“Everything is changing. It has to. You can’t stop time. All you can do is point yourself in a direction and hope the wind will let you get there.”
Emily Henry, Happy Place
Title: Happy Place
Author: Emily Henry
Genres: Romance, Contemporary Fiction
Pages: 395 (Kindle)
Published: April 25th, 2023
My Rating: ★★
Read: 8/2/2023 – 8/18/2023
Review:
I wanted to love this book so much. I love the author. I love the tropes. Sadly, this one was a miss for me.
Not wanting to spoil their friend group’s final trip to their beloved vacation spot in Maine, Harriet and Wyn decide not to tell everyone that their engagement has been off for months. A series of events forces their proximity, putting them in the happy couple spotlight more than either of them finds comfortable.
I enjoyed the first few chapters and setup, but then it felt like it was endlessly dragging on. Harriet and Wyn’s lack of communication skills infuriated me. Yes, romance needs conflict and miscommunication somewhere, it just got to the point where they started resolving things and then backtracked. I didn’t feel the characters were fleshed out as much as other characters in past books. The side characters brought more to the book on that front.
I’m still looking forward to Emily Henry’s next book, however, I will be going into it trepidatiously. Book Lovers was only okay for me, but I still had high hopes for Happy Place. In part, my reading tastes seem to have changed in general.
Likes & Dislikes:
What I liked:
- The tropes.
- The setting.
- There were some good quotes about mental health struggles.
What I didn’t like:
- I didn’t find myself caring about the lives of any of the characters and found most of them annoying in general.
- The main love interest was less fleshed out than the side love interests.
Afterthoughts:
I know I’m in the minority of people who didn’t fall head over heels for the book. In comparison to the other Emily Henry books I’ve read, this one felt rushed. There were long periods of the book where nothing was pushing the plot forward. I also don’t think I am the target audience. I’ve experienced this kind of group trip tension before and I am set for a lifetime. That influenced my rating overall.