Reviews with content warning for Toxic friendship - Happy Place

Reviews tagging 'Toxic friendship'

Happy Place by Emily Henry

38 reviews

aseel_reads's review against another edition

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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

3.75

This was very sweet, a very cute romance, so much tension, loved it!

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ju_harue's review against another edition

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emotional inspiring 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

4.5

Demorou um pouco pra engatar na leitura, mas ao chegar no final, atribuo esse sentimento por conta do nível de assuntos pesados do livro. Ela é mais densa, mais demorada, foi mais difícil, era um sentimento de "querer ver o que ia acontecer" com o "não consigo mais estar" nessa história.
Embora talvez não tenha me apegado aos personagens, como foi em outros livros da autora, a história mexeu mais, ver o desenrolar da vida acontecendo, das suposições que fazemos e como as atitudes e conversas que fazemos (ou não), impactam e geram consequências.

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ohtoasty's review against another edition

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emotional funny lighthearted reflective medium-paced

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

2.25

I liked Emily Henry's Book Lovers and found People We Meet on Vacation okay. I was hoping that Happy Place was going to be more like Book Lovers, but I found it feel more flat. I think the miscommunication trope is difficult for me to get into because I often largely (maybe falsely) believe that couples will talk to each other more than what books want us to believe.

The plot of this book centers on the idea

that Wyn was depressed in San Francisco, he moved away from a large support system, and financially seemed to be struggling. Somehow, Harriet was able to support the apartment by herself, so I'm not quite sure why Wyn was working so incredibly hard, but I think we are suppose to ignore that factor. Wyn then goes home for a period of time to take care of his mother who has cancer. Harriet, trying to be easy going for him because he's struggling so much, tries to make everything easier when he tries to visit her but fails. Once he gets into a car accident. Once his mom fell. He couldn't make it back to San Fran. She said it was okay. He took that as not caring? I guess. They aren't talking on the phone as much either which doesn't help. She is actively trying to be a surgeon. Eventually after a night out, Harriet has a guy walk her home as a friend, and he kisses her. She rejects him immediately, runs and calls Wyn. He pauses for a moment, suggests they break up. She is floored and confused. The next day he sends her a box of stuff that he had (not sure why he had it in Montana, but I guess we are ignoring that too). She sends a box of his stuff, annoyed. She wants to call him multiple times in the months, but doesn't. Because of her hurt feelings she blocks his number.

Harriet doesn't tell their mutual friends for months. She can't bring herself too. Wyn and Harriet decided in the breakup that they would take every other summer for the friend vacation, so she will tell their friend group about the break up at the friend vacation. (Emily Henry is obsessed with vacations?) She gets there, and Wyn is there. She is confused why he is acting like they are still dating, and it turns out that her friend Sabrina is engaged, to be married at the end of the week. Harriet and Wyn decide to pretend to still be together to make the week go smoothly. Wyn sometimes acts friendly and loving to her, but in private sometimes blows her off. She tries to purposefully flirt with him, make him "suffer" and it has mixed outcomes.

Eventually, Harriet discovers that Sabrina and Parth knew Wyn and her had broken up. It seemed like the entire week was a big plot to get them back together. Harriet is understandably incredibly angry over this, because of how painful the entire experience had been. Sabrina very clearly has tramua over her own broken family, and was trying to make sure the friend group would remain close by forcing them to consider getting back together. Incredibly manipulative in my opinion and not a very good friend. Even after Sabrina explains it, she disappears and was not able to be found for most of the following day, making everyone have to go looking for her. She apologizes but I still found her character very frustrating overall. I found the lesbians much more enjoyable. Cleo was ready to give it when she needed to, Kimmy was very supportive of Cleo. I liked them.

Harriet finally tells Wyn all of her hard feelings. Wyn finally starts telling her some of his. They figure it out, want to get back together, completely unsure how to do so with their two different lives. Wyn now is selling thousand dollar wooden tables in Montana, and Harriet discovered shes unhappy and bad at being a surgeon (though good at being in school). He tells her not to follow him, because that made him unhappy. She does so anyway because she likes pottery I guess.

This book was frustrating. Couples of 8 years go through major shit and talk about it. They don't just fuck everytime they try to do the Sunday crossword. Their chemistry was focused

solely on how much they physically wanted each other

and that was frustrating.

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fanboyriot's review against another edition

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emotional funny 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

4.75

♡ Second Chance

♡ Fake Relationship

♡ Summer Vacation

Seriously such a perfect summer read for sure. It had all the wholesome friendship vibes combined with such detailed background history. I loved the t-shirts the main character and her friends had in college, truly iconic.

The humor was 10/10, deadpan as ever and I’m here for it. The miscommunication trope did play into this book a bit and I actually didn’t mind it as much as I usually do. I liked how things worked out in the end. While there were a few sad moments this book was fairly lighthearted and enjoyable, plus it had a happy ending so that helped a lot too.

Spice Level: 🌶️🌶️🌶️ (3/5)

Angst Level: 💧 (1/5)

POV: First Person

Release Date: 25, April 2023

Rep: Lesbian (Side Characters)

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jenniferbowman's review against another edition

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lighthearted medium-paced

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

3.5

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daniofthewood's review against another edition

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emotional funny 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

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beebowbabe's review against another edition

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emotional funny hopeful lighthearted reflective 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

5.0

Emily Henry has my whole heart. The way she writes women, female friendship, and honestly just the experiences of her characters makes me feel so seen.

I love reading about unhinged women as much as anyone, but there's something about a woman who is trying SO HARD to be hinged and learning that it doesn't serve her the way she thought it would. I love Harriet so much.

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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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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!

Content Warnings

emmy_likes_2_read's review against another edition

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medium-paced

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

1.0

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