People We Meet on Vacation by Emily Henry

Poppy and Alex. Alex and Poppy. They have nothing in common. She’s a wild child; he wears khakis. She has insatiable wanderlust; he prefers to stay home with a book. And somehow, ever since a fateful car share home from college many years ago, they are the very best of friends. For most of the year they live far apart - she’s in New York City and he’s in their small hometown - but every summer for a decade, they have taken one glorious week of vacation together.

Until two years ago, when they ruined everything. They haven’t spoken since.

Poppy has everything she should want, but she’s stuck in a rut. When someone asks when she was last truly happy, she knows without a doubt that it was on that ill-fated final trip with Alex. And so she decides to convince her best friend to take one more vacation together - lay everything on the table, make it all right. Miraculously, he agrees.

Now she has a week to fix everything. If only she can get around the one big truth that has always stood quietly in the middle of their seemingly perfect relationship. What could possibly go wrong?

~~~~~

Emily Henry is an instant-buy author for me and this book didn’t disappoint. It ripped my heart out in the best of ways and I’d go back for that feeling again and again. She just has a way of writing the way I think and feel and laying bare all those deep emotions you think no one else would understand but then become completely relatable through a character in a book. Not only is her writing superb, but her characters leap off the page. She breathes such life into them that you can’t help but fall completely in love with these characters and end up so invested in their stories. People We Meet on Vacation also re-sparked my love for travel. There is just so much excitement and self-discovery and awe when you travel and Poppy went through all of that throughout this book and it made me miss the days I felt that way (pre-pandemic) about new cities that I could explore. This book is definitely being added to my top favourite romances as well as my “re-read soon” pile.

This book is about two friends who have travelled together every summer for a decade. They’ve dated other people, they’ve lead separate lives, but they always make sure to make time for the summer trip and there’s always been that underlying “what-if” floating between the lines of their relationship. Two years ago, something friendship ending happened on their summer trip to Croatia and they haven’t spoken since. In present-day, a work burnt-out Poppy realizes the last time she was truly happy and carefree was with her best friend, so, in trying to fix this years long friendship, she suggests one last Summer Trip. Unfortunately, everything that could possibly go wrong does, especially when you really really really need it to all go right. The Flashback journey’s of Alex and Poppy’s trips was so fun to read, you got to see how their dynamic shifted from new friends to best friends to awkward encounters and the present-day vacation was hilarious as well as it was heartbreaking because you can see the difference of how their relationship has changed from carefree to careful. It got me on board the “friends to lovers” train better than any other book has in the past.

I was so transported while reading this novel. I felt like I experienced every destination with Poppy and Alex. Touring Victoria, getting lost in San Fran, feeling alive in NOLA, touring wineries in Tuscany. It was so visual. The only hold back I had is that it kind of felt like Henry crapped on New Orleans a bit…and was a little inaccurate in her Sweden “cold summer getaway” planning (newsflash, Stockholm is just as hot in the summer as it is here). Those two instances are literally my only complaints, and they could just be because I’ve experienced both those places myself and because of that, her lack of accuracy in those instances ripped me back to reality instead of totally transporting me like her other vacation destinations did. However, the interactions between Poppy and Alex in those destinations were some of my absolute favourites so they were still amazing chapters.

The characterization was on point. Alex was like the male lead we all dream of. Awkward, sensitive, super attractive, loyal, and very decisive in what he wants out of life. He was such a huge support to Poppy throughout the novel even when they were on the outs. Poppy herself was a character I didn’t think I’d relate to as well as I did. She is super outgoing and I’m more of an introvert so I felt very disconnected at the start, however, a lot of her motivations for being “too open” are a lot of the same reasons I’ve felt for being “too closed off” so I found a lot of deep similarities between myself and this character and I think that’s what made it such an emotional journey. Yes it’s a romcom type romance but there’s a lot of very meaningful moments and they dug in deep. I also really enjoyed how even though this is the kind of story where they’ve been mutually pining after one another for a decade, they both also fell in love with other people down the way. Even though there would always be that love for each other, they didn’t pine toxically forever just hoping for the other person would go through a breakup, they moved on and were genuinely happy for one another and it went to show just how healthy their friendship was. Poppy and Alex are just as amazing to me now as January and Gus from Henry’s previous novel. She just has a spectacular way with characters and it’s one of my ultimate joys in reading her books, I know that whatever characters she creates will mean something.

I absolutely loved this book and it’s definitely given me back my missing travel bug so beware if you pick this one up, you’ll be backpacking through Europe or road-tripping across North America in no time. I gave this one 5 stars, I wish I could give it more! Does 10 out 5 stars work?

If you’ve read it, let me know your favourite Poppy/Alex vacation destination in the comments below.