I love a good beach read. In my opinion, there are few feelings that are better than sitting in the sun and being sucked into a novel so deeply that your front side is significantly more burnt than your back because you forgot to flip over- the book was just that good. Last Summer, Colleen Hoover had nearly every gen z and probably their moms in an absolute chokehold with It Ends with Us, Verity, and many of her other popular works. Like I said, beach reads. I personally refused to hop in the Colleen Hoover train. Don’t ask why, as I admit I am typically a sheep when it comes to most other pop culture trends. Instead, I picked up Emily Henry’s People We Meet on Vacation initially for its aesthetically pleasing cover and seemingly easy-to-follow plot, according to the brief summary on the back. The novel
follows your typical best-friends-to-lovers plot, featuring two
polar opposite characters, who, of course, never saw each other
as anything but friends. Until the storyline of this slow burn
romance book unfolds, anyways. Poppy, the female travel
journalist wild child main character finds herself falling for her
long time male best friend Alex, who is significantly more laid
back, completely content with his quiet life as a teacher. The two
of them share a journey discovering their true feelings on a
satisfyingly predictable yet quite dysfunctional vacation, with the help of the eccentric people they meet along the way, as well as their own memories of the past.
The story takes place through Poppy’s narrative. Emily Henry heavily uses the flashback element throughout this novel, as nearly every other chapter convey’s a memory of Poppy’s. She
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finds herself feeling dissatisfied, regardless of the fact that she is living her dream life with her dream job: a travel blogger turned travel journalist. She spends the majority of the beginning of the book reminiscing about her best friend, Alex. Every Summer since the two had met in college, they had taken a trip. A vacation. Eventually, once Poppy became more successful, these trips were funded by her glamorous new position with the travel and lifestyle magazine, Rest and Relaxation. However, it seemed she found the most joy in the trips where the two would scrape together their loose change and run on spontaneity.
The book introduces the friendship between Alex and Poppy with a flashback to a trip the two took together 5 years ago, to Sanibel Island. On the last night of their trip, despite their bad luck in taking a decent photo with one another, Poppy insists on the two of them capturing the moment on camera. When she attempts to hold the camera in selfie-mode, Alex states “we don’t have to look good, we just have to look like ourselves.” They use the back camera to capture a blurry, slightly awkward, and very unflattering picture together. The point is, it was raw. It was honest. It was as real as their friendship with one another. This sentimental moment gave us a glimpse into Alex and Poppy’s authentic chemistry with one another. In the present day narrative, however, Poppy and Alex are not necessarily on speaking terms. Their last vacation together was in Croatia, and things have not been the same since, but Poppy does not reveal the details of this trip until later on in the story, leaving the reader pondering “what happened in Croatia?” for the first ⅔ of the novel. It isn’t until Poppy’s best friend, Rachel, convinces Poppy to reach out to Alex that the two of them somewhat awkwardly reconnect through a string of dry text messages. From this point forward throughout the novel, the narrative jumps back and forth between past and present. Poppy explains how she and Alex originally met as freshman at the University of Chicago 12 years ago. The two carpooled at the end of their freshman year, as they
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were both from the small town of Linfield, Ohio. Even though the two had no prior relationship and could not be any less alike, they absolutely hit it off. After all, you know what they say: opposites attract.
After taking their first trip together after their sophomore year to Vancouver Island, Poppy discovered her love for traveling, ultimately resulting in her desire to make a career out of it. Alex, being her newfound best friend, offered to take these trips with her. The book tells the story of their trips to Nashville, New Orleans, San Francisco, and many other places. However, it was on that trip to Sanibel Island on the very last day, during that very sentimental moment, that Poppy realized she was in love with Alex.
For those who are suckers for romantic comedies and feel-good films and books, Emily Henry’s story-telling style is for you. She is clever in the sense that she doesn’t make the story too predictable, as Poppy continuously revisits the idea that she craves spontaneity- while life with Alex is the definition of stability. Because of this disagreement between the two, Poppy believes it could never work out. She believes that Alex would be better off with Sarah, his picture-perfect, white picket fence, yoga instructor high school crush. Emily Henry writes Alex and Poppy’s friendship in a manner that makes the reader fall in love with the idea of the two having a romantic relationship, while simultaneously strategically placing moments of doubt throughout the story, stringing us along enough to want to finish the story in hopes of a satisfactory ending. She includes Alex and Sarah’s on-and-off relationship so the reader can form an anti-Sarah and pro-Poppy mindset, making the end of the book that much more fulfilling. In my opinion, it’s always smart to give the audience someone to root against, rather than just to root for. Poppy also tells the tales of her own personal relationships, highlighting her fear of commitment and stability and her questionable taste in men. Between Poppy’s chaotic dating
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history and Alex’s quiet lifestyle, Emily Henry sets the stage up perfectly for two unlikely dysfunctional best friends to finally discover and admit their true feelings for one another, after years of looking in all the wrong places.
The timeline that the bulk of the story takes place consists of a somewhat-forced vacation between Alex and Poppy to attend Alex’s brother’s wedding in Palm Springs, years after that trip-that-shall-not-be-mentioned to Croatia. You know, where everything went south, except we don’t know why and Emily Henry withholds that until just the right moment, of course. Naturally, as things typically are between two best friends who actually love each other but won’t admit it and haven’t spoken in years, the trip was insanely awkward and everything seemed to go wrong. The AC was malfunctioning, the chair that Alex slept in (because obviously there was only one bed in the hotel room, a classic staple in every friends-to-lovers trope) gave him a back spasm, and to top it all off, the trip wasn’t even covered by Rest + Relaxation, even though Poppy said it was in an attempt to further convince Alex to attend. Poppy’s bank was being drained, as well as her hope of reconnecting with Alex the way they used to… or more. But of course, in true romance novel fashion, in the pouring rain, after anything that could have possibly gone wrong during the trip went wrong, the two finally break down and confess their love for eachother in a steamy argument. You can probably guess what happens after that.
However, the need for Alex and Poppy to end up together can’t be satisfied that easily. Poppy finally reveals what happened on their final night in Croatia. The two best friends had taken a leap and shared one drunk kiss. Alex stopped before they could take it any further, in hopes of salvaging their friendship, but Poppy immediately saw it as rejection. This interaction threw them into somewhat of a Cold War period leading up to that trip to Palm Springs. During this time, Poppy had determined that if she avoided commitment, she would avoid rejection.
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After sharing that moment with Alex in Palm Springs, Poppy realized she had opened herself up, making her vulnerable again. This causes her to return to Linfield after their trip for a period of reflection, where she ultimately decides what she really wants. I’ll leave you to figure out what that is. The book ends with a sweet epilogue about Alex and Poppy’s life in New York City, a happy ending to a feel-good story.
Emily Henry nails it on the head with People We Meet on Vacation when it comes to writing a beach read. Something simple, but not too predictable, with just the right amount of cringe-worthy cheesy romantic moments to truly satisfy fans of romance novels. She captures the friends-to-lovers trope flawlessly, by incorporating the classic details of the two main characters having completely opposing personalities that end up clicking together anyways like the final two pieces of a dramatically ironic jigsaw puzzle. Extra snaps for the aesthetically pleasing cover. With a little humor and a lot of… tension…, People We Meet on Vacation contains the perfect remedy for a comforting yet riveting page turner that is sure to occupy a reader, whether they’re lounging in a living room or soaking in some vitamin D on the beach.
