Recent Reads: People We Meet on Vacation by Emily Henry

People We Meet on Vacation by Emily Henry 

Publisher: Berkley Books
Publication Date:  April, 2021

 

Format: Hardback
Source: Bought - Book of the Month subscription for April.

Rating:


Goodreads Synopsis: 

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.

Review: 

I have been dabbling in the cozy romance scene recently, it has been giving me all the warm and fuzzies. I am enjoying the love stories and the banter. This book was one of the options for the April Book of the Month subscription, which I wanted to try and finally took the plunge into. Not that I needed more books, but why not, right?!

People We Meet on Vacation is so much more that just a book about 'people we meet on vacation' as the title suggests. Poppy and Alex are opposites, and have ben since college when they met, but every year they get together and go on a trip. Poppy helps Alex break out of his comfort zone, and Alex is a rock for Poppy. Their weird relationship has worked for years until one vacation did not go as planned. They have not gone on their trip in recent years and Poppy is longing for a change. 

I had mixed feelings about both characters, while obviously invested in their stories, they both had moments where I wanted to smack them over the back of the head. Poppy is essentially running away from her home town at every opportunity. Not only has she moved to NYC but she also works for a travel magazine and is constantly swept away on work 'vacations.' She is so stubborn and oblivious to what is right in front of her, but funny and real as well.  Alex, oh Alex... He was an interesting love interest for this story. He is khaki, slightly blah, a little boring, but such a good guy. I wanted him to really pop out of his shell.

The book is told in the past and present, alternating between the now and the upcoming new trip, and every trip they have taken together. While also moving through the trips of the past, you get a lot of back story about other relationships, what they are up  to in their lives and how they are growing apart up until their next vacation. This was a great way to give the reader the backstory without having them slog through the information in a thought process of the characters. 

I enjoyed this book. All things considered, it was a lighter read. There were a few steamy moment, and the ending is cute. It is not a surprising ending but it was closure and that was good. If you are looking for a romance with the opposites attract theme, this is a fun choice - especially if you are bringing it on vacation.