People We Meet On Vacation by Emily Henry ~ Review

Two best friends. Ten summer trips. One last chance to fall in love.

Poppy and Alex. Alex and Poppy. They have nothing in common. She’s a wild child; he wears khakis. She has insatiable wanderlust; he prefers to stay home with a book. And somehow, ever since a fateful car share home from college many years ago, they are the very best of friends. For most of the year they live far apart—she’s in New York City, and he’s in their small hometown—but every summer, for a decade, they have taken one glorious week of vacation together.

Until two years ago, when they ruined everything. They haven’t spoken since.

Poppy has everything she should want, but she’s stuck in a rut. When someone asks when she was last truly happy, she knows, without a doubt, it was on that ill-fated, final trip with Alex. And so, she decides to convince her best friend to take one more vacation together—lay everything on the table, make it all right. Miraculously, he agrees.

Now she has a week to fix everything. If only she can get around the one big truth that has always stood quietly in the middle of their seemingly perfect relationship. What could possibly go wrong?

Goodreads Choice Award
Winner for Best Romance (2021)

Genres: Romance, Fiction, Contemporary Romance, Chick Lit, Travel

Get Your Copy: Amazon | Goodreads

This is not the first Emily Henry book I’ve read, and it sure won’t be the last! While I thought “Book Lovers” was a good read, this one was even better!

The alternating timeline style of writing can be hard to pull off, and I think Emily Henry accomplished it beautifully! Each chapter from the present left you on the edge of your seat, and each chapter from the past was carefully placed to give just the right context at exactly the right time. The slow reveal of their history complimented the slow unfolding of their present perfectly.

Even though this book was written entirely from Poppy’s perspective, I still felt that we were given the opportunity to really get to know and understand Alex, his heart, and his struggles. Very good writing in my opinion!

The will they or won’t they of it all, was tantalizing and tasteful! A relationship that was treasured above all others had gone wrong. What happened? Could they fix it? Did they both want to? What would their next chapter be?

This was one of those books that I had to mourn once it was over. It’s hard falling so much in love with characters and then having to close the book and say goodbye. I can only hope my next read gives me as many good feels as this one did!

Emily Henry is the #1 New York Times bestselling author of Book Lovers, People We Meet on Vacation, and Beach Read, as well as the forthcoming Happy Place. She lives and writes in Cincinnati and the part of Kentucky just beneath it.

Find her on Instagram @EmilyHenryWrites.