Everything Emily Henry writes turns to gold and I am constantly in awe of her ability to capture emotions and make every book feel like it was written just for me, like she crawled into my brain to write exactly what I needed to hear.

I am an avid Emily Henry reader and I thought Happy Place, while utterly beautiful and so distinctly ~Emily Henry~ in her voice and diction, stood out from her others because it feels so different than her other stories. That may be in part because its her first true second chance story, or because of the large cast of characters the book centers on, but I mostly think its because, whereas her other books focus on female protagonists who are confident in their dreams and are trying to hold on to and/or find a way back to them, the thing that they know makes them happy, Happy Place is a story about letting go - of inhibitions, of expectations, of so-called dreams, of a life that no longer suits you. And by letting go, that’s when you can find your truest, happiest self. That is a message that spoke to me, that I felt in my heart, mind, and soul.

On a scale of Beach Read (angst) to People We Meet On Vacation (rom-com), if Book Lovers falls in the middle but closer to Beach Read, then Happy Place falls in the middle closer to PWMOV. Happy Place has everything you’d expect and love in an Emily Henry book - witty banter, immaculate chemistry, a lovable hero who you just want to hug and tell them everything will be okay, a strong-willed heroine who feels like was written specifically for you, well thought-out and engaging characters beautifully navigating through struggle, grief, life changes, and complex relationships. It was emotional, it was heartfelt, it was joyful, it was heartbreaking, it was moving. It felt like a true labor of love that Emily Henry is kind enough to gift to us.

Harriet is the most mirrorball girlie to have ever mirrorballed and I cried for the last 30% of this book because of her and her beautiful, nightmare, soft, soft, people-pleaser brain. She deserves happiness more than anyone I know. Wyn, my sweet Wyn, is the ultimate golden boy on the outside (which was such a change for a EH hero, I was thrown at first glance) but was so, SO damaged on the inside (this tracks for Miss Henry - thank you for giving the people what we want). He was a character I both loved and was completely frustrated by because I couldn’t peg him. His character, flaws, demons, insecurities and all, were revealed so slowly, bit by bit throughout the book that it really took nearly the whole story for me to understand him and his actions. But once I did, it was a complete game-changer, like the missing puzzle piece that unlocked Emily Henry’s grand masterpiece and made me see the whole story in a new light. At one point Harriet makes a joke that she’s slow-release hot… Wyn is slow-release TRAUMA (and I obviously loved every second of it).

Emily Henry is truly a master at her craft and, while it hurts a large part of me to feel all the feelings she invokes (something I usually try to avoid), I am grateful to her for capturing certain emotions that I thought were indescribable and seemingly always finding a way to tell me exactly what I need to hear. I look forward to reading everything she writes in the future, including her grocery lists.

Thank you so SO much for Berkley Publishing and NetGalley for the ARC of Happy Place!

It’s hard to not like an Emily Henry book, but I did feel that this was the slowest paced and least engaging of hers so far. However, I think that could also be due to the fact that it is a second chance romance. I felt that this book focused less on romance and more on their friendship dynamics and learning to navigate your relationships with other people. I do think that this was the most realistic relationship conflict and breakup reason I have ever read in a romance novel, but I did not feel a propelling romantic thread throughout this book that made me excited to keep moving forward. That being said, I enjoyed this and thought it handled the tropes well, I just don’t think they are the tropes for me.

Emily Henry has such a gift for capturing emotions with the kind of breathtaking exactness that makes you go, "Yes! That is exactly how that feels." She is in her full glory here in HAPPY PLACE, walking us through the myriad of ways we grow and change in our thirties and how sometimes you can grow apart from someone only to grow back together even stronger. It's a poignant, beautiful story told by a writer at the top of her game. How lucky we are to live in the time of Emily Henry's greatness!

As a Mainer, how could I not love an Emily Henry book set in a Maine vacation house? Harriet and Wyn have always been the perfect couple since they crossed that fateful line from friends to lovers. They have a group of friends that have become the definition of found family. They even all take a yearly vacation to a cottage on the coast of Maine. Unfortunately, this year Wyn and Harriet are no longer together and no one else knows. But when the group finds out that the “happy place” is being sold, they decide to hold off on announcing their breakup in effort to make it a memorable last hurrah. After dating for nearly a decade, Wyn and Harriet should easily be able to fake it, right? It's just a week. They can hold it together for one week... right?


It took me a few chapters to really feel like I was connecting to the characters. It was still enjoyable to read but I didn't feel completely glued to the story. BUT then I started to get a better feel for Harriet and became more invested. I did eventually get to a point where I did not want to put it down. The emotions brought forward by Wyn and Harriet are beautiful though. The dual timeline really allows for you feel the intense attraction when they met and then fell in love, etc; but also feel the heartbreak of their distance when arriving at the cottage. And of course, with a setup like this there is obviously a one bed trope to up the ante on the fake dating/forced prox/second chance aspects. Some other themes that felt important to mention were grief, facing your fears, finding yourself and the roller-coaster of emotions that accompany growing up. There was also a great mental health rep.

Overall, it was a great read and I enjoyed it!
I am extremely thankful that Netgalley and Berkley Publishing gave me an advanced copy in exchange for my honest opinion <3

Thank you to Berkley and Netgalley for an ARC in exchange of a fair review.

All the hearts and feels! I adored this book. Henry keeps to her past/present formats of other novels. I adored the premise and characters. Wyn is definitely a new, dreamy book boyfriend for 2023. The narrative nicely deals with relationship ups and downs, changing friendships and managing adulting.

I love Emily Henry, with Beach Read and Book Lovers being two of my favorite romance novels to date, so I had high expectations for this one. I had a hard time connecting with any of the characters, who all seemed bad at communicating and a bit entitled. The breakup between Harriet and Wyn felt particularly implausible, and I wasn't convinced that they would've broken up in the first place. Even Harriet's troubles with her job seemed overblown. Plus everyone drank too much! Overall, still an enjoyable read, just didn't live up to my expectations.

Thank you to NetGalley and Berkley Publishing Group for an advanced reader copy of Happy Place.

Harriet can't wait to join her friends at their yearly Maine vacation, she hasn't seen them in a while and has some news. Her and her fiance Wyn, another member of the friend group, are no longer together. Color her surprised when she walks into the house and sees Wyn.

They have to get through the week and convince their closest friends they are still very much in love. Should be easy right? Too bad Harriet is furious with Wyn and still doesn't fully understand what happened with their relationship.

I loved this read! Emily Henry delves into Harriet and Wyn's relationship and also all the friendships in the group. It made me want to call all my friends and tell them I love them. Communication is a huge storyline in this novel. Harriet would have avoided so much pain if she would have talked to people and not made assumptions. It deals with mental health in a quiet way. The characters are growing up and still trying to stay connected.

I tried so hard to not flip to the end and ruin the ending for myself. And I'm glad I didn't! I don't want to give any spoilers so I won't go too into plot.

But I want to give Wyn a big hug, and tell Harriet she does deserve to be happy!

there was no doubt about this one. i'm absolutely convinced EH wrote this for me and the ones who suffer in silence, the ones who are closer to their friends than they are with their family and siblings, the ones who will do anything to make others proud of them. the people pleasers and the quiet romantics, the ones who ache to be seen for who they really are and how they truly feel. she wrote it for the ones who center love in their life but have never had love centered for them and the younger siblings who had to pick up the pieces and shoulder the responsibilities, the weights, and the burdens of unspoken trauma. in Wyn, she wrote the ones who feel lost, struggling to fit into a world that prioritizes "passions" and "go-getters", the ones who love the little things about life, the ones who don't feel like they deserve anything special, and the ones who never feel like they're enough. and lastly, Happy Place is such a beautiful romance novel but it also captures the love and magic of platonic love. the depth of a friendship so beautiful, you know they were a part of your soul in another life and will have a piece of your heart for the rest of this one. this was truly so well done.

This is one of those "devour in as few sittings as humanly possible" blissful vacation reads, which is what I'm always looking for with Emily Henry. I found it a little annoying at first that every single character is beautiful and rich and had that perfect-with-one-endearing-quirk energy that usually comes with the territory of less-good romance novels, and I also found the overall conceit hard to swallow in the first several chapters. However, EH won me over in the end, as she always does. I also think--much like most of her other books--that this would make a great movie, but it doesn't have the annoying "written to be a movie" vibe.

I adored everything about this book. The back and forth from present to past fit perfectly with everything happening in the story, and I found all of the characters to be very multidimensional. Even with the conflict, the relationships between all of the characters felt very strong and well-developed, and I loved the way Harriet, Sabrina and Cleo’s friendship was portrayed.

Oh my god. Her best yet. I usually try to read my net galley ARCs in order of publication date but I could not hold myself back and I'm NOT SORRY. This book broke my heart and put it back together. I have zero complaints, suggestions, or tweaks. I just wish I could read it again for the first time.

Things I loved: realistic, devastating depiction of grief, found beloved family, complicated, changing friend groups/dynamics, emotionally complicated (but not stunted) male protagonist, emotionally complicated female protagonist who has to figure out what she actually wants out of life, happy endings not necessarily looking like you thought they would.

I have to stop writing because I'm crying again.

Thanks to NetGalley and Berkley for the free ARC in exchange for an honest review.

How lucky am I to read the new Emily Henry book?! Another warm, funny, insightful novel that warms your heart and stays with you long after you read it. Wyn and Harriet have been engaged for years but recently called it off, and are forced to pretend they are still together on a week with their best friends, in a house in Maine where so many of their best memories occurred. The relationship between the two main characters unfolded beautifully, not withholding information and frustrating the reader (as so often happens with romance novel 'misunderstandings' that would be so easily cleared up!) The friendships at the heart of the book were sweet and real. I enjoyed it all! Send me every one of her new books and I will recommend them far and wide!

So good! A story of love and friendship and found family that leaves you feeling like you are reading about friends and wanting more. Harriet is going to her happy place, the house on the coast of Maine where she has spent time with her closest friends, but this time things have changed and it seems like they are all keeping things from each other. She is, she hasn't told her best friends that she is no longer engaged to Wyn, and Wyn is here. How are they going to tell their friends when this week is supposed to be a celebration? I did not want this to end.

Listen, I don't even know what to say about this. It's an Emily Henry book, _of course_ it's going to be the most fantastic and heartbreaking and romantic read. I devoured it in a day. I preordered my own personalized copy. What else are you going to do when it's a new Emily Henry book?

I love Emily Henry and this book has once again knocked it out of the park. I love how beautifully it depicts how friendships and relationships change and evolve over time and how hard it is to stay connected as adults. The romance and friendships were wonderful. I sat down to start this book and didn't move until I was finished. I was immediately pulled in and I never wanted to leave. An absolutely lovely book.

Thank you so so much to Berkley and NetGalley for my first ever ARC ! I can say, genuinely, truly, frustratingly, and adoringly… Emily, you have outdone yourself. From beginning to end, this book touched the deepest, loneliest parts of my heart and slowly patched them as I went. Emily Henry has an incredible ability to capture things we all might feel but cannot voice, to create characters that we can truly see ourselves in, and to present it all in an adorable, comforting, whimsical background that still feels human, and real.
One of my favorite things about this book was that it wasn’t just about Harry and Wyn. It isn’t just a love story between two individuals, but the love of a friend group who is trying so hard not to let go because it’s so scared when things change and you’re not sure how to change the way you love to adapt to it. I saw so much of myself and my best friends in Sabrina, Cleo, and Harriet. I felt so much of that bittersweet ache of being so close but so far. It was about the love of the happy places that will always hold those happy memories. It was about loving yourself enough to love it all.
I loved loved loved this book. Emily Henry is a god, truly. I’ll never get tired of anything she writes, but this is truly peak for me. I cannot wait to hold this in my hands and read it again and again until it’s falling apart. This book, in its entirety, is my own happy place.

Emily Henry’s new book Happy Place is a read that readers are sure to love. A romance yes, but also a story about the importance of friendship and how it develops over time. Definitely keep an eye out for its release in April 2023!

It will come as a surprise to no one that I loved this. Emily Henry really knows how to transport you with her writing, and I felt like I was right there with Harriet, Wyn, and their friends on the coast of Maine.

I connected so much with both Harriet and Wyn and could see myself in each of them in different ways. This one feels more poignant in some ways than Henry's previous books, but still with plenty of that witty humor we have all come to know and love from her. I loved how there was a lot of emphasis on "found family," and all the places and people we call home. Feeling like you belong and have a place (and people) to feel at home with is so important. We need that connection as human beings. Whether that is with the family we're born with, or the family we create with friends.

Some readers might get irritated that this has quite a bit of a lack of communication trope between our main characters, but I felt like this felt true to life. It's difficult to talk about things sometimes, especially if you're used to gaining love and acceptance by your actions and accomplishments only. It's hard to be vulnerable even when there's the risk of losing what you need and want the most.

I highlighted sooo many lines and am already looking forward to reading it again.

Overall, another stellar book from Henry.

Emily Henry is a prime writer of contemporary romance that has a hard edge. Her latest, Happy Place, is perhaps her best so far. Don't miss it!

A big win for Emily Henry fans! This one is different from her other books in a way I can't quite put my finger on but I cannot wait until this book is released to the world.