Three weeks ago, I made a review of what I believed to be Emily Henry’s worst book so far. I hope to review her books from my worst to best ratings leading up to the release of her first film adaptation “People We Meet on Vacation.” This week, I’ll be reviewing “Happy Place,” her fourth adult romance novel. Not her worst, but definitely not her best either.
As with Henry’s previous works, Happy Place was released in 2023 and became a New York Times Bestseller with, to date, over a million copies sold. The book’s rating stands at 3.95 on Goodreads.com, with over 150,000 reviews.
Happy Place is a “romantic comedy” about a couple named Harriet and Wyn who broke off their engagement after being in an eight-year-long relationship that started when they were in college. Harriet is still reeling from the breakup, as I think you would be in this situation, but she hopes to get her mind off of it for about a week when she travels with her best friends to a beach house they all love to stay at every summer.
However, when she gets there, she finds Wyn there because one of her friends invited him without knowing he and Harriet had split. Neither Wyn nor Harriet want to admit to their friends of their breakup, so they decide to fake-date for the duration of the trip and tell their friends maybe a month or two later that they split.
Of course though, as these stories go, the two realize they are actually still in love and get back together for real.
When Happy Place was released, it was widely considered to be Henry’s most polarizing novel. Lots of readers either loved this book or hated it with a fiery passion.
Many carried the latter opinions, claiming the book to be boring, not as funny as her previous works, or the characters weren’t as interesting. On the other end, readers have said this book made them cry, that it was extremely emotional and made them feel seen. Personally, I fall within the spectrum’s middle, bordering on not liking it.
Actually, in fact, I honestly didn’t like a good 80% of the book, but the last 20% saved it.
I have two major issues with this book. 1: The miscommunication. 2: Lying to their friends.
First off, without spoiling the major twist of why these two broke up, I’ll just say that I found that plot point to be incredibly stupid. Like, I understand that everyday people sometimes have trouble communicating since we’re not all perfect or anything, but…you’re telling me…that after eight years, EIGHT YEARS, that you can’t tell your partner how you truly feel? YOU CAN’T DO THAT?!
Why, and how honestly, were y’all together for so long? Isn’t a big aspect of a relationship to talk to each other, tell them what’s going on? Again, I know sometimes talking is hard, but eight years?! I lost my mind at that plot twist, truly.
Onto the lying to the friends, even from the beginning I thought that was dumb. Like, what kind of friends are you guys?
If my friend ever admitted to me that they actually lied about still being with their partner, I’d think they didn’t truly trust me enough to talk to me.
Harriet and Wyn’s reasoning for their choice was because “they didn’t want to ruin the friend group.” I mean…I’d argue lying to everyone and saying you’re still together, only to find out that you actually weren’t, ruins the friend group more. But I digress.
I’m getting heated again just from writing this review.
A few other things I didn’t like were, surprisingly, the writing, characters, and the gummy scene (IYKYK).
Besides my two main issues with this book, the writing sits at number three. I don’t understand why, but I didn’t like Henry’s writing in this book. I didn’t care for the dialogue, the jokes, the sensual speech between the two main characters, none of it. Which is so weird because I usually love her writing.
It’s the most redeeming quality across all of her books, but this one felt like it was written by a different person. None of the jokes were funny and none of the dialogue made any sense.
Usually with Emily Henry dialogue, I can suspend disbelief, but with this one, I literally couldn’t. It was so unbelievable to the point I verbally said, “No one talks like that.”
The characters were also either bland or irritating.
I didn’t think Harriet was completely void of personality, like some readers did, but I did think she could’ve had a little more depth to her character. Same with Wyn. I feel like a lot of the time, we didn’t learn too much about him as a character. He was there purely to fill in the role of love interest, just like Charlie in Book Lovers.
Some of the side characters however, especially one in particular, were so incredibly annoying that I was actively yelling at the book to either kill them off or at least write them out somehow. I needed this friend group to end. None of them needed to be friends with each other. They don’t seem to like each other at all, and it made me question, “Why are y’all even friends?!”
Okay. Rolling back the negativity train now. From the amount of dislike, you’d think this book wouldn’t have redeeming qualities.
The only reason this book is above 1 star is because I liked the ending arc of Harriet’s journey. Throughout the story, she’s a people pleaser, and towards the end she realizes she needs to decide and do what makes her happy, not her parents or her relationships. I liked that, and it saved this book from the gutter.
I read Happy Place back in April, and it took me an entire month to finish. I think it’s because I was in the start of my reading slump, so that definitely didn’t help while I was reading the terrible sections of this book.
Currently writing this, I’d give this book a 2 out of 5 stars. If you like second chance romance, feel free to give this a try. My personal recommendation though, I’d skip it.