Reviews with content warning for Toxic relationship - Happy Place

Reviews tagging 'Toxic relationship'

Happy Place by Emily Henry

32 reviews

edietz22's review against another edition

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emotional hopeful inspiring lighthearted medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

3.5

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greatexpectations77's review against another edition

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emotional sad slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? No
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.25

Julia Whelan just does such a great job narrating, and I think this book may have bored me a bit more without her talents. I do love a slow burn romance, but this one maybe was too slow? I got a little bored in the middle, and I felt like the the "conflict" in the relationship was just as deep as one in a Hallmark movie -

just lack of communication.

Like, I wasn't rooting for them lol and also!

Was I supposed to catch that she hated being a doctor??? That seemed out of nowhere to me!

Would probs try Ms. Henry again.

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ariana3's review against another edition

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emotional funny hopeful inspiring lighthearted reflective relaxing fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.5

I've been debating reading this for so long and just kept putting it off, thinking it would be some cheesy, predictably annoying beach read. It is somewhat predictable and it is a beach read, but it was so much better than I expected!!! It's a will-they-won't-they story for sure, but there was so much emotion behind the book. It was so much deeper than I anticipated, exploring relationships with friends, family, friends that truly are family, and romantic ones also. The big underlying feature that felt specifically relevant for me was the relationship of one's self and their identity and happiness being intertwined with their job. Woof that was all too relevant and a doozy to see reflected back to you on paper 😮‍💨
Plot summary:

A group of 3 friends (Harriet, Sabrina, and Cleo) all meet each other while living together in a dorm in college and instantly become family. They become inseparable and eventually add 2 guys to their group, Wyn and Parth. They take yearly vacations to Sabrina's ridiculously huge and nice family "cottage" in Maine and it becomes Harriet's "happy place." Harriet and Wyn begin dating and it's an instant connection. They fall in love and he eventually moves out with her to San Francisco where she's completing a grueling residency for neurosurgery. The grow apart, fight (or lack thereof), and just arent communicating effectively, so Wyn abruptly ends it, leaving Harriet in the dark and with no closure. 5 months later, Sabrina invites them for one last trip to the cottage before her dad sells it. Harriet doesn't know Wyn is there until she shows up...they haven't told anyone that they've ended their engagement and are no longer together (turns out Sabrina knew the entire time but she didn't tell them and concocted an entire plan to get them back together). So they fake being together, there's chemistry, confusion, they talk it out, etc. Already long story short, the friends fight then come back together because they know they're family. Wyn and Harriet don't get back together because Harriet needs to figure out what she truly wants and to not just do what other people tell her she should do. At the airport on her way back to SF, she realizes she hates her job and she was only doing it to please her parents. In the process, she's pushed away everyone she loves, including the love of her life. So she decides to run out of the airport to leave, only to see Wyn running into the airport 🥹 she says that she wants to be with him where she's happy, she withdraws from her residency and moves to Montana with him and his mom, and she works at a pottery studio doing what she loves!

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nitar8's review against another edition

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challenging emotional funny inspiring reflective sad tense slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

3.0

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johall7's review

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emotional reflective tense slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.5

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brandie_abbie19's review against another edition

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emotional funny hopeful medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.5

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trips's review

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emotional reflective sad medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? No
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.0

As per my 3 year Christmas tradition, I read the Emily Henry book that was published that year.

This year was Happy Place...and I kinda wish I went back and read Beach Read instead...

Ok look, I actually think what Henry was trying to achieve in this book was very ambitious. In my opinion, too ambitious. There are a lot of interconnecting relationships and not all of them pay off.

Parth in particular comes off as just like...existing...he hardly has a character other than being exasperated or excited. Sabrina as well seems to be parsed down to the trope she seems to be embodying. Cleo and Kimmy are fine, we love mostly unproblematic lesbians.

The relationship between Harriet and Wyn is sweet at times, especially the scenes in the past. In the present, I found myself being angry with both of them the entire time because holy shit, just have 1 single conversation about how things actually are between you two and you would've been fine??

I had a hard time with Harriet because she is just so unaware of herself to the point of unbelievability for her age and experience in life and Wyn is just sad puppy hours through the whole book. He kinda made me feel like he wasn't worth it as he didn't want to fight for their relationship in the first place (neither did Harriet at times but at least she came around to it).
I guess I wanted more out of them finally talking their feelings out?

I dunno, I'll still keep up with my Christmas tradition, this one was sadly just not as fun as the other 2 I've read from Henry.

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neliadiedenise's review

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emotional slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

2.0

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bringmybooks's review

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emotional funny hopeful lighthearted relaxing sad medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.75

you’re either gonna love it or hate it and idk what to tell you

B̷R̷I̷N̷G̷ ✨ 𝗕𝗢𝗥𝗥𝗢𝗪 ✨ B̷Y̷P̷A̷S̷S̷

I honestly & truly don’t think this book is going to be for everyone, and I honestly & truly don’t think all of Emily Henry is for everyone (4 starred her first two, lukewarm on them in retrospect, DNFed Book Lovers, don’t @ me). All of that being said, I honestly & truly loved this book.

(Also, did I finally break down and decide to read this because the MC loves Murder She Wrote? no comment)

There are some books that I think have universal appeal, and others that hit harder because of the life you’ve lived and the experiences you’ve had, and I think that was a huge part of why this hit so well for me. I can totally understand why people would look at this and go “miscommunication trope at it’s finest, yawn” but (as someone who’s not typically a fan of this trope) I felt this was a super realistic portrayal of trying to figure out who you are and what you want as you grow older, especially as you try to do it in a relationship with someone you love who is growing up alongside you.

One of my gripes with some of EH’s work is that it’s too … quippy. Nobody can be “on” 24/7, zinging barbs back and forth with whomever they come across from the moment they open their eyes until the moment they go to bed. Sometimes even the quippiest person just calls their partner and says, “Hey, do we need milk?” without there being a joke attached to it, you know?

That being said, I felt that that the characters in this book were way more realistic, and I actually believed in them, which made it a lot easier to stay invested in the story & in their relationships. It’s got so much heart in the way that growing up in a friend group is described, especially as we start to want different things that don’t align with how our friends or partners are growing up.

tl;dr this one brought me back to EH and I’ll be giving her next one a read!

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k_readingmorenow's review against another edition

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emotional hopeful reflective medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.75

Like the other Emily Henry books I've listened to, I really enjoy the dialogue. It feels very real and the banter is wonderful. I think this books characters were way more self reflective in such a short timespan than might be possible, but the realizations and thought processes felt very real and familiar to me. It does feel pretty psychologically focused, a bit parentally determined, but it was an enjoyable read and definitely pulled at my heartstrings!

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