Happy Place Paperback – March 5, 2024

5/5 starsHappy Place by Emily Henry hit me harder than I expected. It’s a gorgeous, emotional story about love, loss, and the kind of friendships that shape your life. I laughed, I cried (a lot), and I saw pieces of myself in these characters.“It’s you. It’s always been you.”Emily Henry captures the ache of growing up and growing apart so beautifully. This book reminded me that sometimes, our happiest places are the people we hold close. And sometimes, our parents just do the best they can and we have to remember that this is their first time living too.

I liked this book, I like the quirky characters and the love they have for their found family. I loved how they all cared for each other and wanted the best for everyone. But there was a lot of selfishness (unintended) and not enough “let’s talk about it.” But I guess that’s why we have the miscommunication trope. I adored the mcs, even if the female mc sometimes pmo she grew on me so I sympathized with her so I knew how she felt about certain things. Also for those who say this doesn’t have romance, it’s a slow burn not right in your face, there is romance there. And to add that many ppl give up a lucrative career for something simpler; see; lawyer gives up career to be baker irl.Anyways 8/10 🏖️ recommend.

Emily Henry has become one of my favorite authors. I read Book Lovers and loved it. So I was excited to read this.The charactersI loved the dynamics within the friend group. They know how to have fun, but also discuss hard things and support each other. I also loved the relationship between Harriet and Wyn. Their chemistry was off the charts and the banter was top notch. Their relationship was believable and realistic. All of the characters were complex abs nuanced.This book really put me through the ringer. I laughed and cried. It takes a lot for a book to make me cry. I loved the realistic portrayal of grief and depression. I identified so much with both Wyn's and Harriet's struggles.The spiceThis book is definitely a perfectly paced slow burn. There's a lot of sexual tension between Wyn and Harriet. The spice doesn't start until the last quarter of the book. When they do happen, they feel natural and earned. The spice is definitely open door, but nothing overly graphic or explicit. I think the spice level could have been increased just a bit.For a romcom, this book is surprisingly deep and profound. It's so beautifully written. I definitely want to read more by this author.

I thought this book was a big let down—especially after all the raving reviews. There will be spoilers in this so please don’t read ahead if you don’t want to know.As I started getting into this, I thought this was going to be a book about a guy who was trying to get his girl back and soliciting his friends to help him. I was all for that because I wanted a good grovel for the heartless way he broke up with her after eight years. But that’s not what this was about at all.They decide to act like they’re still together so they don’t ruin their last friends trip. I got the sense that Wyn was miserable and was formulating a plan to get her back— but no, turns out he’s totally fine. He even tells her that he’s finally happy. She’s still utterly devastated though. He gives her tons of mixed signals. But it takes forever for everything to finally come out. SHE’S the one who has to go to him!!! Even after pouring her heart out to him, he tells her he’ll always love her but they can’t be together because she needs to finish her residency in San Francisco (he was miserable there) and he wants to stay in Montana with his family. I get that —that’s ok. But why couldn’t they do long distance for a couple years and she could come to him a be a surgeon in Montana??? (I felt the past chapters did a great job showing how deeply these two loved each other—and honestly I kind of hated him for walking away from her so easily.)So he just keeps on breaking her heart over and over during this friends trip. And at the very end of the book she gives up EVERYTHING to be with him In Montana. I’m totally ok with her going to Montana, but she gives up being a doctor to do pottery??? She actually says she’s just going to pay back her hundreds of thousands of dollars in medical school loans by doing pottery!! That was so ridiculous and unbelievable. Why wouldn’t she just do something in the medical field????Anyway, this book just bothered me so much because he was totally fine walking away from from her. He never groveled or even regretted his decision— and then she was the one who gave up everything to be with him. He gave up nothing. Even at the very end, I felt he would have been fine if they never got back together.

An absolute delight summer read. The setting of a hall-mark esque small town in Maine added for a really wonderful back drop. While I found some of the side characters frustrating sometimes, I did enjoy the overall character growth, which Emily Henry writes well in her books. I enjoyed the unique circumstances presented in the conflict between the FMC and MMC. Navigating life changes while in a committed relationship was written with a rawness that pulled me in. Overall a great read, but 4/5 due to the side characters being a little bit detracting from the central character growth.

Loved this book 📕 absolutely engaging and loved the characters, I’d love a sequel as to where the friends are in the future lol 😂 It was a book I couldn’t put down and everyone needs a Happy Place! Way to go on this one, but love your books!

It’s such a cute book about relationships and friendships. I won’t give too much away but it’s one of those books that jumps from present day to happy place every other chapter. Easy read, you won’t want to put it down.