This book = my vacation! Poppy and Alex took me on grand adventures to ALL THE PLACES and I love them for it. People We Meet On Vacation was one of most anticipated reads this year and I definitely did a happy dance when the NetGalley approval arrived. I am so glad I did not delay temptation! Emily Henry, you are a friends to lovers, banter, and romantic tension genius. There. I said it. This book is for you if you love:
being transported to beautiful locations, strong female protagonists and friendships, supportive, feminist men, personal growth and self-awareness, multiple timelines, and revelatory romance.

Should I be surprised that Emily Henry wrote another book that's a new all-time favorite? Probably not, but I'm still reeling from how much I loved People We Meet on Vacation. It's so different from 2020's Beach Read (another all-time favorite book), but it still has all the things I love about Emily Henry's writing-- her witty dialogue, her A+ banter between love interests, her descriptions of falling and being in love, and her excellence at describing the all-too-common millennial experience of just feeling lost and alone and like everyone but you has it all figured out. Poppy and Alex felt like friends by the end of this story; I could honestly imagine knowing any of the characters in this book in my own life. Also, I have to mention that the descriptions of travel made me both ridiculously jealous and ridiculously excited for all the post-pandemic trips I've spent the past year of quarantine planning. All in all, People We Meet on Vacation is smart, charming, compulsively readable, and if you're a Pisces like me, will probably make you cry a tiny bit (but in the best way). I can't wait to thrust it into the hands of all my friends and family upon its release this May.

People We Meet on Vacation by Emily Henry

“Maybe things can always get better between people who want to do a good job loving each other. Maybe that’s all it takes.”
.....

Poppy and Alex meet during a college orientation and they couldn’t be more different. Poppy is full of life and her vintage clothing speak volumes about her personality. Alex is reserved and likes things just so. Against all odds, Poppy and Alex become best friends and even when life pulls them in different directions as the years pass they make time to see one another every year for a summer trip. And each year it gets harder to deny their feelings for one another.

This upcoming (May 11) title by Emily Henry is just as good if not better that her previous novel, Beach Read. If you love rom coms that aren’t just fluff, then this book is for you. For fans of Kerry Winfrey and Rainbow Rowell.

WOW in my 25 years of life - I have never had a better time reading a book. It was the sweetest, most tender, kindhearted, funny, delightful experience. Each book Emily Henry crafts sings with love and beauty and realism. It's the perfect romantic comedy - it's Nora Ephron for 2021. I loved this book endlessly and then some.

This book was everything I wanted it to be, and so much more. I read "Beach Read" from Emily Henry last year and fell in love with Henry's writing style. Her dialogue, her characters, her settings; it all feels so effortless. I came away from "Beach Read" thinking, wow. She's just such a good writer. Like "Beach Read," "People We Meet on Vacation" lives up to the hype. The book follows Poppy and Alex, an unlikely pairing who meet in college and become best friends. Even when they're in different states, living completely different lives, they stay in touch. And they always reconnect for their annual Summer Trip... until something happens and they stop talking. The details of the incident aren't revealed until close to the end of the story, which is told from Poppy's POV in chapters from different summers. While curiosity about what happened between them kept me turning the pages, I was fully invested in every part of their story (and the escape to different vacation locales didn't hurt either, reading this amid the pandemic). The main characters felt so real to me, their banter and their inside jokes so natural and funny. Poppy's love for Alex jumped off the page, and while his felt quieter, I could feel it in every word. From the clever way Henry introduces Poppy and Alex's relationship in the very first chapter, I was hooked. I'd follow these friends anywhere. And I did. Henry traces their story from past to present and back to the past, but it never feels disorienting. The way her writing draws you in and keeps you reading and reading until the end, at which point you almost wish you could unread it, just so you can enjoy every brand new, gorgeous detail all over again is something not many authors can do. There were heartbreaking parts, too, of course, which were just as realistic and relatable as the good stuff. And yes, Henry can - and does - pen a steamy makeout scene like the best of them. But more than anything, this book made me feel so warm and fuzzy and content. All of the relationships, from Poppy and Alex, to Poppy and her boss, Poppy's family, her closest female friend, Alex and his brothers, and yes, the people they meet on vacation, felt so real and believable. I'll be thinking about this book for a long time, and I already cannot wait to read the next one Emily Henry writes.

I received a free ebook via NetGalley via Berkley Penguin Random House. All my thoughts are my own.

Everything about it was just so good. I think a good romance novel becomes great when the author cares more about the people than the love story. It makes the love story better because you're rooting for the love and the life success of the characters. The friendships Poppy has and how she views her own value being more important in the beginning than setting up for cheesy tropes (that definitely appeared later that I definitely loved) made the whole arc of the story so much more meaningful.

Speaking of which, the honesty Poppy has with herself is admirable and realistic. At times I wished we also got Alex's perspective on events, but by the end I much preferred Poppy as the sole narrator because you got to know her so intimately as she found herself throughout the book. I especially loved how she was upfront about her privilege while having valid complaints about her life and how she felt stuck. The character development was done with a lot of care about what millennial culture is and isn't as well as one person's experience with it.

Back to Poppy's friendship with her best friend, I LOVED the social media influencer side plot. It wasn't overwhelming, and again, it was so honest while still considering the fact that it was one person's individual experience. No one was being shoved into a mold or stereotype. And the lady boss??? Promoting good work culture while still having expectations of your employees??? Obsessed.

And the romance!! So much love for this book and I haven't even gotten to the actual love. Poppy felt such raw emotions and held them out for all to see. She reacted to them but still cared for those around her. She read people and reacted off of their vibes and sometimes she was wrong or selfish in her choices but she worked to be thoughtful and it was all just so human. I think it's also what made their banter so perfect. It was the perfect blend of adorable and snarky, with (again!!!) kindness and thoughtfulness towards the other. And neither of them were perfect! Poppy got a little mean and Alex was a little uptight but they wanted to get along because there was so much respect there.

Plus, all the best tropes were there, in one way or another. Friends to lovers, pining, pretend relationship, shared bed, too damn hot, grand gesture.

And finally, my main man Alex. I usually love the male lead in romance novels, but Alex really went above and beyond. I could feel the puppy dog face every time it came up, and I was just as defenseless as Poppy. It's much more common to have a grumpy character who doesn't want to engage in the situation they're stuck with. So to have someone so grumpy, yet so willing to exist in these vacation worlds Poppy has cultivated, was an absolutely lovely time. And he wanted self improvement for the sake of self improvement!!! Incredible.

In short, this is both the perfect and worst book to read when your boyfriend is a state away during a worldwide pandemic in the month of both your anniversary and Valentine's Day.

After three or four Emily Henry books I've realized that her books are not for me and that is not a criticism of her and her writing! It is very much just an author who is not for me. But would still happily recommend to the public at work.

This was a delightful read full of witty banter! Friends to more than friends- think When Harry Met Sally but better. There were points during the book that I screenshot the banter dialogue and sent to my best friend (also a book lover) because I just couldn't NOT share! And now she can't wait to get her hands on it as well. Will be ordering in for our bookstore, this is an easy one to recommend that many of our customers will love!

Emily Henry is the master of creating fully real, complicated, big-hearted characters, and she's done it again with PEOPLE WE MEET ON VACATION. I loved following Poppy and Alex as they waded through history and heartbreak and all the confusion of your twenties to find their way to their happy ending. Also a perfect novel for the times -- since we can't really indulge in our wanderlust at the moment, traveling along with Poppy was the next best thing.

Emily Henry's newest smash-hit 'People We Meet on Vacation' follows the unlikely best-friendship of Alex and Poppy. The two meet one night early freshman year in Chicago, only to put a full-stop on any type of friendship as the only thing they had in common was hailing from rural sister-towns. Fast forward to over a decade later, and Alex and Poppy's relationship remains mostly the same: full-stop. What we come to find out throughout the book is how these two travel buddies became the best of friends and then too scared to pursue something more. That is, until Poppy gets the duo back together for a friendship-saving trip to Palm Springs. Can they mend their years apart? Can they find a future together? Only vacation will tell!

Spoiler Alert: I love this book. It is part of a highly venerated club of books that I have stayed up past 3 a.m. to finish because my sleep rested (pun-intended) on knowing how the story ends! This book had it all: bloggers, flash-backs and flash-forwards, a tense and fulfilling love story, bad Air BnB reviews, inside jokes, and a wedding! Who could ask for anything more?!

In terms of her development of characters, Emily Henry is in a league of her own! I've joked to my partner before that I need to take off my Apple Watch before reading Emily Henry because my heart skips a beat multiple times throughout each book! In reading People We Meet on Vacation, you feel the weight and gravity of each character and their relationships! You want to jump up and celebrate with them and you want to sink down onto the parking lot pavement with them. Also, I loved how Emily Henry was able to weave in a narrative of responsible personal spending. I feel like so many female-driven narratives involve credit card debt, overspending, splurging in order to impress others, and so having the plot be set by a need to travel on a budget seemed like a breath of fresh air!

This book is coming at the perfect time for those still mostly at-home. The flash-back vacation scenes were incredible! This book was not just a love story between friends, but it was also a love letter to wanderlust! Just as when you read about a love that makes you grateful for an ex, this book will fill your heart and mind with memories of your own travels!

If you liked: This Time Next Year by Sophie Cousens, Crazy Stupid Bromance by Lyssa Kay Adams, 99 Percent Mine by Sally Thorne, In a Holidaze by Christina Lauren and The Twelve Dates of Christmas by Jenny Bayliss - you will absolutely adore People We Meet on Vacation!

PS. This book made me believe in romance again. Not just lust. Romance!

This is a true gem of a book. I loved getting to know Poppy and Alex, and their friendship felt very layered and cozy, building to a sweet, satisfying romance.

Beach Read was one of my FAVORITE books last year, I devoured it and loved it oh so much. Since reading it I’ve been impatiently anticipating People We Meet on Vacation. Usually when I get an anticipated ARC I try to wait until closer to pub date to start it, but I couldn’t with this one. I loved everything about this book! Friends to lovers is one of my favorite tropes and this story is perfection.

Poppy and Alex are long time friends, since meeting in college over years ago they’ve vowed to spend summer vacation together every year. Until two years ago when one vacation ruined everything and they haven’t seen each other since.

First off, I loved how this was written. Like with Beach Read, the story alternates with present moment and past experiences. There are chapters that tell of previous vacations starting from when Poppy and Alex first met. The story is entirely from Poppy’s POV, which works very well, but like when I was reading Beach Read there are moments I would have loved to see from Alex’s POV. Especially the moments where it’s clear these two have pined for each other equally for YEARS!

Which brings me to the chemistry, holy chemistry Batman. I LOVED the dynamic between Poppy and Alex. There’s something so heartwarming and wonderful about two characters who build a friendship that turns romantic many years later. If you love a story where the characters are very clearly trying not to fall in love with each other, this is it. And yes, there is on the page steam!

For someone who hasn’t traveled in a very long time, reading about their trips was a total delight. I loved that the present day trip was set in Palm Springs during Alex’s brothers wedding. Their families both had such unique and realistic dynamics, I loved the way all the side characters were written. Henry gives such depth to all her characters, no matter how small of a part they play in the story.

I’ll definitely be picking up a physical copy of People We Meet on Vacation when it releases. I love love loved this book! 5 stars.

I cannot wait to get my hands on a physical copy of this when it comes out. Everything that Emily Henry writes is gold in my mind and she has become an autobuy author for me!

People We Meet on Vacation is my first Emily Harry book, a real opposites attract romantic fiction. The narrative revolves around Poppy and her estranged best friend, Alex. Poppy is outgoing and witty, while Alex is shy and quiet. The two form a bond in college that they assume is unbreakable, until it breaks. This novel explores how they find one another again through a wiser, more mature lens. Sharp, well executed, with Poppy’s point of view told in both the now of the story and in flashbacks, this will quench any romance reader’s thirst for fiction that rings true.

Perfect for fans of Nora Ephron, "Beach Read" (also by Emily Henry), "Waiting for Tom Hanks" (Kerry Winfrey), and opposites-attract friends-to-lovers romance!

This is a smart, fun, satisfying, character-driven "When Harry Met Sally Met Contemporary Millennial Culture" story. It literally starts with an odd-couple rideshare home from college and spans a full twelve years of evolving best friendship. The writing is a masterclass of rib-cracking banter, smoldering romantic tension, and slow burn intrigue (during which you'll be yelling "What the heck happened on the Croatia trip?!"). With a few rom-com tropes thrown in for good measure! Not haphazardly "thrown in" but provided as a bonus to delight new and experienced romance readers alike. You'll find genre favorites such as "Oh no! Just one bed!" "Oh no! The AC is broken and it's just. so. hot!" and "Oh no! I'm sick/injured and you have to take care of me!"

But beyond all of that, this is book about knowing your heart, finding your home, and discovering the courage to acknowledge them both when they're looking out at you from your best friend's eyes.

My thanks to #NetGalley and the publisher for a digital ARC!

I absolutely adored this book. Poppy and Alex are my two latest favorites! Their relationship was something special and I can certainly relate to the sense of wanderlust Poppy inhabited so beautifully. It was a wonderful read and I cannot wait to purchase and recommend to my patrons!

Thank you to Berkley, NetGalley and Emily Henry for the free review copy (further disclaimer: the author & I are represented by the same literary agency)—in no way does any of this influence my opinion; all thoughts are my own!

This book was wonderfully complex, real and three-dimensional. Emily has a gift for writing people whose lives and layers are so deeply, tenderly accessible, and PEOPLE WE MEET ON VACATION was no exception. PWMOV was funny, perfectly-paced, and achingly good. If you love Normal People or Josh & Hazel’s Guide to Not Dating (yes, these are the most oddly-matched pair of comp titles but like Alex and Poppy, somehow they make sense) then this will speak to you as much as it did to me. Full of soul-searching and millennial what-do-I-do musings, childhood friends to lovers angst, and Emily’s signature banter, this was such a fulfilling read.

Like BEACH READ, PWMOV is to me first and foremost excellent fiction with a beautifully developed romantic through-line. I appreciated releasing the expectation for all the beats of a traditional romance to be hit, and instead simply savoring this book as a journey about journeys, about coming home to yourself and leaning into rather than running from the thrill, the risk, the reward of love—for yourself as much as the one whose heart finds its home in yours.

This book is so much different compared to Beach Read, but it’s so good in its own way! The book itself is a lot lighter and fluffier in the topics it covers, but it is just such an adorable read, that it doesn’t matter! It’s the type of book that makes your heart flutter.

I enjoyed the alternating chapters that alternate between time periods. We get to see the vacations leading up to the one in Croatia that broke Poppy and Alex’s relationship (though it was kind of predictable what happened there). We also get them in the present day, taking another spontaneous vacation to Alex’s brother’s wedding. It’s interesting to see the romantic tension between them and all of the *emotion* that comes with it. Their banter is so fun as well, and I really loved the friends-to-lovers, grumpy & sunshine pairing. No spoilers, but at the end, I wanted to throw my Kindle at Poppy for what she said towards the end, until she came back with a speech that actually made me cry (so I'm all good now haha).

There are some times where the story feels dragged on and tedious with the novel being more character-centric, but most of the times, it didn’t bother me much. I enjoyed the characters enough to not mind just being immersed in their relationship and dynamic.

Overall, I found this to be such a thrilling read, and I’d highly recommend it if you’re a fan of the genre or Beach Read.

Emily Henry is just so talented. I was blown away by People We Meet on Vacation and in fact I couldn't get enough: I read it twice in a two-day period! The timeline hopping makes it impossible to get bored, and each section was perfectly, precisely placed in order to develop a love story that is impressively moving considering how often I cracked up with laughter. This novel is entirely different from Beach Read and I have a feeling that readers won't be able to choose which one is their favorite.

Wow! Loved this book....I loved the structure with the alternating chapters for "this summer" and then previous summers working their way up from 12 years ago. And I loved, loved, loved the characters.

Poppy is a travel writer living the dream, or is she? Alex, a high school teacher, is her best friend. They have a tradition of going on a fabulous vacation every summer, but have been on the outs for the past two years. Poppy has decided that she needs to repair their relationship and so they embark on a seemingly jinxed trip. Though they are best friends, there's always that "5%" chance of something more, according to Poppy. She's the introspective yet daring first-person narrator, so the reader is left in the dark about Alex's true feelings and motivations, relying on Poppy's unreliable perspective. All she knows is that Alex is her best friend, and a prince. He's sweet, kind, sincere, and always, always there for her. A true "cinnamon roll hero," and reader, I swooned.

Emily Henry is an assured, deft writer, with a lovely, lively style. Highly recommended.