Happy Place: A shimmering new novel from #1 Sunday Times bestselling author Emily Henry

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You know it can’t last and that you have to go back to reality but that time away, it can do so much for your soul and the author captured that perfectly. I understand when he was struggling before but by the end he is supposed to be in a better place and it's still the same with him. Except this year, they are lying through their teeth, because Harriet and Wyn broke up six months ago. Every year for the past decade, they have run away from their lives to drink far too much wine and soak up the sea air with their favourite people in the world. i see myself a lot in those characters, being scared that my friend group will fall apart since everyone is building their own life, going their own way, moving to another city.

Emily Henry has a gift of bringing you within the story and making you not only understand each character but imports you there so vividly too. we see his character as very self conscious and never believes in himself, we can see that he feels he is not enough for harriet and his self doubt instincts always take over but he loves HARD. He obviously was struggling with depression, the loss of his father and his mother being diagnosed with Parkinson.

I’ve read a few of this author’s novels now and whilst this was my least favourite, it’s still a nice read. we see them both focus on their self-growth and healing, but seeing harriet go through her self-discovery journey and then finding her way back to wyn has me in my feels rn, it just felt so real. Harriet and Wyn are the perfect couple – they go together like bread and butter, gin and tonic, Blake Lively and Ryan Reynolds.

In my review, I noted that it lacked some of the polish of Book Lovers, but that was fun to be able to go back and see where she started, so that you can appreciate her progression and growth as a novelist. My favourite moments were their ‘past’ dialogue – exemplary examples of the kind of impossibly fervent, devoted, nostalgic yet playful conversations that you read romances for. how am i ever supposed to move on from wyn and harriet 🥲 i want their love, i want their respect, i want their passion. harriet quitting her job (although she was unhappy) also feels like a bit of an over-correction and a bandaid to the true problem.

The writing was stunning, and I obviously cared about the story bc this review is a mile long (sorry about that) Will I ever read it again?