Emily Henry does it again!!

People We Meet on Vacation is a beautiful follow-up to Beach Read. Especially because it is very different from Beach Read.

The relationship between Poppy and Alex is literally one of the best (potentially, the best) I have ever read. From page 2 (only because they haven't yet interacted on page 1), their connection is obvious. A large feat for characters that aren't actually real.

The format of the book is also really well executed. We flip between present day and Poppy and Alex's past vacations. It's perfect for learning more about the characters and their history, especially as it relates to their current selves.

The plot was a 3.5/5 for me, it's interesting and engaging but a lot of the points that could have had that "wow-factor" just fell a bit flat. There were some scenes that wanted to be that memorable moment for the reader, but I felt like they were all missing something.

Poppy and Alex more than make up for any of that, though. I am definitely going to remember them as one of my favorite book couples ever.

I read this last year and just realized I never wrote my review…ooops! But it says something about it that I’m still thinking about it and can write a review like I just finished it yesterday.

There is just something about a sunshine girl and a grumpy boy that makes my heart swoon. But it isn’t even that Alex is grumpy he is sensitive and kind and patient and Poppy is wild and free and it makes him anxious. Ana yet they are perfect for each other. Still makes my heart swoon.

Honestly after Emily Henry’s novel Beach Read dominated the perfect vacation read the year it came out, it is clear that she is not just the author of Beach Read, she’s the rising star of beach reads! The People We Meet on Vacation is no exception. Grab this one for your next vacation or even to read and pretend you are on vacation!

There is something so satisfying about reading a book where a relationship evolves over many years. Told largely in flashbacks, The People We Meet on Vacation is the story of Alex and Poppy. One year they drive home from college together for break and ever since they have been best friends. Their post-college friendship is largely based around annual summer vacations they take together.

Poppy is a travel journalist so vacations are part of her job. Since the magazine she works for covers upscale travel, her vacations have become more lavish over the years. But Alex and Poppy have lost touch over the past two years, with their last trip being to Croatia. In an attempt to re-connect their friendship, Poppy plans a trip to Palm Springs to attend Alex’s brother’s wedding. Letting Alex think her work is paying for it, Poppy is actually funding the trip herself. She realized several years ago she has feelings for Alex.

As their trip to Palm Springs unfolds in present day, we see flashbacks to their prior vacations over the years and see how their friendship evolves. This is a romance so there isn’t much to spoil, but I want to leave the plot here so that readers can experience the story for themselves.

I really enjoy the way Emily Henry writes and develops her characters throughout her novels. Poppy is not only reconnecting with Alex, she is also going through some self-discovery as she realizes her life should be making her happy, but isn’t. There is also a lot to learn about Poppy’s past and childhood that added a lot of depth to her character and story.

A quick and breezy read that delivers on some deeper notes that is reminiscent of When Harry Met Sally, I definitely recommend grabbing The People We Meet On Vacation for your next weekend getaway!

People We Meet on Vacation was a delightful rom-com that was a joy to read. Emily Henry put together a beautiful story.

I was worried about the hype around this book, and it was okay.

I really enjoyed Beach Read, and was so excited to get this ARC. I am not a big fan of the friends to lovers trope, but loved Emily's writing that I thought I would give it a try. It was hard for me to get into, but I did end up enjoying it. A great read for Spring Break or a long weekend. Alex and Poppy's flashbacks were the best parts of the book for me.

Poppy and Alex are an unlikely pair. They met one day in college and thought they would never see each other again until they were thrown together and began to develop a bond that strengthened over the years until their lives were intertwined.

I loved the relationship between Poppy and Alex. They were so different - she was fun-loving, outgoing, and up for anything, while Alex was more reserved, steady, and introverted - but they found common ground, and grew close. I enjoyed watching the slow burn of their relationship over the course of the book and their twelve-year friendship. Their interactions ranged from hilarious to tense to frustrating. Poppy was such a fun narrator; there were some truly hilarious laugh-out-loud moments throughout the book, between her thoughts and the banter between her and Alex.

I love books about friendship, and at its heart, that’s what The People We Meet on Vacation was about. Yes, Poppy and Alex developed feelings for each other and fell in love, but their friendship was the foundation for all of that, and I loved how this story showed over and over again the things people will do for the people they love.

This was such an excellent and surprising love story. Such an enjoyable and quick read. I would highly recommend this for someone looking for a great romance.

Emily Henry is an auto-buy author for me. I fell in love with her writing when I read Beach Read last year. I’m sure you can imagine how excited I was when I was sent an arc of People We Meet On Vacation to read and review.

People We Meet On Vacation has one of the sweetest friends to lovers romances I’ve ever read. Poppy and Alex’s friendship is unlike any I’ve read. They’re both able to be their true selves around each other without the fear of being judged or rejected–which is an incredible feat considering they’re exact opposites. Their love for each other is so incredibly pure and unconditional. Emily Henry couldn’t have written a more beautiful, heartwarming friendship if she tried. Poppy and Alex are everything and more. Their relationship was a breath of fresh air to read about.

This book is about friendship, figuring out what you want in life, facing your fears, and allowing love into your life. Prepare to feel all of the emotions while you read this book. You’ll laugh (a lot) and cry while reading this book. I hope you pick it up and enjoy it as much as I did!

Emily Henry can do no wrong. She's so skilled at crafting real characters, ones who seem like friends you meet for coffee to hear all the juicy details of their love lives. These characters feel so wholly lived-in, and I couldn't wait to uncover all the layers of their history together. This is such a satisfying friends-to-lovers romance.

I am SO in love this this book! It was utterly fantastic and I totally understand why everyone adores Emily Henry. She is a force to be reckoned with and will take over the publishing world by storm.

This was a cute story, I loved the back and forth of their friendship and showing how they grew together and also each of their trips leading up to the fateful trip that ruined their friendship. I loved seeing Poppy try hard to fix what was broken and realize how different her life is without Alex in it. Definitely a book I plan on selling to anyone looking for a fun read.

People We Meet on Vacation by Emily Henry is a beautiful and poignant exploration of friendship, self, and love. There is something about Emily Henry novels that grabs readers and refuses to let them go until they have experienced every possible emotion from the first to last page. In this novel, readers watch Poppy and Alex navigate their lives, friendship, wants/needs, and annual summer trips with all of their ups and downs. People We Meet on Vacation by Emily Henry is a novel that stays with you long after you have finished reading the last page.

Another fantastic romance from Emily Henry!

Poppy and Alex have the type of friendship that when you are reading it you are wondering why they aren't together. As the reader, it is quite obvious that they are attracted to each other and LOVE each other with all capitals but why aren't they together? Emily Henry creatively tells their story with their friendship from the day they met at college with chapters alternating between past and present until now. You know they aren't in the best of places but you don't know what happens. As Henry expertly takes you between now and then, it all leads up to the heart wrenching, soul clenching ending that you hoped for. A great romance novel will have amazing characters and genuine emotions between them and Henry does a wonderful job of creating their relationship. You truly believe their feelings and are rooting for this unlikely pair the ENTIRE time. I loved this novel and couldn't put it down. I will recommend to all contemporary romance readers at our library.

Didn't capture my attention and engagement. Interested in trying it again though and hopefully it will take.

I wanted to like this book more than I did, I felt like the whole book I just wanted to scream at them to get together already because CLEARLY they belonged together no matter how much they didn’t think they did. The book was slow and I am still unsure what really happened with them. I felt like it was at lot of build up to the trip they took that messed up their friendship and it was just brushed over and it was just a kiss. Wanted to really like this book.

Thank you soooooo much Berkley Publishing for sending me an e-ARC of this book! I genuinely never thought I'd get a reply to my email begging to read and review an early copy because it was unavailable to request on Netgalley 😂

I had really high expectations from this because Emily Henry's first book, Beach Read, is my all time favourite contemporary romance! I'm so glad to say that my expectations were met and that I absolutely adored this book!

People We Meet on Vacation is quite different to Beach Read. This is a friends to lovers romance, which I read much less of than E2L, but I gotta say that Poppy and Alex were just absolute friendship, and eventually relationship goals. Poppy's character was great, the complete opposite to me personality wise, but so well developed! I definitely share a lot of the same personality traits as Alex though, him and Poppy are like East and West, but I guess opposites attract!

The writing style was great, I love when a story is told in multiple timelines or interspersed with flashbacks from the past. I can't tell you how much I enjoyed reading about each of The Summer Trips and living through the amazing memories Poppy and Alex made together. The author was able to fantastically emulate that special relationship you can only have with your best friend - the inside jokes and the pop culture references that only you and your bff will understand - spot on! But throughout their 12 years of friendship, there's these moments of something more, something less platonic, and these are also written so well, which makes this love story so believable and explains why I was so invested in the characters!

I also HAVE to mention a particular reference, I really don't want to spoil the surprise, but if you're a fan of Beach Read make sure to pay attention in chapter 11 👀

Genuinely I could gush about this book for another 10 paragraphs but its 3:37am as I'm typing this review so.... yeah 5 stars I don't even have anything to criticise! Definitely a book, like Beach Read, that I will be rereading <3

If I had to sum up this book in 4 words, they would be this - "it speaks to me!" (you'll get it after you've read the book 😂)

This book! I don't even know where to begin. It was such a good romance. I also loved seeing the roles switched from a nerdy girl to a nerdy guy and the party guy to the party/wild girl. Bestfriends/friends romances are one of my favorites to read as well! Highly recommend.

Emily Henry does it again!

Alex and Poppy are best friends but also complete opposites. Every year they take a vacation together, however, two years ago they had a huge falling out and haven’t talked since.

It’s a classic story of friends to lovers and I LOVED watching the mutual attraction play out. While it took forever for them to recognize their desire for each other, I really enjoyed the light-hearted chemistry.

Alex and Poppy are best friends. Every summer they meet and go on vacation together. Until something happened one summer which causes their friendship to fall out. Two years after, Poppy reaches out to Alex to finally fix everything.

I've learned my lessons when I read Beach Read last time. I ended up disappointed because I pushed myself to read it until the end. I started reading People We Meet on Vacation last year but I ended up putting it down. I'm glad I did. It worked out really good this time. I loved Poppy and Alex and their adventures. I loved their friendship and their chemistry. The flashbacks really helped a lot to get to know their background and how their relationship build-up over the years. I thought the friends-to-lovers trope and slow burn romance in this book are perfect. Overall, this was a fun and beautiful read.

For starters, basically everyone in book club loves to travel and adventure, so being able to travel vicariously through Poppy and Alex’s story was so much fun. We especially enjoyed seeing how in the early years of their travels, Poppy and Alex did things by the edge of their seat and with more spontaneity and it definitely seemed to make for more memories and random encounters with people (hence the title!!). It gave way to discussion on how the planned work trips just did not have that same feel and vibe to them because they were so structured and we much preferred the fun, unplanned ones!

Now as for Poppy and Alex— they were so sweet and cute! I personally adore the friends to lovers trope and these two were way too fun to follow along. While they were complete opposites, we loved how they were still able to create such an amazing friendship and liked seeing how they evolved over time both individually and with one another. One of the minor issues some had with this book was just the ending, specifically with how Alex handled things with Poppy. But hey, maybe it’s just a “guys can kinda suck sometimes” sorta thing?For starters, basically everyone in book club loves to travel and adventure, so being able to travel vicariously through Poppy and Alex’s story was so much fun. We especially enjoyed seeing how in the early years of their travels, Poppy and Alex did things by the edge of their seat and with more spontaneity and it definitely seemed to make for more memories and random encounters with people (hence the title!!). It gave way to discussion on how the planned work trips just did not have that same feel and vibe to them because they were so structured and we much preferred the fun, unplanned ones!

Now as for Poppy and Alex— they were so sweet and cute! I personally adore the friends to lovers trope and these two were way too fun to follow along. While they were complete opposites, we loved how they were still able to create such an amazing friendship and liked seeing how they evolved over time both individually and with one another. One of the minor issues some had with this book was just the ending, specifically with how Alex handled things with Poppy. But hey, maybe it’s just a “guys can kinda suck sometimes” sorta thing?