Happy Place Paperback – March 5, 2024

Happy Place is a single POV, dual timeline second chance romance. It focuses on Harriet and Wyn, who were the perfect couple… until they weren’t, and nobody knows why. They’ve been hiding their breakup from the friends they see once a year during an annual trip to Maine, and decide that they can fake it through one week for the sake of everyone’s happiness.This book… I am absolutely in love with this book. I loved traveling back and forth between present day and glimpses of their past relationship. I loved how much they each cared and cherished each other even when they were determined to stay apart. And of course I loved the slow burn, second chance, finding love again. Another fantastic Emily Henry book!

Sensitivity warning: Deals with elements of grief and depression — not just grief as it relates to death, but also grief related to nostalgia and happy memories from the past that almost hurt. There is also some cursing, including f-bombs, as well as a few open door romance scenes.I’ll start by saying that I’ve been on a roll of not finishing books lately (not that I’ll never finish them, just that I’ve been book hopping). Happy Place instantly grabbed me and kept me interested - so much so that I finished this book in two days.At the start of this book, the story is firmly centered around Harriet & Wyn as they navigate how to act around their friend group because they’ve broken up and none of their friends know. They feel they need to keep the facade going because it’s the last vacation the friends will get to have at their special cottage. As the story goes on, you realize how much the other friendships/relationships are woven into the fabric of the story.Harry & Wyn’s relationship is believable and is driven home by the flashbacks of their burgeoning relationship. Speaking of the flashbacks — I really enjoyed the dual timeline. Each chapter is dedicated to either a time in the past or the present. In the past, we get to see Harriet and Wyn go from friends to lovers. In the present, it’s a second chance romance. One thing I do wish is that the Happy Place chapters (those in the past) had been labeled with a year; but that’s just the detail-oriented girl in me.Harriet and Wyn are both characters you can root for, but I also loved the friend group. Emily Henry fully sold me on how deep the characters’ bonds were, both in pieces (seeing friendships paired off in one-on-one settings or smaller groups) and as a whole when we see the dynamic that exists when the entire group is together. The relationships are flushed out and the Happy Place at the cottage truly feels like it would be a great vacation spot.All of that being said, I feel like I read two books. The first half, which is fairly light-hearted and predominately fun, and then the second half, which could feel pretty heart wrenching at times. Harriet and Wyn deal with real problems that come up when you’ve been with someone for a length of time (disappointments, grief, stress, money troubles) — the problems are mainly shown in the flashback chapters, but the ghosts of the problems are felt in the real time chapters.Once I got to the 60% mark, there were chapters that were brutal. We only get Harriet’s POV, so we know how Harriet feels/can tell what she truly wants, but at times it seems as though she’s alone in her feelings. The lack of communication between the two characters does make sense because of their history, but it really draws out the pain felt through Harriet’s eyes. A large part of the problem in the chapters taking place in the past is that Harriet and Wyn could both see the best in each other, but not in themselves. Additionally, because they don’t talk about why they feel how they feel or the reasons for their coping mechanisms that started in their childhoods, cracks in the relationship turn to chasms. Beyond Harriet & Wyn and their relationship turmoil, we also see that each of the character’s in the friend group have their own cracks that they’re not sharing.This book hooked me and I did enjoy it, especially the wit and banter, but it’s not fully what I expected. It gets very deep at points in exploring the characters and their emotions. Though there’s happiness and the communication and satisfying conclusion eventually come, I felt a bit melancholy when it was over.

This book is well written with depth of her characters, relationships and interactions between both. I loved the settings and one of my favorite descriptive writers. It would make an excellent tv series.

I thought this book was a big let down—especially after all the raving reviews. There will be spoilers in this so please don’t read ahead if you don’t want to know.As I started getting into this, I thought this was going to be a book about a guy who was trying to get his girl back and soliciting his friends to help him. I was all for that because I wanted a good grovel for the heartless way he broke up with her after eight years. But that’s not what this was about at all.They decide to act like they’re still together so they don’t ruin their last friends trip. I got the sense that Wyn was miserable and was formulating a plan to get her back— but no, turns out he’s totally fine. He even tells her that he’s finally happy. She’s still utterly devastated though. He gives her tons of mixed signals. But it takes forever for everything to finally come out. SHE’S the one who has to go to him!!! Even after pouring her heart out to him, he tells her he’ll always love her but they can’t be together because she needs to finish her residency in San Francisco (he was miserable there) and he wants to stay in Montana with his family. I get that —that’s ok. But why couldn’t they do long distance for a couple years and she could come to him a be a surgeon in Montana??? (I felt the past chapters did a great job showing how deeply these two loved each other—and honestly I kind of hated him for walking away from her so easily.)So he just keeps on breaking her heart over and over during this friends trip. And at the very end of the book she gives up EVERYTHING to be with him In Montana. I’m totally ok with her going to Montana, but she gives up being a doctor to do pottery??? She actually says she’s just going to pay back her hundreds of thousands of dollars in medical school loans by doing pottery!! That was so ridiculous and unbelievable. Why wouldn’t she just do something in the medical field????Anyway, this book just bothered me so much because he was totally fine walking away from from her. He never groveled or even regretted his decision— and then she was the one who gave up everything to be with him. He gave up nothing. Even at the very end, I felt he would have been fine if they never got back together.

I liked this book, I like the quirky characters and the love they have for their found family. I loved how they all cared for each other and wanted the best for everyone. But there was a lot of selfishness (unintended) and not enough “let’s talk about it.” But I guess that’s why we have the miscommunication trope. I adored the mcs, even if the female mc sometimes pmo she grew on me so I sympathized with her so I knew how she felt about certain things. Also for those who say this doesn’t have romance, it’s a slow burn not right in your face, there is romance there. And to add that many ppl give up a lucrative career for something simpler; see; lawyer gives up career to be baker irl.Anyways 8/10 🏖️ recommend.