Yesterday, January 4, I finished my first novel of the year! (I have a lot more to get to before I reach my goal for the year, so I’d say I’m off to a good start.)
People We Meet on Vacation by Emily Henry is a friends-to-lovers romance that revolves around Poppy and Alex, polar opposites who became best friends when they shared a ride back to their hometown during a college vacation. Their friendship outlasted their college years and, since then, they have maintained their (now long distance) friendship by taking summer trips together — with the added bonus that Poppy now works for a travel magazine and most of their vacations are paid for on the company credit card.
Having hit an awkward patch in their friendship a few years prior, Poppy decides that the radio silence between them is starting to get unbearable. So, she plans another vacation for the two of them, knowing that this might be her last chance to salvage the relationship between them. This trip turns into a trip full of reminiscing, rekindling, and actualizations about the people they have become in their lives and how they might be able to move forward without sacrificing their goals and the things they want in life.
People We Meet on Vacation was a quick-paced look at the life of the friendship between Alex and Poppy with chapters of their current vacation interspersed with chapters recollecting their past vacations, leading up the the vacation where it fell apart between them. Of course, due to the nature of the book’s style, this plays out alongside their current vacation where they are mending things back together — the juxtaposition of which makes for a point in the story that is both heart wrenching and heartwarming at the same time.
While I’m relatively new when it comes to reading contemporary romances, so perhaps I’m not the most qualified to speak on the subject, I think the the friends-to-lovers / “too afraid to get together because breaking up means that you might lose a great friendship” trope was really well done in this novel. And I think it solidified this trope as one of my favorites, in regards to romance. (I could write an entire paper on some of my issues with the enemies-to-lovers trope, but that’s a post for another day.) I appreciated that it wasn’t just a straightforward tale of two best friends that didn’t realize they were in love and then, without any kind of hardship, they discover they are. Maybe it’s just some inner angst in me, but I don’t mind when things are a bit rocky, and I think Emily Henry balanced this well.
Between the witty, and often laugh out loud, banter between the two main characters, and the free-spirit meets straight laced personalities (which are maybe a bit overly-stereotypical at times, but not to the point of being an issue), People We Meet on Vacation was absolutely nothing short of enjoyable. I laughed, I teared up, and I was able to relate to some aspects of the characters, so I can’t say I have any real complaints. I can see why this one has made the list of many people’s top 10 romance novels of 2021. And, frankly, if they ever made a movie out of this one, I’m sure that I would happily go see it.
I’d say this was a solid 4 star read. (And a great start to my year!) 📚
