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New Release Review! PEOPLE WE MEET ON VACATION by Emily Henry

People We Meet on Vacation cover

Two best friends. Ten summer trips. One last chance to fall in love.

Poppy and Alex. Alex and Poppy. They have nothing in common. She’s a wild child; he wears khakis. She has insatiable wanderlust; he prefers to stay home with a book. And somehow, ever since a fateful car share home from college many years ago, they are the very best of friends. For most of the year they live far apart—she’s in New York City, and he’s in their small hometown—but every summer, for a decade, they have taken one glorious week of vacation together.

Until two years ago, when they ruined everything. They haven’t spoken since.

Poppy has everything she should want, but she’s stuck in a rut. When someone asks when she was last truly happy, she knows, without a doubt, it was on that ill-fated, final trip with Alex. And so, she decides to convince her best friend to take one more vacation together—lay everything on the table, make it all right. Miraculously, he agrees.

Now she has a week to fix everything. If only she can get around the one big truth that has always stood quietly in the middle of their seemingly perfect relationship. What could possibly go wrong?

From the New York Times bestselling author of Beach Read, a sparkling new novel that will leave you with the warm, hazy afterglow usually reserved for the best vacations.

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Review:

True confession time: When Harry Met Sally will probably always be one of my all-time favorite movies. It has been for almost (good grief, can this be right???) 32 years, and I truly can’t see that changing anytime soon. Or, ever, really. So the WHMS vibes here? There’s no way I’m not going to be all over that. Two people who meet in college, have nothing in common, share an awkward road trip together, and then somehow a few years later become best friends, are friends for a long time (until they’re not) and then they fall in love? I. AM. HERE. FOR. IT.

Ms Henry did not disappoint.

This book was funny (I’m sorry, everyone who was in my vicinity while I read this and had to put up with my frequent snorts of laughter), touching, heartbreaking, and good grief made me cry (insanely happy tears) at the end. Poppy and Alex’s story was just freaking delightful, and exactly what I needed in a week when it feels like the rain will never end. The author’s first book ( Beach Read ) has just moved way the heck up my TBR list; my only concern is how can it possibly live up to the awesomeness that is this book?

I’ll risk it, though. ASAP 😉

I’ll leave you with the most freaking adorable part of the movie that helped inspire this book, all the true love stories. (They were real! Portrayed by actors, but the stories themselves were totally true, which I always had hoped in my heart of hearts) If you just want to skip to the most relevant part (I’ll try not to judge), it starts around 4:13 or so.

Rating: 4 1/2 stars / A

I voluntarily reviewed an Advance Reader Copy of this book.

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