Favourite Read! People We Meet on Vacation by Emily Henry

People We Meet on Vacation by Emily Henry tells the story of Poppy and Alex, who have been best friends since college despite being very different people. Each year for the past decade, they’ve gone on a vacation together in the summer, until two years ago, when they ruined everything. Now, after twenty-four months of silence, Poppy feels stuck in a rut. She has her dream job in New York City, but feels like something is missing. Wanting to find happiness again, she decides to recreate the last time she felt true joy. Unfortunately, that’s the last vacation she took with Alex. So she reaches out, and to her surprise, he talks to her. They agree to take one last vacation together to work everything out, so Poppy now has one week to fix her life and the most important friendship of her life. No pressure.

Emily Henry knows how to tell a good story, that’s for sure. And I’m a sucker for characters who banter well with each other, so I was easily charmed by Alex and Poppy. Their opposites-attract dynamic works so well, even if their vastly different personalities don’t make sense at first glance. They’re the sort of people who bring out new things in each other, Poppy coaxing Alex to be more adventurous and Alex guiding Poppy to look for stability. That, and they are just comfortable with each other.

I also enjoyed the narrative structure, flipping back and forth between the present and past vacations, so that the reader slowly discovers how they got to where they are now. Additionally, as someone who likes traveling (and books about traveling, if this and The Pairing are any indication), I loved seeing their globe-trotting adventures.

Strangely enough, though, I didn’t care that much about the romantic/sexual aspect of Alex and Poppy’s relationship. Obviously, it was always going to get to that point, considering this is a romance book, but I found their bond way more interesting without that. The sexual nature of it was, for me, an afterthought. The really important thing, to me, was how their bond had fractured and how they were going to repair it. I didn’t care if they kissed or slept together. Probably a weird reaction to have to a book of this genre, but whatever.

And honestly, the ending of the book was quite predictable. Poppy’s journey to improve her life, then a dramatic love confession, was something I’ve seen at least a dozen times. But still, it was sweet enough, pretty much exactly what you want and expect in a book like this.

In the end, People We Meet on Vacation is one of Henry’s strongest books. The characters and settings are excellent, and the alternating timelines work very well. It’s a fun and charming story with solid character development and fantastic dialogue. This is also one of Henry’s books that I’ve seen consistently highly rated, and I can see why. It’s a wonderful book for a hot summer day, especially for anyone with even a tiny bit of wanderlust.