Book Review: Happy Place | Emily Henry

Have you ever delayed sharing news because you don’t want to ruin an event or outing? Or maybe because you honestly are avoiding the drama that will come with sharing it? Sometimes it can seem easier to just pretend things are ok than it is to face the questions and reality we are avoiding. That is exactly where Win and Harriet find themselves in Emily Henry’s latest contemporary romance, Happy Place. With more tension and angst than I expected, this is another hit from the well-deservedly titled beach read queen!

The Happy Place | About the Book (Goodreads)

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?

The Happy Place | Characters

Harriet “Harry” Kilpatrick is in her medical residency in the present time. She has parents who put pressure on her to go down the path she is on for her career, but Harry isn’t happy. Wyn Connor broke off their engagement about 6 months before the present timeline. He lives in Montana and the two met when he was roommates with her friend from college Sabrina.

Harry met her best friends Sabrina and Cleo in college. Sabrina was born and raised in Manhattan to parents whose marriage didn’t work out. She is engaged to attorney Parth in the present time, who is best friends with Wyn. Cleo is a painter who grew up in New Orleans and is in a relationship with Kimmy, a tattoed strawberry blond with an infectious laugh.

The Happy Place | My Thoughts

A hallmark of Emily Henry that I’ve come to love is tension building through past and present timelines where the reader knows that something has occurred to fundamentally change the central relationship, but we don’t know what that is until we get to the big scene where the two timelines meet. Happy Place is no exception, and this was plotted and executed to perfection.

In the present, we know that Harriet and Wyn are broken up for months but haven’t told their friends. The close knit group take an annual trip together to Sabrina’s family vacation home in Maine for a decade, and the week is spent with good food, good drinks, salty coastal air, and memorable nights. When they arrive they learn two things: Sabrina’s dad is selling the cottage, and Sabrina and Parth have decided to get married on this trip. Harry and Wyn realize they can’t tell anyone about their break up and ruin the week, especially since Sabrina is so scared to get married after her parent’s unhappy marriage.

The book weaves back and forth in time, so we see Wyn and Harry meet and fall in love. Meanwhile in the present Harry is heartbroken, forced to stay in the same room with Wyn and confront all of their old feelings. The dichotomy between the two timelines is stark. Their love story is so heart-warming and it makes their current state even more sad.

This story had a mash up of tropes: friends-to-lovers, lovers-to-enemies, fake relationship, and second chance love. These all occur in the same central couple and while that seems like it would be convoluted, they actually work so well with Henry’s story telling. I usually think fake relationship is the worst trope because it rarely makes sense and seems shallow, but here because these are people who shared part of their life together, it really put a spotlight on their emotions in a highly effective way.

I often shy away from books described as “emotional” because I think people usually mean sad, and I’m too much of a softie for sad books. But emotional is exactly how I’d describe this in a good way. I wouldn’t say it is sad, but it feels raw and sort of melancholic. Harry and Wyn had a love story for the ages, but now it may be over. As they work through that, this is also a book about finding what makes you happy and taking a chance on it, even if it isn’t the thing you thought would make you happy.

Obviously with the genre you can expect the ending to be on a positive note (thank goodness!) but it didn’t come together the way I expected and I mean that as a huge compliment to Emily Henry and this story.

A beautiful and compelling story about finding our happiness in life, whatever that means.

Emily Henry | About the Author

Emily Henry is the #1 New York Times bestselling author of Book Lovers, People We Meet on Vacation and Beach Read, as well as the forthcoming Happy Place. She lives and writes in Cincinnati and the part of Kentucky just beneath it.

Find her on Instagram @EmilyHenryWrites.