:
Salem had told the world Sam was a lost boy—but Bree knew that when they were together, Sam didn’t feel lost. She didn’t either. Together, and maybe only together, Bree and Sam were found.

I have never been a big fan of friends to lovers. So when I found out this book deals with exactly that trope, I had doubts. The first chapter really drew me in, though. I instantly took a liking to Sam's character.

To put it kindly, he's acidic. But his brand of acidic is the exact kind that tends to draw me in. Then we got introduced to Bree. And guess what? I like her too!

One of the main things I hate in friends to lovers is how it is almost always the girl who pathetically does the pining. Well in this, she's still the one who pines, but she doesn't feel too pathetic. She's great at her job and she generally feels like she has a life outside of Sam, subdued as it may be.

But—and here comes the but—my attention started to fizzle out a little bit over the halfway mark. And I never really regained it until the end. The resolution of the conflict also felt a bit too easy. Plus, I felt the grand gesture near the end to be a bit meh, tbh. I did enjoy how Salem is pretty much inspired by Taylor Swift while "Monsieur Exocars" is obvi a jab to Mr. Melon Husk himself though lol


Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for providing me with a free digital copy of this in exchange for an honest review.

I really wanted to love this book, I've read many books by this author and have loved them all. I think early on, I understood that Sam was a stand in for Pete Davidson and Salem, his ex, was clearly Arianna Grande and the Comedy Hour was obviously SNL. Not really sure who Bree would be in this scenario - perhaps a question that Mr. Davidson himself is probably trying to answer.

I know authors often write romances based on real life celebrities or even the famous characters they are known for playing. I have no real objections to that. I will say, a Pete Davidson inspired romance wasn't really something on my personal wishlist but YMMV and I don't begrudge others what they like.

I think the pacing was a bit off and there was a lot of time and attention spent on Sam's workplace and a fair amount spent on Bree's colleagues as well, and that really impacted the attention paid to the actual romance.

This is a friends to lovers between two life-long best friends who grew up together in a shitty town in Ohio and both have really bad upbringings except all of that is just alluded to and never really explained in a very clear way. We're told that Bree's mom tried to steal her financial aid money from her and we know that Sam has a contentious relationship with his mom due to to how his dad treated them but it's all very vague. And yet, we're supposed to have sympathy for these characters and care about their happiness and their future. I did care about Bree but I had a much harder time with Sam, he came off as very unsympathetic and self-centered. And I get that he apologized but even the manner in which he apologized felt performative (literally, he used his show to do a very public apology on national tv) and attention-seeking and ultimately, disingenuous. I'm sure whatever his backstory is contributed to the kind of adult he was, forever running away from anything real, always half-assing most of his relationships, blowing stuff up in his personal and professional life because he always just expected things to go south. But the thing is, we don't know what his childhood was, we're really just guessing at it. And the friendship between Bree and Sam felt so codependent and needy and frankly unhealthy, that I wish more time had been spent with them being apart and working on their issues separately before they got their HEA. Everything in this book felt a little rushed and the timing felt off, with Sam blurting out his love declaration and them embarking on a relationship that felt very fragile all the while Bree is holding onto the fact that she's considering taking a job that will require her to move from NYC to MI. And the reason she's afraid to tell him is because of how he will react and when he does find out, her fears are realized. It feels unhealthy and dysfunctional to the point that I wanted to root for them but just couldn't quite get there.

I do like that the book makes a point to mention that Sam is finally in therapy but I do wish it had come sooner and before the HEA would have made the ending, at least for me, more viable.

CW: toxic parental relationships

3,5*

If you're looking for a funny book plenty of laughter think again, this is a friends to lover romance, about Sam, a writer and a performer of Comedy Hour, and Bree, his reliable best friend and the one who's always been secretly in love with him.

There's nothing really popping in this story, it just carries you in Bree and Sam lifes, their hard past: their actual struggle in life both with work and love. They just get under your skin.
It's not a life changing epiphanic book, nor some epical romance, but it is a good story about love, about how people cope when hurt, about friendship and choices.

Thanks NetGalley and Montlake for providing this book as an Arc in exchange of an honest review.

Disclosure: I'm mutuals with Emma on twitter. She's one of my favorite people in the romance community.

I thought the whole Pete Davidson/Ariana Grande inspiration would be the biggest hurdle for me to get into the book, but it ended up being my familiarity with SNL that hurt it the most.

There is so much time spent world-building what ultimately looks like a cheap facsimile of the show (and SNL already is the poor man’s version of what it was) that there was little time left for the relationship. And the relationship is toxic and co-dependent so it really needed that extra focus! I love messy, unrequited romance! I love a toxic friends-to-lovers story, but the problem with those is that there has to be thoughtful, nuanced character development both as individuals and together in the partnership for the romance to feel complete and viable. Instead, we have a man who unravels his life and career in a series of increasingly obnoxious public meltdowns, and then he has the sudden realization that he’s in love with the heroine, does the world’s most cringe public grovel/apology, and gets the girl and the career back. This guy is a very hard sell of a hero. And he takes most of the book’s attention away from a heroine who I thought was very interesting and deserved better. That said, hats off to the book because I legit feared that she would not take that new job. Not to wade into the poisoned waters of book twitter discourse, but this book should’ve been longer.

I’ll say this, tho, if Emma Barry can’t sell me on a stand-up comedian MC, no one else can.

Review copy provided by the publisher

This was a fun best friends to lovers romance that also skirts the grumpy/sunshine line. As someone who grew up watching sketch comedy shows, I really enjoyed the look into Sam's life as a sketch comedy writer and performer. Bree is our sunshine heroine, and she does amazing work for a non-profit in New York, while Sam is our jaded and, self-declared, asshole comedian.

I've always really enjoyed the whole, I've loved you forever trope, and this book has it in spades along with a razor sharp wit, and great supporting characters that really engaged me. I thought their love story was a really good slow burn, there weren't a ton of spicy moments, but the book really didn't need them. All in all a great romance story between two flawed characters overcoming a lot of childhood trauma.

Thanks to Montlake Publishing for providing me with an ARC of this book.

Funny Guy is a childhood best friends to lovers contemporary romance. Famous comedian Sam is fresh off a front page newsworthy (and chart topping tell all song) breakup. His best friend, urban planner Bree has been in love with him since childhood. When he retreats to her couch to hide from the bad press surrounding his ex’s hit song expose, Sam and Bree are forced to confront their long hidden feelings for each other.

This book made my heart ache for both Sam and Bree as they fumbled around their feelings. Their lives were so entwined that it was easy to see why neither would want to rock the boat and confess to feeling more than friendly towards the other. Most of the book was really sad as they struggled to communicate.

Their happily ever after was hard won, and even though this is a book about a comedian and a late night comedy show there weren’t many funny moments. It was a heartfelt and emotional romance with two realistic characters that you are rooting for to win.

If you're looking for a cute childhood-friends-to-lovers romance then Funny Guy's worth giving a chance. Emma Barry's writing is easy to digest and her characters are very charming. I'm a sucker for celeb MCs, so I was hyped to find out that Sam was a comedian. I love how his career was explored.
Definitely don't go into this thinking it'll be some memorable twist on tropes. But do read if you're looking for something to satisfy your friend-to-lovers itch.

A solid friends to lovers contemporary romance that suffers a little from a lack of engaging characters. Charming a-hole Sam is the toast of the entertainment world when he isn't scorching his own reputation by lambasting total strangers in coffee shops and going off on his co-workers at "Comedy Hour" (Saturday Night Live) and Bree is his long suffering best friend who's been "secretly" in love with him since they were children together bonding over their equally broken homes.

I genuinely enjoyed this. The banter and deep friendship between Sam and Bree is the strongest part of the book. Unfortunately the actual story around them isn't as strong. We're not really given enough of a grounding in how they've gotten where they are, the what came before that might make the reader more invested in their success now and the flowering of their friendship into something more. And when things go south as they always do in these stories it feels too much like a plot device and not enough like an actual conflict.

All that said this is a charming and funny read that makes up for what it lacks in substance with sweet, and often quite sexy romance.

I just adore everything Emma Barry writes. I think she has such a unique voice and her characters are so well-drawn, particularly the heroes. I loved Funny Guy. It checked all the boxes for me in terms of what I want in a romance and I read it in two days. Not 100% sold on the cover, but that’s just me.

I was struggling in the beginning, but after chapter 5 I was into it.

Sam is a comedy star in a television show, and sees himself exposed to the world when his ex-fiancée releases a song called “Lost Boy” exposing all his acts throughout their relationship. He uses his own feelings and crappy stories to make fun on TV, it’s his coping mechanism, to pretend he is okay with everything, but the only place he doesn’t have to pretend is when he is with Bree, his childhood best friend.

Bree has loved Sam since they were kids, but never had the courage to declare her love to him. When she sees the opportunity to work in another state, she sees it as a way to leave Sam and get over her feeling, which she very much knows it’s not reciprocated.

I loved their relationship development, while reading you could feel how much they love each other even just as friends, and upgrading it to a relationship was somewhat cute and sweet, because it took him so long to realize he loved her, even before they saying it to each other.

While reading it, I felt like something was missing and I can’t still figure it out what, made some chemistry between her friends?? The fact that she held up a secret from him all this time, idk.

I feel sympathy for those who love their best friends but never had the courage to express it, it’s the best kind of love, when you don’t have to pretend around someone, and feeling like the person is everything you’ve asked for.

Loved the book, totally rom-com style, but I still hate third person writing. Sorry.

A good read -- I thought the characters were well-developed and I really enjoyed their dynamic/chemistry.

I really enjoyed Barry's previous romance Chick Magnet so I was really looking forward to this one - and I wasn't disappointed! Setting up the MMC as a kind of handsomer Pete Davidson was genius and I loved it. Sam is a famous stand-up comic on a weekly comedy TV show (essentially SNL) but he's also a guy with a lot of problems - not surprising given his shitty upbringing in a poor and broken household. His co-dependent relationship with childhood friend Bree is also not surprising, and I really enjoyed how the plot unfolded as they discover they mean more to each other.

When Sam's ex (a Taylor Swift-style pop star) writes a song that eviscerates his personality and becomes a huge hit, it hurts his pride and he immediately flees to Bree's apartment to dodge the paps and lick his wounds. Bree knows that she shouldn't be so dependent on her relationship with Sam - he's always been a huge part of her life - and is thinking of physically moving cities for work to gain some distance and independence (and hopefully get over her lifelong crush on her friend). The pain of being in love with your best friend is a huge part of her lifeand it hurt my heart!

When Sam suddenly realizes he actually LOVES his best friend, it's like a lightning strike and things quickly become complicated. Bree can't believe all her daydreams about being in his arms are coming true, but she is still considering a massively great opportunity for her career which would mean leaving New York. She doesn't want Sam to hold her back, and dreads his reaction to this news.

I raced through this book, I absolutely adored every bit of it. There's quite a lot of trope-y moments - celeb romance, forced proximity, a splash of fake dating - but it all works really well. I was fully invested in Sam and Bree and their love story and will definitely read more from this author.

Bree had been in love with her best friend, who happened to be a famous comedian on the hit show, Comedy Hour. Despite her attempts to move on, her feelings for Sam kept her from pursuing relationships with other men. Eventually, she decided to start a new job in Michigan, but she dreaded telling Sam about her plans.

As Sam's career took a nosedive following a viral song that exposed all his flaws, he turned to Bree for support. Staying on her couch, he realized that he had deeper feelings for her than just friendship, but his destructive behavior threatened to ruin everything.

Despite the challenges, Bree stood firm in her decision to prioritize her own goals and dreams, and she refused to let Sam's issues derail her plans. The story ultimately culminated in a satisfying happily ever after, which celebrated Bree's newfound self-worth.

One unique aspect of the book was its comedic theme, with Sam's profession as a comedian adding a fun twist to the friends-to-lovers trope. However, the lack of chemistry between Sam and Bree, combined with the distracting image of a celebrity lookalike, detracted from the overall reading experience.

I voluntarily read and reviewed a copy of this book, provided by Netgalley. All thoughts and opinions are my own.

I was kinda meh about this book. I didn't really feel any tension or pull between the characters, and it just seemed sort of boring for chunks and chunks of the story. I normally love friends to lovers, but this one seemed, I dunno. I just wasn't into it. It was definitely funny at times, so that was good!

This review is for the e-ARC, Funny Guy, by Emma Barry. This book was just okay. I liked the beginning - I appreciate characters that are thought out thoroughly. My problem is that I just don't feel like Bree and Sam are a good couple. I did not root for them to get together, and I only ever saw them as really good friends who happened to hook up. I liked the development of the main characters outside of each other, but when they were together I really didn't see much growth. When they got together and throughout the middle-end of the book really dragged for me. I wasn't sucked into their lives, I had to make myself finish the book. There was an HEA, though. There were a few phrases/words that confused me. I know that since one of the main characters is a comedian, it might have been a joke, but the phrase "put the cart before the house" was used. If it was a joke, I didn't get it. Also, I don't know if the author is allowed to name actual brands, but "Lily Pulitzer" was mentioned, and that's spelled "Lilly." During one of the spicy scenes the author also used the word "devested," and I'm assuming she meant "divested."