A review by rachels_booknook
Happy Place by Emily Henry

3.0

I’ve seen such mixed reviews for this one. A lot of people really loved it and a lot really hated it. So I really wasn’t sure what to expect. 

It was an enjoyable enough read, but I didn’t really feel chemistry between Harriet and Wyn. I liked the flashback scenes showing us their relationship because I love a dual timeline and seeing how relationships grow. At first, I enjoyed the banter between them – I’ve said it before, Emily Henry does great banter. But I felt like it kind of fizzled out. I guess I just wasn’t sure why they couldn’t live without each other. Was it just the context of their close-knit friend group? 

Also, while Friends is my all-time favourite tv show, and yes admittedly two couples emerge from those six friends, it just felt kind of unrealistic that this group of five (three girls and two guys) would all be besties and live together and all be happy, and then two couples emerge from it. I liked Cleo and Kimmy, and I even liked Sabrina. But I felt like Wyn was kind of boring. I read a review that said the book would have been better if we had Wyn’s point of view and I’d be on board with that. He clearly was going through so much in his own right, with his parents and feelings of not measuring up academically, and I appreciated the mental health rep we got through his character. It would have been interesting to know what was going on from his side. I also didn’t buy that their best friends in the world couldn’t tell that Harriet and Wyn weren’t together. 

I think this book examines the question of whether your happy place an actual place, or is it the people you surround yourself with? 

Ultimately, I didn’t love it. And I didn’t hate it. I will keep reading Emily Henry’s books though.