“I thought we’d established that I’ve read everything you’ve written.”

• Funny You Should Ask by Elissa Sussman
• Published on April 12th, 2022 by Dell/Penguin-Random House
• Genres: Fiction, Adult, Romance, Contemporary
• Tropes: Celeb Crush, Celebrity/Normal Person, Reconnecting, Slow-ish Burn, Addiction
• Spice Level: 🌶️🌶️🌶️
• Anne’s Rating: 10 out of 10

Every daydreamer has at least one “I meet my celebrity crush somehow and we fall madly in love and live happily-ever-after” scenario that we’ve scripted in our brain. Maybe you’re front-row at a concert and the lead singer keeps making direct eye contact with you – next thing you know, security has invited you backstage. Maybe you meet your favorite actor or actress at a Comic Con, and it’s like you snap them out of autopilot when it’s your turn at their meet & greet. They naturally invite you back into the greenroom at the con and you get to know each other.

Please tell me it’s not just me with these maladaptive daydreams. I’m totally normal, right? Right. Anyway, moving on.

Funny You Should Ask is a fantastically written “meet your celebrity crush” story. It also happens to be, I think, my favorite romance book I’ve ever read. Like, I’m not the biggest rereader, but I read this book at least once a year, if not twice. The world Sussman has created – the world of Chani & Gabe – is the perfect escape if you find your own world lacking. Their love story is beautifully told in chunks of past and present, intercut with various published articles/blog posts relevant to the plot. This is an easy book to devour – it’s so engaging that time zips by and suddenly it’s past midnight when you should have gone to bed hours ago (me last night as I finished my reread so I could write this review for you all).

Chani and Gabe are not perfect. Gabe is an actor dealing with alcohol addiction and imposter syndrome, while Chani is a journalist wrestling with power dynamics and the ethics of her behavior while on the job. They are a messes filled with self doubt, but they are also earnest and loving. They feel real. The journey they take the reader on is one of learning to not be afraid of what we want, despite other’s opinions of our choices. Of freeing ourselves from expectations so we can just be authentically who we are. Their story is told in such a real way that it doesn’t feel like too far fetched a fantasy.

I will now attempt to share my favorite parts of this story, while also not spoiling anything:

• The dog (oh reader, I WEPT)
• Chani’s perfect day (perfectly executed foreshadowing)
• Gabe telling Chani about what happened on the couch (I was howling with laugher)
• How obsessed Gabe is with Chani (the name of the author on the last article in the book – DO NOT SKIP AHEAD READ THIS AS IT COMES – hits every time)
• Ollie. Just all of Ollie. Anytime he shows up. I would read an entire book about Ollie (Hi Elissa if you’re reading PLEASE)
• The spice. It may take a while to get there but when you get there, it’s very good

I am always a little sad when I reach the end of this book, because I want to stay in this world – to see more of Gabe and Chani’s lives. Thankfully, Sussman is writing another book – Totally and Completely Fine – about Gabe’s sister Lauren (to be published on April 22nd, 2025) and THANK YOU LORD!! I can’t wait to go back to Cooper, Montana – and hopefully get a tiny update on my favorite couple while I fall in love with Lauren and Ben.

• SJ’s Rating: 8.5 out of 10