Emily Henry deploys predictable tactics and tropes to Happy Place, and mostly the motivations of characters fall quite flat. These are allegedly accomplished, professional people -- with strong, long standing friendships -- who just refuse to talk to each other. This is in complete juxtaposition to everything we are shown about the characters. Nothing about Harriet or Wyn is memorable, and Henry once again employs a past/present timeline that arrests pacing and development. My library will be purchasing the title as Henry is an absolute juggernaut, but I don't think there's anything new here.

Happy Place by Emily Henry Review

★ ★ ★ ★ ★/5

Do you remember how much I loved Book Lovers last year? Well, I think I loved Happy Place even more. This book from the very fist page reminded me of my happy place. Just like the friend group in the book every summer, my friends and I also have a tradition every year to spend a week in a small village next to a lake (I know in happy Place it’s beach but its almost the same) and it is one of my favorite times of the year. It just doesn’t matter how our lives are changing or what is going on, we always show up and spend some time together doing the exact same things every year.

I don’t think it will be a surprise, when I say my favorite part of this book was the friendship, how they stuck together despite distance and differences in their every day lives after college. They have their ups and downs, they grow apart, but they still find a way to be there for one and other.

And then let’s talk about the romance, because I was very sceptical going into this book knowing it is a second chance romance. That trope is probably my least favorite one, yet I was more than pleasantly surprised reading Wyn and Harriet’s story. I practically felt the love they had for each other reading their story and I was bawling my eyes out more than once while reading. I felt how much they were missing each other, their anxieties, trying to find their way back to each other, even when they felt their future is not heading the same direction.

Wyn was a very easy person to fall in love with I understand Harriet completely, he is the type of person who makes you feel warm and safe, while also challenging you and bringing out a side of you you never knew existed. And we have all been where Harriet is, not knowing what we actually want: what was expected of us and have known our entire lives or what would actually make us happy, but make everyone else disappointed. It was a rollercoaster, until everyone could find their way, to what they actually wanted, but I loved every minute of it.

Thank you for @prhinternational for sending me a copy for review.

This second chance broke me. At the end I was sobbing and I don't know if they were happy tears or just tears of being so overwhelmed with emotion. I was expecting to feel, but not quite that much.
Harriet and Wyn go back to the Happy Place, a home on the ocean with their friends, for one last time. Harriet thinks she is going along and will tell her friends that Wyn and her had broke up, but when she gets there, Wyn is there too. Neither of them have told their friends of their demise and they don't want to ruin the memories for their friends of the last chance at her Happy Place.
Harriet and her two best friends have been friends since the first semester at college, they are her people. They are the best people she knows and she would be no where without them, so why did she wait so long to share her biggest secret? Why did she push them away for so long?
The longer they are there, the more that starts to come out. Each of them struggling in a different way and unable to communicate. None of them want to change the dynamic that has been going on for years, but as we grow, we change and our very best friends will be with us along the way.
This wasn't just a story about Harriet and Wyn, but it was a story about fighting for what you really want and not what is expected of you, being scared and putting yourself out there, communication and not trying to be the person everyone expects, but doing what is right for you.
At the end, I was left a crying mess because we knew Harriet and Wyn were meant to be, you could see it leap off the pages, but I didn't know if they would ever grow up enough to fight for it. If you like second chances at love with all the emotions, pick this one up!
Thanks to Berkley, Emily Henry and Netgalley for an early copy.

Emily Henry is undoubtedly the queen of the romance genre and Happy Place is the latest example of why. I have been in a slump for a couple of months, but when somebody described this book as "if Taylor Swift and Joe Alwyn broke up and you ask why because they seemed so perfect together" I immediately opened my copy. And they were right.

We meet Harriet and Wyn as exes and see their relationship unravel further while also getting a glimpse of their past and how they fell in love. These two were written tenderly and with so much love, it's obvious. Plus, it's more than just the story of how Harriet and Wyn fell in love and fell apart, it's also a story of everlasting friendships. I loved, loved this one.

Emily Henry, you never miss.

Emily Henry is just one of those authors who never disappoints. Her latest novel, Happy Place, is one of my most anticipated reads of 2023 and I’m thrilled to report that it not only exceeded my very high expectations, but it’s also my new favorite read from Henry.

The story follows Harriet and Wyn, who have recently ended their years long relationship. The break-up is awkward enough in its own right, but the awkwardness is compounded by the fact that Harriet and Wyn are part of a close knit friend group that dates back to their college years. Harriet and Wyn have been putting off telling their friends for fear of “breaking up the band,” so to speak. This is all fine and good until they head to Maine for the group’s annual vacation getaway. When they learn that the family home they have always stayed at is being sold and that this may be the group’s last trip together, Harriet and Wyn decide it’s easier to just pretend they are still together rather than wreck their friends’ final trip together. It’s only a week, so how hard can it be?

One of my favorite aspects of the story was how Henry incorporates flashbacks from Harriet and Wyn’s past into the story. I loved seeing how they met and became friends and how that relationship blossomed into something more. Seeing how perfect they were for each other made it all the more bittersweet knowing that they were no longer together. It also made me that much more emotionally invested in learning what went wrong between them and if there was any path to a second chance.

While Harriet and Wyn’s relationship definitely drew me into this book, what really took the story to the next level for me was Henry’s moving portrayal of the entire friendship group. There’s a major nostalgic vibe as this group of friends both relives some of their best memories as friends from over the years, but there’s also a sense of fear of the unknown and of drifting apart as their lives are pushing them in different directions. I loved how realistic and poignant that aspect of the story was and how it really allowed for some wonderful character development. I think it’s something that will resonate with many readers. I know it resonated deeply with me.

Filled with Emily Henry’s signature banter as well as heartfelt emotional moments, Henry’s Happy Place is perfect for romance readers who enjoy tropes like second chance romance and forced proximity, as well as for anyone who enjoys a beautifully written story about friendship.

“I could never forget how to love Wyn.“ ✨

THIS BOOK IS AN ABSOLUTE GEM. I loved every single thing about it, which is no surprise. Everything Emily Henry writes is pure magic.

Harriet and Wyn were everything, and I loved all the subplots with their friends. I was so intrigued to find out what kept these two people apart when they were clearly so perfect for one another. I could not put it down.

I want to read this book over and over again!

While this book is classified as a romance, it's depth far surpasses most in this genre.

Harriet, Cleo and Sabrina found each other in college and have been best friends ever since. They belong in a way that none of them have ever found with family or friends before. Every year, along with Wyn, Kimmy (Cleo's girlfriend) and Parth (Sabrina's fiance), they spend a week in Maine on a friends' trip. But this year is different. Harriet and Wyn have broken up and haven't told their friends yet. So the annual trip is one last hurrah for all of them before the cottage is sold with Wyn and Harriet pretending at being a couple.

The depth of emotion in this book is a achingly beautiful, yet emotionally painful, to read at times. Harriet is a people pleaser, and works so hard at being a version of "happy" that it has affected her relationships with family, friends and her fiance, Wyn. Emily Henry has made Harriet relatable and recognizable. This book is about friendships, about women's sacrifices, about why relationships can fail, and why they work. It's about the whys and whens of shutting down, and the fears of opening up. I read it with my heart in my throat and hope in my heart. It's brilliant.

Thank you so much to NetGalley, Berkley, and Berkley Romance for an advanced copy!

This is by far my favorite book that Emily Henry has ever written! The characters, the setting, the relationships! I loved everything about this book and related to all of the characters, their feelings and relationships! I felt like I was transported to Maine and was right there with these college best friends, as they learn to adjust to what their new friendship looks like, and let me tell you it is so relatable. Each character is so important and this story would NOT be the same without all of them! With multiple tropes, banter, setting, and an array of emotions, I cannot truly say how much I related and loved reading this book!

Family, career, secrecy, honesty, LGBTQIA, mental health, grief and finding what truly makes you happy (no matter what others think that is for you) are all themes in this book and Emily Henry wraps it all up in a little bow so perfectly. Watching Harriet and Wyn find what truly makes them happy outside of their relationship is ultimately what made this book for me. Not only does this book focus on the struggles of one couple within a friend group, it dives into the realities of college best friends entering adulthood, new jobs, careers, and new cities all while loving each other as family!

Just the romance I needed rolling into summer. Doesn’t top my fav Em Hen - I wasn’t a fan of Sabrina and Parth and felt that Wyn and Harriet’s chemistry was hard to read at first in the beginning of their relationship, lastly, the ending was a little interesting with Harriet’s ultimate career choice 😅 but I can look past that and still enjoy it!

Tag line: In true Emily Henry fashion, Happy Place broke my heart and then put it back together again.

Full review to come on FreshFiction.com

Ten years after college 6 best friends find themselves at their happy place, for the last time. Sabrina’s Dad is selling his beautiful vacation home in Maine where these roomies have reconnected and reminisced year after year. Some of their most treasured memories happened on this lake and this is where Harriet and Wyn fell in love. Although they initially denied their feelings for the sake of the others, the moment Wyn picked her up at the airport every single thing changed. Now, years later the group meets up at the lake house for their last hurrah. In addition to the infamous lobster fest weekend, Parth and Sabrina announce they are getting married. Harriet and Wyn do not announce what they have hidden for the past 5 months, something no-one could have ever guessed - they have broken up. Wyn has returned to Montana to help care for his mother as Harriet continues to trudge through her grueling surgery residency in San Francisco. Once again, wishing to spare the others any discomfort they decide to wait until after the festivities to break the jarring news. Easier said than done, now that Wyn is in her midst Harriet’s heart is slowly breaking all over again. There is no way she can just be friends with the man who knows her every whim and every secret. The one who promised to love her forever. As they try in vain to “fake it til you make it”, they discover the truth about themselves and the friends they consider family. Fast paced fun, this book has a great mix of laughter, love and the challenges of long lasting friendships.

This one is unlike her other books. There’s a lot of back and forth time frames, and a lot of it is about growing up and growing apart. I was expecting more of a romcom like her other books, but this one was more serious. I rolled my eyes a lot at the ending, but I respect how she did it.

I’ll also be the first to admit that I can’t stand the second chances exes-lovers tropes. This one was well done, but it still isn’t a topic I typically want to read about. So that could affect why I didn’t absolutely love it.

I didn’t completely believe the love story, and I found myself wanting more. More of them, more of their story, and more of the current time line and a lot less of the past. The ending just didn’t work for me.

I also struggle with books about adults that blame all of their problems in life on their parents. And this book does it a TON. While I totally agree, our upbringing makes us who we are. But it doesn’t make us unchangeable and ruin every other relationship in our life because of it. Especially when there wasn’t abuse or anything in her past.

But overall, this is a great book if you don’t mind those tropes. Like always, her writing is flawless!!

Really enjoyed this! Emily always finds a way to write exactly what I need to hear in the moment, and it's why I fall even more in love with her with every new release. Harriet and Wyn had a specific conversation that made me ball my eyes out, and I always enjoy reading about friendships! Really needed this.
I will say this one was kind of different from Emily's other books, and I wanted a bittttt more than what I got. I wasn't super obsessed with the love interests, but I do appreciate their journey and how they were able to find their way back to each other. Not my favorite, unfortunately, but not a miss either!

“Harriet and Wyn have been the perfect couple since they met in college—they go together like salt and pepper, honey and tea, lobster and rolls. Except, now—for reasons they’re still not discussing—they don’t.”

I’ve really liked all Emily Henry’s books (particularly Book Lovers and A Million Junes) but this is the one that pushed me over the edge.

I’ve purchased the Season’s Pass. From this point on, I will RIDE ALL THE RIDES.

I generally don’t love miscommunication as a trope (it tends to make me want to shake people until their teeth rattle, and scream, “BRENE BROWN, FOR THE LOVE!” into their dumb faces), but this one was done so well that I’m giving it a Mulligan.

I loved the friend group. I loved the setting. I loved the dual timelines. I loved the banter. I loved the drawn out resolution.

I was a little worried, towards the end, that I wouldn’t get an entirely HEA, but, while I did well up several times with several emotions, my main one was “I LOVE LOVE.”

My only complaint (other than that it ended) was that all the friends were already paired off, so there aren’t avenues for book spin-offs.

I’d read the ish out their respective stories.

9/10

Thanks to NetGalley and Berkley Publishing for this lovely ARC.

Happy Place by Emily Henry was such a happy read! I had loved her Beach Read and People We Meet On Vacation but this one tops the last two reads!

Harriet is so much like me, who wants to make everyone proud and happy at the expense of living a life she doesn’t want to.

Wyn and Harriet are such an adorable couple even when they are pretending to be after their breakup. Their friendship with their best friends was a joy to experience. I wish I had such a wonderful circle of friends!

Thank you @librofm and @prhaudio for the complimentary audiobook. I am in love with narrator and the book! This most anticipated read of 2023 will be published on April 25, 2023

Happy Place by Emily Henry
Rating: 5 stars
Steam: 1 chili
Pub Date: 4/25

This was one of my most anticipated books of 2023, and it did not disappoint! Happy Place is everything I want in a romance and more.

Harriet and Wyn met in college and have been inseparable ever since. Except they broke up six months ago and haven’t told anyone. Not their friends or their families. Now they’re headed to their yearly vacation spot in Maine to visit with their best friends, and because they don’t want to rock the boat, they spend the week pretending they’re still together.

For starters, I used to vacation in Maine every summer with my family, and this book brought on some serious nostalgia for me. It wasn’t a stretch at all to imagine the picturesque locations Harriet and company visited throughout the book.

The story is told in past and present format, where we become immersed in Wyn and Harriet’s present situation and then taken back to how they first met. Their attraction was immediate, and they formed a sweet bond that I swooned over. The chemistry between them is still palpable, despite the fact they’re not together anymore. The forced proximity added a marriage-in-crisis vibe, which is a trope that I always enjoy.

While this is a love story focused on Wyn and Harriet, it’s also a love letter to friendship.
Harriet, Wyn, Chloe, Sabrina, Parth, and Kim have been friends for years, but time and distance are altering their relationships, and it scares them. They’re all nostalgic for their past as they grow apart and try to find their way back to one another.

I went back and forth between the audiobook and the ebook, and I loved both formats! Julia Whelan narrates this one, and she is just so talented. I’m convinced there isn’t anything she can’t do.

I loved everything about this fast-paced contemporary romance! The banter, the conflict, the romance, and the characters all come together to make up one of my favorite reads of 2023. I laughed, I cried, and I gave myself a book hangover.

Read if you like:
*Second chance,
*Friends-to-lovers-to-exes
*Found family
*Dual timeline
*All the feels

Thank you so much to NetGalley, Berkley, PRH Audio, and libro.fm for the gifted ARC and ALC in exchange for my honest opinion.

Emily Henry has knocked it out of the park with Happy Place. For clarity, I've been on the Emily Henry journey for awhile now. I loved Beach Read, felt People We Meet On Vacation was for me in a different time in my life, and Book Lovers reeled me fully back in. Happy Place is my new favorite title from Emily Henry.

To be transparent, I thought about waiting to read this novel until I was in my Happy Place in Good Hart Michigan, but the draw to know what was between the cover of this book was too strong. I am so glad I cracked it open jumped in with both feet. The story holds so much nostalgia. I felt my heart break, be put back together again, reconstructed, and ultimately, it landed somewhere in between. There is true pain within the pages of this book. There is sadness. There is also a lot of joy.

The characters all needed to be full body embraced and reminded of their value as individuals, partners, and as a group. Gah! It was such a good book. Read it. You won't regret it!

Thank you very much to @berkleyromance for providing me access to the e-book via @netgalley!!

I have read and/or listened to all of Emily Henry's books and Happy Place is the perfect kickoff to spring/summer reading!
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I really enjoyed the characters of Harriet and Wyn and their struggles as a couple and as individuals. The friend and chosen family dynamic worked so well for this storyline.
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Emily's books always put you in a great mood!

Another AMAZING story. I am a past/present junkie and this was everything. You get all the good, the bad, and the in between moments. omg the banter! It was perfect. The friend group was so much fun to read about. So much healing and discovery in this book. Emily Henry will forever be in my top 5 favorite writers. Thank you to the publisher and to NetGalley for the opportunity to read this early. I can’t wait to get my finished copy!

emily henry tends to divert from typical romcom arrangements, and this one was no different. if i’m being honest, this is probably furthest from a romcom.

this was riddled with melancholy, and dreaming of what used to be.

emily tends to write characters that i connect with, and harriet was no different. while our personalities were different, i believe that our anxieties mirrored each other.

it rivaled beach read in terms of romance. the characters felt destined to be together, and you could see their love with every word.

the cast of characters were a beautiful addition, and i hope it’s something that emily keeps up with in the future.

i do enjoy past and present books, and this one was really well written. they balanced each other out, and i didn’t feel like one lacked more than the other.

i did get a little bored toward the beginning, i find it hard to get into this authors books, but once you’re in - you’re in.

definitely recommend! hope to see this one brought to life as well.