People We Meet On Vacation by Emily Henry

“Like a good book or an incredible outfit, being on vacation transports you into another version of yourself.”

― Emily Henry, People We Meet On Vacation

Poppy and Alex. Alex and Poppy. They have absolutely nothing in common. She's a constant adventurer and he would rather curl up with a book. But they have been best friends since meeting in college. For most of the year they live miles apart. She lives in New York City and he lives in their small hometown. But since college, they have taken a one week vacation every summer. But two years ago, everything changed and they haven't spoken since. Poppy has everything she's ever wished for,but she's still unhappy. She realizes the last time she was truly happy, she was on summer vacation with Alex. She decides to take a chance and reach out to Alex to see if they can go on one more summer vacation together. To finally make things right between them. Shockingly, Alex agrees. Now she has one week to fix all the issues between them. If she can finally be honest about the one unspoken secret held between them. What could possibly go wrong?

I read Beach Read by Emily Henry a few weeks ago and I quickly realized I was going to have to make a blog post about that book. I saw online this was another highly rated book of hers and I knew I had to dive into reading this one too. How could I not? I wasn't sure how I was going to feel about this one only because it's hard for me to believe two people would go this long denying their feelings for each other. A year or two yes but almost ten years? I had to try to suspend my disbelief to really get into this book. I enjoyed both characters , Alex and Poppy. Poppy had a rough childhood in their hometown and dealt with a lot of bullying from her classmates because she was different. I saw why as soon as she could hightail it out of there she did! Who could blame her? Her love of travel was infectious as I read the book. I could see why she loved traveling, exploring her curiosity for the world. Alex was more like me though. He loves to read and relax. You could tell he was a homebody and wanted to settle down in life. Both of them are polar opposites and I struggled to see how them together as a couple would actually work out. A lot of times in books, people aren't together for the smallest of reasons. Reasons that in the real world wouldn't hold up. But with these two characters, I understood why it was a huge problem. Poppy wanted to live her best life forever. Traveling, adventures, curiosity all called out to her. Alex wanted a very traditional life. Marriage, Kids, hometown living was exactly what he was looking forward to in life. No shame in either one of those paths.

This book wasn't what I was expecting. I think I was expecting a lot of lovey dovey moments and two best friends falling head over heels in love. Which I did get but not in a typical romantic form. I did get two people falling in love but realizing that love isn't enough. That their goals, dreams, and more were completely opposite from the other. Which is extremely heart wrenching, but also a very true portrayal of how things work sometime. It took Alex and Poppy ten years to grow and realize that they could make it work. Compromise and bending a little end up being traits they both needed in the end. I enjoyed the flashbacks between all their previous vacations together to where they ended up in the present. It provided a lot of background and it gave me the ability to see how their bond ending up being so strong.

Emily Henry is one talented author. She made me read both her best selling books in the span of a month and a half. She knew once I read one, I would be forced to read the other. I enjoyed this book and it officially marks my last summer book read of 2021! Time flies when you're reading huh! But I am glad I ended on this book in particular. It was sweet without leaning too hard on being cliché. I read in the acknowledgments of this book that the author wrote this novel with the movie Harry and Sally in mind. She loves that movie and how it shows two best friends falling in love. I also love that movie like many other people. It's a classic! It gave me a lot of the same feelings that movie gives me. This book is a solid 4 out of 5 stars. Read it for something sweet, light, and worth an afternoon of your time.