People We Meet on Vacation by Emily Henry (2021)
Laura’s Rating: 4.5/5 Stars
What better way to wrap up summer than with this vacation themed read? After Beach Read, I had high expectations for another Emily Henry novel and I liked this one almost just as much (and appreciated the nod to her first book with the brief reference to an Augustus Everett novel)! Henry’s books may have just converted me to romance novels and next up is Book Lovers.
The Analysis:
Poppy and Alex have been unlikely best friends ever since freshman year at the University of Chicago. Poppy is loud and spontaneous, while Alex is planned and controlled. Despite Alex moving back to their hometown and Poppy fleeing to New York City after school, they manage to take a vacation together every year. Their summer trip was always the highlight of their friendship until a trip to Croatia changed everything. After two years of minimal contact, Poppy decides that one more vacation together could fix everything between them.
I really like Emily Henry’s writing because it feels relatable. I bookmarked a ton of pages while reading because the book was littered with quotes that made me laugh or resonated with me. The book talks about the struggles of being an adult, finding your purpose, and having conflicting goals. As Poppy says, “It hurts to want it all, so many things that can’t coexist within the same life.” The banter and inside jokes feel like real conversations and memories and give the characters life. Poppy’s love of traveling mirrors my own wanderlust and she captures the essence of what makes discovering a new place so memorable: “Vacations always end. It’s the very fact that it’s finite that makes traveling special. You could move to any one of those destinations you loved in small doses, and it wouldn’t be the spellbinding, life-altering seven days you spent there as a guest, letting the place into your heart fully, letting it change you.”
The descriptions of destinations in the book set the scene well, and I liked reading about places I’ve been and enjoyed like Sanibel Island and New Orleans. I really loved the characters in this book as well and the plot was well crafted, flashing back and forth between the present summer and those of years past. I couldn’t read fast enough to figure out what would happen in the next chapter and the end was heartwarming (as expected). I’d definitely recommend People We Meet on Vacation for a last minute summer read.
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