Review: People We Meet on Vacation by Emily Henry

People We Meet On Vacation by Emily Henry
Published by Berkley Books on May 11, 2021
Pages: 382
Format: ARC
Genres: Romance, Women's Fiction


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

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.

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?

After reading People We Meet on Vacation, one thing is clear: I need a getaway, stat. I was left with a smile on my face and a dozen travel destination tabs open on my browser by the end of the book. 

I am willing to go anywhere, but I only want to take a trip with someone like Poppy or Alex. I want to spend a week with a person who knows me inside and out, who won’t judge me but instead loves me because of all my quirks; someone who goes with the flow and makes mundane things and even disasters fun; someone who is unconditionally supportive.

I loved seeing Alex and Poppy’s unlikely 12-year friendship grow. This is a friends-to-lovers story with the slowest of slow burns. It is very subtle at first, but the love they share as friends is potent and only grows stronger each year, just as they come closer to developing and acknowledging their romantic feelings for each other. 

The author makes Poppy and Alex infinitely interesting with their completely opposite and well-developed personalities. I fell in love with both of them. Poppy is outgoing and over the top. Alex is a dry witted introvert. Their banter is top notch and their inside jokes are crazy fun. I wish Poppy wasn’t so hard on herself, especially toward the end. Maybe they don’t handle things perfectly, but I admire the fact that they don’t play the blame game with each other. They take responsibility for their own happiness.

All the strange and wonderful characters they encounter along the way serve to round out this funny and heartwarming story. The vacations they take are described with such detail that the locations come to life on the page. I could feel, taste, smell, and see every aspect of each destination. Luckily, summer break is right around the corner, and People We Meet on Vacation is the perfect beach read to take with you.

Recommended for fans of:
Beach reads
Friends to lovers stories
Banter
Traveling
Opposites attract

** I received an early version of this book from the publisher to voluntarily read. **

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