People We Meet on Vacation

by Emily Henry ★★★★☆

Poppy Wright and Alex Nilsen have been friends since the end of their freshman year at the University of Chicago, when Poppy catches a ride back to their shared hometown of Linfield, OH. It's a classic case of opposites—Poppy is brash, outgoing, and lively, while Alex is buttoned-up and reserved. But Poppy's relentless questions eventually pull Alex out of his shell, and before long they're chatting every day.

Over time, they begin a tradition of taking a week-long vacation together every summer. Despite openly acknowledged mutual attraction, the relationship always stays platonic. When we pick up the story in the present day, Poppy is living in New York and working as a travel journalist for an upscale travel magazine called Rest + Relaxation, a dream job she landed after gaining some measure of mild fame from a budget travel blog she started. Alex is back in Linfield, OH, teaching at the local high school. And...they haven't spoken for two years, since something unrevealed happened on a trip to Croatia that ruined their decade-long friendship.

Poppy has achieved most of what she set out to do in her life, but she's still unsatisfied, and with the help of her best friend, she realizes the last time she was truly happy was when she was with Alex. She breaks the ice by accidentally texting him, and they start to cautiously resume their friendship. Poppy convinces Alex to take another trip with her—this time to Palm Springs—and their present day adventure begins.

The novel bounces between what happens in Palm Springs and what happened in the twelve years of their friendship leading up to that time, filling in the blanks and history of their relationship together. It's entertaining, as all Emily Henry books are, but this one felt a bit more flawed than others. While it's not out of the realm of possibility for two people to deny their shared attraction for over a decade, there's no solid reason given for why it has taken them this long to acknowledge that this could (and should) be more. Usually there's something that set them down that platonic path; instead, they seem to grow closer and more in love as we hear about each successive past vacation they shared.

Henry has openly acknowledged that the story is an homage to When Harry Met Sally, except with a gender swap on the personality types, having "the more uptight, neurotic character be the male lead [Alex], and hav(ing) the female lead be more brazen and funny [Poppy]." The difference is that in When Harry Met Sally, the pair can't stand each other for years, before eventually becoming friends (and then, not too long after, more). Poppy and Alex aren't immediate friends (they meet at orientation and then have nothing to do with each other the rest of freshman year), but they become fast friends after that initial car ride, and they spend the rest of college and the next ten years as each other's best friend. To go that long without ever confronting the elephant in the room just felt unrealistic to me.

Given the entire novel hinges on that relationship question, it's missing the tension, or the "a-ha" moment for one person who staunchly denies the attraction before finally realizing who they're meant to be with. Poppy and Alex both clearly love each other, they both acknowledge it throughout most of the flashbacks, and the only thing that's missing is the smashing (until it isn't). It's a sweet journey of two people who finally turn the corner on what's been obvious to everyone who knows them, but for a sub-genre that's well-trod, it's not peak execution.

This was the only Emily Henry novel I had yet to read, and given a) she does not have a new book planned for this year and b) the Netflix movie recently came out, I thought now was as good a time as ever to add the final missing piece to my "Read" pile. While this was early Henry (her second romance novel), it still has plenty of her trademark humor, witty banter, and well-executed sentimentality. The downside of that is that I've been able to see Henry evolve as a writer—she gets distinctly more polished in later novels— before getting to this one. Her continued evolution has set the bar so high that this was a bit of a letdown for me compared to her other novels. It's fine, but it's certainly not her best.

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Quick Facts

• Title: People We Meet on Vacation

• Author: Emily Henry

• Publisher: Berkley / Penguin Audio

• Release Date: May 11, 2021

• Format: Audiobook

• ISBN-13: 978-1984806765

• Pages: 382