Love the girl in a very funny novel (8)
I believe the answer is:
original
'novel' is the definition.
(similar in meaning)
'love the girl in a very funny' is the wordplay.
I cannot quite understand how this works, but
'love' could be 'o' (love means zero in tennis) and 'o' is found in the answer.
'girl' could be 'gina' and 'gina' is located in the answer.
This may be the basis of the clue (or it may be nonsense).
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for original that I've seen before include "Not derived or copied from anything else" , "An oil rig (anag)" , "Archetypal" , "Not copied or imitated" , "Native" .)