People We Meet on Vacation by Emily Henry
Emily Henry started out publishing young adult fiction in 2016 with her debut novel, The Love That Split the World. In 2020, she released her first attack at adult fiction, Beach Read, which would become the first in a line of New York Times bestsellers. As her second adult fiction novel, published in 2021, People We Meet on Vacation is the first book I have read by Henry, and I thought it was brilliant.
People We Meet on Vacation sees two completely opposite people, Poppy and Alex, meet at university and discover a coincidence: they are both from the same, sleepy hometown. In an unlikely turn of events, they become best friends, and go on holiday together every summer.
Poppy is an aspiring travel writer; she can't sit still, she can't bear to live in her hometown any longer than she needs to, and she (unknowingly) uses travel as her big escape from the realities of life.
Alex is a homebody. He has no desire to move to a new city, preferring to stay close to the family he helped raise, as his mum died young and his dad needed support. He works as a teacher, and believes himself to be desperate for a house, a marriage, and some kids.
They couldn't be more different. But what do they say? Opposites attract. The two characters find themselves in the strongest, most platonic, most comfortable-yet-exciting friendship anyone could dream of someday having. They have so much fun on their holidays: Poppy planning the whole thing, always working to a budget (until Poppy achieves her dream of writing for a travel mag and starts to get the holidays all-expensed), Alex taking photos while Poppy poses for her growing Instagram following, and Alex never wanting to be in any photos himself. This novel skips between previous holidays in days long gone, to the present summer when Poppy is on a mission to make their holiday just as good as it always used to be. Through this, we really do go on holiday with them. As the perfect pool-side read, or best kept for a long flight abroad, us readers get the privilege of jetting around with Poppy's travel goals and experiencing numerous places. We go drinking with Poppy and Alex, we go to tourist hotspots, cold places and (very) hot places, and most of all we meet a lot of people—briefly—along the way.
As an easy-reading romance, People We Meet on Vacation is truly predictable. For me, this was no problem. I'm sure you can guess what might happen when two friends—a boy and a girl—spend their summer holiday together every year and grow ever-closer. Gradually, they realise how much they value their friendship, and how important it is to them both. They're no longer two unlikely friends, purely joking around with each other and wondering how they came to be. They are soulmates, in every sense of the word, and this is clear from the get-go.
I loved knowing what was going to happen, just not knowing how or when. It makes it more of a frustratingly addictive 'seriously just get together!' read, rather than an 'oh this is so predictable' one. And the duo gives us a run for our money, getting close then falling apart, getting me excited then crushing my heart. To slightly criticise the book, the beginning felt a little slow for me, and the end appeared to drag too. But the sweet spot in the middle when things are ramping up, the emotions are running high, the two are on and off with other lovers, and things keep getting close, makes it all worth it. I would absolutely recommend giving this novel a read if you're into this kind of story. There were so many moments when I just sat there smiling, swooning, and feeling my heart skip a beat.
To further critique, during a time when Poppy and Alex are experiencing a rift in their friendship, Poppy draws us slowly closer to explaining what happened to ruin everything. Without spoiling too much, I was underwhelmed upon hearing the truth and thought to myself is that really the big reveal? The build-up had got me expecting more. There are also moments towards the end of the novel when it almost feels as though author Emily Henry was vilifying Poppy and making her seem worse than she really was (or worse than how she'd written the character thus far). I felt bad for both Poppy and Alex throughout, but it seemed to me that Poppy was just trying to do her best, figuring things out, not wanting to risk it all, and feeling let down by life. She was putting in a lot of effort to rekindle the two's friendship, and was trying to navigate one of the most difficult and confusing times in her life. Of course, the situation between Poppy and Alex was truly messy at this stage, but it also felt like the story itself became messy: the situation got dragged out, we were ping-ponging from side to side, my frustration as a reader grew dangerously towards the 'annoyed' line, and it could be easy to start feeling like maybe the two aren't destined to be together after all. Maybe that's what Emily Henry wanted to do though; make it a bit trickier for us. I just feel as though we should cut some slack for Poppy towards the end.
But at the end of the day, love triumphs all, and I am a romantic. I was always rooting for Poppy and Alex. I'm a firm believer in opposites attracting, and sometimes you do have to work very hard on the logistics and the lifestyles in order to allow true love to win. For Poppy and Alex, I believe it should win. The love they hold for each other is so great, it should survive even if Poppy never wants to step foot in their hometown again, and Alex never wants to leave. I couldn't see them settling for 'forever' with anyone else—the invisible string between them is far too strong. I did notice, however, in the book club prompts at the end that the question on whether or not their relationship will survive is put forward. My answer to this? Yes, it will survive. But I suppose it's good that the question is there: Emily Henry leaves the ending open a crack, for those of you who are cynical non-romantics and don't think love trumps logistics.
Overall, I rated this 4 stars out of 5 on my Goodreads. It wasn't 'best book ever', but it was damn good. I recommend it as a holiday read for lovers of romance wanting a fun, easy-going break from reality.