Reviews with content warning for Bullying - People We Meet on Vacation

I think a lot of the drama was concentrated in one segment and that wasn't great for me. I didn't like some of the uncertainty in the relationship. I knew what would happen ultimately, but getting there was a little too difficult for my preference. Other than that, I enjoyed the writing style and the chemistry between the romantic leads. I find friends-to-lovers to be hit or miss, and it's hard to make the chemistry work in a way where you believe they're good as friends AND good as lovers. I think this book struck a good balance and successfully showed not only that they're good friends but also that they have undeniable romantic chemistry. I will say, the character whose POV this book is written from, Poppy, feels a little too close to a lead in a straight-to-TV romcom, but Emily Henry makes it work.

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jpitts's review

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emotional funny hopeful inspiring lighthearted reflective medium-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

4.0

Reread: January 2023

I actually liked this quite a bit better the second time! My major complaint last time was that I was so invested in the friendship between the characters and not so invested in the romance. This time, I actually thought the transition was done pretty well. Maybe it was because I had different expectations having already read it. Beach Read is still my absolute favorite, but this is a really good book.

I think my one nitpick this time was that

Spoiler

Poppy's conclusion in her big climactic speech that the thing she loved most about traveling was the people she got to meet didn't feel like it was supported by the rest of the text. None of the people they ran into while on vacation were particularly memorable.

But overall this is good shit.

Original review: April 2022

I'm super late reviewing this but I had a really hard time nailing down my exact feelings on it. I think I was as much in love with it as everyone else for the first 2/3 of the book. I love Emily Henry's writing style and the way she fleshes out her individual characters so incredibly well. The trips that Poppy and Alex took were hilarious and exciting and fun to read about. And oh my god was I invested in their friendship. It just did things to my heart. It made me so happy.

(very mild spoilers below, if you want to go in totally blind)

Spoiler

Where it lost me, sadly, was the 'lovers' part of this friends-to-lovers story. It just didn't work for me. Granted, it's a hard thing to pull off. When two people are such close friends for that long and haven't gotten together, there are usually some good reasons, right? And it's hard to establish those reasons firmly and then figure out a way for the characters to get together anyway. But the conclusion to this book felt messy and unsatisfying to me and kept me from giving it the glowing 5 stars I wanted to give it.

But I was happy enough with the rest of the book that I can still rate it very highly! It's genuinely very, very good, and I'm so excited for Emily Henry's next book.

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fanboyriot's review

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relaxing slow-paced

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

4.5

Definitely enjoyed the humor in this. The plot was kinda slow but the characters were cute and the relationship was healthy. A really nice summer read.

Slow Burn
Idiots in Love
Sarcastic Humor
Friends to Lovers
Angst with a Happy Ending

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pagesfromhome's review

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emotional funny lighthearted medium-paced

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

4.0

Another excellent read from Emily Henry! I didn’t love this one quite as much as Book Lovers simply because I didn’t quite relate to the characters in the same way, but the banter continues to be off the charts and the characters are truly lovely to follow along on the page.

I loved the When Harry Met Sally vibes and was thrilled to see in the Reader’s Guide that that was a subconscious, but also conscious decision coming from Emily Henry’s love for Nora Ephron (a love we share). Poppy drove me mad at times (as did Alex), but it was lovely to see them move from such deep friends to something more. I also really enjoyed how Henry explored how love feels like home when it’s the right kind of love. She also does an exceptional job of creating characters who are faced with real dilemmas and actually take the steps to fix it - not going to lie, this book kind of made me want to go to therapy.

I’d highly recommend this if you like a good friends to lovers romance with a dash of banter mixed in.

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bectothebooks's review against another edition

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funny hopeful lighthearted relaxing medium-paced

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

3.5

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kbpfaulkner's review

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funny reflective medium-paced

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

5.0

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thisreadingcorner's review

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emotional funny hopeful lighthearted reflective slow-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

4.0

“𝐘𝐨𝐮 𝐚𝐬𝐤𝐞𝐝 𝐦𝐞 𝐰𝐡𝐨 𝐈 𝐰𝐚𝐬, 𝐚𝐧𝐝 - 𝐢𝐭 𝐰𝐚𝐬 𝐥𝐢𝐤𝐞
𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐚𝐧𝐬𝐰𝐞𝐫 𝐜𝐚𝐦𝐞 𝐨𝐮𝐭 𝐨𝐟 𝐧𝐨𝐰𝐡𝐞𝐫𝐞. 𝐒𝐨𝐦𝐞𝐭𝐢𝐦𝐞𝐬 𝐢𝐭 𝐟𝐞𝐞𝐥𝐬 𝐥𝐢𝐤𝐞 𝐈 𝐝𝐢𝐝𝐧'𝐭 𝐞𝐯𝐞𝐧 𝐞𝐱𝐢𝐬𝐭 𝐛𝐞𝐟𝐨𝐫𝐞 𝐭𝐡𝐚𝐭. 𝐋𝐢𝐤𝐞 𝐲𝐨𝐮 𝐢𝐧𝐯𝐞𝐧𝐭𝐞𝐝 𝐦𝐞."

"𝐈'𝐦 𝐧𝐨𝐭 𝐬𝐦𝐚𝐫𝐭 𝐞𝐧𝐨𝐮𝐠𝐡 𝐭𝐨 𝐡𝐚𝐯𝐞 𝐢𝐧𝐯𝐞𝐧𝐭𝐞𝐝 𝐲𝐨𝐮. 𝐍𝐨 𝐨𝐧𝐞'𝐬 𝐭𝐡𝐚𝐭 𝐬𝐦𝐚𝐫𝐭."

Poppy are Alex are unlikely best friends, a bond forged on a fateful carpool home their freshman year of college, but they haven’t spoken in two years. Through a series of flashbacks, we learn about every edge they reached and walked back from before ultimately going their separate ways, temporarily.

Friends to lovers stories are much harder for me to grapple with than enemies to lovers because I hate the implicit betrayal. Ultimately their love story has to come at the cost of the the partner who was told “nothing has ever happened between us” over and over, only to find out that they finally end up together. That being said, EH made the partners easy to betray 🙃 in this one.

Read PWMOV for:
- top tier pining
- “no one gets me but you” energy
- random travel quips
- not one but two sickbed caretaking montages (my Kryptonite)

Poppy and Alex are a great embodiment of what it means to bloom under someone else’s light. Sometimes the thing you’re chasing is behind you.

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