Title: Happy Place
Author: Emily Henry
Source: Indigo
Genre: Contemporary Romance, Fake Dating, Friends to Lovers to…
Trigger Warnings: None that I can think of.
Explicit? Yes yes, and yes again
Summary: Harriet and Wyn have been the perfect couple since they met in college—they go together like salt and pepper, honey and tea, lobster and rolls. Except, now—for reasons they’re still not discussing—they don’t.
They broke up six months ago. And still haven’t told their best friends.
Which is how they find themselves sharing the largest bedroom at the Maine cottage that has been their friend group’s yearly getaway for the last decade. Their annual respite from the world, where for one vibrant, blue week they leave behind their daily lives; have copious amounts of cheese, wine, and seafood; and soak up the salty coastal air with the people who understand them most.
Only this year, Harriet and Wyn are lying through their teeth while trying not to notice how desperately they still want each other. Because the cottage is for sale and this is the last week they’ll all have together in this place. They can’t stand to break their friends’ hearts, and so they’ll play their parts. Harriet will be the driven surgical resident who never starts a fight, and Wyn will be the laid-back charmer who never lets the cracks show. It’s a flawless plan (if you look at it from a great distance and through a pair of sunscreen-smeared sunglasses). After years of being in love, how hard can it be to fake it for one week… in front of those who know you best?
Favourite Quote:
“My best friends taught me a new kind of quiet, the peaceful stillness of knowing one another so well you don’t need to fill the space. And a new kind of loud: noise as a celebration, as the overflow of joy at being alive, here, now.”
This might be one of my favourite Emily Henry books. Or one of my favourite books, period.
This book also gave me a rather interesting psychological breakthrough that my therapist is probably really proud of me for having. Not what I expect from a contemporary romance.
I love the friendship in this book, it’s woven into every word on every page, this feeling of love but apprehension for change amongst all of the main characters, and yes, I do consider them to all be main characters.
Harriet is someone who I ached for throughout the book because she was so genuinely confused and hurting throughout the novel, and even in some of the memories brought up in the novel.
Wyn, gosh, I admittedly loved him from the moment he stepped onto the page. There was something so charming about him even though he seemed to be a bit dick-ish. What can I say? I like my men a little off.
Their story, and the story of their time with their friends captured me immediately because it reminded me of my own found family. Friends for over 20 years now actually, and all the things we got up to and still get up to to this day.
It reminded me of the places we used to gather with fondness, but also the new places we’ve begun to gather now that we’re all a little older, and maybe even a little bit wiser.
This book was feel-good, feel-bad, feel everything and I adored every single minute of it.
Emily Henry has done it once again.
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