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People We Meet on Vacation

 Hello everyone! I am back from vacation with a review of a book about vacations. (Also, can we all just notice how nicely both of Emily Henry's books go together!?)


SUMMARY

Poppy Wright isn't happy. The question, though, is why? Why is she unhappy? Should she be unhappy? She has her dream job. She lives in New York City - away from her tiny hometown in Indiana and all of her childhood bullies she still holds trauma from. She has made great friends in NYC including her best friend Rachel. Well, not her best friend of all time, that's Alex Nielsen. Alex and Poppy met their freshman year of college and had nothing in common (except not liking when people call boats "she"). But, nonetheless, they became best friends. He was the pair of khakis to her sequined top. She was the extrovert to his introvert. They began going on trips together every summer, as Poppy was an aspiring travel writer and Alex desperately needed a little adventure whether he wanted it or not. These summer trips were the best times of her life: a stabilizing and steady current...

...until Alex and Poppy "slip up," and Croatia becomes the last summer trip. Until this summer. Poppy realizes she is unhappy because she and Alex's trips stopped two years ago. The best friends can put things back together...right? Their relationship will be exactly the same as before the "slip up". They can certainly be friends again. (If you are thinking "yeah, right!" right now, you are on the right track.)


REVIEW

Emily Henry did well with this book. (You are probably seeing it by the register or on the shelf marked "Hot Adult Fiction" at every bookstore.) However, People We Meet on Vacation is not as good as Henry's debut novel Beach Read for two reasons. 

Beach Read exceeded my expectations in the uniqueness category. It was wittingly funny, and the storyline (polar opposites in love) that has sort of been beat to death by the romance industry was presented and showcased in a whole new light. People We Meet on Vacation has less of this firey uniqueness and quite a bit more predictability. I contend that whichever you read first, Henry's debut or her sophomore novel, will be your favorite. They are essentially and fundamentally the same story - polar opposites attract and a slow-burn romance ensues in one timeline or another. 

To go with the lack of uniqueness, I found People We Meet on Vacation rather slow to start. One way this could have been combatted (I think. Readers, I am a teenaged blogger - not an author.) is to have the story told in dual-perspective: a chapter told by Poppy followed by a chapter from Alex's perspective. I actually like Alex's character much better, so the story being told solely from Poppy's perspective was fairly frustrating, but this is a personal preference. 

I did like, however, that the book was told through a non-linear timeline. This aspect of the book keeps the story moving and the reader guessing. The switching timeline is one of the reasons why my dual-perspectives theory would not work. Non-linear timeline + reading the story through multiple characters would have made my head spin. One or the other would need to be chosen. For this story, the non-linear timeline was a good choice; however, this book just needed one more dazzling element. 

If I did not read Beach Read first, Emily Henry's sophomore novel would have been a home run. Beach Read, however, is simply better. 

Age Range: 16+
ISBN: 9780241992234
Publisher: Penguin Books
Tags: adult fiction, vacation, trips, summer, Emily Henry, adult romance

*TW and other topics: sex & sexual content (a description of my carefulness in recommending books with sex in them can be found below), death / grief (minor), homosexuality*

This book does have some sex in it; it is an adult book after all. So, that's your warning for sexual content. The intimate scenes do not overshadow the integrity of the story which I really appreciate. This is not the case with a lot of books like People We Meet on Vacation. I am recommending this book for older girls for this reason; however, anyone who reads this blog knows that I have to be super careful about my age ranges.
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