Happy Place by Emily Henry is out in the world and I can’t wait for everyone to read it!

This book has all the hallmarks of a Henry romcom: authentic and layered characters, relatable and complex relationships, laugh out loud scenes, and a swoony romance. It was a total win for me!

If you’ve been following me for a bit, you’ll know that second chance romance is my least favorite trope. I rarely buy into the relationship and the plots never seem quite right (my one and only DNF this year was a second chance!).

But let me tell you, I 💯 bought into the second chance romance Emily Henry created! I was so invested in the story of Harriet and Wyn. My only complaint about this book was the slow unveiling of information about their past - not because it wasn’t well-done, but because I needed MORE of every detail of their lives and I needed it now (well, then).

And the friends in the story? So well-written! They added to the story in a way that didn’t draw away from the main characters. I no longer have a core group of friends like the one in the book and I’ll be honest, it made me a little sad and jealous.

Also very jealous of the “cottage” on the Maine coast with a pool, guest house, and within walking distance of a cute town. Anyone with a seaside escape in need of a new friend (who comes along with 4 family members)?!

If you’ve read Emily Henry in the past, I’m sure this one is already on your tbr. If you haven’t read her books before, you won’t be disappointed starting with this one!

Emily Henry does it again!! This book is so unlike her other stories, yet it has that familiar Emily Henry feel that made it so addicting and un-put-downable. I loved these characters and this setting, and I especially loved the then/now timeline. Definitely in my top 2 of favorite books by her!

Emily Henry has the unique ability to really immerse you in her the world of her books and Happy Place is no different. I wanted to be in Maine having one last memorable weekend with this group of friends!

This one hurt so fucking good. I went in blind. Didn’t look at ANY reviews and it hurt soooo good. I cried SO much, I didn’t think it was humanly possible to cry even more. We get a dual timeline: the present and the past where we also learn about the relationship and the characters.

Tropes we see? Fake dating. Second chance. One bed. Forced proximity. Friends to lovers. Enemies to lovers. Basically ALL of the good ones.

Wyn and Harriet shattered my heart. Watching them broken, falling in love, and falling apart did a special little number to my heart and soul. Being apart of a group of friends and knowing that dating between a friend circle can produce a very special hardship - but it’s a risk that they were willing to take. We also get some side stories about their other best friends in the group - and can I just say that Sabrina had me seeing red at one point?!

This one truly surpassed ALL of my expectations I had. I loved her other 3 books, but this one easily became my absolute favorites of all of her work. She poured her heart and soul into this story and you can feel the emotions.

This was so much fun, great chemistry between the lead characters and just enough spice to keep things interesting. The book also has a perfect summer setting making it ideal for outdoor reading.

I am not a romance reader and I still loved “Happy Place”!

To go back to what I said about not being a romance reader — this is very much a romance novel but it’s also a love story about different kinds of love. The character arcs were just fantastic. It’s a good read all the way through — I picked it up to get out of a slump, and it worked — but the ending really pushed it over the top for me.

I also have to acknowledge just how brilliant this hot pink cover is. I tip my hat to you, Berkley cover designer — this one grabs the eye and will look phenomenal in beachy instagram stories this summer.

Synopsis: Harriet and Wyn broke up five months ago, but they haven’t told their friends — and now they can’t, or they risk ruining the friend group’s last summer at a Maine cottage where they’ve been vacationing for a decade. So they make the only logical choice (🤔) and pretend to still be together.

Absolutely loved it!

Harriet didn't have a lot of friends growing up, but she met her best friends in college and together they built a strong little tribe.

One summer Har falls for one of the guys in their friend group and it seems perfect, until one day it isn't.

Now the group of 6 best friends, gather together at the cottage in Maine they have visiting together for years, and this trip is going to mark the end of an era, and help all the friends inch closer into the next phase of their lives.

Told in alternating timelines from past to present, we learn the history of the group, but also if Harriet and Wyn. This is very much a coming of age story for young 20-somethings transitioning in to full on adulthood. The struggles each character faces regarding careers, relationships, parenthood, and holding on the the memories of what made them all friends in the first place was so relatable. I wish I had this book back when I was in my 20s.

Henry writes such realistic characters, ones I would totally be friends with myself. I highly recommend this one and will anxiously await the next Emily Henry love story.

I don’t think I could love a book more! A TOP FAVE of 2023!! I spent all night reading this book and finished at 6am. It was unputdownable!

This group of friends have been friends forever. Wyn and Harriet, the most perfect couple for 10 years, until one day five months ago their engagement ended. The friends are getting together at their happy place in Knott’s Harbor, Maine, and Wyn and Harry are there pretending they are still together for the sake of their friends.

This book is told in past and present pov so we can experience their friendship and how Wyn and Harriet came to be and what’s happening with this group now. First off, I absolutely loved how close this group of friends are, how well they knew each other, how much they just loved each other… they are each others family. I found myself smiling over the banter between Harriet and Wyn, and I loved the push and pull between them. Most especially I just loved Wyn, the good guy who could say the most perfect things, the one you could trust your heart with. You could feel that the love between them wasn’t over and the will they/won’t they absolutely had me with knots in my stomach because I just loved them SO MUCH!

"I'm not going to stop fighting for you, Harriet." My vision blurs behind the tears. He pulls me in, holds me tight. "I'm not going to stop loving you."

This book is so much more than just about love and second chances. It’s about friendship and family and trust and loss, it’s about finding yourself and that happiness that everyone in the world deserves. This is a feel-good romance in every way but be ready with tissues, because oh how I cried. 😭😭

"Everything's different and nothing's changed, Harriet," he says. "I tried so f'ing hard to let you go, to let you be happy, and when I see you, I still feel like—like you're mine. Like I'm yours. I got rid of every single piece of you, like that could make a difference, like I could cut you out of me, and instead, I just see everywhere you're supposed to be."

I just loved this book soooo much and I don’t want to spoil anything for you. Just read it! I promise you will love it too! Packed with emotion, beautiful words and characters, this is one of the best books I’ve read this year!

This book - it will break your heart but fill it up too. It's about love and loss, happiness and unhappiness, friendship and family. It's about all the things we do and the decisions we make, thinking they will make someone else happy. It's about all the things we don't say, trying to keep peace. This book resonated with me deeply as a person who internalizes.

Harriet and Wyn fall madly, deeply in love. Somewhere along the way, they lose each other. While trying to keep the peace and make the other person happy, they end up making themselves miserable and isolated. When Wyn goes home to Montana to take care of his ailing mother, they call off their engagement and their eight year relationship ends.

Wyn is devastated and heads to her yearly friendcation in Maine - her "happy place" only to unexpectedly find Wyn there too. None of their friends know they have broken up and when their best friends announce they are getting married during the vacation, they decide to pretend to still be together.

Through alternating then & now chapters, we have a front row seat to Harriet and Wyn's love story and their heartache. Their time together is filled with so much angst, chemistry and unspoken emotion. These two killed me! I wanted them to open up to each other so bad.

Wyn - Oh how he stole my heart! Read these quotes and tell me your heart didn't melt.

"In every universe, it's you for me. Even if it's not me for you."

"I will always love you," he says fiercely. "That's the point, Harriet. It's the only thing that's ever come naturally to me. The thing I don't have to work at. I loved you all the way across the fucking country, and at my darkest, on my worst days. I still love you more than I've ever loved anything else."

Yup, Wyn had my heart turned into complete mush.

Emily Henry you are everything to me and I will read everything you ever write from now until the end of time<3

Gosh I love second chance romances! This was pretty dang good. Harriet and Wyn had a great connection and the book was filled with love and friendship. Emily Henry did a great job with this.

emily henry is the unparalleled queen of banter and friend groups. does that make me miss the golden age of my life during which she was writing about both and also magic and also realism and also ya? sure. but i'll take it

there is angst and yearning here and that is really my only romance criteria!!

4.5 stars

Emily Henry has really come into her own as a writer. With the exception of "Book Lovers," I’ve now read all of her adult romance novels, and I do think "Happy Place" is her best yet.

Her story of a broken-up couple pretending to be together while vacationing with their friends is so amusing, so steamy, and so heartfelt that I couldn’t resist picking it up, even when I only had a handful of minutes to read. The couple at the center of the novel, Harriet and Wyn, have excellent chemistry, and though their love story is quite angsty, it’s not so overblown that it veers into unrealistic and annoying territory. (I do acknowledge, however, that Harriet is a bit of a handful.)

And as a bonus to the romance, we are also given an emotional story of friendship. Harriet and Wyn and their friends have lived life together, and now this joint life is changing and taking the couples in different directions. We’ve all experienced the sadness of transitioning friendships in some shape or form, and it’s clear that Henry has as well, because she writes the pain of it into the story. It’s beautifully done.

"Happy Place" is my new Emily Henry happy place. When I think of her or am asked about her writing, this is the book I will think of fondly.


My sincerest appreciation to Emily Henry, Berkley Publishing Group, and NetGalley for the digital review copy. All opinions included herein are my own.

The book opens up with Harriet meeting her old friends at their annual getaway spot in Maine. This trip has been a tradition for 10 years and they always visit the same coastal beach home. Only this year is the first year she is attending without Wyn ... or at least that was the plan.

What I appreciate about Emily Henry novels are the flawed main characters. I like how raw they feel at times. The couple and their friends felt relatable and it definitely isn't all sunshine and rainbows with them. And the setting was *givinggg* in this book. I love being immersed in an atmospheric romance book.

I think my biggest gripe, although there are many, lies within the male main character, Wyn. His lack of communication (especially with his WIFE) was infuriating and left me completely annoyed by the end of the book. Not to mention, the conversation was lightly dusted over and unsatisfying. Another issue I had (and I had this in Book Lovers) is that the main couple in the book lacked chemistry and felt stale. And finally, I was bored reading it, especially during the "happy place" chapters. Had I not picked it up on a cross country flight I may have DNF'd.

I'm usually not one to deter people from reading a book, so if the tropes and premise sound interesting, then by all means pick it up!

Emily Henry hits a homerun again. This book gives you all the feels, the entire time. You're rooting for the couple, you're rooting for the friendships and you're secretly hoping that the house sale falls through or there's a surprise twist later, that one of the couples secretly bought the house. Anyway, I love how Emily Henry explores the complicated friendships and the slight misunderstandings that happen in everyday life. It doesn't hurt that there's supercharged romantic feelings involved. This was another book that was easy to devour!

Emily Henry books always seem to find me at the exact moment in life when I need them most. Her characters continue to be so real and relatable while thriving in this romcom environment she creates. Happy Place was of course no exception. It’s not an easy task to give readers a second chance romance from a single POV where both the character and the reader don’t know what went wrong in the relationship. I felt myself wanting to give in but also guard my heart right alongside Harriet throughout the whole book. I wanted to root for them and get to the bottom of everything so I could fix it myself. The friendships in this book were so wonderful, and such a great look at growing pains in adult relationships. The atmosphere of the vacation home and small scenic town were everything I adore about an Emily Henry book. I continue to be so blown away by her ability to write seemingly light hearted, summery romcoms that ultimately pack such a punch and make readers feel seen and understood in new ways every time.

Emily Henry knocked it out of the park again!
I know not everyone enjoys the jumping from past to present but I don't mind it and I think it helped tell this story!
I think that this will soon be on everyone's TBR list!

Happy Place by Emily Henry is a "second chance" romance between Wyn and Harriet, but also is a story of friendship. Harriet has found a "second family" with her college roommates, Cleo and Sabrina. Junior year, a law student named Parth joins their group, bringing his friend and roommate, Wyn Connor. Harriet and Wyn are instantly attracted to one another, and try to hold off on their feelings to keep their friendship group intact. When the group travels to Maine to Sabrina's father's cottage, the sparks fly and then ignite for Wyn and Harriet, making them a couple for the remainder of college, Harriet's medical school, and then her residency. When Wyn breaks their engagement, Harriet is devastated. Soon after, Sabrina issues their annual vacation invitation to the Maine cottage, and has placed Harriet and Wyn in the same room. Sabrina and Parth have announced that they will be getting married at the end of the week, and all they want is their small group of friends to celebrate with them. When Harriet and Wyn here this, they realize they must keep their own break-up secret, and they pretend to still be a couple until after their friend's ceremony.
What could go wrong?
What I liked: the friend group, and eventually the realization that life changes, needs change, and friendships adapt.
What I did not like: The ridiculous amount of drama that ensued due to total lack of communication, both with the friends group, and Harriet and Wyn. The ending was a bit unrealistic to me as well, but I am an admitted cynic. It could also be I read this when the weather was unseasonably cold and rainy, so I wasn't in the mood for a vacation read.
If you are an Emily Henry fan, you will probably enjoy this. I still like Book Lovers the best. Thank you to Netgalley for an advanced reader copy.

Happy Place is the newest rom-com written by Emily Henry. This novel is set in Maine and follows the friendship between six people who met in college a decade prior. Every year they've met for a week of fun and relaxation at a family waterfront home. That home is now being sold so the friends must come to terms with this being their last get-together at the location. However, the friends soon realize that they haven't been completely honest with each other and secrets are about to be revealed. I finished reading this book with a smile on my face! Read and enjoy!

Second chance romance from America's next contemporary romance sweetheart. Always a good time, but not my favorite tropes to sit and steep in this go around. I found the characters and attitude of the book came together well, however. Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for an opportunity with the title.