Happy Place

         

Title: Happy Place

Author: Emily Henry

Publisher: Berkley, April 25, 2023

Pages: 395

Genre: Contemporary Romance

A couple who broke up months ago pretend to still be together for their annual weeklong vacation with their best friends in this glittering and wise new novel from #1 New York Times bestselling author 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 laid-back 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?

Choices are wild. And the choices that these two have made are even wilder! They have decided, mutually, to not tell the people important to them that they have ended their relationship for five months. 

As usual, Emily Henry has absolutely broken my heart and put it back together with this book. Like, you don't have to be that mean to us. I would still read the book without feeling like I got my whole life ruined in the reading of it. The writing is beautiful, but it really does require so much emotional energy to read it. 

Having this place where all of your favorite people can return every year sounds lovely. Those people all choosing to go back every year also sounds lovely. And then, those traditions changing, and those people growing up and apart. That's very relatable. Everything else about the place, and the people. Well, that's less relatable. But I'm not a hotel empire heiress, nor am I friends with one. 

I do wish that the conflict in this book weren't so contingent upon miscommunication/lack of communication. It's such a pain in my butt. Not only were they unwilling to communicate their needs, but they tried to make choices for one another. Which is very annoying, I don't like a "I'm doing this for your own good," especially when they're both clearly so miserable about it. 

BUT. It's a lovely story. It did make me sit down and reflect on my own happy places, which was a very fun exercise.

Ratings

Stars: 5/5

Spice: 2/5