Happy Place was one of my most anticipated spring reads! This contemporary romance novel delves into college friendships, rekindled love, self-growth, and change. The author tackles heavy subjects of mental health and grief throughout the story. I enjoyed the use of present-day and flashback chapters, which helped me understand the relationship between the main characters, Wyn and Harriet, from their first meeting to their breakup and its aftermath. The friendship group dynamic was well-done, and each character was unique and contributed to the story. The book had many memorable one-liners. However, the pacing of the story was a weak point for me. I found that the middle dragged and the ending felt rushed. Despite this, it was a solid four-star rating. I’d recommend this book to fans of Emily Henry's work.

I’ll be posting on Instagram and my blog during the week of pub day

Emily Henry is back again and here are my thoughts (beware of spoilers!!)

What I loved:
1. The focus on the main characters' friendships- I am a sucker for found family stories! I loved how many flashbacks we got of the evolution of their friend group over the years.
2. The setting - Summer in Maine! The perfect backdrop to get me out of my winter blues. Emily Henry always does such a great job of bringing the setting to life, and this time was no exception. Catch me visiting Maine every summer for the rest of my life.
3. Wyn Connor- I will say, with a name like Wyn, the odds were against him from the start. But as always with Emily Henry's heroes, he had great banter. Plus he's a handsome, family-oriented Montana boy whose eyes never strayed from the heroine for even a second? Say less

What I didn't quite love:
1. The conflict in the relationship- I was okay with the initial conflict (the old classic miscommunication/ "i'm not good enough for them so I'll just leave forever and they'll be better off" trope) A little cliche but in the context of this story I felt like it worked. But once their true feelings were revealed to each other, they were still adamant that they couldn't be together. Why? Because they had different jobs in different states... ??? Surely if they were that obsessed with each other they could've made long distance work? And planned for Harriet to move to Montana after her residency?? Does Montana not have hospitals??? They lost me a bit with that one
2. This is a personal preference, but second chance romances just don't fully do it for me. I want the pining! The will they/won't they! The flirty beginnings! I did love the flashbacks we got of them first meeting, but there weren't enough of them to fully get me 100% invested in their relationship

Overall, I did really enjoy this story and I think it will be respectfully slotted as my #2 favorite Emily Henry book (Beach Read is still my number one!!). This will definitely be a go-to rec for me this Spring/Summer. Fingers crossed for another enemies to lovers from her down the road

I don't often read Romance, but when I do I'm always glad it is a book written by Emily Henry. In her latest novel, Happy Place, there isn't much new in the way of plot (the exes to lovers trope, a reunion of college friends) or setting (coastal Maine)...but Henry elevates her novels above others in the genre by creating more nuanced characters and writing some of the snappiest dialogue on the printed page.
Despite the title, Happy Place is definitely a more somber read than Henry's previous novel, Book Lovers.
Central character Harriet is devastated after being inexplicably dumped by her fiancé, Wyn, the golden boy she first fell in love with in college. The two have not shared the news of their breakup with their extended group of friends, who they now are forced into vacationing together with in Maine before a beloved summer home will go on the market.
Will they get back together?? No spoilers here, haha.
Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for the advanced readers copy of Happy Place in exchange for my review.

Oh man this was so good and I really loved it. A really great story about how friendships change and grow and nothing has to stay the same for everybody to still be there for each other and about living for yourself and not for anyone else and doing what makes you happy. Harriet and Wyn have been the perfect couple since they met in college but they broke up 5 months ago and still haven’t told their best friends about it. Which is how they find themselves faking it on their annual trip to the beach house which is there last one since the house is being sold. They don’t want to ruin it for everyone so they can do this for a week, how hard can it be except feeling are brought back up and it is so easy to get back into sync with each other since they still love each other. It’s mostly in Harriet’s point of view and you get a glimpse in alternating chapters of how her and Wyn got together and what lead up to them breaking up. I like the growth of the whole group of friends and how they realize that change isn’t a bad thing and they are still the best of friends just with way busier lives then when they were in college. Harriet realized that she needs to stop trying to use her career as a way to prove to her parents that the careers they had to sacrifice for her and her sister was worth it since she was going to be a success and make them proud. Which shouldn’t be how you should go about trying to have a career especially in such a demanding field as medicine which you really need to love to succeed in. Everything gets resolved at the end and everyone realizes that they don’t need this happy place of the beach house that they still have that with each other.

Thanks to Berkley and Netgalley for the complimentary copy of this book in e-book form. All opinions in this review are my own.

It's been five months since Harriet broke up with fiance and long-time member of her friend group, Wyn, but she hasn't been able to tell her best friends. Now, it's time for their last friends trip to Lobster Fest and she knows she'll have to come clean. When she arrives at the cottage, Wyn is there and they've been given the largest and most intimate guest room for the first time ever. The cottage, these friendships, her relationship with Wyn were Harriet's happy place, but now she's living in "the real world." Can she "pretend" to love Wyn? Will it break her again? Will their friends see through the facade?

I highly recommend this deep, moving, and insightful love story about trauma, grief, and chosen families.

Emily Henry is a master at writing emotionally distraught yet hilarious main characters. From the start, Harriet and Wyn's banter pulls me in and I find myself baffled at the dissolution of their relationship, hungry for their reconciliation. In the friends, we have background characters who fill-in the missing pieces about Harriet and Wyn. I love the way the past and future work to tell the full story of Harriet and Wyn's relationship and the final reveal of how they got where they are. In the end, the friends must reckon with themselves, give up their childish ways, and move into the future -- together or not.

Everyone has their happy place, and for some it ends up being a person, but not for everyone.
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Harriet and her friends are immediately likable, but not in the cliche ways where they all are the same rich kids. (They most definitely are not). They are a group drawn together based on their differences and there is something beautiful in how Henry executes that in this book. The book is full of found family, love and loss, and it’s guaranteed to make you feel all of the emotions. Then there is Wyn. From the start I was trying to see the bad guy in wyn, and uncover his dirty secret. But when you find out I couldn’t help but smile, because of course. I truly felt like I know these characters and I was right beside them living their story in Maine. Now I want to vacation to Maine during some type of lobster fest.
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The book says in such a beautiful way how life is too damn short to not do what makes you the happiest.
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Thank you for the publisher for an ARC.

This was brutal. I’ve read all of Emily’s adult romances so I am very familiar with the pain, but this book takes that to another level. It started hurting and it ended hurting. I did not had a break, but I loved it every single page.

I think this book has dethroned Beach Read as my favorite EH. I thought I couldn’t see characters having as much soulmate potential as January and Gus until I met Harriet and Wyn. The love between these two is so intense, and Emily has a gift to describe it. The dialogues made me feel like I was running and I couldn’t breathe as much oxygen as my lungs needed. The happy place moments (you’ll understand) made me lose my mind for them. This book has become my favorite second chance romance ever.

Aside from the romance, my heart was also in serious trouble when it came to the friendships. I loved the trio Sabrina, Cleo and Harriet form, and the found family they make with their partners is beautiful. I really understood Sabrina’s need of trying to save their friendship because growing up most times means growing apart, and it’s scary.

This book was a masterpiece, as expected, but it exceeded all of my expectations. Be ready to suffer, though! The pain will be worth it by the end!

This was a fantastic book! It is definitely my new favorite Emily Henry book. I loved Harriet and Wyn’s relationship. I loved the friendships and connections between the six main characters. I loved the references to Maine and summer vacations. Many parts made me laugh out loud - there was a definite humor undertone that I hadn’t noticed in other books by this author. Most importantly, I feel like the writing style really highlighted how the main characters were feeling and made it easy for the reader to feel along with them. I didn’t want the book to end. You will love it! Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for this delightful, early read!

"𝐸𝑣𝑒𝑛 𝑤ℎ𝑒𝑛 𝑠𝑜𝑚𝑒𝑡ℎ𝑖𝑛𝑔 𝑏𝑒𝑎𝑢𝑡𝑖𝑓𝑢𝑙 𝑏𝑟𝑒𝑎𝑘𝑠, 𝑡ℎ𝑒 𝑚𝑎𝑘𝑖𝑛𝑔 𝑜𝑓 𝑖𝑡 𝑠𝑡𝑖𝑙𝑙 𝑚𝑎𝑡𝑡𝑒𝑟𝑠."

In all honesty, I had trouble distilling my thoughts into something as simple as a star rating. And I think this is a testament to the complexity of this story–because I see so much of myself in Harriet and so much of my soon-to-be ex-husband in Wyn, and so much of our mutual heartbreak in theirs that it’s difficult to extract my feelings and hopes for my own future from any objectivity I may have otherwise had about this as a book. Don’t get me wrong–I loved it as much as I’ve loved Emily Henry’s other books, just in a very different, more personal way that is hard to articulate.

The chemistry that Harry and Wyn have sizzles off the page from their very first meeting, and the reasons for their abrupt split and the subsequent miscommunication and misery may be frustrating and confusing for some readers who haven’t experienced similar circumstances in their relationships. But Emily Henry is not known for writing fairy-tale romances… her characters and their relationships are so representative of real-life complexities. This book and the unique love story it contains are at times messy and imperfect, but always sincere and personal, and well-spoken. Perfect for fans of 𝘗𝘦𝘰𝘱𝘭𝘦 𝘞𝘦 𝘔𝘦𝘦𝘵 𝘰𝘯 𝘝𝘢𝘤𝘢𝘵𝘪𝘰𝘯 and Carley Fortune’s 𝘌𝘷𝘦𝘳𝘺 𝘚𝘶𝘮𝘮𝘦𝘳 𝘈𝘧𝘵𝘦𝘳, I’m excited for the world to read this.

• Second chance romance
• Friends to lovers
• Fake dating
• One bed
• Alternating flashback chapters

This was my first novel by Henry, and I really enjoyed it. It was a bit heavier than I expected, but also had elements of lightness and humor. I’ll definitely be going back to her previous novels!

4.75 Stars

Harriet + Wyn

Harriet found her two BFFs on her first day of college over a decade ago. Chloe and Sabrina and Harriet spent the most amazing times together - especially every summer in Sabrina's dad's mansion on the Maine coast. But now he's selling the place, so this is the last summer.
They went to Maine every year - after a while they all started bringing their better halves too. All six of them are the bestest of friends - even though they all live very far away from each other.
These summers are sacred.
Harriet and Wyn met at that place one summer. And they've been together for over eight years now.
At least everybody thinks so.
But they broke up six months ago - without telling any of their friends.
And now they have to spend the week in Maine pretending ....
That happy place might not be so happy anymore... right?

LET THE FUN TIMES BEGIN ... ☺

WHAT WILL HAPPEN TO HARRIET + WYN?
WILL WE GET A SECOND CHANCE AT A HAPPILY EVER AFTER?
READ THE BOOK TO FIND OUT 😁

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Adorable!

That was such a sweet book!
I usually hate books that go back in time a lot. But we had to know how they all met and how things happened with Harriet and Wyn. But most of the book is set in present time Maine.
And it's all so sad! Why did they break up? They're so perfect for each other!!
I really wanted them to get that second happily ever after...
But it's not easy. There was a reason for breaking up... but we don't know what it was.
But the mood is not all sad and heartbreaky all through the book. We have an amazing time with all the friends. Lots of laughter and alcohol and sitting by the pool and talking and soo much more.
I wanted to join them in that beautiful little tourist town and eat all the lobster rolls and drink all the maple lattes!
I loved seeing those friendships and all their problems and the secrets they're keeping.
It was all so very adorable and funny and sad and ... just beautiful.

I need to see this as a movie one day!

HAPPY PLACE was such a sweet and heartbreaking second-chance love story. Full of friends and love and fun and summer and everything good! Run to your nearest amazon for your own Wyn - he'll be sold out in no time! 😍

The emotional baggage of Beach Read, the waxing and waning of a relationship in flashbacks like People We Meet on Vacation, and the banter of Book Lovers make up Happy Place.

Well written, well organized, and well plotted. You instantly become invested with Harriet and Wyn. The ease of their coupling and the heartbreak of their breakup along with feeling the sense of history with this group of college friends prompted me to reflect upon:

-Found family and what you get from them in contrast to what you don’t get from your actual family

-Expectations our family places on us; what we have to live up to or live down

-No one can make anyone else happy. It is your responsibility.

-How relationship have to change and grow over time

-Memories are not in the walls but in your heart.

A vacation house in Maine is Harriet’s happy place, but it is with Wyn that she finds home.

Thank you NetGalley and Berkley for the ARC in exchange for an honest review.

*Note: this is an honest spoiler free review*
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“…suddenly more of my heart belongs to him than doesn’t, and I know I’ll never get a single grain back. He’s a golden boy. I’m a girl whose life has been drawn in shades of gray. I try not to love him. I really try.”
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I have to admit, I rarely cry when I read. There’s probably only a handful of books out there that have truly made me cry (or very teary). As a very emotional and sentimental person with serious attachment issues (lol, laughing through the pain), that’s pretty surprising to me. But now, that handful has grown as I officially add "Happy Place" by Emily Henry to the list of books that have made me want to pluck my tear ducts out :D

I love to go into books blind (aside from a general preface of the tropes or plot). Therefore, I didn’t know what to expect from "Happy Place". To be honest, I thought it was going to be a happy little story with some side trauma (similar to Henry’s other books). I was wrong. It was a punch in the face. Rather than focusing on a large plot or specific trope, I felt that this book focused more on its characters (their stories, issues, etc.). I’ve always been one to believe that a book doesn’t have to have a huge plot or plot twist to be a good story or meaningful, and this is a perfect example. Henry focuses more on themes such as broken families, mental health/illness, self deprecation, growing up and apart from close friends, misunderstandings, loss, etc., amongst her characters. I cannot describe the pain that I felt as I closely related to Harriet, Sabrina, and Wyn.

With all that being said, I can talk about the other half – the romance and friendships. I absolutely adored the dynamic between the six (Harriet, Wyn, Sabrina, Parth, Cleo, and Kimmy). The truth is that friendships can fade and change over time. Friends unfortunately drift apart as life takes us different places. Their dynamic throughout the story (in the before and after) is iconic and honest. And in terms of the romance, I absolutely adored all of the couples (I don’t want to spoil so I can’t say much, but I especially loved my momma bears *wink*). Each couple had their own issues, insecurities, love, and dynamics.

There’s so much more I want to say, but I honestly don’t know how to put them all into words. Just know that I encourage everyone to get their hands on this book as soon as it drops. I cannot wait for the rest of the world to experience this story, and I hope all of you love it as much as I did.
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A huge thank you to the publisher for being so kind and gifting me an ARC!

Let me preface this by saying I LOVE Beach Read and Book Lovers, and PWMOV is one of my least favorite books ever. I have a very tumultuous relationship with Emily Henrys books (clearly), and this one was not for me. For the people who love PWMOV and not Book Lovers/Beach Read, I honestly think you will enjoy this one.

Here is what I liked:

- Cleo and Kimmy. I wish we could just have a book of them on their little farm living their life, because they were the best part of this entire book.

- The focus on mental health and choosing what is best for you, not necessarily what everyone wants from you.

... that's about it.

Here is what I did not like:

- These characters had such shallow relationships with each other and we are supposed to believe they have been best friends for 10 years? How is it that *every* person in the friend group never shares anything about their lives with their friends?! It was actually exhausting reading over and over again about people hiding things or being scared to share their feelings. One person? Sure. But this many? No.

- This book had the same sort of build up as PWMOV, where the author is alluding to something that happened in the past and we don't learn the details towards the end. I know some people like the suspense, and this choice definitely adds tension, but for me that only works if the reveal is worth it and makes sense. When the reveal happened I was like... "that's it?" These are grown adults, they just needed to use their words and the majority of this plot never needed to happen.

- The main character starts out the book by talking to a stranger on a plane who clearly doesn't want to talk to her. I'm sorry but that made me immediately hate her from the start LOL.

- THE BANTER. How is this the same author that wrote the AMAZING banter in Book Lovers and Beach Read?! It felt so contrived and forced in Happy Place. Every joke felt like it was coming from a cringy millennial trying to be funny (this is coming from a '96 millennial lol).

- THE DIALOGUE. Whenever the characters would talk to each other it felt so unnatural. Instead of having back and forth, the characters would give like 2 page monologues before the other character would even be mentioned again. Who talks like that? The declarations were sooo dramatic and felt like inspirational speeches, not normal humans.

It seems like I enjoy every other book that Emily Henry writes, so I hope that means I will love the next one.

*Thank you to netgalley and the publisher for the free ARC in exchange for an honest review*

It's not exactly a departure from Emily Henry's usual formula, but Happy Place delivers a solid slow burn, a delightful celebration of everything Maine, and some good twists on the old "group of best friends" drama. Harry and Wyn keep it together, even though they're really apart, for the sake of their friends.

Holy fuksfkrglwirgkwergw.

I need a second to catch my breath because this book was next level amazing. My heart is feeling so many different emotions, I don’t think I can eloquently even begin to describe it in words. I want to cry but also laugh but also need a hug???

Y’all. Emily Henry is it. She is able to grab my heart while reading & not let it go until the veryyyyy freaking end. There is something so magical about reading her novels.

This book goes back and forth between the past & the present, and it was so well done. And the story it builds as it jumps between timelines was just right!!

FUCKKKKK I LOVE WYN. He is just so *swoony* and I just want to scream. The things he says…I literally had my jaw on the floor because they were so beautiful. How does she write such amazing men?!?!?! MEN WRITTEN BY WOMEN >>>>

I felt so fcking much for Harriet. She is trying to make something of herself, while trying to give back to her parents who seemed to have given up everything for her & her sister. I’m in the medical field and this one hits close to home for me. It was such an accurate depiction of the medical world in so many moments throughout the book. It was amazing to be able to relate to a character like that.

The overall story was amazing & so freaking heartfelt. The friendship group was next level. And each little bit of the story that we see between Wyn & Harriets, both sets of parents, the friends, etc, contributed to the overall emotions & beauty of the book. It was so raw but real. And there was so much underlying love. Sooo much. Gahhhh. Perfection.

Spice: 🌶.5

Tropes:
Second chance romance
Fake dating
Forced proximity

Emily Henry’s newest contemporary romance novel HAPPY PLACE is one of the most highly-anticipated releases of 2023, and for good reason. It is worth ALL of the hype it is receiving, and then some. This book has it all: fake dating, second-chance romance, dual timelines, forced proximity, found family, Henry’s signature banter, quick-witted and lovable characters, a costal Maine summer, cold coronas with lime, sand, salt, and late-night karaoke in the kitchen with your best friends. But it also has depth — grief, and loss, and the bittersweet pain of accepting the changing shape of relationships.

Harriet and Wyn have been the perfect couple for over a decade. And as far as everyone knows, they still are. Except — the college sweethearts broke up five months ago. And they still haven’t told anyone. Which is how they find themselves sharing a bedroom on their friend group’s annual Maine trip — back in their “happy place,” feeling anything but happy. And then Sabrina drops the bomb: the cottage is being put up for sale at the end of the year, which takes breaking the news (and potentially ruining their last trip together) completely off the table. But after years of being in love, it shouldn’t *that* hard to fake it for one week… should it?

HAPPY PLACE is a romance novel at its core. But it’s really so much more than that. It’s a story about the fear of being really, truly known and it still not being enough. It’s about learning to trust yourself and speaking your truth, even when it’s messy or uncomfortable or confusing. It’s about holding on too tight, or not tight enough, and learning to tell the difference. And it’s about allowing your people to see you, know you, and love you.

There’s a saying in librarianship that there is a “right” book for the “right” person at the “right” time. If we’re lucky (and good at our jobs), we can get *that* book into your hands exactly when you need it most. This was that book for me.

Thank you to @berkleypub and @netgalley for the eARC. HAPPY PLACE drops on April 25th. Don’t worry, I’ll remind you. In the meantime, I’ll be venmoing @emilyhenrywrites the going rate of about five therapy sessions.

The screaming, crying and throwing up have subsided after the initial shock of being one of the many who received an advance copy of this beautiful book! It took me a minute after I finish to sit down to write this because I was still digesting what I read.

Thank you so much to Emily Henry, Berkley Romance & NetGalley for this opportunity to read an advance copy of this book!

I slacked on my Emily Henry reads but quickly caught myself up in 2022 and was ready to go for this book even prior to having access and I didn't think she could top herself but she continuously do so.

I'll be honest when I started reading this, I wasn't sure how I was feeling? The beginnings of books are usually rough for me as it is setting the stage and getting use to the format. And that was the case but after a few chapters - I was all in and couldn't get enough.

The format of this is both past and present. Harriet & Wyn who broke up after ten years together are now forced to be on vacation together for their annual summer trip with their friends. They haven't seen each other in months. But no one knows that they broke up & they are forced to pretend that they are still together. The chapters displaying the past are deemed Happy Place, indicating happier times in her life. We see how Harriet's relationship with Wyn begins and how it develops throughout the book. The present is appropriately titled Real Life.

"There's no one else."

There has not been an Emily Henry book boyfriend that I haven't loved. And Wyn Connor is no exception. He also may have taken the place of Charlie who was the one on top after reading Book Lovers. His love for Harriet was so strong. I can't even begin to describe how many times I put my book down and shook my head at the swooniest that Wyn oozed off the pages. He was not perfect and that is what made him even better.

"My best friends taught me a new kind of quiet, the peaceful stillness of knowing each other so well you don't need to fill the space. And a new kind of loud; noise as a celebration, as the overflow of joy at being alive, here, now."

While this relationship takes up a bulk of the book, the other piece of this is the importance of friendship and the hardship that friends go through as they age. When we meet our friends at one age and then 10 plus years go by, you are not the same person as you were at the start and your friends are also not the same person. I love how Emily tested Harriet, Cleo and Sabrina's friendship and made them communicate when that clearly was not happening in the recent years.

"I'd do anything to go back to that happy place, outside of time, where nothing from real life can touch us."

Words have escaped me to sum up my thoughts but I will say that Emily Henry will continue to be an auto buy, must read and the bar she has set is so high. She has a way to not only to write romance but also real life scenarios such as parental death, friendships, aging parents. I am looking forward to doing a re-read of this via audio in the spring.

I think fans of Henry will love this book and fall in love with all the characters.

EH never lets me down! I really enjoyed this second chance, fake dating, forced proximity romance. The cast of friends was an added delight!

We follow Harriet, whose friends are her family. She met Sabrina and Cleo in college, and over the years their trio expanded to include Parth, Wyn, and Kimmy. For years, they’ve come together at Sabrina’s family’s cottage in Maine for the Lobster Fest, and this year is no different–except everything is different. Harriet is dreading having to tell her friends that she and Wyn broke off their engagement, but she’s shocked when Wyn shows up at the cottage when he wasn’t supposed to, and even more shocked when Sabrina and Parth announce that they’re getting married at the end of the week. Not wanting to disturb the group’s atmosphere, she and Wyn will pretend to still be together, and she’ll have to pretend he didn’t shatter her heart and that she’s not still in love with him.
I cried throughout the majority of this book; I won’t lie. There’s just so much emotion, and if I were Harriet I would be blubbering and crying all the damn time. Peppered into Lobster Fest week are flashbacks to Harriet’s past and how she met these five people who are her chosen family as well as her past relationship with Wyn. I feel like these flashbacks were done much better than People We Meet on Vacation, which I didn’t dislike but remains my least favorite of her books. PWMoV teased the Croatia trip for too long, and then when we actually found out what happened in Croatia, it felt like a let down. I felt like we got more tiny details in Happy Place that led us to start clueing together why Harriet and Wyn broke up, and the full reveal happened earlier in the book than PWMoV, which worked really well.
The characters all felt fleshed-out and more than just side characters, which I really appreciated. There were maybe one or two characters of the six that felt a bit flatter than the others, but they were all still distinct and enjoyable.
Lastly, Happy Place re-introduced me to an old favorite hyperfixation song: Before the Storm by the Jonas Brothers, feat. Miley Cyrus, which is a breakup song I cried to in middle school and now again 14 years later. For that alone, I would give it 5/5 stars, but it’s also just a great book with a lot of emotion. I’d say it’s not as steamy as her other books, but it’s still an open door romance!