Emily Henry does it again. I loved this book so much! the miscommunication was a little annoying at points because you just wanted the characters to sit down and work it out. But I found it didn't overwhelm the story. I'm a sucker for second-chance romance.

Thank you to NetGalley and Berkley for this gift of an ARC!

Emily Henry is quickly becoming a favorite romance author. Her characters are so relatable and the stories keep you hooked until the end.

The dynamic of the 6 friends is what keeps this story moving. I wish there was more about Harriet, Sabrina, and Cleo. It felt like the trio got lost in the overall group until the very end. I wanted more of Harriet's family, more progress with her sister, or at least a little more interaction between the two of them.

The structure makes sense for the story but it's my least favorite part of this book. There are flashbacks/memories in the present/real life chapters. A lot of the story is told in flashbacks/memories and I think some of that could be spent exploring more of the dynamic between Harriet and her family or Harriet, Sabrina, and Cleo.

***Thanks to the publisher and Netgalley for providing me with a digital copy of this book in exchange for an honest review***
Emily Henry is an automatic read by me. The wit and banter between her characters are always top-notch and the romance is almost tangible. Happy Place had all of that, but there was an undercurrent of grief and realness that resonated with me. Growing up and finding yourself is a serious theme in this novel. it almost made the novel sadder than I wished it to be, but Henry always gives us what we want, so I am extremely happy with this novel!

If you are an Emily Henry fan, you will recognize the author's sense of humor, depth of character building, and penchant for nostalgia in Happy Place as seen in Book Lovers, People We Meet On Vacation, and Beach Read. With evocative, sensory-based writing, emotionally layered characters, and heavily developed backstories for Harriet and Wyn, this book is quite the emotional journey. As I read this, I was dying to be on this beautiful Maine vacation. A born-and-raised New Englander myself, I was easily swept up in the talk of fresh blueberries, seaside fairs, salty beaches, and seafood dinners. Those descriptions were certainly a high point of this book for me, as were Harriet's and Wyn's character development and the overall theme of questioning whether you are "good enough" - be that for family, friends, or even yourself.
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Though it took me a while to get used to the alternating chapter style between the flashbulb "happy place" memories and the present day (the chapters are on the short side and I felt some reader whiplash) and the desire to learn some more about the side characters, this was well done. With classic tropes such as found family, dysfunctional friends, and forced proximity, Happy Place will really hit you in the feels, especially if you are a New Englander!

Emily Henry has proven herself a deft hand at crafting a compelling, lived in romance. Told with an eye to physical and emotional geography, readers are guided through Harriet’s past with friends and her ex-fiancé Wyn, to her present-day vacation at an important cottage in Maine. The dialogue is witty and warm, filled with insightful turns of phrase. Our starring 6 have a wonderful dynamic, and the cast feels like people you know and love. The expanded ensemble enriches the story and creates opportunities for hijinks. Beneath the antics lies a story about two deeply feeling people, trying to make sense of their fractured relationship, life’s ups and downs, and themselves. The pacing was spot on, and the romance tropes never felt stale. Harriet, Wyn, Sabrina, Cleo, Parth, and Kimmy navigate conflict and difficulties realistically given their experiences. Their care for each other is clear on every page.

I know exactly how I’ll pitch this to my customers!

Perfection as always. Emily Henry just knows how to write romantic leads that manage to tear my heart into absolute shreds. Will write more closer to release date!

A warm hug when you need it.

Harriet and Wyn have been broken up for 5 months now, but in an effort to salvage the last annual Maine besties trip, they agree to fake continue-to-be-engaged. What follows is an equal-parts heartfelt and heart-wrenching story of chosen family, lost and found love, and independence.

Every single character felt so dynamic and real; it’s clear how much time Henry has spent with these characters, imagining full lives for them and giving us a long glance into each one. Everyone had such complex feelings and conflicts that propelled them through the story. I love all six of these pals deeply.

The brief timeline shifts felt very successful. It was a useful device for the slow reveal of each friend’s motivations, which kept the immersion alive. Not only that, but it allowed for great callbacks, and I love a good callback.

Henry’s banter is always top-notch, and Happy Place was no exception. The way Harriet and Wyn riff off one another, and how they still find jests in hard conversations, stole my heart. Rooting for y’all always.

Emily Henry romances haven’t always been hits for me, but there’s no questioning that this one is smashing. It’s been ages since I felt so emotionally invested in a text. so much so that I felt I had to savor it. Sometimes a book is presented to you at the perfect time in your life, and Happy Place is one of those for me. I could go on and on about how much I enjoyed this, but I’ll leave it at: Thank you, Emily Henry, for this one. It means a lot.

And thank you to NetGalley and Berkley Publishing Group for the eARC. Forever appreciated. ♡

Thank you NetGalley for allowing me to read an ARC of Happy Place by Emily Henry!

This book was a palette cleanser for me. I really enjoyed reading it. This book has second chances, forced proximity, and a great male main character (Wyn). I liked all of the friends, especially Kimmy. The book is told in the present and there are also flashbacks of how Harriet and Wyn got together and how their relationship disintegrated. Everyone who likes romance should pick this up!

Emily henry does it again. This book had me in my feelings more than her previous work. A second chance romance mixed with that perfect life crisis always makes for a great story, The characters in this book were everything. The friend group was everything and it was so good to see them not be these perfect people and realize they're all working through something,

The love story though! Ah! my whole heart. Hariet and Wyn's love story is that all consuming love you're so lucky to have found and at some point one person realizes they may not be enough. The angst, the hurt, the pining, the LOVE, and of course the sexual tension. I just wanted to lock them in a wine cellar together (haha, see what I did there?)

Get ready for Emily to tug at your heartstrings yet again. This is the perfect combination of forever love and women's fiction.

4.5 stars rounded up -- half-star taken off because I'm not entirely sure the structure (happy place flashbacks interspersed with real life narrative) was necessary, especially as the real life bits sometimes had memories in them.

That being said, I loved this almost as much as Book Lovers, my favorite of Emily Henry's novels. I can see readers who come mostly for the banter, swoon, and steam being a little disappointed. Wyn and Harriet aren't quite as sharp and clever as Charlie and Nora, and the steamy bits are restrained. But what I like most about Henry's romances is the layers to the story. Book Lovers, for instance, was about grief and family expectations as much as it was about the romance. This one is about the ways our childhood hurts inform our adult relationships, and about friends who have become family struggling to understand that growing in different directions doesn't have to mean growing apart.

Wyn and Harriet's main conflict is communication, which I know is a pet peeve for many romance readers, including me. (WHY DON'T YOU JUST TALK TO EACH OTHER!? I've been known to yell at a book.) But the lack of communication here is central to what each is struggling with individually. And Henry smartly mitigates the potential annoyance by only writing from Harriet's POV. We can make assumptions about Wyn's feelings and thoughts, but they're never explicitly on the page (beyond dialogue).

The ending feels maybe a little rushed -- though I think that's partially because Henry's characters felt real to me. I know that getting past some of the things they're struggling with probably would take more than one big epiphany, but for the purposes of a HEA, Henry leaves those future fights for the reader to imagine.

Thanks to NetGalley for the advance copy.

Emily Henry is my favorite romance author and every book gives me the feeling of pure unadulterated excitement mixed with anxiety. My reason for this mixed bag of emotion? I’m so nervous to see who lies within the pages! Is it going to feel like Beach Read? Are we visiting places like we did in PWMOV? Am I going to fall in love with the leading man like I did with Charlie? So much to consider! So much to wonder over. But Happy Place does such an incredible job at blending everything I’ve loved about Emily Henry into one. The locations, the friendships and found family, the romance, the chemistry, the happy tears and the sad ones. I was enamored with every character and every scene. This book also has a bit of switching timelines from the past to present, and usually I prefer one timeline to the other, but every time a new chapter started I was just greedy for more of the characters.

Overall, I laughed, I CRIED, I fell in love with my own friends all over again and felt snuggly in my relationship. Thank you Emily Henry for giving me more characters to cherish and new storylines to obsess over!

Emily Henry does it again--fantastic characters, a believable use of a trope that isn't my favorite, friendships, love, and humor. I loved it.

Emily Henry does it again with her latest. Harriet's happy place is on the coast of Maine with her dearest friends from college. They're gathering together for one last hurrah before the home they love is sold. The six of them have returned to it for over ten years and letting go is proving to be harder than anticipated. In the several months leading up to the trip, Harriet and her ex-fiance, Wyn, grew apart and broke up, but they couldn't bring themselves to tell their friends. They've agreed Wyn won't go on the trip, but when Harriet walks in the door, he's there waiting for her as if the last six months never happened. They agree to put on a show for their friends, but will they make it through the week? The story is told alternating between the present day and the happy places of the past. This book is at the top of my list for reads in 2022. I highly recommend it.

What I love about Emily Henry’s stories is that they reflect real people and real lives. Her characters feel less fictional and more like someone I could know or even sometimes, they feel like myself.

Happy Places takes two people, Harriet and Wyn, and tells a story of growth and loss and coming back together again. It’s a mature story and Emily’s writing reflects that maturity and growth.

Flashing back between past and present, readers get to learn the story of how Harriet and Wyn came to be, how they fell apart, and how they pieced themselves back together again. It’s beautiful and real and raw.

This book also tackles adult friendships and yhe difficulty it takes to maintain them. Harriet and Wyn’s friend group feels like they could be my friends, or even yours, and you can’t help but feeling like you’ve gone through exactly what they’re going through.

When adding the relatability with the banter that Emily does best, this has easily become my favorite book of hers. I can’t recommend this book enough.

I've previously loved everything else that Emily Henry has written, so I figured I could get a sneak peek into what this one would look like. The start was a little bit slow for me but I feel like if I read this at a more appropriate time, I could get more into it. I'm excited to finish this when the physical copy is published.

Emily Henry writes some of the very best modern romance out there! Her character development is just....chef's kiss! Her story lines are always top notch too, not too sappy, just perfection! Thank you Emily Henry!

Emily Henry does it again. I couldn’t put this one down. As someone who prefers more angsty romance to romcom, Happy Place had just the right amount of each. I literally laughed out loud, was hanging onto every dramatic moment, and then crying. I don’t know friends this one GOT TO ME in an unexpected way.

Random, non-spoilery thoughts:

- finally a book for the type 9s. I identified with Harriet so much even when I didn’t want to 😅
- friend group! the group was so fun but also very realistic representation of how friendships change as you get older.
- miscommunication “trope” galore but there’s a reason for it: people suck at communicating! we assume things, we try to make things easier on people we love by not saying anything, etc. and all the characters navigating romantic and platonic relationships are grappling with it.
- Setting: MAINE. Maine is also one of my happy places and I love seeing books set there.

Want and Harriet are so fun together and I love their friends and the friendship they have with each other and others and they have such a fun meet cute. It was so much fun to read and to get the their back story then get the real life story happening now I love the story

Emily Henry has a way of writing stories that make you feel. They’re electric with banter and full of so much emotion. Harriet and Wyn’s romance feels real—it’s not perfect in the slightest and that’s what makes it even better. Some romance books suck you in for the fantasy of it all, but Emily Henry’s books make you believe in love that’s messy and imperfect but all the better for it.

I’m going to be thinking about this book for a very, very long time.

4.5 stars!!

This book was messy, but in a good way? I hope that makes sense, but this is the first Emily Henry book that has made me cry while reading. I finished the book 2 minutes ago and I already want to reread it again. If I could I would give this book to so many people.

Full review to come closer to release date.