I really like the slow burn relationship and friends to more relationship. This book was more about finding yourself than a cute romcom that I was expecting. I liked it OK but it was definitely no betrayed. I am learning that Emily Henry is a very deep writing author. I do recommend this book it was very good

Rating - 3.5 rounded up

Okay people - please don't hate me for this unpopular opinion! I would still recommend this one especially to readers who enjoy the friends-to-lovers romance trope.

I ended up giving this book the exact same rating as Beach Read, but in some ways I enjoyed this one more and in others I did not. IMO - I think if we took the couple from Beach Read and put them into PWMOV and added some of Poppy's spunk, it would have been a fabulous read. I LOVED the traveling, the flashbacks, Poppy (for the most part), and the overall feel of this book. Unlike Beach Read, it is an actual beach read, which was exactly what I was looking for.

What bothered me was the repetitiveness of Poppy and Alex's conflict. I understand that lack of communication happens a lot in romance and sometimes those books are my favorite, but by the end, this one had me rolling my eyes just a tad. I think if the book was shorter and some of the extra fluff was taken out it would have made for a better read. Also, "the night" that Poppy refers to in the ENTIRE book was so anticlimactic and lame it bugged the hell out of me. Lastly, while I did think Alex was a doll, it was just a little too over the top and he wasn't my type.

Verdict: It is still a great summer read and I had fun reading it! Maybe I am being hyper critical because of the hype? If you enjoyed Beach Read I think you will adore this story. 

Thank you Netgalley and Berkley Publishing Group for the eARC in exchange for an honest review.

This book gave me all the feels. A friends to lovers romance.
Two best friends, 1o trips, and a last chance to fall in love.

Poppy and Alex are hilarious, fun and so cute that you long for them to be together.

This is the perfect summer read.

Two long-time best friends reunite for one last summer trip to try to repair their relationship after falling out 2 years ago. I really loved this one. After reading Emily’s book BEACH READ last year, I knew I’d read whatever she wrote next. I’m so happy this one exceeded any expectations I may have had for it. The slow build of feelings felt so natural, and the flashback chapters allowed us to see how their friendship built and deepened over time.

If you’re not able to travel this summer but your wanderlust has hit a peak, definitely pick this one up. Not only is it a fantastic friends-to-lovers story, but Emily’s writing is also fantastic at transporting you to each vacation right along with Alex and Poppy.

This book was a perfect summer read! Poppy and Alex are best friends. Think When Harry Met Sally before they got together. They take a trip together every year until...they don’t and we don’t know why. The author tells the story by bouncing back and forth from present time to past trips. Her skillful unfolding of the story makes it hard to stop reading. I felt like I was in this story, experiencing the emotions and the desire of the characters. Some of it is steamy!!! Make sure you have a chunk of time to read this book because you will want to ignore your responsibilities and read until you’ve devoured every last word!

I also loved Henry’s book Beach Read and thought there was no way this book could be as good. I was so wrong!

Thank you to NetGalley for the free copy in exchange for an honest review.

I loved Beach Read and after People We Meet on Vacation, Emily Henry is definitely added to my list of auto-buy authors! When the story begins, we know that Poppy and Alex have known each other for 12 years. They used to be close and vacation together every year but something happened and they haven’t spoken in two years. Poppy reaches out and asks Alex to go on another trip.

The rest of the book alternates between their current trip and chapters that take us back in time to their earlier trips and the way their relationship has grown and changed over time. I love these characters and the humor. I loved rooting for them to get together.

My one complaint is a little spoilery so stop reading now if you don’t want to read it.

When Alex and Poppy finally (FINALLY) get together - Alex ends up getting upset that Poppy isn’t immediately all in. Because he is and has been for years. But only in his own head and he never told Poppy. And I just think that’s really unfair to expect her to know something he hadn’t told her and immediately be on the same page. I also felt like the pacing was a little off - got extremely worried about whether there would be a happy ending when I saw how close I was to the end.

All that said - I am still first in line for Emily Henry’s next book and I can’t wait to read whatever she writes next! Thank you to Berkley and Netgalley for the free advance reading copy. I also bought the audiobook and the narration was excellent - highly recommend!

This was the perfect book to end my vacation with- a slow burn romance with the fun, quirky, travel-loving Poppy and the staid but surprisingly funny Alex. It just popped into my head that it kinda reminded me of When Harry Met Sally for their friends-to-lovers journey. I loved the mixed up timeline that slowly revealed what had happened to cause a break between them, but it was their witty back and forth that made it a great book for me! Highly recommended! Fans of Christina Lauren will love this one too!

You think this story is predictable, but think again! Poppy & Alex have been friends for years and sometimes they seem perfect for each other and other times it seems like they need to find elsewhere. Will they or won't they...you'll have to wait to the end to find out.

Emily Henry knocks it out of the park again! I fell immediately in love with Poppy right from that first scene and couldn't stop reading. As always, Henry carefully crafts a poignant, romantic story. Another must-read.

I was a little nervous about this one because I loved Beach Read so much and knew another book couldn't really live up to that one. And honestly, I still love Beach Read more. But I really enjoyed this one, too! I'm so happy with it and really enjoyed how the story was told in flashbacks leading up to the current year's vacation. I really loved both of these characters and really liked reading the author's note in the end and seeing how her love of When Harry Met Sally influenced this story. After reading the book and the note and having seen WHMS about a million times, I can really see some of the similarities and it just made me love it more.
This is a perfect summer read and a really great follow-up from Beach Read. Being with the same characters for over 10 years really lets us get to know them and see them through so many ups and downs. I loved both characters separately and together. It was such a perfect friends-to-lovers romance. And there's also a ton of travel and fun friends they meet along the way and so many adventures. I smiled so much while reading this book. And not just because I was lucky enough this year to actually be reading it on the beach!
It was just so much fun. There are sad moments and hard times and frustrations as well. But overall the book just felt full of love and joy. I can't wait for even more from this author!

People We Meet on Vacation was an enjoyable read by Emily Henry. I love a friends-to-lovers trope and Henry delivers with her characters Poppy and Alex. I was certainly rooting for these two! I loved Beach Read, too. These books should not be missed. Emily Henry is a must-read for romance fans!

This has been one of my favorite books I've read so far this year. I've had Beach Read on my TBR list since it came out and just hadn't read it yet (which has since been remedied), so this was actually my first Emily Henry book and I think the hype is very well deserved. I love the friends to more trope, and I loved the fact that these two friends are so different from each other, but can pull out the best in each other. I will be recommending this one left and right, especially for fans slow burn romance and of Sally Thorne, Sarah Hogle and Mhairi McFarlane just to name a few!

I adored Henry's debut, Beach Read, and adored this one nearly as much. Henry's sophomore novel centers on two long-time best friends who realize they've both been harboring secret crushes on each other while they traveled around the world. A fun romp!

Also included in a round-up of beach reads for 2021 summer reading in Shelf Awareness for Readers.

Emily Henry’s second adult romance novel did not disappoint! I was worried that I wouldn't enjoy this as much as I loved Beach Read, but this friends-to-lovers story exceeded expectations. This was truly a fun read that is just in time for the summer! Definitely would recommend especially if you love the classic friends-to-lovers trope, travel, and fun.

This one is more of a 4.5 but rounding up because the things that irked me weren’t too huge.
Friends to lovers is not my favourite trope, but when it’s done well…. Dang, it is done well! Emily Henry is a fantastic writer, she just sucks you right in, makes you feel like you know these characters, live in their world. I felt so connected to both characters – I’m sure I am not the only one who felt ‘seen’ several times during this book -and absolutely loved watching them go from awkward strangers to best friends to lovers. It was all so believable and developed so well. Their dynamic and banter was everything.
It was a super emotional read - Henry really excels at mixing all the emotions without it being too much. It was heartbreaking, gut wrenching, relatable, depressing, hilarious… I really enjoyed it. I loved Poppy’s family, I really enjoyed her boss, I liked the parts about depression after you’ve achieved long term goals. I loved the lines about loneliness and never knowing other people… really felt that in my soul.
However, I had some teeny tiny issues – as I mentioned, friends to lovers isn’t my favourite so I can get a little frustrated when there seems to be no real reason for them not to be together, or other people get hurt in the I’m-ignoring-my-feelings-for-my-best-friend-process. It just makes me feel ick. Also, I really liked Poppy’s friend Rachel except for that little mention of her calling her readers stupid because they had the audacity to… do the thing she needed them to do to make money off them. I mean, yes, I agree that social media has its issues and comparison is the thief of joy and people only show highlights/curated stuff but… to call them dumb? Little holier than thou. Finally, I wasn’t a huge fan of the flashback structure - I kept getting confused with what vacation we were in, as they all seemed a little repetitive. I do think we needed some sort of flashback, but not sure about the specific way it was done - I don’t think it added any suspense or twist, we knew what happened pretty early on. In my head it was all then vs now, but ‘then’ was actually a bunch of summers. But, I did appreciate meeting them in college and seeing some of their vacations, just… I don’t know, kind of all mushed together in my head I guess. Likely a me problem, not the book, but it still pulled me out occasionally.

All in all, I really liked it. Her writing is incredibly captivating and easy to read, and while you can’t deny that the romance is the focus of the book, I wouldn’t necessarily call this a romance. More like, contemporary fiction-with-romance. Aka, appeals to a more mainstream audience. Nothing wrong with that, it filled my romance happiness bucket, and I’d still recommend it to almost anyone who likes fiction and doesn’t hate romance.

Emily Henry’s sophomore romance novel did not disappoint! I was worried that I couldn’t love this one as much as I loved Beach Read, but Alex and Poppy’s friends-to-lovers, world travelling and fun-filled, heartful and hurtful rom-com story blew my expectations out of the water. A true ode to When Harry Met Sally, but so original and genuine too. So much tension, ALL the perfect romantic tropes executed wonderfully/hilariously, and a truly fun read just in time for summer!

Teetering between 3.75 and 4 stars! Definitely enjoyed way more than Beach Read.

TW: loss of a parent; death in pregnancy; grief


Going to go out on a limb and share a potentially unpopular opinion…but I wasn’t a fan of Beach Read last year. I liked the writing but didn’t vibe with the story, so I was excited to try another Emily Henry. I definitely was more of a fan of People We Meet On Vacation, though it hasn’t made its way into my All Time Favorites when it comes to Romance. I’m realizing I’m becoming pickier and pickier after finding my way deeper into the genre.

And yet, I still really liked this book. It kept me reading, I enjoyed the journey Poppy needed to go on and could relate to a lot of her struggles as a creative. I liked the dual timeline of the story and found myself thinking about it when I wasn’t reading, which is always a good sign!
Synopsis: “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 Publisher

What I Liked:

The Trope—I never think I am a fan but every time I read a Second Chance Romance, especially with a friends to lover storyline, I fall in love with the characters. It’s so familiar to me and my own love story so I can’t help but get a little nostalgic.

The Multiple Settings—After a year of staying home, it was a treat to feel like I was jet setting off to all these different places with Poppy and Alex.

No Miscommunication—HALLELUJAH a romance novel that doesn’t have the miscommunication trope. There is a tiny element of it, a whisper if you will, but for the most part, I found Poppy and Alex weren’t beating around the bush. It was obvious they valued their friendship and there was the right amount of tension that you knew a lot was left unsaid but still didn’t make me knock my head against the wall yelling, “JUST TALK TO EACH OTHER.” Emily Henry, my head thanks you.

What Didn’t Work:

Something Was Missing—I’ve been sitting on this for a while and still can’t quite articulate what was missing from this book to keep it from being an all time fav, but it just lacked a little oomph for me I think. Some parts felt overwritten and other felt underwritten and we were left with some plot holes.

TW/CW: death of a parent; grief

Character Authenticity: 4/5 Steam Rating: 1/5 Overall Rating: 4/5

People You Meet on Vacation follows two friends, Poppy and Alex, about as opposite as can be, who take a yearly summer trip together. Poppy lives in New York City and works for a travel magazine and Alex is a teacher back in his hometown in Ohio. Their yearly trip was something that they both looked forward to until something happened on a past trip and they have barely spoken since. But Poppy hasn't been happy since and vows to win Alex's friendship back by going on an epic trip together.

I was very hesitant to read this one after being less than in love with Beach Read. I'm very glad I gave it a try though because this one ended up being a very enjoyable read. I liked how it flashed back to past trips to really give you a sense of the two characters. Also, the situations Poppy would get them into made me laugh too many times to count.

A great summer read and perfect for those that are desperate to travel (from the comfort of their own home)

4.5/5⭐️

When Alex Nielson met Poppy Wright...things were super awkward and weird. Alex is organized, neat, and hates when people say “should we take a silly one?” when people take photos. Poppy is the complete opposite in that she’s wild, spontaneous, and doesn’t go to the doctor when she’s sick. The only thing they have in common? They both don’t like when people call boats by “she” and they love trips. But when one thing goes wrong in Croatia that changes their friendship forever, Poppy books one last trip in hopes to repair their friendship.
After reading the author’s notes, I loved that she based this off When Harry Met Sally. This was exactly the romance I needed. I loved their rapport and how her characters are relatable in that they are both afraid to take that jump and fall in love.

Emily Henry's first book, Beach Read, was one of those wonderful books that combines a love story with more serious topics without being heavy-handed. As a result, I was very much looking forward to People You Meet on Vacation. And it did not disappoint!