A review by carleyhall
People We Meet on Vacation, by Emily Henry

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

3.25

I really wanted to love this book as much as I loved Beach Read, but it just didn’t do it for me. I genuinely love the friends to lovers trope so much, but something here was just missing. In my opinion, Poppy was a wonderful character and I loved her. But Alex… I wasn’t sold. Perhaps the problem was in that the reader only gets Poppy’s perspective, but
Spoiler nothing in the whole novel convinced me that Alex was in love with Poppy the entire time, like nothing… at all. I felt like with Poppy, there were very obvious hints and at some points, she straight up admitted to herself that she was in love with him. So then, at the airport for Alex to act like she decided to love him on whim and he had loved her all along drove me absolutely crazy.
I didn’t feel their chemistry at all and the explicit scene was completely ruined by the
Spoiler vasectomy conversation… like what was the point of that, it read as creepy quite honestly.
In the end this book felt to me like
Spoiler Poppy and Alex ended up together by circumstance, not because they were really perfect for each other or even just good for each other in the slightest, it truly felt like an obligation for the both of them. Poppy’s emotional journey apart from Alex, though granted he did have a part in helping her realize it, was the only saving grace for me.
The pacing of this book also drove my completely crazy and made it quite hard to get through. Anyways, I loved Henry’s work on Beach Read and am hopeful for her next novel despite my distaste towards this one.
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