Reviews tagging 'Chronic illness'

Happy Place by Emily Henry

66 reviews

estellec13's review against another edition

Go to review page

emotional hopeful inspiring 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


Expand filter menu Content Warnings

atamano's review against another edition

Go to review page

emotional 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

3.5


Expand filter menu Content Warnings

kdickin3's review against another edition

Go to review page

emotional funny hopeful inspiring lighthearted relaxing sad 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

4.75

Always love Emily Henry books, and this one was no different. Each individual friendship/relationship seemed to be unique and authentic.

The back and forward between timelines was great as you slowly learn from the past, and that helps creates a better picture/understandin of the present.

Expand filter menu Content Warnings

kirareadssometimes's review against another edition

Go to review page

emotional funny hopeful reflective sad 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

5.0

This book is pure magic. Devastatingly emotional in both lovely and heartbreaking ways. 
I cried this whole book. I’m surprised I didn’t throw up with how much I cried. Sweet moments? Cried. Funny/joyful scenes? Cried. Beautiful admissions of love, longing, and heartbreak? Cried. 
Emily Henry speaks directly into the souls of every people pleaser and perfectionist with disturbing accuracy. A terrific story of found family and what is means to grow up alongside others. This book will forever live in my heart ❤️ 

Expand filter menu Content Warnings

sdupont's review against another edition

Go to review page

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? Yes

4.75

This book will put you in your feels! I feel like Happy and Sad by Kacey Musgraves are the vibes this book puts out, it’s both of those things for a majority of the book. This book really packs a lot of angst between the two love interests Harriet and Wyn. You feel the push and pull between the past and now and trying to find out what went wrong. I think this book really balanced the dynamics of the friendship group and this relationship well, it definitely enhanced the story. While I always prefer dual POV I think the story hits you in the heart the way it does because you only have Harriet’s perspective and understanding. I do feel the ending was a bit rushed especially compared to the pacing of most of the book. I for sure would recommend this book, you’ll probably need some tissues. 

Expand filter menu Content Warnings

angelsfw's review against another edition

Go to review page

emotional funny hopeful inspiring lighthearted fast-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

3.5


Expand filter menu Content Warnings

deetabz's review against another edition

Go to review page

challenging emotional funny hopeful inspiring reflective sad tense 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

5.0


Expand filter menu Content Warnings

khymihr's review against another edition

Go to review page

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

3.0


Expand filter menu Content Warnings

thatswhatshanread's review against another edition

Go to review page

emotional funny hopeful inspiring reflective fast-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

5.0

Brace yourselves: I think “Happy Place” may have dethroned Beach Read as being my favorite EmHen book!! Gasp!!

I know. It took a lot for me to say that but with my whole chest I must confess that after reading this one, I think no other books need to exist. I mean, literally, that’s not true, but figuratively I mean that this right here is as good as it gets. 

Somehow, each of Emily Henry’s books has found me at the exact right time I needed it. Like somehow the release date always coincides with whatever existential crisis I’m having at the time. I don’t know how she does it, how her writing answers questions I didn’t even know how to ask. How my heart and mind is so deeply ingrained in her stories that I feel like she’s stolen my identity or something. 

“Happy Place” feels like your own personal love language, the characters are your very best friends, the setting is that of your daydreams without even realizing it. Goosebumps with every new jolt of affable dialogue, each new description of another word for love. 

Harriet—sweet Harriet—is an over-thinker, kind and charming and brilliant, and whose destiny seems to be making others at ease before herself. Wyn—handsome, careful Wyn—is self-deprecating, afraid of his goodness, earnest and loving, better than he gives himself credit for. They are magical and beautiful and full of emotion, flawed yet puzzle-piece-perfect in their yearn for each other. They are both hard on themselves, but in different ways. For different reasons. An awareness of too much self. They are two people who so obviously still care for each other, who know each other better than themselves, trying to find their way back together. They are each other’s gravitational pull. Possibly the best depiction of the forced proximity trope I’ve come across because it is so specific and makes so much sense for the storyline, for them. God, I loved every nook and cranny of their relationship. 

This book is like meeting up with a close friend you don’t see very often, similar to the characters’ situation in the book: you pick up right where you left off, everything is comfortable and feels like home but also different in a new way with the passage of time, of endings and beginnings. “Happy Place” is a lot about that. Things changing and moving, though keeping enough sweet sameness that can never be taken away from an established magic. 

I adored the friend group in this book. Everyone has their own developed personalities. Every relationship has its own give and pull. I wanted to live inside that summer cottage in Maine with them, soaking in the happy, breathing in the nostalgia, aching with feeling.

I really loved how this book is about finding your own happiness, and the struggle it is to actually do that. I think for a lot of people at this age, happiness seems like it has to be this concrete thing that has to be achieved a certain way. But it’s not like that. It can’t be like that. Your happiness ultimately has to be rooted in yourself, not in what you see in others, or what others think they see for you.

“Happy Place” is witty but natural, edgy but soft, sexy but delicate. Every scene, every situation is created by Henry but doesn’t feel made up, not really. This is actually happening, people have likely experienced this in real life, everyday. 

Books like this are the definition of sentimental, if a book you’ve never read before can be. I think it can—it’s happened every time I’ve read a book written by my favorite author, aka Emily Henry.

Expand filter menu Content Warnings

ellierumoo's review against another edition

Go to review page

emotional 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

Another gorgeous read from Emily Henry that found me right when I needed it. Definitely an emotional/angst read, but peppered in with so much love that I couldn't put it down.  I don't typically enjoy like second chance romances (the plot as described on the cover stressed me out) but it subverted the tropes enough-and made me fall in love with the characters by like ch.5- that it quickly became a favorite in spite of my preferences. I'll be thinking about this one for a while!

Expand filter menu Content Warnings