People We Meet on Vacation by Emily Henry
“Sometimes I think that’s why we’re so drawn to each other. Because he’s used to being the steadfast big brother and I’m used to being the annoying little sister. It’s a dynamic we understand: I lovingly tease him; he makes the entire world feel safer for me.”
PEOPLE WE MEET ON VACATION
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?
What I thought
What a lovely read this one was!
I’d been looking forward to reading an Emily Henry novel for a while so I was super excited to read People We Meet on Vacation after reading the reviews of this one and Henry's bestseller, Beach Read. I've been reading a lot of non-fiction and thrillers lately, so was hoping for something lighter and more entertaining with this novel, and it certainly didn’t disappoint.
I really enjoyed Emily's writing style, her prose was charming and entertaining. People We Meet on Vacation was an uplifting and fun-loving romantic fiction with all the right ingredients for a great story.
Poppy Wright is a fun and highly relatable character. She's a thirty-year-old social media influencer and travel writer living in New York City and working at Rest + Relaxation magazine. Despite working hard for and earning a job any travel lover would kill for, Poppy is still not happy. She realizes what’s missing in her life is her best friend Alex.
The two met at orientation week at The University of Chicago twelve years ago and developed a tradition of taking summer trips together. Their ritual stopped two years ago after something happened on a trip to Croatia that put an end to their friendship.
Each chapter moves back and forward in time. We go back to when Alex and Poppy first met all the way to the present day when she convinces him to take one last summer trip to Palm Springs with her.
Will this be the trip where they can get back to being just Poppy and Alex, best friends for life? Or is there more under the surface yet to be discovered?
I loved when Henry would take us back in time to the early days of Poppy and Alex's friendship, and let us see how it developed over the years through their various trips together. The way Poppy talks about Alex is heartwarming; their love for one another is palpable.
People We Meet on Vacation was a brilliant romantic novel that will take readers on a worldwide trip from Vancouver and San Francisco to Croatia and Tuscany. The plot isn't anything new, but Henry's writing is fresh and a pleasure to read. It was exactly what I was hoping for. I highly recommend for travel lovers and anyone in need of a feel good love story!
I’m looking forward to reading more from Emily Henry.
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| Courtesy of GoodReads |
Emily Henry writes stories about love and family for both teens and adults. She studied creative writing at Hope College and the now-defunct New York Center for Art & Media Studies. Find her on Instagram @EmilyHenryWrites.