People We Meet on Vacation

You guuyysss! I loved this book. I'm in a total book hangover over this story that is a heartwarming, funny, and emotional (did I say funny?) look at friendship, love and the connection between two people.

I read and liked Henry's previous book Beach Read, but I absolutely loved PWMOV! I'm a big 'ol When Harry Met Sally fan so finding out that movie was part of the inspiration for this book, was the icing on the proverbial cake for this gal who has watched the movie about eleventy-hundred times. 

What struck me about this story is how Poppy and Alex are so genuinely drawn for the reader. Their personalities are quite opposite with Poppy being quite free-spirited and Alex being much more conservative, but their amazing connection will hit you in the feels and make you jealous of their bond in equal measure. As the story alternates between the past and present, readers see how their friendship began, their issues and complications, (and some of the best fan-freakin-tastic banter I've read) which explain their complicated but enduring bond. 

There's also a bit of a mystery surrounding what happened to break up these two best friends two years previously which kept the pages flying! I also loved the tension we feel through Poppy as she comes to terms with her feelings, leading to a very emotional ending with a soliloquy that will melt your soul.

This book is a refreshing contemporary fiction romance that dives into two great tropes - opposites attract and friends to lovers. Its depth will hit you in the feels, make you want to travel (the Croatian locales of Dubrovnik and Korcula made me want to head back there asap!) and most especially, make that call to someone you've lost touch with but continue to think about.

People We Meet on Vacation exceeded my expectations and then some. It is the perfect balance of angst, humour, romance, tension and depth. It gets a bit 'ol *chef's kiss* from me! If you're looking for your perfect summer read, you've just found it.

My Rating: 5 stars

Author: Emily Henry

Genre: Contemporary Fiction

Type and Source: Trade Paperback from public library

Publisher: Berkley Books

First Published: May 11, 2021

Opening Lines: "Poppy," Swapna says from the head of 

the dull gray conference table. "What have you got?"

Book Description from GoodReads: 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?

From the New York Times bestselling author of Beach Read, a sparkling new novel that will leave you with the warm, hazy afterglow usually reserved for the best vacations.