Happy Place by Emily Henry
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.
They broke up five months ago… and still haven’t told their best friends.
Which is how they find themselves sharing a bedroom at the Maine cottage that has been their friend group’s yearly getaway for the last decade. Their annual respite from the world, where for one vibrant, blissful week, they leave behind their daily lives; have copious amounts of cheese, wine, and seafood; and soak up the salty coastal air with the people who understand them most.
Only this year, Harriet and Wyn are lying through their teeth while trying not to notice how desperately they still want each other. Because the cottage is for sale, and this is the last week they’ll all have together in this place. They can’t stand to break their friends’ hearts, and so they’ll play their parts. Harriet will be the driven surgical resident who never starts a fight, and Wyn will be the laidback charmer who never lets the cracks show. It’s a flawless plan (if you look at it from a great distance and through a pair of sunscreen-smeared sunglasses). After years of being in love, how hard can it be to fake it for one week… in front of those who know you best?
~~~~~
SPOILER FREE REVIEW**
~~~~~
This book was a maelstrom of emotions. Yes I’m getting poetic early on, this book was just so wonderful that I’m finding it hard to describe just how much I loved it. Emily Henry is one of my all-time favourite authors and I will read anything she puts out and this book exceeded all expectations. I was a little scared because there were so many reviews out there about how different this was from her other writing but I don’t think I’ve read a book MORE Emily Henry than this one. She’s always had a way of digging into the deeper emotions of relationships. Are her books usually happy and mainly focused on love? Yes, but they’ve never been just fluff pieces. Happy Place took me through all the stages of university, early 20s, changing friendships and adult fears. It was a book that felt emotionally healing to read. I don’t know how she makes her books so relatable but somehow, Henry knows exactly where our wounds are and exactly where to press them, yet makes it an enjoyable experience that we thank her for. Happy Place is probably my new favourite of hers and if you haven’t yet, run, don’t walk, and read it now.
This book had the same format as People We Meet on Vacation in that we had lots of flashbacks to the “good times” or the “happy place” but alternatively also get brought up to speed in a present that is full of angst. That was one of the things I hated about PWMOV, but yet LOVED about this one. I think because she gave us a little happiness and angst in both timelines so they felt pretty equal. We begin with Harriet arriving at the cottage, and being surprised with her ex’s presence. However, I loved that this was a second chance romance as it gave our mains a lot more agency to be closer and more intimate than most romances. I loved the small moments of intimacy and camaraderie we got between them even when they were “pretending”. As we go through this weekend of friendship and lost love, we spend time in the past getting to know, not only how Wyn and Harriet met, but how her and her friends met and grew together as well. This book focused on love of so many forms, it was more than a romance.
The relationships that this book focused on are what made this book so extremely relatable. I think anyone who is or has gone through their 20s and all the changes that time brings can relate to this book. The friends that start to feel distant, the growing adult responsibilities, the changing relationships with not only friends but parents and partners as well. It’s a time of extreme change and this book holds our hand while walking us through the feeling of those goodbyes. I felt so much nostalgia for my Birch 410 roomies in college when reading about Harriet, Sabrina, and Cleo’s first year becoming friends. I felt anxiety when reading about Harriet’s uncertainty about her career choice. I felt desolate while reading the parts where they say goodbye to this house that has always been a home for them. It was painful but in the best ways because it made those feelings valid. We’ve all been there, and we’ve all moved onto something better. Seeing these characters go through that change was so healing. I loved that this didn’t only focus on Harriet and Wyn. The ways adult friendships change, even with those closest to you is real and this book showed that in such a realistic light. I also really enjoyed the different parental relationships in this book and how they changed as the characters grew but also how their upbringing reflected how they reacted to their own relationships. Wyn’s boisterous loving family VS Harriet’s small reserved family reflected so much about their character growth.
“…we’ll say goodbye. To one another, to this house, to an era of life we wished could have lasted forever.
Right now we’re here.” -pg. 363.
The characters themselves leapt off the page. I’m a character driven girlie and this book answered all my prayers. Harriet was so nuanced and it took a while to understand her but with each memory we got more layers peeled back to see the true Harriet and it was such a great journey to see. Wyn’s character as well was phenomenal. I almost felt like we got to know him more than we did Harriet since she understood and seen him so well. Better than he did himself. He was such a deep and sensitive character underneath. Cleo, Sabrina, Parth, and Kimmy were also the epitome of relatable friend characters. Each one of them felt familiar to me because I’ve had a friend exactly like each of them. The level headed one, the commanding one, the extravagant one, and the fun one. Little things like that is what made this story so relatable to so many because Henry found ways to connect her characters to real things in our lives. And the friendship dynamics, especially in present day, were so on point. The outbursts, the hurt feelings, the awkwardness and comfort, it was all there.
Romantic love may not have been the ONLY main focus, but it wasn’t overshadowed. If any book could get me to believe in soulmates, it’s this one. The chemistry and banter and familiarity between Wyn and Harriet was next level. I usually don’t go for second chance romances because I avoid angst like the plague but this book changed my mind. I liked how easy going the fake dating trope could be when they already knew how to be with each other so well. I liked how a romance between friends to lovers didn’t destroy the “friends first” part of it. And the flashbacks made me happy, instead of filled with angst. Yes, I cried a lot during this book but they weren’t all sad tears. Watching these two grow together and apart and back again ruined me in the best ways.
“Things change, but we stretch and grow and make room for one another.
Our love is a place we can always come back to, and it will be waiting, the same as it ever was.”
-pg. 226.
I highly recommend this book whether you like angst or not. It may not be as lighthearted as her other books, but it’s still a happy story. Because you can’t find happiness without knowing loss right? The sad moments made the happy ones all the better. Wyn and Harriet will win you over from the first page, I guarantee it.