Reviews tagging 'Panic attacks/disorders'

Happy Place by Emily Henry

45 reviews

scifi_rat's review against another edition

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tense medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Character
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

2.75


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ktv's review against another edition

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adventurous emotional hopeful lighthearted 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

5.0

So cute and captivating. I love these characters. I love how the side characters weren’t even side characters, but they had lives and personalities of their own. A story about (mis)communication, growing up, and always finding a place where you belong with the people you love. 

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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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gracefulraven's review against another edition

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emotional lighthearted sad
  • Plot- or character-driven? Character
  • Strong character development? It's complicated
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.5


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stacylaughs's review against another edition

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emotional hopeful sad slow-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Character
  • Strong character development? It's complicated
  • Loveable characters? It's complicated
  • Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

2.0

There are moments where this book is REALLY sad. The sadder parts are more sad than the happy parts are happy. It ended on a happy note, but if I didn’t finish the book, I would have stayed depressed. 

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hmwoodward's review

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adventurous emotional funny hopeful reflective 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

4.0

Emily Henry delivers with her usual humor, chemistry, and banter with this one. I always feel like I'm there beside the characters in her books from the way she describes everything. I'm seriously craving the smell and feel of sunscreen and ocean water and the smell and taste of buttery lobster thanks to this read!

While not dissimilar to her other books, this one is a second chance romance and has a different feel and tension to it because of that dynamic. Harriet and Wyn are stuck together because of the group vacation and because the years of their relationship have led to a friend group that's venn diagram is just a circle. They are navigating the ramifications of their breakup for themselves and how it complicates things for everyone around them. All this while an old group of friends tries to live out their glory days for the last trip to their go-to spot ever and are all dealing with their own separate issues. 

This book realistically address the challenges of a relationship where you grow up together and friendships where you grow up together. If you aren't careful, you can grow apart entirely. 

I also really felt for the main character in her struggles with her career and her future - I have certainly been there before myself. It was just another relatable and realistic aspect in this one.

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adamagoesit_'s review against another edition

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emotional funny hopeful reflective sad tense slow-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

4.75

Wow, where do I start. This story had me in tears during & after I finished the book. Emily Henry has an amazing grab on how she constructs her characters. Wyn and Harriet are definitely made for each other, in every universe. I solely believe that because despite the struggle to keep their breakup a secret, they were able to come to terms (at some point) how everything started to crumble. The friendship between Cleo, Sabrina and Harriet is so precious and you see how much they care about each other. This book has made me a firm lover of the found family trope.I loved that all these characters care about each other in a way that is realistic and whole.

The way we understand Wyn’s mind through Harriet’s POV made me understand why he acts the way he does. Their familial differences, uprbringings, and career paths was imperial to how Harriet shaped her future when it came to her family and Wyn. However, it became her biggest enemy and a big piece as to why she ended up pushing everyone she loved away. She didn’t feel like she was enough for the people that felt that she was just right. Wyn was also terrified of losing Harriet because she was the first person to treat him like he belonged here. Henry did such a good job of intertwining their differences that was a source of the miscommunication in the relationship. The payoff was a tad dragged out but it worked out in the end, imo.

I usually do not like past/present timelines in books but this time, the transitions flowed with ease and explained the background information very well. I willl say, I started this book MONTHS ago and just recently finished since I was getting a bit distracted and felt that the plot was dragging a bit. I am so happy I picked it back up since it is instantly up there for one of my favorite books this year. 

I can’t wait for her next book (:

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book_gremlin42's review against another edition

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emotional lighthearted 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? Yes

4.0


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pencilspeaker's review against another edition

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emotional medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Character
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? No
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.5

Was pretty interesting and I can definitely relate to the main characters, but I just couldn't get into the story. Might be the format tho, maybe I have to pick up a physical copy in English sometime and try again (rather than to listen to the German audio book). Definitely didn't expect it to be so "deep" - I wanted to see what all the fuss was about, if this is just another rom-com but it picked up a lot of anxieties that come with life changing after college. Also, the spice was just cringe as a German audio book - not my cup of tea.

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bumblemee's review against another edition

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emotional funny hopeful reflective 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

4.0

Oh well, these self-deprecating little losers got a place in my heart now <3

I'm always a sucker for the found family trope, which immediately made me like this book. The characters are such a well thought out friend group, who love each other so much that it'll warm your heart in no time. Their relationships with each other felt very real, which helped making the characters themselves feel real. All of them just .. made sense in a way. I also thought most of them had their time to shine and become a complex person in the eye of the reader, which I think was nice, because I worry sometimes that side characters don't get enough depth, since they're not the couple the story focuses on. But in this case I got a clear sense for all of them, which makes sense since while this is a romance book, it takes its time to explore friendship as well.

I really loved Harriet - probably bc I related to her a lot. Maybe you find her annoying if you can't see aspects of yourself in her and would just like to shake her sometimes and tell her that she's way too much in her head without finding someone to do a reality check with. She struggles a lot with listening to her own needs and the negative consequences this can have, even if her goal is to do the opposite: make everyone happy.
I thought it was very interesting how Harriet and Wyn were written - both with low self-esteem for different reasons and in a way that makes it hard for them to communicate effectively when they'd need it most. It's sometimes hard to read this kind of story, where there's a lack of communication, which you as the reader can see clearly. But in this case it felt very natural, you could understand why they can't get their shit together sooner. (Not gonna lie though, I was a little frustrated at times, but it was okay.)

The tone of this book was a little bittersweet in my opinion, especially because we spend a lot of time exploring the relationships between characters before the events of the book (the good and he bad), but also get to see the complicated situation they're in at the moment. A lot of people on here say that this book is "lighthearted" and I see why, but to me it wasn't. Maybe that's a matter of the state you're in when reading this and how the topics resonate with you. It my case, this book didn't drag me down or anything, but it made me (a little) sad more often than not to be honest, so I can't say I thought of it as lighthearted.


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