Goodreads says, "Two best friends. Ten summer trips. One last chance to fall in love. 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, 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?"
Poppy and Alex met in college and while they are vastly different, they work well as best friends. Opposites attract, right? Alex is more conservative, bookish, preppy, and is extremely good looking, but doesn't know it. Poppy, on the other hand, is more outgoing, wears eccentric clothing, and can't wait to get out of her hometown. Fast forward many years of friendship and Poppy is in New York City as a travel writer. She has the dream job of traveling the world and writing about it. Alex is a high school English teacher in their hometown living a more suburban life. One thing they love to do together is travel. They take one trip together each summer and although Poppy feels herself getting close to him, she knows it's in a platonic way, because she would never want to risk the best friendship she has ever had. Or does she? After years go by they see other people and even take them on vacation together, but after one upsetting night, Alex and Poppy stop talking to one another. Things start to fall apart for Poppy. Her amazing job isn't so amazing after all. She is feeling down in the dumps and starts to wonder when was she last happy? Alex immediately comes to mind. She reconnects with him and asks him to come on vacation with her. It's been two years since they last talked, but maybe she can salvage their friendship? One thing is sure, she must confront her true feelings about Alex and in order to move on with her life, she needs to let him know how she feels. People We Meet on Vacation is the epitome of a good beach read. There's amazing vacation destinations, a friends-to-something-more romance, and major laugh-out-loud moments.
Poppy is such a memorable character in People We Meet on Vacation. I thought she was very well developed and relatable at times. I loved how Henry shows us that even with her dream job in NYC, she is still feeling unfulfilled, because she won't address her true feelings and still harbors some angst from childhood. Once she is able to address these repressed feelings, she can start to live her life more authentically. It goes without saying that I absolutely adored Poppy and Alex's relationship. I love how Henry provided us flashbacks to college and to previous trips they took. It really showed us how their relationship developed and addressed the big question of how did they end up not speaking?
Alex is a swoon-worthy book boyfriend if I ever met one. Not only is he literary and an all-around good guy, he is good looking and in great shape. Henry really created an amazing character who seems almost too perfect at times. However, Henry did develop the character of Alex and explain his "different" childhood and shared with us some of his struggles as well. This helped shape him a bit more. Needless to say, I adored him in People We Meet on Vacation.
You guys know I am a sucker for a good friends-to-something-more romance and Alex and Poppy's was one was one of the best. Henry really was able to make it seem fresh even though a lot of the things that happen in People We Meet on Vacation have been done before. One way that helped this was the way the story is told through flashbacks and present day. Also, people are comparing Alex and Poppy's relationship to a modern Harry and Sally from When Harry Met Sally and I can say I wholeheartedly agree. That may be why I like this novel so much since that's one of my favorite movies.
People We Meet on Vacation lives up to all the hype for sure. It's one of my favorite beach reads of the summer and I highly recommend it. It will have you laughing at the witty banter one minute and swooning at Alex the next. So, let me know if this book is on your TBR list or if you already read it. Did you read Henry's Beach Read as well? Let me know in the comments below.
Alex sounds amazing - I'm really looking forward to reading this one!
ReplyDeleteI think you'll love it! Thanks for visiting, Angela!
DeleteI've definitely seen this book around the blogosphere and social media, so I'm really curious. I haven't read any Emily Henry book so not sure what her forte is. The comparison to When Harry Met Sally is a good hook!
ReplyDeleteIf you like When Harry Met Sally, you'll like this book for sure! Thanks for visiting, Joy!
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