I received an advance copy of, People We Meet On Vacation, by Emily Henry. This is breezy summer read, great for the beach. The characters go on vacation every summer, the book goes back and force between summers.

Let me start by saying that Beach Read by is probably one of my favorite romances EVER. I literally cried so much while reading it. So you know I had super duper high hopes for People We Meet on Vacation.

And my hopes were EXCEEDED✨

As soon as I started reading, I knew that I was going to love Poppy literally so much. She was such a dynamic character, so full of life and drive and just so freaking adventurous but she was also lonely and kind of just floating around. Do you know how much that made me LOVE HER? Being able to experience her friendship with Alex was perfect. I loved the dual timelines in the book, they were a true chef’s kiss. Their witty banter and growing friendship were just perfect.

Just like Beach Read, People We Meet on Vacation is so much more than a romance. It’s a romance with brutal honesty and substance. I was very much all up in my ✨feels✨ while reading this. I cried many tears with many emotions.

Two best friends, A Summer Trip, & A whole lot of LOVE.

Poppy and Alex are polar opposites who happen to become the best of friends in college. Poppy is colorful and loud while Alex is the calm to her storm. She brings him out of his shell with her genuine and sweet wit. As time passes, they connect with each other on a level they have never with anyone else by opening up about their truths and realities. The Summer Trip becomes a yearly tradition between the two where they stay and venture off on a budget– props to Poppy on finding the (very questionable) travel deals. Everything was great, until their trip to Croatia leading up to two years of no trips and distance.

I felt so warm reading this! I loved everything about the two main characters and the entire premise of the plot. Poppy is more than relatable and there were several moments where I felt I truly resonated with her feelings and thoughts. Her energy is a magnetic and unapologetic all thanks to her loving and supportive parents. However, this was a major downfall for her in grade school and she goes on with her adult life trying to get away from it. Alex is an older brother who had to take on a role he did not expect coming at the age of six years old. His life was fully determined for him when his family began to fall apart and no one else was left to pick up the pieces. He is unselfish and the most kind. These two find more than friendship in one another. Their connection is undeniable, but they keep each other at a distance despite being so close.

The book flashes back to their previous trips to the current one they embark on after two years of being apart and barely speaking. Going back to the past really allowed me to see how these two truly felt about each other all this time. Their interactions were hilarious and so real! I loved the sense of humor they both had and the willingness to joke around in public without a care because it was something that they did together.

Friends to lovers isn't typically my favorite trope, but I adored Alex and Poppy. Their story is perfect summer read!!

Oh goodness! Poppy and Alex!

They made me laugh so much. They are so hilarious together. 

This was one of my #botm picks this month. But I also had the #netgalley arc for it. So I breezed through the arc while I waited for my botm that I just got a few days ago. I ordered the popular book again. Lol I have good taste.

This book gave me the warm fuzzies! As we follow them through 12 summers from when they met till this summer. The fake identities they assumed while traveling and the perfect comedic timing and back and forth of jokes was gold. The silliest of moments of injuries and horrible hotel settings. Seriously I had a hotel room that had ants and the bathroom kept flooding. Oh the last big trip we went on our room had all these issues so we got upgraded to this huge suite for the rest of the week for free. My motto is it never hurts to ask. Sometimes you get upgraded, get a replacement and sometimes you get a blank stare.

The whole last few chapters gave me life, as they navigated through their feelings in "this summer" and Poppy finally woke up to her feelings. I loved everything that Alex was saying and all that he did and the realization that Poppy wasn't even paying attention to any of it before. It was so sad in a way since she didn't want to mess up her friendship with him and also didn't think she was good enough for him.

I've seen that Beach Read was better and I have let that sit on my shelf for far too long. I loved this one so I am assuming I will love that one too! I must get to it.

Rating: 🌟🌟🌟🌟🌟

Thank you @netgalley and @berkleypub for the eArc for my honest and voluntary review and letting me go travel with this one!

Okay. Now it’s officially official - Emily Henry can do no wrong!

People We Meet On Vacation by Emily Henry is EVERYTHING. From seriously laugh out loud moments (apologies to my husband who may have been trying to sleep while I stayed up past my bedtime to read!) to sweet and tender ones that give you all the feels, this book is pure magic. Poppy and Alex are officially my new will-they-won’t-they couple, and I love the friends to lovers trope - and how well Henry executed it here. The story is told in a dual timeline format (LOVE!) and I loved not only seeing glimpses of Poppy and Alex in their past summer vacations, but also getting glimpses of the places they visited each year. The supporting characters were fantastic, and I loved the little connections within the story where Henry connected something previously small and little lightbulbs would go off in my head. This magic woven throughout the story was everything a reader dreams of finding in books, and I am beyond glad that I was able to have the experience of reading this one.

A huge thank you to NetGalley and Berkeley Publishing for my electronic copy in return for my honest opinion!

This wasn't for me - while the vacation and friendship was fun to read, the love story was so forced and the "plot twist" was so overhyped and I can't believe it took over 300 pages to reveal. BEACH READ was more my speed when it comes to rom-coms!

A great case of opposites attract in this excellently written and structured friends-to-lovers women's fiction story. I absolutely loved it and felt wholly connected from beginning to end. Emily Henry's writing takes you on an adventure. As the story toggles between past trips and present day it's also toggling from place to place making the many vibrant settings an integral part of this beautiful love story. People We Meet on Vacations is also an adventure in self-discovery, the many facets of friendship, and the terrifying yet exhilarating emotions brought on by deep and lasting love.

This story just made me feel good. It made me understand the importance and value of having a best friend built right in to your partner. Someone who knows you and understands you. Even when you're both scared and unsure. But even with all those big feelings throughout this book is just really good fun. It's entertaining and witty and adventurous. And I can't say enough about Henry's writing style - her natural, easy progression of story and the development of character all the while maintaining the integrity of each. I enjoyed this thoroughly and know all fans of the genre will too.

This book features big love. I do not read a lot of friends-to-lovers romance, because I don’t often find the stories compelling. This story is changing my mind about the trope. I was completely caught up in the relationships in this book. It’s a great read for for people who are afraid to admit what they want and for people who love love. The dialogue is relatable, funny, and emotionally complex. Henry has created something very special in this book.

Beach Read was one of my favorite release last year, so of course I was excited for this author’s next romance book! The premise also sounded so fun even if I’m not the biggest friends-to-lovers fan. People We Meet on Vacation finds two estranged best friends making their way back to each other and finally turning into something more.

Poppy is living the life she’s always dreamed of: she has her dream apartment and her dream job, where she gets to travel for a living. However, she can’t bring herself to muster up the energy for her job anymore. When her friend tells her to think of the last time she was truly happy, she doesn’t hesitate to think of her last vacation with Alex two years ago. Alex, who she hasn’t talked to since then; Alex, who she’s been a little in love with for the past ten years; Alex, who she suddenly decides to call and make another one of their legendary vacations. Now she just has to fix whatever went wrong between them to get their friendship back, all while avoiding her growing feelings.

The premise of this book was so fun! It takes place now, as Poppy and Alex “vacation” in Palm Springs before attending his brother’s weddings. We also have flashback chapters that show how they met as well as the various vacations they’ve taken over the past twelve years. I really enjoyed reading about their excursions, especially in a time where we can’t freely travel.

This is a friends-to-lovers romance, which I usually don’t enjoy that much but really liked here. Poppy and Alex are complete opposites with virtually nothing in common, yet their fates were sealed that one car ride home twelve years ago. I thought their dynamic was so great! Their conversations were so funny, and I couldn’t help but smile the entire book.

I also really liked Poppy’s and Alex’s characters. Poppy has always wanted to travel, a deep-seated need to get out of the suburbs and “regular” life. Over time, though, she realizes that vacations are sometimes more than just the destination; sometimes they’re about the experiences you have there. Meanwhile, Alex is stoic and a little bit repressed, but Poppy brings out the wild side of him. He’s also extremely sweet and caring, and I liked seeing how much he cares for Poppy and vice versa.

The writing was amazing! Henry really has this way of putting you into her protagonists’ heads, emotions and worries and all. I really related to Poppy and couldn’t stop laughing at her and Alex’s jokes. There were also some angsty scenes that made me want to scream because of the yearning of it all.

Overall, People We Meet on Vacation was such a lovely book that tracks how twelve years of a friendship can (finally) evolve into something more. I really liked the characters, and I loved the main characters’ dynamic. If you’re looking for a cute friends-to-lovers romance, I think you should definitely check out People We Meet on Vacation!

Poppy and Alex have been best friends since they met during Orientation Week at college. Every year, they go on a Summer Trip...that is until two years ago when they stopped speaking. Now, Poppy wants to fix their friendship, so she convinces him to go on one more trip with her, but can it really be fixed? I could not put this book down. Emily Henry always writes such great characters- they are flawed and real and I just love spending time with them. She writes a story that draws you in, but also exposes vulnerabilities that are easy to relate to, while also weaving a tale with laughs and quirky people that feel like someone you might meet in real life. She's become one of the authors I will automatically read anything they release. So good!

Emily is one of my newest favorite writers. I loved Beach Read but loved this even more. Lots of great LOL one liners and the opposite of Insta-love, I’ll be recommending this to everyone I meet!

[Got an ARC through NetGalley.]

Emily Henry is great at writing believable relationships. When I don’t like romances it often comes down to the fact that I don’t buy why the characters like each other. Some books, especially with the opposites attract and friends to lovers tropes, focus on witty banter to the exclusion of any kind of real, tangible relationship growth. There's definitely witty banter in this but from the very first chapter of People We Meet on Vacation I understood why they liked each other, what the backbone of their friendship was, and most importantly, the depth of their friendship.

It's a really late twenties/early thirties romance, in a good way. It's not a romance that these characters just fall into, nor is it a friendship they just fall into. I think more than ever your twenties and thirties are a time of realizing if you want people in your life, you have to hold onto them and reach out to them, which makes things both more meaningful and more fragile. The process of Poppy and Alex reconnecting and attempting to renavigate the old paths of their friendship makes their budding romance all the more tense and adds real stakes to the book.

A lot of romances I don’t buy the ‘we can’t, it would ruin our friendship’ excuse but after going through the effects of two years apart I believed Poppy when she said, “I like Alex way too much to date him.” Throughout the book there was a real sense of what could be lost if things went wrong between them, a real reason to keep them apart. There's this sense during their present summer trip of holding onto something breakable and precious and feeling like holding on too tightly will ruin things but not wanting to let go. I found myself so emotional about how their whole trip sucks and things keep going wrong and things are awkward between them, but they both keep trying because they both care.

Emily Henry's emotional throughlines are a real strength of her books, and I felt there was a real maturity to People We Meet on Vacation that shined through them. It felt very adult to actively try and try for a friendship and a relationship, and the characters are both rooted in a very late twenties anxiety. They both struggle with feeling like time is running out on the things they want to accomplish, that they're too late to get the things they want out of life anymore while everyone around them is getting those things. There's a lot of pressure in your twenties and thirties to accomplish so much and at certain points everyone feels like they're falling behind. I was especially fond of Poppy's arc and how she felt listless, unhappy, and lonely in her life but didn't know how to fix it; I liked that it both was and wasn't solved by Alex. That a boyfriend can't solve everything, but that being loved, supported, and known make a difference. I was fond of the Jason scene near the end of the book as well, and the realization Poppy had that she was running from her past and her hometown because she was scared she would always be the lonely, unhappy person she was there, but that people change and she changed, and going back to her hometown doesn't mean she's back in high school.

Got a little cheesy at the end but that's an Emily Henry staple too, and nothing that cheapened the rest of the book. Overall big fan!!

Emily Henry's writing is just... magical. This second book shows that the perfection of Beach Read was not a fluke, and she hopefully has many emotional, humorous, and romantic tales to come. After conquering enemies to lovers in Beach Read, we get the next best trope, friends to lovers in People We Meet on Vacation. This book is much more serious that its super cute, brightly-colored cover lets on, and gave me the feels in numerous instances.

The story is told in alternating timelines, swapping back and forth between the present day summer and previous summers, working from 12 years ago and counting down to present day. This format worked especially well for this book. Poppy and Alex, our two main characters, met in college and (eventually) became friends and travelled together each summer. Through boyfriends, girlfriends, illness, job changes, moves, The Summer Trip has been a hallmark. Until two summers ago in Croatia. Now, the pair haven't seen each other in two years, but Poppy is itching to reach out to him for one more Summer Trip.

Thank you to Berkley and NetGalley for my eARC! All thoughts and opinions are my own.

5 stars - 10/10

Emily Henry did it again! I absolutely loved Beach Read so I had high hopes for this book and it delivered!
I loved this book and the characters. I’m usually not a big fan of the friends to lovers trope, but Poppy & Alex’s story was just so sweet. I loved their banter and teasing, while also watching them deal with their own personal stuff.
It also made me really want to take a trip somewhere immediately because it seemed like no matter where they went it was a fun time! This was a super quick read and I didn't want to put it down. The writing a story was so captivating. I really loved this book and I need more Emily Henry romances ASAP!!

Emily Henry has done it again! I loved Beach Read, but I love this book even more. It is about best friends (Poppy and Alex) who travel together every year. It hops back and forth between past vacations and a current trip that they are on after being estranged from one another because of some unexpected drama.

Alex and Poppy are hilarious, especially when they are together. They both have their own quirks that had me laughing out loud. The book is so well written and provides readers with characters, relationships, and situations that make you not want to put the book down. I would highly recommend this book if you are looking for a light, vacation read.

I loved Beach Read and People We Meet on Vacation is a great second novel Emily Henry. A more complex story than you would likely expect elevates this book out of the chick lit category as we follow the main characters through years of friendship, love and loss.

This is SUCH a great follow up novel to Beach Read. I love the friends-to-lovers trope, but I loved the slow burn friends-to-acquaintances-to-friends again-to-lovers in this one. It sometimes made my heartache and it made me smile and this will likely be a favorite romance of 2021 for me.

I have to start this one by saying that Beach Read by @emilyhenrywrites is one of my all time favorite romance books. So you can imagine my excitement as I got the email notification and dropped everything to read this advance copy. As soon as I started reading, I was immediately drawn to Poppy, she is smart, hilarious, adventurous, driven and full of life. She is so confidently herself and I admire her so much for that, I wish I could be more like her. At the same time, Poppy is lonely, sad and a little lost, which I kind of identified with too and made me love her even more. I loved the way the book was written with time jumps where I got to experience Poppy and Alex’s friendship and deep connection over the years. Their witty and hilarious banter dynamic made me laugh out loud too many times to count.

This book is so much more than a romance, it’s about family, friendship, finding yourself and finding happiness in the process. I very much had all the ~feels~ during this book, I cried sad tears and happy tears, and if I’m being honest, it made me feel a little lonely at times. How Emily Henry understands me in an emotional level, I sincerely don’t know?!

As far as book boyfriends go, it is safe to say that Alex Nielsen is my #1. But don’t worry, Augustus Everett will always hold a special place in my heart. ❤️
___
Thank you @netgalley & @berkleyromance @berkleypub for an early copy of this book in exchange for an honest review. Pub day is May 11.

Fans of Emily Henry rejoice! Henry's Beach Read is one of my favorite books and I've been dying for her next book to come out. I was thrilled that it was released early for BOTM. People We Meet on Vacation is one of my most anticipated books this year and it was worth the wait! In true Emily Henry fashion, the book is hilarious with fun, quirky characters. The plot is divided into two storylines (one spans over ten summers / years) that converge brilliantly at the end. I did get This Time Next Year vibes from the book but luckily, it's only a little. I absolutely loved the book. Full 5 stars!

Thanks to NetGalley, Berkley Publishing & Emily Henry for providing an eARC in exchange for my honest review. (I did buy the book via BOTM).

Poppy and Alex are best friends. They would do anything for each other and to make sure they can be in each other’s lives. Every year since college they have taken a summer vacation together, until two years ago when something happened that threatened to tear these two apart.
Poppy reaches out to Alex when she realizes she’s stuck in a rut and he might be the key to finding a solution. Their reunion is equal parts familiarity and awkwardness. It felt completely real and relatable.
The story is told from Poppy’s perspective which meant that sometimes I interpreted situations differently than she did. It took me on the emotional ride of loving someone so much that it’s terrifying to think of ruining the relationship you already have in the hopes of finding romantic love. But I was also on the outside, wishing I could shake her and tell her what I could see unfolding. I stayed up all night reading this engrossing story.
People We Meet On Vacation story was one of my most anticipated releases of 2021 and it did not disappoint! Highly recommend for anyone who loves slow-burn, opposites attract, or friends-to-lovers romances. The banter is funny, the themes are deep, and the characters are layered. Go get it!