A shimmering, joyful new novel about a pair of opposites with the wrong thing in common, from #1 New York Times bestselling author Emily Henry.
Daphne always loved the way her fiancé, Peter, told their story. How they met (on a blustery day), fel ...
A shimmering, joyful new novel about a pair of opposites with the wrong thing in common, from #1 New York Times bestselling author Emily Henry.
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?Except, the more time Daphne spends with Miles, the more the 'for show' part feels less like a performance and more like... well, like something real. He sees past her meticulously crafted librarian facade, the one designed to keep the town gossips and her own anxieties at bay. He sees the messy, heartbroken Daphne underneath, the one who secretly blasts pop-punk in her vintage Volvo and dreams of writing children's books with titles that are just a little bit too dark for the local book club.
And Miles? He's not just a collection of flannel shirts and mournful playlists. Beneath the scruff and the cynicism, there's a genuine kindness, a surprising vulnerability that Daphne finds herself drawn to. He actually *listens* when she talks about her ridiculous theories about Dewey Decimal System conspiracies, and he makes a mean grilled cheese sandwich (with a side of existential dread, naturally).
The fake summer romance starts to bleed into something undeniably genuine, filled with stolen glances, accidental hand-holding while navigating the treacherous aisles of the local hardware store, and late-night conversations on the porch swing that stretch into the early morning hours. Waning Bay, with its quaint charm and ever-present scent of lake water, begins to feel less like a prison and more like... home.
But Peter and Petra are still looming figures in the background, a constant reminder of the tangled web they're all caught in. And Daphne knows, deep down, that this elaborate charade can't last forever. Eventually, the truth will come out, the carefully constructed facade will crumble, and she'll have to face the consequences.
The question is, will she be brave enough to risk it all for a chance at something real, something that could be even better than the story Peter used to tell? Or will she retreat back into her perfectly organized world, leaving Miles and the messy, unpredictable magic they've created behind? Only time, and maybe a few more strategically placed Instagram posts, will tell.
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