I enjoyed this book, it was a fun summery romance that also dealt with some deeper issues. I enjoyed that the story was told in present day and flashbacks to the characters previous holidays. I would read more by this author

It’s only fitting that I try to make this review a love letter because this story was a love letter to my heart.

Poppy and Alex have been friends since sharing a ride home from university for the summer holiday. Since then their summers have been spent together in cramped tents in Vancouver Island and picturesque villas in Tuscany. These summer trips became the highlight of their year, until 2 years ago during the Croatia vacation. They haven’t seen each other since, but Poppy plans one last trip to try to make things between them right again.

Poppy and Alex feel like the blueprint of opposites attract. Where she’s outgoing and the poster girl for eclectic style, Alex is reserved and needs his trusty khakis. Poppy is down for whatever whenever, but Alex needs a plan. But they are a kismet kinda couple, an it’s-always-been-you kinda pairing that gave me a fizzy incandescent joy. They have glorious banter and top-tier inside jokes. They are masterfully woven by Henry to be flawed and complex, and consequently so authentic.

“It hurts to want it all, so many things that can't coexist within the same life.”

This was so achy, so devastating, and made me think of that saying or quote that most people won’t end up with their soul mates. Poppy and Alex with one another is when they are truly known, wholly seen, and warmly accepted. Yet, they want different things. Poppy still wants stamps on her passport, while Alex is striving to have a family in Ohio.

(Also the opposites attract trope was not contrived, but so authentic probs because Henry wrote these full-bodied, three-dimensional characters that you wanna reach into the book for, but you can’t cause it’s a book, but they’re already so real and palpable it’s like they’re coming off the pages so that’s a consolation. Sorry for the tangent.)

Despite being so dissimilar there’s this soul-deep yearning they have for each other that grows over the years, which neither really acts on. Their friendship is their safest place, where they’re completely themselves, and both are wary of ruining that.

“You can’t outrun yourself. Not your history, not your fears, not the parts of yourself you’re worried are wrong.”

“All day long, I hear myself saying this same phrase, like I’m desperate to get it out of my body even as I feel incapable: I am having a hard time”

Not wanting to ruin a good thing is not the only reason the friendship hasn’t gone into non-platonic territory. Poppy’s growing discontent over her life is bubbling over. After reaching all her career milestones, she is looking to rediscover her purpose and heal from high school ostracism. Poppy’s journey felt like the support group we all needed if we’re facing angst and uncertainty around our futures, careers, and personal growth.

I really enjoyed the switching, alternating timelines between the current Palm Springs vacation they’re on and all the other ones prior. It made this the gateway drug to friends-to-lovers because I saw their friendship from its inception and not just as a reference or in snippets. It really added to this book knitting itself into the fabric of my heart because I saw their evolution for over a decade. Ahhh.

This truly spoke to me.
Immaculate. Impeccable. Superior.

5 ALEXTHEGREATEST stars

Song: Valio la Pena by Jesse & Joy; Dime Store Cowgirl by Kacey Musgraves

Thank you NetGalley for this book in exchange for an honest review.

You and Me on Vacation is the second of Emily Henry's books I've read, after having read Beach Read last summer. Both make perfect summer reads. I would highly recommend You and Me on Vacation to anyone looking for an easy-to-read, sweet, friends-to-lovers story that doesn't make you want to rip your hair out.

Emily Henry has a beautiful way of writing which is both delightfully easy to read, but also coherent and not at all cringe-y like some other romances can be. Her characters are wonderfully developed, 3D people, and through the course of the book it becomes as if you know them personally.

Similarly to Beach Read, You and Me on Vacation, as well as being a sweet and light-hearted romance, delves into some deeper topics such as burn-out and mental health artfully, making it feel less like a guilty-pleasure of a read, and more of a well developed novel in it's own right. My only complaint, which I've seen raised by others, is the let-down of the big 'Croatia' reveal, which was hyped up throughout the book. Not that this stopped me from finishing the book in under a day, and for anyone in need of a lighter read - this is the book for you!

I really enjoyed Beach Read and couldn’t wait to read Henry’s latest while on holidays, her books really are the perfect summer read! ⁣
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First off, I actually preferred this to Beach Read. I found Beach Read really enjoyable and an easy read but this has a little more depth I felt and I really really loved the characters. I just wanted to give Alex a hug snd go out for a drink with Poppy. They are chalk and cheese but work so well together! ⁣
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Similar to Beach Read, Henry does an amazing job of highlighting big topics in a way that is light and approachable. On the surface her books are fun, easy and have some great laugh out loud moments but there is a lot more to them when you dig deep. Like Poppy who is suddenly finding herself a little lost and unsure of what she wants or Alex who has played the role of father and mother for his siblings. Henry does a fantastic job at addressing some key issues but in a way that doesn’t feel over the top. ⁣
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The writing is excellent, I laughed a lot and honestly couldn’t put it down. From the banter between Alex and Poppy to the bizarre experiences they share on these vacations, I could so clearly see it all playing out in my head and I really wanted to be a part of it. ⁣
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So if you’re looking for a good summer read, then this is the book for you. You will fly through it and it’ll put a smile on your face. A big thank you to @netgalley for letting me read it before it was published.

This was a cute and perfectly nice reading experience!

I loved the way it was structured; it made it feel pacey and built up Poppy and Alex’s friendship well. It’s so hard to do friends to lovers well because as a reader, I want to Believe these people genuinely like each other as friends first. And I completely bought it! All of the inside jokes and references made their relationship feel very realistic and natural.

I feel like Emily Henry’s writing definitely levelled up with this book. Her prose felt tighter and more confident. I love her attention to detail when it comes to character creation – their quirks and little habits make them feel well-rounded. In this vein, I absolutely adored Poppy’s family and her complex feelings about them and her childhood. I would’ve liked to spend even more time with them.

Even though I absolutely binged this book and had a great time all around, I can already feel it slipping away from me. I think from a craft point of view, it’s a stronger book than Beach Read, but it didn’t have the same emotional impact. I love nothing more than a slow burner sprinkled with angst and bad timings, but this one just lacked a proper satisfying ending for me.

Just because I didn’t find it a perfect read, doesn’t mean I won’t pick up more from Emily Henry – I already consider her one of my favourite romance authors. Also shout-out to whoever did the cover [I can’t find a name online!!] for such a pretty, eye-catching design.

Thank you Penguin for providing a free review copy!

Twelve years ago, Poppy Wright and Alex Nilsen met during the first night of orientation at the University of Chicago. Neither consciously decided to keep contact with the other… however they became friends and have shared numerous summers over the years going on holiday together… until an incident spoilt everything. Now, Poppy's determined to persuade Alex to go on holiday again, one last time…

From the beginning, I was hungry for more about how Poppy and Alex were getting along in the present so I didn't always appreciate the throwback scenes. However, the more I became engrossed within the narrative, the more I valued getting to know how the pair got to where they were with their friendship. The back story highlights how both misjudged and ignored the very telling signals each were giving off during their shared holidays. It highlights the power of friendship and how two people formed a close platonic relationship and how it has stood the test of time… until they drifted apart.

Fun and entertaining, the narrative reflects the contrasting personalities of two people who shouldn't be friends at all. Poppy and Alex are like chalk and cheese; He's a teacher in Ohio and she lives and works as a travel writer in New York. The author does a fabulous job of making the pair believable despite their differences.

Overall, You and Me on Vacation is a novel that will say with me for a long while and is a definite favourite for summer 2021. If you enjoy the friends to lovers trope, this is one novel you need to pick up and read.

***review copy received courtesy of Penguin via NetGalley***

Poppy and Alex are great characters and had me gripped from the beginning. A brilliant rom com style book, perfect for a Summer read! I’m definitely recommend

This was a very fun summer read that I quite enjoyed! Poppy and Alex were so captivating and I really couldn't get myself to put the book down for long periods of time, so I ended up finishing it within the course of a day. The Summer Trips were so fun to read about, and I loved exploring all the places around the world through their eyes. This was definitely a slow burn and I found myself rooting for the couple throughout the entire book, just waiting for that kiss, or confession or 𝘢𝘯𝘺𝘵𝘩𝘪𝘯𝘨 to give me a little piece of satisfaction and provide me with what I wanted. One thing I found quite disappointing was the reveal of what had happened at the dreaded trip to Croatia. Throughout the entire book, it was made to be this big thing, a fight, something terrible that happened between them that made them lose contact for two years, when, in reality, it was much smaller than that. That is also the reason why I gave this book a 4.5 ⭐ rating instead of 5 stars, that piece was just a let down, but I still very much enjoyed the book and since I also enjoyed her last book, Beach Read, I believe the author will become an automatic buy for summer reads for me from now on!

This was another brilliant read from Emily Henry. This time centering around the friends-to-lovers trope.
Poppy and Alex are the best of friends and take a vacation together every year... until they dont.

Told in dual time lines with snippets from each year we follow the friends and discover what went wrong and can they every be back to the friends they used to be,

This was a really enjoyable story, very heartfelt and a compelling read.

This has to be the ‘it’ read rom-com for Summer 2021; Emily Henry tells the story of how Poppy and Alex’s relationship has developed from meeting at university to the present day. Over a decade since meeting and they have gone from strangers to best friends to ‘it’s complicated’. Needless to say this is an emotional read because Poppy and Alex’s relationship is flawed and they both struggle to balance their individual lives and their special connection.
I loved the way Henry created these two characters and just like a great rom-com you find yourself frustrated with the main couple and infuriated with the many obstacles they face. You cannot help but to champion their romance and the hope that even when life isn’t perfect there will always be that person you can rely on.
A sweet, compulsive, emotional ride.

Edit: I initially read this book at the start of the year and immediately fell in love with the characters, their story and the way Emily Henry effortlessly created a relationship that felt both raw and realistic. Since I felt You and Me on Vacation made a perfect beach read, I couldn't resist picking it up again this summer and once again became completely captivated by Poppy and Alex. Through my second reading, I was able to savour the details that made this book so great more so than I did the first time around. I had been so consumed by my need to see them end up together that I didn't fully appreciate the genius of Henry's writing style. The way she flicked back and forth between present-day and previous holidays, slowly revealing how Poppy and Alex came to be, was inspiring. Never before have I read a book that so easily leads me through a character's relationship, subtly detailing how the characters fell in love. It was as if I saw Poppy falling in real-time. As if I were a small part of her as she came to terms with her feelings. A true one of a kind novel and I can't wait to read other books by Emily Henry in the future - definitely an instant buy author.

I cannot stop thinking about this book! Everything about it was perfect and I wish I could read it for the first time all over again. Cannot recommend it enough. Perfect for anyone looking for a nice beach read

Such a lovely romcom filled with travel, troubles and teaching moments.
This book is a romance, no doubt about it. It also serves a purpose of reminding you that things don't always tick boxes. Life isn't perfect, it doesn't always make sense. You can run away, hide and avoid issues but they will not disappear. This is a story of finding yourself, your dreams and your home.
Poppy and Alex are beautiful souls. I loved reading about their friendship growing and evolving over the years as the book jumped back between their lives now and each year that led to this point.
Superbly written, descriptive, emotional and full of fun. I'd definitely read more by this author!

I really enjoyed reading this book. I'm a complete sucker for romance tropes, and the main relationship was full of them, with friends-to-lovers and opposites-attract being the top ones. The "will they, won't they" of it was killing me throughout though. I was very interested to learn Poppy and Alex's past, especially with the mysterious Croatia trip mentioned a lot. Poppy seemed to have eyes solely for Alex so I was completely intrigued as to what went wrong, because he seemed to like her too.

The writing was well done and flowed easily. The swapping between past and present kept it going at a decent pace. Poppy's narration was very relatable, despite the completely unrelatable job as a vacation journalist - her struggles with loneliness and wanting to be accepted were very universal.

This was a great concept and read - I really enjoyed it.

Successful travel writer Poppy seems to have everything she ever wanted, she's left small town Linfield, has a her dream job where she travels around the world writing about it for a flashy magazine, she lives in a picture prefect apartment, and her life is sorted, right? But why can't she come up with a new idea to pitch to her perfectly poised and controlled editor?

When her friend in the city challenges her, to think about when she was last happy, she realises it was when she went on holiday with her best friend two years ago. They haven't spoken for that long, since things went badly wrong.

We then see the story in a series of flashbacks, interspersed with the current action. Alex and Poppy meet at College, where they don't really gel as they are polar opposites. Poppy hates small town Linfield, Alex loves it, Alex is careful and controlled, Poppy is more bohemian and spontaneous. When they end up driving home one year, they bond over some witty banter, and they spend ten years having meaningful holidays together, the incident while they were in Croatia that blew apart their friendship.

Poppy reaches out to Alex, and they agree to spend another vacation together that has all the tropes you might want - Only one bed, grumpy/sunshine, friends to lovers. it read like a delicious romantic comedy film, and dealt with some real and difficult issues while keeping it's sparkling feel.

Really enjoyed it.

I voluntarily read an advance reader copy of this book and all opinions are my own.

This book had NO right to make me this emotional. I was told this was a romcom, yet I cried several times and just felt so incredibly emotional over it, and yes, I loved that about it. It's still *also* a romcom, and a really funny one too, just one that also takes your heart and squeazes it until it hurts.

Combining the friends to lovers trope and the trope of following the characters throughout the years, with a healthy dose of mutual pining added to it, just hit all the right spots for me. I had expected to enjoy this, maybe even a lot, but I hadn't expected it to touch my soul in the way it did. I related so much to both Poppy and Alex, and I love them so incredibly much!

This was a bit of a slow burn for me. I sometimes have difficulty reading books by American authors and to some extent this was no exception. I just think the expressions and cultural differences take a bit of getting used to. The story is about Alex and Poppy, written entirely from the perspective of Poppy. The story spans a number of years from when they first met until present day. Poppy’s job as a reporter for R &R allows her to take holidays and review the places she visits. Her companion is often Alex, a school teacher from her home town in Ohio. Poppy does not have good memories of life in her home town as she was often bullied and despite loving her own family, she is desperate to get away and ends up in New York while Alex stays in Linfield. Despite the distance they are constantly in touch with each other and remain best friends throughout while dating other people. It is fairly obvious what the outcome of their relationship will be and I found it slightly drawn out before getting to the point. The characters are very likeable and this is one of the saving graces of the story for me. Poppy and Alex are very different but because of their shared history have lots of in jokes and expressions they frequently refer to. I did read Beach Read by Emily Henry which I didn’t really take to and despite having a fairly weak plot, much preferred this book. Thnaks to NetGalley for allowing me an ARC of You and Me on Vacation.

4.5 stars -- This was the perfect book to pull me out of a reading slump! You and Me on Vacation is a fun and completely swoon worthy read that will wreck havoc on your emotions. I loved the way this was written, the characters were so well developed and the whole vibe put me in a summer mood. If you love second chance romance or friends to lovers you won't want to pass this up!

I loved Emily Henry’s last book – Beach Read – and so when I was offered an ARC of her new book, I jumped at the chance!

Here’s the blurb:

“*From the bestselling author of Beach Read comes a new sparkling novel sure to leave you with that post-holiday glow, also known as People We Meet On Vacation*
TWO FRIENDS
TEN SUMMER TRIPS
THEIR LAST CHANCE TO FALL IN LOVE
12 SUMMERS AGO: Poppy and Alex meet. They hate each other, and are pretty confident they’ll never speak again.
11 SUMMERS AGO: They’re forced to share a ride home from college and by the end of it a friendship is formed. And a pact: every year, one vacation together.
10 SUMMERS AGO: Alex discovers his fear of flying on the way to Vancouver.
Poppy holds his hand the whole way.
7 SUMMERS AGO: They get far too drunk and narrowly avoid getting matching tattoos in New Orleans.
2 SUMMERS AGO: It all goes wrong.
THIS SUMMER: Poppy asks Alex to join her on one last trip. A trip that will determine the rest of their lives.
You and Me on Vacation is a New York Times bestselling love story for fans of When Harry Met Sally and One Day. Get ready to travel the world, snort with laughter and – most of all – lose your heart to Poppy and Alex.””

The book follows the present day – when Poppy and Alex have been estranged for a couple of years, but end up going on a trip together – and then flips back in time to the first summer they meant and their subsequent annual trips.

The present day trip is to Palm Springs (which I only know is where John Barrowman and his husband live #randomfact) – whilst the historic trips are all over the place – so there are plenty of different settings for the book. You know that something ‘bad’ happened 2 years ago – but it’s quite late on in the book before you discover what that was (and I have to say I was a little underwhelmed with that part of the storyline).

Poppy is quite outgoing and up for anything – whereas Alex is a lot more restrained – and the story uses these traits, and when they act out from their ‘normal’ behaviour really well.

I liked the descriptions of Poppy’s childhood home and her parents – who clearly loved her very much, even if she was slightly embarrassed about them (but isn’t that the role of parents of teenagers to be embarrassing?!)

It is a fairly predictable ‘will friends become lovers?’ story – but with enough twists and turns to keep you interested and intrigued. Perfect as a simple holiday read with a cocktail in hand at the same time.

Overall I didn’t love it quite as much as ‘Beach Read’ but it was still a very enjoyable book. Thank you to the publisher for my ARC – but I’m a few weeks behind the times, so if you fancy the sound of it, it’s already available to buy.

I was provided with a free ebook version of this book in exchange for an unbiased review. Thank you to the author, the publisher and NetGalley for this.

This fun summer romance novel follows two best friends, Poppy and Alex, who have known each other since they started university. Every summer, they take a holiday together. But for some reason unknown to the reader, they haven't seen each other for a few years until Poppy invites Alex on one last vacation to try and save their friendship. The book is told in alternating chapters between the present day and past trips.

I'll start of by saying that this book was a lot of fun. Both Poppy and Alex are very likable characters and it was fun reading about all the places they have travelled to. Especially as I haven't been able to travel myself due to the pandemic. This is a classic summer romance novel in my opinon, nothing groundbreaking, but compelling enough to suck you in for a relaxing read. The characters are both obviously pinning after one another which makes a refreshing change and if I had one complaint it would be that it's maybe a bit too long and slow to start. All the juicy stuff happens right at the end. But overall a fun and pleasant romance read that I would definitely recommend.

If you, like me, are in need of some literary escapism right now, then I’d highly recommend giving You and Me on Vacation by Emily Henry a try. A smart and funny contemporary romance with some great characters and fabulous locations – what’s not to love?!

With a non-linear timeline, we know very early on that Poppy and Alex have had a mysterious falling-out, but that Poppy seems really keen to rebuild their friendship. As we hop backwards and forwards in time we learn how they met and started going on annual holidays together, both alone and with partners, and something of the underlying but unacknowledged chemistry between them.

Once again, here is a novel that ticks all of my contemporary fiction boxes:

Strong female character ✅

Thoughtful, caring, humble and fairly sensible male character ✅

Witty, humorous dialogue ✅

Ultimately uplifting ✅

With thanks to Viking Books for gifting me a digital copy to review.