People We Meet On Vacation (Film TieIn)

There are fictional couples you love and then there are fictional couples who feel like real people. Poppy and Alex are in the second category. Emily Henry writes the slow evolution of their relationship across years of summer holidays with extraordinary skill. The emotional beats are perfectly calibrated and the finale is deeply satisfying. This is romance writing at its absolute finest. I have recommended this to so many people and not one of them has been disappointed. A genuine modern classic.

What I love most about this book is how funny it is alongside how moving it is. Henry writes comedy and heartache with equal skill. The dynamic between Alex and Poppy feels completely real, the way good long friendships do, with all the shared history and private language and occasional tension. The travel backdrop is perfect. I finished this feeling genuinely uplifted. One of the best romantic novels published in recent years. If you have not read it yet, please remedy that immediately.

I have now read all of Emily Henry's books and People We Meet on Vacation remains one of her very best. The structure, switching between the present and years of past summers, creates wonderful dramatic irony. You understand why things went wrong before the characters do and the emotional tension this creates is beautiful. The writing is witty and the romance is achingly lovely. A book that restored my faith in the romance genre when I first read it and still delights me on rereading.

Emily Henry writes romance with a level of intelligence and emotional depth that puts her in a class of her own. People We Meet on Vacation is funny, heartbreaking, and beautifully observed. The alternating timelines between present and past build the emotional stakes perfectly. Alex and Poppy are one of my all-time favourite fictional couples. I laughed out loud multiple times and cried at the end. This is the kind of book you press into the hands of everyone you know. A masterpiece of contemporary romance.

People We Meet on Vacation is the perfect summer read. The friendship-to-romance arc is written with such warmth and the travel settings are vividly and lovingly described. Henry writes about the particular intimacy of travelling with someone you love in a way that feels completely real. I found myself deeply invested in Alex and Poppy and was completely satisfied by the ending. This book made me happy in the way only the best romances can. Absolutely five stars. Highly recommended.