Oh my goodness, I loved this book.

It took me right back to the early days of my relationship with my husband and all of the fears and longing that came with those delicate and new moments. The concept that he was my home, rather than a place.

Emily Henry has a real knack for giving you a glimpse into her character’s hearts.You know them inside and out by the last page and you can’t help but fall in love with each of them, their families, their friends, and their souls.

The chemistry on these pages was palpable. Indelible. But the chemistry (as strong as it was) was so organic. It was part and parcel tender and respectful love Alex and Poppy had for each other.

I adored this book.

5 stars.

Thank you to Berkley for providing me with an advance copy of this novel. All opinions are my own.

Emily Henry can do no wrong. I wasn’t sure I was going to like this book, but I couldn’t put it down. The writing is so open and hopeful. And the banter was hilarious. Loved this cute story.

I never considered myself a "romance genre" fan until I read Beach Read last year and Emily Henry changed my whole outlook. In the last year, I have gone back and read some of her previous books but it wasn't until picking up PWMOV that I fully remember just how much I love her writing voice. I'm not proud of how often I was SNORT LAUGHING while reading this, and how much I also ADORED Alex and Poppy's relationship. This was peak Rom-Com material to me. I am usually not huge on friends-to-lovers but hats off you Emily and the Berkley team cuz you crushed it.

The book jumps back and forth between This Summer where Poppy is attempting to salvage her friendship with Alex and Past Summer Trips they went on together and we get to understand how their relationship grew. I appreciated how the time jumps were contained within each chapter and defined - I was never confused where or when I was (which is always a risk here!)

I loved the threads about family, being lonely, mental health, professional needs and goals. How scary it is to take risks for what you want because... what if?! Especially the loneliness and mental health dialogue felt so important and needed and I think will resonate with so many readers and is balanced so nicely with the sheer JOY of this book.

If I had to say what I didn't like they'd amount to: give me Alex's POV (I'm greedy and nosy and would have LOVED to see his perspective) and that I hating being made to wait to find out WHAT HAPPENED IN CROATIA (but, I get it, and it was appropriately alluded to and timed reveal). Oh! Early on we got a lot of Poppy musing on how "Alex understands her as a person" that did get a bit annoying because I wanted to see that more than be told, however, as the chapters progressed we do get more seeing than hearing so I do think it worked itself out in the end.

I loved it, I binged it, I can't wait for it to come out and I will buy it to read it again and throw it at my friends to read when they need some joy.

Poppy and Alex have been friends since college. Best friends. Just friends. With the growing responsibility and pressures of adulthood they still make time to go on a summer vacation together every year, no matter what. After all these years have they really been honest with each other? With themselves? With one last trip in Palm Springs it's time for them both to lay all their cards on the table.
I am blown away by this book! I can't remember the last time I truly fell in love with two characters like I have Alex and Poppy. Emily Henry has done it again. She writes the millennial struggle in a way that comes across achingly honest and raw. She pairs the delicious pining of unrequited love with vulnerability of a deep and loving friendship. This is the new standard for friends-to-lovers!

⭐⭐⭐💫3.5 stars
This book was just like a big hug from a best friend! It's about Poppy and Alex throughout many years of their friendship going on Vacations together. It's a slow burn romance which many people love but I got a little impatient waiting for everything to happen. The authors writing style is honestly what makes this book for me. Shes hilarious! I love her humor and found myself laughing out loud several times. I connected more to her previous book "Beach Read" but I would recommend this to anyone looking for a heart-warming story and an all around good time!

I really enjoyed this story! After reading this, I will definitely be picking up Beach Read now. :D Great job to the author!

This book gave me a lot of feelings which made me very uncomfortable. 5/5 delicious pining stars, would read again.

This is basically about unrequited pining. So much pining and longing, and a messy, complicated, not entirely healthy relationship. My god, I could barely take it. Truly wonderful book and a female MC who does not have her shit together but who is trying very hard. It's technically a slow burn and an exercise in sustaining tension; it's like reading a romance that lives in the moment right before they're about to kiss and, let me tell you, it's almost unbearable. I think the reason why this hit me so hard is because I lived the real life version of this story and it was horrible (o/100000 toxic stars) so it took me by surprise, and even thought I do NOT recommend going through this for real, I sure as fuck recommend this book. I haven't read Beach Read, but if it's half as compelling as this book, I get the hype now. Recommended for people who like flashbacks (lots of them here, and the book has a bit of a clunky structure that worked on me but isn't the easiest and makes me wonder if it was meant to break the tension but LOL good luck with that!) and for people who like it when the heroine is into the hero but he has a girlfriend and oh god what now (you know who you are!).

Review copy provided by the publisher.

Content warnings: parental death, emotional abandonment.

Yet another wonderful book by Emily Henry. It was a real treat to get one so close on the heels of Beach Read.

Alex and Poppy have been best friends since college and took a summer trip together every year until an incident where they stopped talking. Two years later, Poppy invites Alex on a trip in an effort to mend their friendship.

This story alternates back and forth in time between this year and all the years of vacations starting from when they met. You see their relationship evolve over time and how they grow as people both together and apart. I just loved it and them.

Absolutely adored the writing, the friendship, the inside jokes, the build. The moments of tension and when they FINALLY HAPPEN it's like [redacted redacted] and [redacted] levels of amazing. Thank you Emilyyyyyy for putting sweet sweet love in my Netgalley app. ILU

Beach Read was probably my favorite book of 2020 -- and this one is just as juicy! With all my favorite romance tropes and two great characters, I couldn't put this book down. I can't wait to buy this book for all my friends.

When I received the email notification that I was approved to read People We Meet on Vacation by Emily Henry I threw all of my books on my ever growing TBR pile to the side because this instantly became my number one priority. PWMOV is not only focused on the strong connection between Alex and Poppy, but also the smaller, less important characters that show up briefly during each of their vacations. Those characters helped plant the seed that guided the story along and it makes me think back to my own vacations before the pandemic where I met people in line for roller coasters or walking along the beach... while not extremely important in my overall life it still was special in that moment in time to meet someone new.

I think this story dethrones Beach Read as my favorite romantic comedy by Emily Henry. I laughed so much more from the fun banter of the characters, I didn't even think that could be possible after reading Beach Read! I think I also loved that the main characters in this story had a deeper connection to one another that spanned over 10 years. I think the way the author separates the present day with the different summer vacations Alex and Poppy took too was a great way to propel the overall story forward and helped the reader see the events that transpired to Poppy's secret love for her best friend and what it did to her during the brief falling out. I was sort of scared to read the last quarter of the book because I was so happy with the story at that point and knew some sort of conflict had to be thrown their way, but in the end this was a fantastic "friends to lovers, enemies to lovers" novel. I loved the small tie in to Beach Read, it makes me happy to know that Alex and Poppy live in the same universe as January and Gus. I also highly suggest reading the "Behind the Book" blurb Emily includes to explain her reasoning behind writing PWMOV, it was absolutely perfect!

This is the book that finally broke my reading slump. It’s not short, but I read it in a single day because I was so wrapped up in the characters. The novel is about two long-time friends, Poppy and Alex, who have take yearly summer vacations together for the last decade—that is until something happens on their most recent trip that leads to them not speaking for nearly two years. When Poppy decides she needs Alex back in her life, she plans a spontaneous summer trip with the intention of restoring their friendship to its former state. The book alternates between this summer’s vacation in Palm Springs and previous trips. I loved the way this kept me turning the pages and the way it revealed how Poppy and Alex’s relationship changed and evolved over the years. I just really enjoyed this! I think if you liked Henry’s last romance Beach Read you’re going to want to preorder this one so you can devour it as soon as it comes out!

Yes. So much yes.

Beach Read was a quick fav for me last year. When I saw this one coming out it was a no brainer. Happy to say, this did not disappoint.

You will enjoy this because:
🌺 Friends to lovers
🌺 Witty, funny and fresh writing/dialogue
🌺 Alternating timelines
🌺 LIKETHEBESTCHARACTERSEVER
🌺 Lots of travel references

So basically...if you liked Beach Read, you’ll most likely enjoy this as well.

As soon as I read the synopsis for Emily Henry’s follow up to her wonderful adult romance bestseller Beach Read, I had the certain premonition I would fall in love with it. And call me psychic, because I was absolutely right.

The beauty of Beach Read lay in large part with Henry’s writing voice. There was a real warmth undercut with bittersweetness that made the characters and their central love story come to life in a deeply intimate and immersive way. People We Meet on Vacation takes that narrative voice and applies it to a story that I felt so deeply connected to, it was the bookish equivalent of love at first sight.

A romance of friends turned lovers with their own doses of heartbreak and changing feelings on the way isn’t a new invention by any stretch, but Alex and Poppy’s story is so beautifully and carefully wrought that it feels utterly unique. Emily Henry has an ability to flesh out her characters, their relationships and their vulnerabilities so intimately that they feel like real people. It’s not dramatic set pieces or wild plot points that make her stories so unique, it’s this quiet, tender realism that makes you believe this story could only have happened with these characters. We believe Alex and Poppy’s love story, their years of unspoken longing or just-missed chances, because their friendship is so convincing. Henry knows her characters so well, and is masterful in her ability to make sure we know them too. The love story at the heart of this novel is one that celebrates the beauty and intimacy that comes with knowing and relearning someone inside-and-out. It’s a tricky thing to pull off organically, but Henry excels at this, and there’s a deep generosity running through the heart of her writing that brings the reader easily along with the ebbing and flowing currents of Alex and Poppy’s relationship and let’s us fall in love right alongside them.

Aside from Alex, the other great relationship in Poppy’s life is travel. The vacations they shared together are the most tangible checkpoints in the history of their friendship, different destinations intrinsically linked with different memories and phases of their lives. As with Beach Read, there’s a definite appeal to the wanderlust that has surely only grown more and more acute over the last year, and on a simple level, there’s a wistful escapism to reading about all the different places they’ve gone. The novel does more than stringing a line of exotic locations together, however -- Emily Henry evokes not just traveling, but the joy and the human appeal of it. The book explores the joy of travel and of vacations that comes from human connection, from learning new people and forging new connections. It’s a simple but wonderfully effective backdrop to Alex and Poppy’s love story which is in itself an extended kind of travel. They explore and learn each other over and over again with the same joy that they do new places, although of course their journey to -- and with -- each other is ultimately not a vacation, but rather a search for home.

I could wax poetic about this book in greater detail for hours, but I wouldn’t want to do anything that could delay you from pre ordering your copy right now. It’s a book that sinks right into your bones as you read it. From the first page, it makes itself right at home in your heart, and it’s there to stay. It’s another resounding victory from Emily Henry, and this book has immediately cemented itself on my ‘favourites’ shelf -- and the only time it’s coming down is when I pull it out to reread again and again and again.

LOVE. LOVE. LOVE. Picked this one up and couldn’t put it down. Finished in two days. Henry is a genius!!! The chemistry between Alex and Poppy is everything. Friends to lovers trope is amazing. I’m praying they work out the whole entire time while reading. So, so good!

I loved everything about this book.

LOVED, LOVED, LOVED.

This is one of those stories that I just wanted to crawl inside the pages and live there forever because it was that good.

The story is engrossing. The writing is rich and immersive. The characters feel real. Story lines were relatable. Everything is well paced.

This is going to be a book I compare other books for quite some time.

This is also a book I will be recommending to everyone and anyone.

I cannot thank the publisher enough for my advanced copy. All gushing is my own.

I enjoyed this one, but I do think I liked Beach Read more. Poppy and Alex were friends to lovers, and it was clear that the two had chemistry from the very beginning. The pair take a summer vacation each year, no matter who they are dating or what their budget is (yes, this is odd and if I were dating someone that insisted they go away each year with someone of the opposite gender, I would be a little wary of it as well).

The story starts with a summer vacation five years prior and sets the tone for the book. The book continues between present day and going through their vacations for the past decade plus. The one thing that really bothered me that brought the book down a star is that we were constanly told of something that happened two years ago that changed everything. It took until about 75% of the way through the book to find out what that was (and the payoff wasn't worth it). By the end, I understand why the author held out so long, but it's frustrating as a reader to constanly hear about "that vacation two years ago" or "that time in Croatia" without knowing what happened or what they are referring to.

Other than that, I did like Poppy, although she seemed a bit immature. Alex was a tad one-dimensional for me, but I did like his character enough. He seemed to put up with Poppy rather than swoon over her, which made the eventual friends-to-lovers a little off, but overall it was a nice summer read (especially because of the places mentioned... for those that aren't traveling right now, it's nice to read about other places!).

Poppy and Alex have been best friends and travel companions for over a decade. They spend most of their year apart - Poppy in NYC and Alex in Ohio, but they spend that time looking forward to their annual Summer Trip. Or at least they did, until two years ago, when things die not go as planned. Their relationship has been strained ever since but Poppy is determined to get them back on track.

I really loved this book! After reading Beach Read last summer I knew I wanted to try another book by @emilyhenry and this one was even better! I absolutely loved how the book was set up jumping back and forth between prior trips and the present, working it’s way forward. I also loved living vicariously through their trips since travel isn’t really a thing at the moment.

I fell in love with both Poppy and Alex - I definitely developed a major crush on Alex while reading this one and I really just want to hang out with them in real life. They’re both hilarious and had me laughing out loud!

I'm in the minority here, but I realised that Emily Henry's writing doesn't do anything for me. It's the second time that I tried to connect with her writing, her characters, and I felt them thoroughly lacking. I DNFed this book when my mind started to wander and skipping and skimming became the norm. I'm finally at the point where I can say that although I might feel like I'm missing out on the hype, I'm clearly the wrong person for her books

Review link: https://www.instagram.com/p/CL-ZO_uArpB/?igshid=121uavi6huqo4

PEOPLE WE MEET ON VACATION ☆☆☆☆☆⁣⁣
Thank you to @netgalley + @berkleypub for the e-ARC. It’s out May 11th!⁣⁣
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I’m going to paste the synopsis in the comments below, only because I don’t trust myself to do the *perfect* storyline justice in a only few sentences.⁣⁣
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As most of you know, I’m very picky about romance novels. I only really like them if they’re unique and real. This one DOES IT ALL and then some. Alex and Poppy have taken their place as my two favorite romance characters ever. They were both equally memorable and great; her with her relatable quirks & anxieties and him with his “lovable grandpa” ways. And their relationship... 👏🏼👏🏼 Emily Henry wrote them to be best friends above all and it was such a refreshing and realistic story that was so easy to love. They enjoyed each other’s company above anyone else’s and their rapport was ridiculously charming. The vacations were immersive, the humor was laugh-out-loud funny, and I loved how the ending spoke so highly of therapy. I also shed a tear reading the author’s note, no big deal. 😂😅 My favorite part: “This is, ultimately, a book about home. About finding it, about staying in it, about wrapping your arms tightly around it and breathing it in until it fills up your lungs.” Thanks for writing my new favorite book, Emily Henry! ⁣
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Okay, I’m done gushing now. Hopefully that convinced you to grab it on May 11th!! 🧡