People We Meet On Vacation by Emily Henry

From the #1 New York Times bestselling author of Book Lovers and Beach Read comes a sparkling novel that will leave you with the warm, hazy afterglow usually reserved for the best vacations.

Two best friends. Ten summer trips. One last chance to fall in love.

Poppy and Alex. Alex and Poppy. They have nothing in common. She’s a wild child; he wears khakis. She has insatiable wanderlust; he prefers to stay home with a book. And somehow, ever since a fateful car share home from college many years ago, they are the very best of friends. For most of the year they live far apart—she’s in New York City, and he’s in their small hometown—but every summer, for a decade, they have taken one glorious week of vacation together.
 
Until two years ago, when they ruined everything. They haven't spoken since.
 
Poppy has everything she should want, but she’s stuck in a rut. When someone asks when she was last truly happy, she knows, without a doubt, it was on that ill-fated, final trip with Alex. And so, she decides to convince her best friend to take one more vacation together—lay everything on the table, make it all right. Miraculously, he agrees.
 
Now she has a week to fix everything. If only she can get around the one big truth that has always stood quietly in the middle of their seemingly perfect relationship. What could possibly go wrong?

Named a Most Anticipated Book of 2021 by Newsweek ∙ Oprah Magazine ∙ The Skimm ∙ Marie Claire ∙ Parade ∙ The Wall Street Journal ∙ Chicago Tribune ∙ PopSugar ∙ BookPage ∙ BookBub ∙ Betches ∙ SheReads ∙ Good Housekeeping ∙ BuzzFeed ∙ Business Insider ∙ Real Simple ∙ Frolic ∙ and more!

There’s a reason that opposites attract is not only a common trope in media but also one that happens all the time in real life. Emily Henry’s People We Meet On Vacation runs with that theme and successfully pulls off the the deceptively difficult friends to lovers trope effectively. Of all of Emily Henry’s adult romance novel pairings, Poppy and Alex’s chemistry and dynamics might be my personal favorite that feels so natural, effortless, but most importantly, relatable. While People We Meet On Vacation‘s premise is more straightforward and less narratively ambitious compared to her other novels, the tone and vibe of the story is excellent, feeling warm and comforting throughout. Although the pacing and past vacation flashbacks occasionally dragged for me in places and this novel doesn’t hit the same dramatic highs as some of her other works, it’s still a well-rounded and solid read that has a lot going for it.

Of the common romance genres meet-cute/progression scenarios, I personally believe that friends to lovers is one of the most difficult scenarios to pull off well due to character growth and tricky chemistry needed to make the shift feel believable. Narratively speaking, there needs to either be a moment where the characters see each other in a different light, or there is some important reason that prevented a romantic interest from previously. People We Meet On Vacation smartly utilizes the latter scenario, which is the easier and more natural of the two. One of my personal pet peeves is when stories utilize a disaster, crisis, or some other cheap occurrence to bring friends together which feels like a relationship of opportunity, rather than one happening organically. Anyway, the novel also uses a split timeline approach with chapters alternating between Poppy’s present last ditch vacation proposition to Palm Springs and the previous twelve summers/vacations she and Alex spent leading up to this point. I found the split timeline approach to be a great narrative choice, introducing the reader to their random awkward meeting (no cliché meet-cute moment here) to their unlikely yet growing friendship. The alternative chapters also perfectly highlight the distance of their friendship in the present compared to the previous years, after a particular incident two years ago during their vacation in Croatia pushes them apart.

As the story progresses and their past summer vacations go by, the gradual growth in trust, support, and comfort between Poppy and Alex is subtle yet well done. Unlike some other romance novels, similar to what the vacations signify for them, it’s about the journey and the experience getting there, not the actual final destination that matters. I’ve previously had some issues with Henry’s other novels that used extensive flashbacks (Happy Place and bits of Beach Read) but had no major qualms with them used here. Most importantly unlike Happy Place, the bulk of the important character growth and details are in the past, initially masquerading under the guise of casual, random and fun impromptu summer vacations. The character work and change is very subtle when compared to the diverse locals and people they meet while on vacation, but that in itself is an indicator of Henry’s skill at blending light-hearted comedic chapters with substance hidden beneath it. Speaking of the vacations themselves, reading this novel in 2024 (I finished the last 30 pages running into 2025, oops) is fine but I can only imagine just how satisfying and hopeful it would’ve been reading it back when it was originally published in 2021, at the height of the Covid pandemic and traveling lockdown. Being able to travel and experience all these different locations and experiences through Poppy and Alex likely would’ve provided much needed escapism from the isolation and bleak future at the time. Combined with how comforting and relaxed they are as pseudo tour guides, there’s no question why this novel was so popular and beloved when it was released.

This type of story and premise lives and dies by its character’s dynamics and relationship (perfect counter-example is Henry’s Happy Place which was a misfire for me). Fortunately I loved both Poppy and Alex’s characterizations separately, and their relationship dynamics and chemistry together even more. Out of her five novels, Poppy and Alex is the only pairing whose relationship just clicks from the get-go (awkward meeting aside) and doesn’t rely on any drama, conflict, or angst hindering their connection (Daphne and Miles being the 2nd closest in Funny Story). Despite being so different at a superficial level, they are two people that just understand and see each other for who they truly are, and that is a magical thing that Henry nails with this pairing. Witty banter, excellent comedic timing, off-beat weird yet effective scenarios, these are all strengths that are expected from Henry but their ease and complimentary differences is great. A perfect showcase for this is the long and awkward car ride they share traveling back home after their first year at uni. Additionally, the prologue chapter displaying their contrasting back and forth rapid fire banter is one of the most amusing and perfectly-pitched introduction in a romance novel that I’ve read in a long time.

Individually, both Poppy and Alex are well-written as well and are two of my favorites of Henry. What I also found refreshing is that Henry does not over rely on past childhood trauma or the “I’m broken” trope (counter-example again is Happy Place using Wyn”s background as a poor cushion for its conflict). It’s still there to a certain extent, but it’s incorporated tastefully and balanced well (one of my primary criticisms of Book Lovers abrupt shift towards the end). I also found it refreshing that Poppy and Alex’s professional careers are not heavily hinged on the book writing or publishing industry like most of Henry’s other novels. All her novels are loosely tied to the writing industry in some way (except Funny Story) and Poppy is no exception being a travel magazine writer and blogger. However the writing and book publishing element merely serves as a plot mechanism for Poppy’s travels and has less involvement in the main plot obviously compared to Beach Read, Book Lovers, Funny Story (a librarian is still book related), and the upcoming Great Big Beautiful Life.

While I enjoyed reading this novel, I did take a while to finish it compared to past Emily Henry novels that were typically fast binge reads. While part of that can be attributed to the holiday season rush with family, the rest of it is likely to do with the pacing of this book. Out of her five adult novels that I’ve read, People We Meet On Vacation is the first that I felt was paced a bit slow in places and maybe could’ve even been paired down a bit. A big part of the book’s premise is the twelve years and summers they spent and traveled together leading up to their current strained and distant relationship, but over time the summer flashbacks began to grow repetitive and stale at times. While the actual vacation destinations and experiences were varied, some of these chapters started to blend together narratively for me and perhaps could’ve benefited from either faster changes in their relationship or spacing out their “break” more.

The summer flashback chapters alternating between the present summer in Palm Springs also didn’t help once the present events and forced proximity shenanigans started ramping up. In general the Palm Springs chapters were shorter than the flashback chapters and I would’ve liked to see a bit more done with that (perhaps more dining experiences would’ve helped to break up repetition and serve as additional foreshadowing). An alternative option could’ve been to introduce Alex’s brother David’s wedding weekend events earlier in the story and had Poppy/Alex’s relationship shifts occur during the family get together rather than before it. The whole “this summer” plot felt a bit thin in general. Additionally, the main conflict during the present summer trip, Poppy’s self-discovery about her life aspirations, and Alex’s unaddressed worries felt like they were crunched within the last 40 pages of the book. Although these moments were not as emotionally impactful or insightful as some of her other works (Funny Story shows Henry’s improvement as a writer compared to her earlier novels), the actual content was still great and entirely relatable for a lot of millennial readers. The pacing was just rushed and Poppy’s post-vacation story and the ending as a whole could’ve easily expanded to double its length.

Speaking of the conflict and distant friendship, I knew that the story would have to utilize the miscommunication trope to a certain extent as that’s really the only logical way to separate a close-knit friendship barring some dramatic argument (see my thoughts on that previously above). Heavily foreshadowed in Poppy’s recollection of their past vacations as well as the constant references in the present, unfortunately I found the ill-fated Croatia vacation event to be a bit underwhelming. Although it makes perfect sense for the story, I would’ve liked the conflict to have been taken further. To go from calling and texting constantly to complete radio-silence is such a drastic change and while Henry’s plotting functionally works and makes sense, it still felt like a letdown when I read it. Perhaps possible subsequent failed conversations or actions after Croatia would’ve helped the strain feel more developed, though I acknowledge that the conflict as-is is one that no doubt happens in real life often.

Note: While it did not factor into my overall impression or rating of this book, I found the cover of the US Berkley edition of the book to be a bit baffling. On multiple occasions Henry clearly describes Alex as being very tall, broad with his signature floppy sandy blonde hair yet the cover portrays him as a dark brunette. On one hand I acknowledge that early leaks of Tom Blyth in Netflix’s upcoming movie looks a lot like the Alex’s design on Berkley’s cover which I have no problem with being an adaptation, but this cover predated the movie by four years and seems like a bizarre oversight unless Berkley did not want to blonde characters on the cover for whatever reason (then again, it’s not the first time a cover design is far off from the book’s contents). Additionally, the title People We Meet On Vacation doesn’t feel like a great match for the story except for the angle relating to Poppy’s experience with modern loneliness. The epilogue does a decent job of trying to tie the story back to the title, but the UK edition title You and Me On Vacation makes much more sense and represents the novel’s story way better. On top of that, Penguin UK’s cover design correctly has Alex as a sandy-haired blonde and has much clearer visual ties to Palm Springs compared to the generic noncommittal US design whose green spine can be misleading for somewhere tropical like the Caribbean or Hawaii (more than likely, a purposeful misdirection to sell more copies).

As a whole, I found this read to be a solid, well-rounded romcom story that falls comfortably into my expectations for an Emily Henry novel. Although many other readers rank this one low, I personally found People We Meet On Vacation to fall comfortably in the middle of Emily Henry book ranking. While the story is comfortable and doesn’t hit the narrative high’s and intriguing content of Beach Read nor does it have the finesse and confidence of Funny Store, it’s still well-written, entertaining, and full of quality that I find lacking in many trending booktok contemporary fiction/chick-lit genre books. Not only that, but Poppy and Alex are a new standard benchmark for the friends to lovers trope for me. And with that, this concludes my Emily Henry reading journey until Great Big Beautiful Life is out in April which I will surely be reading and reviewing.