If you love slow (emphasis on slow) burn romances, then this is the book for you. For me however I just could not get into it. I still admired the author's writing, and think I would have enjoyed this book more at a different time, but I wish the pace was a bit faster.

I enjoyed this book so much. I am a fan of opposites attract and friends to lovers so I was excited to read this book. And I was a big fan of Beach Read. The author did not disappoint. I think I enjoyed this book even more. The friendship and chemistry between Alex and Poppy was amazing. The vacations were so great to read about. This book was a wonderful reading escape.

If you love a rom com or any type of fictional love story OR might I say love When Harry Met Sally - then do yourself a favor and read this book, preferably if you are about to embark on some sort of vacation, on vacation, or have a drink in hand (but totally not required!). Poppy and Alex meet freshman year in college and are OPPOSITES to say the least. Right away it is obvious these two are not each other's types yet they slowly grow a true friendship that seems to be worth more than any other relationship on the planet (yet, neither will admit it). Over a series of summer trips, the two ebb and flow until they finally have to face reality and figure out what and who they want in life. Very funny and Henry's dialogue is spot on in every scene! Loved it.

Very cute book. Slow burn romance. I enjoyed Beach Read more, but I do like the friends to lovers theme. It also made me miss vacations so much!

Emily Henry’s last novel, Beach Read, was my favorite book of 2020 and the best romance book I’ve read in several years. I HAD to have People We Meet on Vacation when I saw it on NetGalley and it did not disappoint. Alex and Poppy met in college and, while their friendship wasn’t immediate, it grew organically over a several hour road trip from college back to their shared hometown. Every year after, the two take a “summer trip” together, roughing it on little to no budget but creating amazing memories in the process. The side characters they meet along the way contribute so much to this beautiful story, I found myself wondering about the fate of some of those characters when the book ended. This novel flips back and forth between modern day Poppy and Alex who haven’t spoken in two years and what happened on the trips leading up to their falling out.

This is really a story of friendship at its core and I love the build up and backstory of these two characters given to the reader. You get a big chunk into the book before even figuring out what happened on the fateful night that strained Alex and Poppy’s relationship. I really found both characters to feel so authentic with their quirks and flaws, and the small funny moments felt so real. It was a little slow-burning at times but their story and the incredible character development couldn’t have wrapped up so beautifully without the slow buildup. It made my heart so happy!

This book combines the best of friends to lovers, friends to enemies, and enemies to lovers tropes that saturate the romance novel market. The use of overlapping timelines helps to drive home the slow-burn aspect of it all. Henry understands that the audience must form an attachment to these characters in order to care about them and what motivates them; through the book we start to see how Poppy and Alex's friendship has transformed as they grow out of their college selves and into real people. The two characters' clashing feeling about their hometown also gives the audience another layer of conflict, this isn't just about two people who don't know if they love each other--they do, what Henry asks of us is to think about whether or not their differences in class and personal philosophy are stronger than the bond they share.

This was the year that nobody traveled, so of course I instantly wanted to read a book about travel. Poppy and Alex seem ill-matched - she's free-wheeling and playful, he's structure and khakis. She's big city and glamour, he's a small-town teacher. We get to learn about their friendship - and its implosion two years prior - in a series of flashbacks to their decade of summer vacations together. This summer, Poppy is working her dream job and invites Alex to travel with her to attend a wedding, but is really hoping to rekindle the friendship they lost. This was a really fun read, and it's easy to root for their relationship!

This book actually made me laugh out loud several times. Poppy and Alex were adorable together and I loved their back-and-forth dialogue. It was nice to travel a bit since we can't go anywhere due to the pandemic. I really enjoyed this book.

As a professional writer and editor, sometimes I come across someone in The Craft™ whose work I read and just go, "Holy shit, I'll never write as well as this as long as I live or as hard as I try." Emily Henry's just one of those people for me. I'm in awe of the way she puts sentences together and can make them simultaneously hilarious and meaningful. I love how she builds her stories so slowly and intentionally. I can't believe how much she makes me love reading about writers as protagonists, since I usually despise characters in my own profession.

People We Meet on Vacation is not just a masterclass in the friends-to-lovers trope; it's also an exquisite meditation on late 20s/early 30s uncertainty and angst, when you feel like you should have everything together and yet even the most basic parts of adulthood feel absolutely exhausting and futile.

I loved seeing Poppy and Alex's slow descent from awkward strangers to best friends to people hopelessly and recklessly pining for one another at the cost of their own hearts and the hearts of those around them. I equally sobbed at Poppy's eventual realizations about not just her love life but her professional and personal lives too. I already know that I'm going to re-read this book again in 2021; it's just a matter of when.

I'm well on my way to Emily Henry standom, and People We Meet on Vacation is definitely going on The Shelf™.

Content warning: Discussion of parental death, discussions of previous bullying

Once again Henry delivers the goods. Once you meet Poppy & Alex taking one of their many friend-vacations you simply cannot put them down without seeing their quirky relationship through to the end.

The flirty dialogue in Henry's books is SO GOOD and this may be her best work. I laughed out loud at their banter, got all tingly and was genuinely concerned about whether they'd end up together like they were actual people I knew. Not since Romeo & Juliet has a balcony scene been more memorable (*wink wink)!

Alex is a swoon-worthy neat-freak, stud of the highest order! Bottom line, I'm just JEALOUS. Their relationship is definitely something to "aspire to", root for, and devour many, many times.

Whether you're on vacation or not, Poppy & Alex are a couple you've GOT to meet!

This is deeper than the jacket suggests - a friends to lovers arc that feels fresh. The characters are genuine and they both struggle with issues that impact their career choices and their relationship. I enjoyed this every much. More than your average romance.

I was so excited for this one, after reading and thoroughly enjoying 'Beach Read'. I have never considered myself to be a big fan of contemporary romances or rom-coms, but Henry is really changing my mind about that. Her books are just so FUN to read.

Poppy and Alex are unlikely best friends. On the surface, they have little in common. He wears khakis and teaches high school English in the small town they grew up in. She left home the first chance she got, and is a travel writer for an upscale magazine. She is a wild child; he is calm and focused. And yet, they reunite every summer to take a trip and enjoy each other's company. Then one summer something happens, and they stop speaking to each other. What happened to come between these two best friends?

Told in chapters alternating between present-day and their past summer trips, we slowly get to know Poppy and Alex. We root for them to mend their broken friendship, and maybe? find out that they are really meant to be together. But can they really make each other happy? Or is it better to put their friendship behind them and move on?

I was rooting for Poppy and Alex the whole time I was reading this. Just realize you are attracted to each other! Stop pretending you are only friends! This was such a sweet book, and such a sweet friendship between these two. Every bit as good as Beach Read--maybe even better. Highly recommended.

This was a great book to escape the problems the world has right now. I was able to escape to a funny romantic world. I love the way this author writes. I recommend this to anyone that wants an easy romantic read.

I thought for sure Beach Read would be hard to top, but Henry has done it. This book had me riveted to the pages and I can't wait to put this one on my real shelves. This is an absolute must read for everyone! Thank you for the chance to read it early!

Beach Read was one of my favorite reads of 2020, so I was really looking forward to People We Meet on Vacation. While I think it will appeal to a lot of readers, especially fans of Christina Lauren, it wasn't for me. I didn't like to going back and forth in time and the BIG MYSTERY of what went wrong in their relationship. I personally would have enjoyed more focus on the present.

I read this book almost in one sitting. I wanted to savor it, but I couldn’t stop. People We Meet on Vacation is about two best friends, Poppy and Alex, who have taken a summer trip together every year for 10 years. When the book opens they haven’t spoken for two years because of what happened on their last trip together. The story alternates between the past and the present, building up to the year that may have ruined their relationship. It’s a delicious slow build where we get to see their relationship develop from the time they met. At times I laughed out loud because their banter was so funny, but what I loved about it was that they always felt like real people. Witty and hilarious, but real. I loved this book because it’s smart, sweet, funny, and romantic. The characters are well developed, and the dialogue is spot on. Frankly, I wish that I hadn’t read it yet so that I could go read it again for the first time right now. Fans of Beach Read will be thrilled. I also think it’s one to hand to fans of Rainbow Rowell.

"How could Emily Henry ever top Beach Read?" was the question a lot of readers probably asked as they opened People We Meet on Vacation but none ever should have doubted. She's a romance genius, that's how.

Personally, I was just as excited for this book as I'd been for Beach Read and not an iota disappointed. Poppy and Alex are characters I'd read as they read a cereal box together but instead I got to go with them on adventures around the globe.

I won't give anything away, and will only say that this romance is a 2021 must-read.

Poppy and Alex are longtime best friends and travel buddies who had a falling out 2 years ago. They reunite for another go at their annual trip and are forced to reckon with their relationship. The novel chapters alternates between their current trip and their annual trips of the past, tracing their friendship and getting closer to that fateful trip 2 years ago.
Emily Henry is a beautiful writer and a keen observer of everyday humanity. Her characters feel so true; their thoughts, their ways of speaking and moving, their interactions with each other and the world. This story is beautiful but even more than that, I just want to spend time with these characters.

I know that Beach Read was received with mixed reviews. Some, like myself, enjoyed it. Others adored it. And still others are of the belief that it isn't technically a romance novel. I'm not here to debate the author's previous work, however, I just want it acknowledged that I found Beach Read to be enjoyable (though not quite dirty enough for my liking.)

I was absolutely astounded by how much I adored People We Met On Vacation. I fell in love with it from the very first word, cried a little bit in the middle, and mourned when my eyes scrawled across the end of the last page. It was an emotional rollercoaster and I loved every up and down, even as my heart got ripped out of my chest, stomped on, and revived a handful of times until I was clutching the book with white knuckles and muttering under my breath.

People We Meet On Vacation doesn't just flip back and forth between two timelines... it flips back and forth between like seven. Normally I hate flashbacks because my mind prefers to experience the relationship firmly in the present, but I cannot imagine this book written in any other way. It was an absolute gift that we were able to see the relationship between Poppy and Alex develop from the moment they meet, to the moment they realize they can be friends, to each of their annual trips and the present timeline. Henry's writing talent is evident in the way she manages to not only write it in such a way that the reader doesn't struggle to keep things straight and also in the way the character's relationship so clearly develops over the various timelines.

Poppy is a delightfully quirky heroine without being manic-pixie-dream-girl about it which was such a relief. You could tell that Henry just had a picture of her character in her mind and was writing it as she was seeing it rather than trying to stuff Poppy into society's vision of a not-like-other-girls heroine (which I know we are all so sick of). Alex is the uptight, stuffy hero that we all live for as romance readers. Though Alex isn't a total Grumpy McGrumpster, I'd still place this book in the grumpy/sunshine trope because no one is a better grump than our adorable, sick-cat-loving, high school teacher who had to grow up too fast too soon following the death of his mother.

You don't have to fabricate any chemistry between Alex and Poppy. It truly leaps off the page. I believed they were meant to be together from the very first interaction and I held on to that belief as the pages turned and the angst doubled down. It's a slow burn--you don't even get any action at all until about 70% of the way through--but god, as much as I dislike slow burns, the pain of the wait was soooo worth it. And I loved every step to their finally coming together. It was like a beautifully choreographed dance.

If you thought Beach Read was heart-wrenching you better grab some tissues and clear your schedule because you're going to be water work central. I clutched this book to my chest at the end and then immediately flipped back and reread my favorite scene. One of the reviews I read mentioned that this was the book that broke their reading slump and I cannot agree with that statement more. I was feeling a little blah about my TBR lately, but after reading People We Meet On Vacation I ended up flying to my bookshelf and reading a number of books that had been long awaiting my attention.

Stayed up til 6am to finish this book and I regret NOTHING.

Alex & Poppy have been best friends for 10yrs, always vacationing together. From the moment they first met, they just clicked. Alex is reserved and your typical nerdy guy, while Poppy is loud and has all these dream travel itineraries. No matter how completely opposite the two of them are, their friendship works and is something they've kept and valued for years and years...until their trip to Croatia, where everything started to change.

They haven't seen each other in two years; have lost all forms of communication. But Poppy is desperate to bring the old them back and salvage whatever is left of their friendship, so she invites Alex for one last trip together...

Friends to lovers is one of my favorite tropes. Not all the time are they done well, though. But this, this was chef's kiss. I loved that Alex & Poppy were so fun to read. So many times I just wanted them to kiss already. The tension was THICK. And the alternating past and present chapters helped build up their chemistry and learn more about their history and how they fell apart. I found myself tearing up at the vulnerable parts, where they both were so exposed to each other, all their truths bared.

This book has the YEARNING I so love. The relatable inner struggles and monologues. Choices we're offered in life and individual differences. Look out for this one next year! Thank you Netgalley and Berkley for the earc! ❤