“Maybe it was best to see Eizo as a large, slobbering dog. But dogs were loyal, Eizo, with his penchant for deception, certainly wasn’t.”

I was a beta reader for Our Funny Love Story, and also received an ARC, but the following review is left of my own will and all thoughts and opinions expressed are wholly my own.

To begin, as someone who was privileged enough to get to read OFLS before it was in its final form, I would be remiss to not mention up front just how much I enjoyed it during the first read, and how much that enjoyment skyrocketed even higher after reading my ARC copy.

Byrd writes with witty and sharp precision, while allowing descriptive paragraphs to breathe and flow with full essence. Each line of the prose has its purpose, and her style of writing is one I personally find myself drawn to. Her characters—both main and side—feel lived in and real, and no one person is mentioned flippantly.

Kamada Eizo and Miyamoto Ran are both explicitly ridiculous in their initial disdain for one another, but the smoldering burn of hostile feelings turned into hesitant curiosity into towing the line of unspoken attraction is so, so good. Their comedic banter and inner monologues while facing off with the other had me giggling aloud several times, even reading through it a second time.

Ran’s constant snark but honest-to-a-fault attitude made his poor first impression (something we learn is a common attribute of his) a distant memory as the story rides on, his particularity and no-nonsenseness endearing me to him. Eizo’s flux between someone who both knows what he wants and has the will to achieve it and an insecure spinner of yarns still chained by familial duty—while even ignoring the personal relatability—made my heart clench every time he chose not to tell the truth.

The titular love story, while currently only a glow of embers and brief flash of flame, is well worth the wait. The chemistry bubbles beneath the surface of the ongoing tensions of Ran’s editorial ambitions, Eizo’s relational pressures, and the mystery at the heart of it all (that I can’t share here. You’ll have to find out for yourself). The final chapters are where we feel an exothermic reaction, where the stakes come to a boiling head, leaving you with a scalding hot need for the second part of the duology. Much like the experience of both Ran and Eizo within the walls of the story, the bittersweet feeling of an unsolved mystery closing out the book was perfect to whet the appetite, to leave a desire for more that only the second book will be able to satiate.

To say I’m looking forward to it is a massive understatement.

If you enjoy heart-pangs from the mere brushing of fingers, tasty foreshadowing and engaging prose, and imperfect characters facing their faults, fears, and feelings, you will love Our Funny Love Story. This is a fantastic debut, and I already know Byrd will deliver a fantastic conclusion in the next one.