People You Meet on Vacation is very much When Harry Met Sally. Two people who share a ride from college become friends, and well, you know the rest...
Poppy and Alex are complete opposites, and while I liked that, I have to admit I was a little perplexed as to why they were even friends. I understood it better in the present, but I wasn’t quite sure how that one car ride sealed their friendship. Poppy is eccentric, and Alex is well not. I think the two played well off each other and saying opposites attract for a reason.
People We Meet on Vacation is told from Poppy’s perspective in alternating timelines, between past and present. The past shows the course of Poppy and Alex’s 11-year friendship, from how they met to how they deal with each other’s significant others. I enjoyed the alternating timelines and did not find it confusing as I do in some books. I felt the back story of these characters was very necessary to tell the current story. I enjoyed the overall story and the mystery of why these two people who were clearly into each other were not only not together but had barely spoken in years.
Overall I liked this book, but I have to admit I preferred Beach Read.

When I first heard about this book I was beyond excited. I ADORED Beach Read and was thrilled to get an advance copy of this book. Unfortunately, I didn't like it as much as her first book. The pacing was slow and I found myself waffling back and forth between exasperation and relating to Poppy. (I related to her way more in the beginning of the book then towards the end.) The exasperation won out leaving me feeling unsatisfied and irked by these two characters love story. Alex was my favorite. The friendship between Alex and Poppy was magical and charming. I guess it was the transition to being a couple that left me unsatisfied.

This book was so emotionally based, it really played with my heart! In the best way! Emily Henery's writing is so authentic, you can picture her character's in real life, struggling in the same way everyday people would, their emotions felt real.
With all these emotions, Henery does know how to spice it up! A slow-burn romance with the anticipation for Alex and Poppy to finally get together kept the pace fast while reading this book.
I loved how this book played out and ended, it's not your typical HEA but one that loved!

It’s been a minute since I’ve done a review, but I’m so excited to be participating in the blog tour for People We Meet on Vacation! Beach Read was an honorable mention in my list of favorite books I read in 2020, so of course People We Meet on Vacation was one of my most anticipated reads this spring and I was thrilled to be invited to this blog tour.

People We Meet on VacationFor starters, People We Meet on Vacation is NOT a sequel to Beach Read, so you don’t have to have read Beach Read in order to enjoy this one! Though of course, if you like one, there’s a good chance you’ll like the other.

People We Meet on Vacation is a friends to lovers romance following Poppy and Alex. These two seemingly opposite people meet in college, where they realize they’re from neighboring small hometowns in Ohio. They don’t become best friends until a road trip home together, and after that, the rest is history.

But as the book opens, we learn that something happened during their annual summer vacation two years ago that changed things between the two of them, and they haven’t talked since. But Poppy misses Alex and texts him about maybe doing another trip together again. Only Alex already has plans to go to his brother’s wedding in Palm Springs, so they agree to turn that trip into their joint vacation.

What follows is the two of them gradually reconnecting and eventually talking about what happened two summers ago during what turns out to be the trip from hell, alternating with flashbacks to previous trips the two of them have taken together throughout the years.

Unfortunately, I do have to admit that this book didn’t really work for me. I think if I had stopped to read the description instead of diving right in off the high of Beach Read, I might have adjusted my expectations and enjoyed People We Meet on Vacation more. You see, I’m just not the biggest fan of friends to lovers! It’s a trope that I think has a lot of angst that I don’t particularly enjoy, and often I just want to shake the couple and tell them they should have figured this stuff out years ago!! So this was already not going to be my favorite book based on that alone.

I also think the flashbacks will be polarizing. I know they really worked for others in showing how Alex and Poppy’s relationship grew and evolved throughout the years and why they didn’t get together sooner, but there were just. So. Many. Flashbacks. Pretty much every other chapter for a good three quarters of the book is a flashback to their different vacations together, but I felt like the flashbacks were them dancing around each other while nothing much happened in the contemporary timeline. It just felt like nothing happened for the longest time. And then things finally happen and I thought we’d be racing towards the finish line, but no. Things slow down again and I was back to being bored and frustrated by the two of them.

While I ultimately enjoyed but didn’t love this book, I do think it will work for a lot of people. Jenica at Firewhiskey Reader LOVES friends to lovers and absolutely adored this book! If you liked Beach Read, this books gives off a lot of the same vibes. Henry has such a unique voice that I didn’t appreciate until I read People We Meet on Vacation and noticed it, and they both have beautiful stories of growth and identity with the heroines.

I also really, really loved that this book talked about Poppy having her dream job and still being unfulfilled. I haven’t personally experienced that, but I have done a dramatic career change because of unfulfillment in my career, and I wish talking about careers like that was something I saw more of in contemporary romances. I turn to reading a lot to try things on for size and think through different issues, and I maybe would have recognized my unhappiness with my career sooner or started thinking through different options if more romances touched on this topic, rather than featuring characters who always knew what careers they wanted to do. So it was just really refreshing to see that be a topic in this book.

And of course, it’s impossible to read this and not root for Alex and Poppy to find a way to make things work when they so clearly belong together. There are a lot of great reasons why they hadn’t gotten together earlier in the book, and I really liked how Henry addressed them and didn’t just brush them off. You love to see characters recognizing therapy could really help them rather than just relying on each other to address the complicated issues they’re dealing with!

I’m just so bummed because I was really expecting to love this book, and then I…didn’t. I think I would have enjoyed it a lot more if I hadn’t gone in with such high expectations and had realized what type of book it was, so hopefully this review can help you gauge whether People We Meet on Vacation is the right fit for you and how likely you are to enjoy it. I really hope you love it if you decide to pick it up! Let me know in the comments whether you have plans to read it.

Oh! And be prepared for this book to make you want to travel again. I was a little caught off guard by how much I miss traveling while reading this, though that might also be because I’ve been to a lot of the places Alex and Poppy visit in this book. It was definitely bittersweet to read about!

Thanks SO MUCH to Berkley Romance for this gifted copy! This is one of the easiest five star ratings I’ve ever given. I absolutely adored Beach Read, but Emily Henry really stepped up her game with People We Meet on Vacation. It is friends to lovers and opposites attract at its absolute best. I had so many genuine barks of laughter reading while reading because Poppy and Alex have the kind of quick, quippy banter that can only be honed after years of friendship. I wish I had made note of all the hilarious one liners. There’s a sick bed scene (my personal favorite) and it is wonderful. Henry plays with the timeline of this in a way similar to what I just read in Dial A for Aunties, where we see the MCs come together through past interactions and then meet up again after being estranged in the present timeline. I do not see this very often and I really love it.

Poppy and Alex could not be more different if they tried which makes watching them fall for each other even more rewarding. They balance each other and smooth each other’s edges and make the very best team. Because of their differences, both in personality and general life plans, neither of them believe a romantic relationship could ever work between them. So, despite each of them harboring feelings for the other, they choose mutually in an unspoken pact not to act on them in order to protect their friendship. But then Croatia happens and everything changes and they are forced to confront their true feelings. Reading a slow burn between two people who already have an established relationship is just so satisfying. People We Meet on Vacation really has it all and I highly recommend it! It was the perfect companion for a week at the beach too!

I’ve been terrified to read this book, simply because things can take on a life of their own once they’re hyped up the way this has been. Luckily for me, this is not the case.
Henry has penned the ultimate vacation getaway in these pages, touching on places near and far, and more importantly, that feeling of discovery as you travel through life with your best friend.
This one has me counting down the days until school is over, and my best friend and I embark on our summer vacation road trip together, and although our trip won’t turn out like it does for Poppy and Alex, it will touch on all the same places of my heart that these two and their adventure did, and I think that’s absolutely beautiful.

I loved this! I really felt the connection between Poppy and Alex and the unbreakable friendship they built. I loved how it went back and forth between what’s happening today and what happened on previous vacations they took that lead them to where they are now. I really felt their passion and their struggles in dealing with those feelings. I loved every second of this book!

This was an absolutely wonderful story A perfect read for a time when we are unable to travel this book transports us to many different destinations. Alex and Poppy have this idyllic friendship where they've know each other since college and every year they go on a "summer trip" together. Now it's been two years since they've talked after a fallout on their last vacation, since this book is told with alternating chapters, in the present and on past trips, we have to wait to fin out just wait happened. After reaching out to each other Alex and Poppy decide to take another trip this time to Palm Springs for Alex's brother's wedding with the hope of getting their friendship back intact. Lots of things ensue after this causing lots of crying and some LOLing. I don't know about anybody else but I was so nervous for the end but Emily Henry has written another gem and I can't wait to read her next book!
Thank you to netgalley and the publishers for providing me with an arc for an honest review!

Emily Henry is an author that everyone should be reading! She's hit both this and her debut novel out of the park and I devoured it page by page. If a book can be PERFECTION then this one is it!

Poppy and Alex are total opposites, and yet they’ve been the best of friends for years. That is until one mistake causes a rift between them. Now, two years later, Poppy is determined to mend their broken friendship by dragging Alex on one last trip in a final attempt to fix everything.

Emily Henry has clearly found her niche in writing adult contemporary romance because wow. People We Meet on Vacation has the same heartwarming, entertaining, and emotional quality found in Beach Read. The characters were smart, relatable, and delightful. The story easily captivated and I was hooked on Alex and Poppy’s journey from the first chapter.

The romance was everything. Emily Henry completely delivered on the opposites attract and friends-to-lovers tropes. One of the best parts of the book was that we were given glimpses into Alex and Poppy’s past and how their friendship (and love) grow over time. There were so many elements of the book that made this such a great read: the slow burn, the pining, the tension, the ~there’s only one bed~ trope. I adored it all.

People We Meet on Vacation was a beautifully written story full of love, friendship, and hope. The romance was absolutely perfect. If you only have time for one contemporary romance novel this year, please make it this one. You will not be disappointed.

Emily Henry has done it again! I couldn’t put this one down! I love Poppy and Alex!

Best friends despite their completely opposite personalities, these two embark on some of the most amazing vacations with one another over the course of many years until something happens that puts a full stop to it all. Told in a dual timeline format, we get to see both past and present Poppy and Alex and how their friendship started, developed, and fizzled.

Full of hilarity and vulnerability, this will they/won’t they romance will keep you guessing and hoping. I laughed and cried and that means all the gold stars for me! This is a well told slow burn romance that is worth the wait!

Thank you to NetGalley, Berkley, & Berkley Publishing Group for the opportunity to read and review this book before it's publication date! This in no way affected my review, opinions are my own.

Okay, so, like, don't hate me - but I don't get it. I want to!! I like Emily Henry's books, but something is holding me back ~loving~ them. There is no doubt that she is a talented writer, and both of her books have been easy, fun reads (not that the subject matter is always easy, but the actual *act* of reading them), but I'm missing the connection that turns this from like into LOVE.

My emotional connection/attachment aside, I did like People We Meet on Vacation, most especially the way the book was formatted. Going back and forth between what happened THEN while what is happening NOW unfolds is always a fun narrative device and Emily Henry writes it well.

(Speaking of THEN vs NOW - if you liked that plot device, definitely look up Beth O'Leary's The Road Trip! Much heavier topics and content warnings abound, but it was a stellar book!)

One last thing for People We Meet on Vacation - somebody send me on a vacation, please.

For someone who desperately needs a break from working and moving apartments and wedding planning, People We Meet on Vacation is going to have to suffice for now!

I loved it! I liked it way more than Beach Read (which I think I need to re-read). I loved Alex and Poppy in PWMOV; both are heavily flawed characters with genuine feelings. It’s pretty obvious that they both are in love with each other and it’s funny to see how each trip takes them closer or further away from each other. Poppy has my absolute dream job- who would want to be a travel writer for high end luxury vacations?

I really enjoyed the way the book was structure; half the book was the present day and half was all the previous summer vacations they took. I’ve never been to Palm Springs and even after everything that can go wrong did, I would still really like to visit. I’ve seen it a lot on House Hunters and the 60s style is just so interesting!

All in all, you can’t go wrong with @emilyhenrywrites and this is a summer must read! Thank you to @berkleypub for my netgalley copy.

I absolutely adored this! People We Meet on Vacation is a wonderful homage to When Harry Met Sally, capturing the romcom goodness of watching two unlikely people become best friends, and ultimately fall in love. This is one of the most believable friendships I've read in a romance book; while Alex and Poppy are clearly head-over-heels in love with each other in present day (not that they know it yet!), we get to watch their friendship and romance blossom over more than a decade so it still feels completely natural. The chemistry between these two - both as friends and as something more - is off the charts. While this may not satisfy readers looking for tons of steam (perhaps the only thing I wanted MORE of in this book), the sexual chemistry and emotional intimacy between these two still sizzles in a way I found immensely satisfying. Poppy's "Millennial ennui" and uncertainty about what she wants out of life resonated with me; Alex is so soft and so lovely and I may or may not have the biggest crush on a fictional character right now. This was a rollercoaster of emotion in the best way; the stakes felt so real and so serious that I couldn't help but be 110% invested in these two being happy together. If you're a fan of friends-to-lovers or opposites-attract tropes, you absolutely need to pick this up!

This is definitely the best contemporary romance book that I've read so far this year. I enjoyed it just as much as Beach Read, and I can't wait to continue reading Emily Henry's further novels.

SUMMARY
Poppy and Alex met in college at the University of Chicago as Freshman and didn't get the greatest first impressions of each other, but they find out they are from neighboring towns in Ohio. When Alex drives Poppy home for summer vacation, the two start to bond and become close friends. To maintain their friendship as they continue with their lives, they plan a vacation together to a different location every summer to coincide with Alex's teaching schedule and Poppy's travel writing job.

However two years ago something happened between the two on their trip to Croatia that put a halt in their friendship and vacations. Poppy, in an attempt to rekindle their friendship, starts up contact again. Alex and Poppy plan a trip to Palm Springs to coincide with Alex's youngest brother's wedding and to restart up their annual vacations.

OPINIONS
This clever homage to When Harry Met Sally is incredible. The characters are so well developed and likeable that you're sad to finish the book. Their chemistry is palpable and the sexual tension between the two is realistic. There's really nothing triggering about this contemporary romance WHICH I LOVE, because so many contemporary romances feel the need to include heavy topics. The heavy topic in this book is the relationship between Poppy and Alex.

I loved every minute reading this book. I will recommend it HIGHLY and plan on reading it again.

Thank you NetGalley for the ARC!

Now I’m not one to give all the heart eyes to every bold colored rom-com that flies off the shelves. In fact, I typically stray far, far away from “heartwarming” books with romance as the main event. But you know what? PEOPLE ON VACATION worked for me.

Maybe I’m getting soft in my 30s? (Perhaps.) Maybe this was a perfect palate cleanser in between some heavier reads? (Likely.) Maybe I am desperate for a vacation? (No doubt about it.) Regardless, I enjoyed traveling along with college best friends Alex and Poppy to exotic destinations on their yearly vacations.

I typically give major side eye to witty banter and the friends to lovers trope, but @emilyhenry managed to write these characters in such a relatable and thoughtful way. The dual timelines brought the history of their friendship to life and (dare I say..) I enjoyed watching how their story unfolded?!

People We Meet on Vacation is the perfect book to throw into your beach bag for a getaway. If you’re looking to escape the mountains of unfolded laundry lurking in the corner of your bedroom, it’s great for that too.

A big thank you to NetGalley and Berkley Publishing for a digital ARC in exchange for an honest review.

After reading "Beach Read" last summer I was so excited when I heard about, and later got an e-ARC of, Emily Henry's latest book, People We Meet on Vacation! I rated this one four stars. I loved the friends to lovers, forced proximity, different timelines, and of course, a happy ending. This one is the perfect summer read to throw in your beach bag!

Emily Henry did it again, I am coining her the goddess of romance. I thought "Beach Read" changed my life but this book gave me a run for my money,

Poppy and her best friend Alex have had their summer trip since they were in college. They go every year to a chosen spot and get as far as they can with as little money as possible. Two years ago though, everything changed and they've barely spoken since. Poppy feeling empty and missing her best friend creates a new plan to re-create the summer trip and mend the friendship. But add a broken air conditioning in the middle of the summer, a muscle spasm, a flat tire, and a lot of unresolved tension; the summer trip recreation brings a lot of a emotions to a head.

Poppy and Alex are FABULOUS characters. I mean can we talk about their hilarious banter? They bring out the sides of each other that everyone wants to have in their best friend and partner. They are so wholeheartedly themselves with their passions and their problems. I loved reading about their spontaneity on their trips and how they pushed themselves to experience all they could. Now I'm going to have to try and not go crazy while I wait for another Emily Henry book to come out.

Thank you Emily Henry, Berkley Publishing Group, and NetGalley for this ARC in exchange for an honest review. Post: https://www.instagram.com/p/CO0QAjJLAdC/?igshid=1j8uv1o3aii78

3 stars = Fine/solid/good

I liked the characters here, but didn't love any of them. The timeline jumping made the book feel really long. And the author held out on what happened two years ago for a very long time. Sometimes this sort of pacing can be great for building suspense, but for me it just made the story drag. I was engaged enough to stick with it until the end (I enjoyed the college stories for the couple the most) without regret, but when it was over I realized I didn't love it.

(Language, sex, LGBTQ+)

Poppy and Alex met in college and made a pact that they will travel together every summer. It helps
that Poppy gets a job writing travel reviews for a NY magazine, which comes with perks of fabulous trips
that Alex can tag along on. While they both date other people and build their own lives in separate
cities, they remain each other’s ‘person’. However, two years ago they had a falling out and have not
talked since a trip to Croatia. What happens next explores their relationship, falling out and coming
back together.

My Thoughts:
Yes, yes, yes!! Such a cute book following Alex and Poppy over the past 10 years of their friendship and
adventures. The connection to these characters is giving me withdrawals!! This friends to lovers trope
is fun and fresh.