Having loved Emily Henry's Beach Read, I was eagerly anticipating this follow-up and it did not disappoint! This friends-to-lovers romance jumps back and forth in time as we go along on their previous trips and learn more about their friendship as they reunite after two years apart.

Alex and Poppy are best friends, despite being complete opposites and hating each other at their first meeting. Thanks to an unplanned road trip, all that changes and a firm friendship is established. That was 12 years ago and every summer since they have taken a trip together! Over the years they have shared everything and become something truly special to each other. Until the trip to Tuscany changes everything and then the disaster that was Croatia. We join the story in the present day and Alex and Poppy haven’t spoken in two years. Now Poppy has one week in Palm Springs to fix things….can things ever be the same again?

First thing is that Poppy and Alex are both great…like absolutely adorable! Their relationship is amazing and written so beautifully that it feels completely natural and realistic. The premise of the story is sound and has just enough intrigue to make it compelling but ultimately this a character driven piece that has so much heart I defy anyone not to be routing for out protagonists from page one. The organisation of the chapters is really well thought out, they flit from present day back and forth from the summer trips from all the years gone by. The best thing about this book was the humour, it is laugh out loud funny and that for me is a winning combination. People We meet on Vacation is out today….so off you go and grab yourself a copy!

People We Meet On Vacation Review! ✈️

“You’re home to me Alex, and I think I’m that for you too”

Thank you so much to @berkleyromance #berkleypartner #berkleyig for the gifted e-copy of People We Meet On Vacation!

After absolutely loving Beach Read I was so excited to start reading Emily Henry’s latest book People We Meet On Vacation!

This friends-to-lovers romance follows the lives of Poppy and Alex as they navigate their post college adult lives as the finally realize what everyone else around them as been noticing since they became friends freshman year of college.

This book was so swoon worthy! I adored that banter and poking behavior between the two MCs. They both held so much of the sense of humor that I absolutely adore in couples!
I felt like I was back in college watching friends say they were “just friends” and ending up being the perfect match together all over again.
I also truly appreciated the struggles both of these MCs went thru. I though Poppy realizing how controlling she had been without realizing it was so so important to the story line and I equally liked the parts where Alex tried to reassure her that his failed relationships weren’t entirely her fault.

It takes two to tango, am I right??

Stars: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
Steam: 🔥🔥🔥🔥

Thank you again @berkleyromance for an e-copy! This one is definitely on my top reads of the year!

Two best friends go on a summer adventure over the course of ten years. Poppy and Alex meet the first week of college and realize they have nothing in common but slowly become best friends. Through ten years of traveling adventures, their friendship is solidified. That is until two years ago, when something happened to ruin it and they haven't spoken since. Stuck in a rut, Poppy decided to talk Alex into one more vacation to try and save their friendship.

Henry brings back "Harry Met Sally' for the (gasp) modern world. I thought this was a great summer read and it gave me wanderlust. Unfortunately, I read it during the pandemic when I was scared to travel anywhere, but maybe soon.

People We Meet On Vacation is the first book by Emily Henry that I have read, but it certainly won't be the last. I loved every minute of this book! Alex and Poppy were great characters and I was fully invested in their story and rooting for them all the way!

Wowowowow what a ride this wonderful romance was. I enjoyed Emily Henry’s first romance, Beach Read, but felt it was a little dour at times- which sort of worked for the book. This one is the opposite: it absolutely sparkles like main character Poppy Wright, who is wild and funny and witty and a travel writer/influencer. Her best friend Alex Nielsen, a much more staid, reliable high school teacher, often comes with her on her work trips and very quickly through this, you see the sparks flying between them and just how great and comfortable they are together. No joke, this is like the slow burn of the century as Henry pivots is from this summer - a summer after Poppy and Alex have taken a two year break from talking to each other at all - and the summers of the past, through their wild adventures together and heartbreaks, through taking care of each other and bringing out each other’s best sides to being apart. This is what a friends-to-lovers romance should look like - with all the longing and desperate desire for one another only matched with the fear of changing something so perfect and the fear of being happy and in love. I laughed through this one, I teared up so many times, and I felt all the feelings at the absolute brilliant ending. Henry makes you work for that Happy for Now, but damned if she doesn’t make it great while you work for it. At it’s heart, this is a character study of two flawed people just trying to find their way to themselves - and in doing so, finding their ways to each other. It’s exactly the kind of romance I live for - a trope done utterly well with characters you know and want to hang out with forever. One of my fave reads of the year.

Such a fun summer book! This is one of my favorite romcoms I've read all year. The writing is great and the premise kept me up late to finish the book.

A fun and funny listen! Really enjoyed the audiobook read by Julia Whelan. Her narration really got me invested in this sweet story of two friends who took trips together every year for 10 years, until a mysterious falling-out. I loved the banter between the two main characters, Poppy and Alex, and the story made me laugh out loud at times.

I liked this one! I am excited to see what they write next! Was the perfect book to read on a warm, sunny beach day!

This is the first book that I have read by Emily Henry and it will not be my last.

Poppy and Alex are best friends and each year they go on vacation together. The book begins that Poppy hasn’t seen Alex in two years and is missing him. She texts him and they decide to go on another trip together. I wondered until half way through the book, why did it take them so long to talk after the situation that drove them apart and what happened to their relationship. At this point in the book, I understood it to be platonic but do things change and is that the reason why they didn’t speak. Total suspense until Emily slowly releases the answers to these questions.

This was so much stinking fun, I almost vomited.

Friends to lovers? Check.
Slow burn? Check.
Funny and disastrous travel stories? Check.
Witty and sarcastic banter? Infinite checks.
Ode to self care and you doing you? Check.

Alex and Poppy are best friends and are opposites. They travel together (on a budget) every year, and their connection, banter, and friendship just leaps off the page. May Cthulhu grant me a partner with the same kind of dynamic and chemistry these two have. It is a fantastic summer read, and you will be rooting for them the whole time. A friend described this book as making her fingers tingle (her indicator that a book grabbed at her heartstrings), and I wholly agree. I now have Emily Henry on auto-read.

A big thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for providing me with a copy in exchange for a honest review


Just here to add another 5 stars to the slew of raving reviews. This book made me break out the highlighter and dog ear pages (yes, I’m sorry, I just said dog ear pages) for the first time since university. As a plot driven reader, I don’t often feel a connection to characters but holy moly did I ever find myself in Poppy. A travel-holic who craves new cities, adventures and relationships, while genuinely wondering if she’ll ever settle down. Poppy and Alex have the best friends to lovers journey and is something that not only I, but other young women will relate to and crave as much as the characters did. In a generation of young, independent, motivated and liberated women, this book pulls on the heartstrings of women everywhere, questioning how to balance, love, life and passions from around the globe. I never anticipated ever having connected to this book the way I did. Well done, Emily Henry, well done.

Besides coming from the same Ohio hometown, Alex and Poppy have nothing in common. But their differences have allowed them to develop a romance-free best friendship over the years. That is, until one of their annual summer trips ended dramatically and they stopped talking for almost two years. At a crossroads in her life, Poppy reaches out to Alex and tries to rekindle their friendship with another summer trip--but will it rekindle more than just friendship?

Okay, this one drew me all the way in from the first chapter! The pacing, the character building, everything about the way Poppy and Alex's story unfurls is so charming. This book is uplifting, funny, and has so much heart. I can't recommend it enough.

Free-spirited Poppy and reserved Alex awkwardly met at Freshman Orientation at the University of Chicago. They didn’t see each other for months but then shared a ride to their hometown for summer break. Out of that road trip, they became best friends and established a tradition of taking a vacation together every year, usually on a shoestring, until two years ago, when they had a falling out and haven’t spoken since.

Poppy, though, is determined to reconcile with Alex, and she convinces him to take one more trip with her, one she’s carefully planned but that keeps going wrong. The real trouble might not be problems with the car or Air BnB but the secrets they are keeping from each other.

The book is unusually structured, with flashback chapters recounting each vacation interspersed with the present-day trip. It’s hard not to feel wanderlust when reading, but at the same time, Poppy’s family is delightful! Also, because the University of Chicago is my alma mater, I love that connection. I can remember being on the quads O-week though I was much more like Alex than Poppy!

As expected from the queen of banter, the dialogue is wonderful, and so many of the situations they encountered were relatable and funny. What I didn’t like as much is that poor communication kept Alex and Poppy as friends. And when the event of two years prior was revealed, it seemed anticlimactic. I did like the book very much and am already looking forward to Henry’s next release!

Another great romance from Emily Henry! I actually enjoyed this one even more than Beach Read -- the author did a phenomenal job with the friends-to-lovers trope. I can't wait to see what she writes next!

Thanks for the free book prhinternational and Netgalley

Emily Henry’s debut novel, Beach Read, has been one of the first reviews on my bookstagram account. While I did enjoy it, I didn’t fall in love with it as many people did. Despite that, I was still curious to read her second work and see if this time I would end up being more enthusiastic about it.

People We Meet on Vacation is not bad, but in my opinion was not better than her first book, I actually liked it less.

What I can say I appreciated in both her stories is that the main leads are imperfect people who try to meet each other half-way and there’s no “happily ever after”, just a promise to face whatever life brings together as a couple who love each other.

In this book, I found Henry’s writing improved, but there were some aspects of characters and story that didn’t manage to satisfy me.

The ‘friends-to-lovers’ trope is one of my favourite when well executed, but in this case I couldn’t really buy it, at least not completely: the chemistry between the leads was initially absent, then it felt weird and forced, then it finally got better as the story progressed and I could get more into their relationship, but it still felt lacking.
The flashbacks were necessary to tell their story, but at the same time I felt sometimes they dragged it a little too much.

In short, I did not dislike it but it was not love either. Emily Henry has some qualities that I appreciate, but she can’t seem to capture my heart. Third time’s the charm?

⭐3,5/5
...
Grazie prhinternational per l'ebook in anteprima.

Il romanzo di debutto di Emily Henry Beach Read, in italiano pubblicato recentemente con il titolo Romanzo d'Estate, è stato uno dei primi libri che ho recensito sulla mia pagina bookstagram. Nonostante mi sia piaciuto, non me ne sono innamorata come invece è successo a tant* altr*. Ero comunque curiosa di leggere il suo secondo lavoro e vedere se questa volta mi avrebbe entusiasmato di più.

People We Meet on Vacation non è male, ma per me non è stato migliore del suo primo libro, anzi mi è piaciuto meno.

Ciò che ho apprezzato in entrambe le sue storie è che i protagonisti sono persone imperfette che cercano di venirsi incontro e non c'è nessun “e vissero per sempre felici e contenti”, c'è semplicemente la promessa di affrontare insieme ciò che la vita ha in serbo, da coppia che si ama.

In questo libro ho trovato la scrittura della migliorata, ma ci sono stati vari aspetti dei personaggi e della storia che non mi hanno convinta.

Il tropo ‘da amici ad amanti’ è uno dei miei preferiti quando ben eseguito, ma in questo caso non mi ha soddisfatta, almeno non del tutto: la chimica tra i due personaggi principali era inizialmente assente, poi sembrava strana e forzata per poi finalmente migliorare con il proseguire della storia e sono così riuscita a immergermi di più nel loro rapporto. Nonostante ciò, sentivo che mancava qualcosa.
I flashback erano essenziali per raccontare la loro storia, ma allo stesso tempo mi davano la sensazione di trascinarla un po' troppo

In breve, non mi è dispiaciuto ma non è stato neanche amore. Emily Henry ha delle qualità che apprezzo, ma non riesce a conquistarmi. La terza volta sarà quella buona?

⭐3,5/5

4 out of 5 stars - If you ask me, I'll tell you to read it.

Thank you to NetGalley and Berkley Publishing Group for an Advanced Reader Copy to review. I received a complimentary copy of this book. Opinions expressed in this review are completely my own.

This is a story of Poppy and Alex, two opposites who met and became friends in college. They have always gone on an annual trip together, until something goes terribly wrong on one of them. It's now been a few years since they've spoken, and Poppy now finds herself looking for why her life seems a little "off". A friend tells her to go back to the last time she was truly happy, which was on vacations with Alex.

The story had lots of fun twists and turns. I could relate to both characters in some way (I think I would call myself a mix of the two of them). The adventures they go through while Poppy tries to make a "perfect" trip with Alex are nothing short of ridiculously hilarious. Everything that possibly could go wrong, definitely does.

I spent the whole book attempting to figure out how the title fit in, and I'm happy to say that it does end up making sense in the end.

People We Meet On Vacation was the perfect escape for a stressful week. The love story is sweet, the travel tidbits had my passport aching, and the travel mishaps had me cracking up. This was genuinely the perfect book to read mid-pandemic (not being sarcastic whatsoever) because it has me looking forward to the return to safe travel. Emily Henry delivered the PERFECT summer read. Friends to lovers sometimes don't work for me but this book did a great job of exploring the history of their friendship and the realistic steps they took to both maintain it and repair their relationship. I wish I could read it for the first time, all over again.

A lovely second chance romance between these two longtime college friends. The will they won't they is great even if the big reveal was a little too built up.

Once again, Emily Henry holds the key to my heart and soul.

I've even had day dreams about canceling my own wedding and hold out for Alex Nilson to become a real person. I will always be up for exploration and adventures, and boy does this book cover tons. Okay, I get that the reality of that isn't within grasp, but this book filled my heart.

Poppy, an extremely relatable character goes on a soul searching meets redemption trip to rekindle a relationship with her long term best friend. Along the way, we get to witness the ins, outs, and upside down adventures Poppy and Alex take as friends - with a longing for more from their relationship.

I will recommend this book to ANYONE searching for something to cure a book hangover or just looking for a contemporary romance that leaves you wanting more.