Thanks to the publisher and Netgalley for an early review copy.

I was hooked from the beginning of this book.

I loved the characters, how good the story was written.

I highly recommend.

I can't say enough good things about Happy Place - it is an absolute delight to read! I loved Emily Henry's first three romance novels but this one blew me away and is my new favourite.

Let's start with the brilliant twist on the fake dating trope - with ex-fiances who pretend to still be together so as not to rock the boat in their friend group, on a reunion weekend in coastal Maine. It was such a refreshing take on the trope and Henry executes it flawlessly. Watching the two main characters, Harriet and Wyn navigate their past feelings and current situation is heartwarming, hilarious and entertaining. Their dynamic and their chemistry is electric! The witty banter and the way they interacted with each other felt so real and authentic, I couldn't help but root for them the entire time.

But it's not just the romantic relationship that shines in this book. The depiction of friendship and family is also top-notch. The supporting characters are all so well-written and fleshed out, I felt like I had stepped into their world and I loved it! Again, the dynamic between them all and their witty banter was so engaging, and there were many moments that were full of warmth and depth - especially with Wyn's family.

And speaking of Wyn - he is my favourite of Henry's leading men! He's charming, witty, sensitive, and just the right amount of flawed. I loved him!

Happy Place has humour and heart in abundance - Emily Henry has truly outdone herself. Five big love-filled stars.

My first foray into Emily Henry was definitely an experience! I feel so conflicted— I enjoyed this but simultaneously feel underwhelmed and unsatisfied upon finishing it.

I have to preface this and say, Henry’s writing style is beautiful. She has her own unique style and flair that I adore in an author. Too many books feel the same lately, a bit stilted and lifeless, cliche and rarely standing out from the crowd. So reading Happy Place was a sheer delight in that regard. The emotional gut punches within her prose were suffocating in the best way, I found myself being suddenly throat punched by some random, concise sentence that just encompasses so many emotions.

It was sensational.

However, the dual timelines setting of this story is what truly hindered my experience, unfortunately. It ruined the pacing and momentum— the current plot line was so angsty and painful, I was on the edge of my seat as I drowned in the lost love and despair of Wyn and Harriet. their close proximity while pining for one another was palpable to read, I was breathless and just so enamoured by the story. I was hanging on the precipice of Wyn and Harriet’s agonising dynamic, waiting for the angsty clash of wills, a collision, a revelation, an epiphany... but just as they were about to get into the gritty deep trauma of their breakup, we’d shift to the past and then never revisit that moment again.

It would all come to a screeching halt and it was a jarring shift in tone and pace, especially since the past chapters didn’t really have a lot of emotional depth. Not like the present timeline. The past just felt like filler content to divert my attention from the main event which was Wyn and Harriet’s painful purgatory in the present. I lost all semblance of interest with the past chapters— it was just a back and forth of me devouring the present chapters and sighing in defeat when we had to return to the past.

And because of this, all the revelations I was anxiously waiting for weren’t revealed until the very end and by that time, I was truly exhausted with the book. There’s very little action to push the plot forward so it relies heavily on the emotional undercurrent instead to maintain the pace. But having the jarring shift in tone from past to present meant the emotional pacing was unsatisfying because I didn’t get to truly EXPERIENCE the accumulation of emotion as because we were swiftly moving on to an alternate timeline.

And in turn, because we split our time between the past and present, the friendship connections and even the familial plot felt quite weak because they weren’t given the space to truly thrive. Same goes for Wyn and Harriet, to be honest. I felt like we only got to scratch the surface with them and it feels like an injustice to their beautiful relationship. The story feels half-finished, I don’t feel like I KNOW these characters despite Henry’s attempts of making this a “deep” and complex read.

So, while I enjoyed half of the story, the other half let the better half down. But it hasn’t deterred me from wanting to read more EH! Book Lovers calls to me the most for my next EH read. Can’t wait!

Happy Place is a heart wrenching and beautiful story about different kinds of love.

I’ve only read one other book by Emily Henry - Book Lovers - so that’s kinda what I expected of Happy Place as well. And although it did have similar (funny) banter and had the same predictability most romantic books have (I mean, they always end up together), this one felt different from most rom-coms.

I’m even a bit hesitant to call it a rom-com. The book has a bit of a melancholic feeling to it. At certain points it completely wrecked me, more so than any other dramatic piece of writing has ever done.

Which is also why I absolutely loved Happy Place. The dynamics between characters is beautiful. You can easily feel how much they all love each other (different kinds of love - romantic love, that between friends, found family, etc), which makes all the hurdles and problems between them even more heart wrenching.

Happy Place made me properly cry, which isn’t something I can say about a lot of books. Harriet and Wyn’s story, their feelings, personal and relational struggles, and how they find their way back to each other - it all felt very real to me. Which is the strength of Happy Place.

It isn’t your typical rom-com, but I can recommend Happy Place all the more for it.

I was looking forward to reading this book as I have read all of Emily Henry's previous books and really enjoyed them.

Although there were enjoyable aspects, I didn't find myself quite as drawn into this story as I have previously been, although still a decent read.

The ending is fairly predictable but I also enjoyed the exploration and dynamics of the different friendship groups.

Perfection. This felt like a love child of all three previous EH books - it has a little of everything. I loved it.

The consistency of Emily Henry is truly remarkable, every book establishes a cast of characters that feel real and fresh and then sends you on a journey with them! I really enjoyed the reflections on their relationship, as well as the different types of relationships within the group. Henry does an amazing job with justifying the premise and making the story feel grounded and romantic.

Headlines:
Angsty tension
Everything isn't fine
People pleasing

I really like what Emily Henry did with this novel, we started with the difficult and pretty much stayed there for a lot of the book. This was one hell of an angsty read, the type where you close the book to breathe a bit and then get the courage to open it again.

The story immersed the reader in found family but that family was hitting the dysfunctional buttons pretty hard for all sorts of reasons. I feel like this bunch of friends had grown and changed but they felt the need to pretend they were still as they were a decade ago. Sabrina was a tough one to like but the others were easier to bond with.

The MCs Harriet and Wyn were truly likeable but fathoming what the heck was going on with these two was difficult. I could figuratively feel the unease in Harriet about a bunch of things, Wyn included. There was a bucket load of baggage from family, childhood and pressurised expectations. Harriet was all about the people pleasing but she lacked insight into herself.

I devoured this book over two days and there was so much substance to pick over. I love that Emily Henry doesn't write to a personal formula. This offering felt quite different to her other romances but equally as great. Don't expect ease and laughter, brace for tension and angst. Highly recommended.

"Love means constantly saying you're sorry, and then doing better."

Thank you to Viking Books for the review copy.

Emily Henry's books are the epitome of comfort. She really knows how to navigate tropes and cliches from the romance genre and make it her own. If you're a fan of her other works, you're going to love this.

“Part of me wants to pretend I have you, but another part thinks I’ll die if you don’t tell me you love me, even if it doesn’t change anything. Even if it’s just getting to hear it one more time.”

Emily Henry has done it again! Another 5-star read from this wonderfully talented author. Wyn, Harriet, and their friends completely stole our hearts in a story of love, loss, friendship, grief, and growing up as we join them for a last hoorah spending a week in their favourite holiday house before it’s sold. Knotts Harbor, Maine holds so many happy memories for these friends, however, as the week wears on they’re forced to confront the realisation of change, adulthood, and the responsibilities of life. This is especially the case for Wyn and Harriet and their relationship.

“It’s killing me hearing how happy you are, without even understanding how I – how I –“My voice quavers, my breath coming in spurts. “I don’t know what I did to make you so miserable.”

Although Happy Place is a little heavier, more ‘sadder’ than her previous books, there’s one thing this author is particularly good at, and that is knowing precisely when to inject humour into a moment, to turn the heaviness and hurt into a smile. And she did just that with Happy Place.

‘Even when something beautiful breaks, the making of it still matters.’

Wynn Connor (be still our beating hearts!) and Harriet Kilpatrick are the perfect couple. The ‘it’ couple who would weather any storm and be together forever…until they weren’t. After ending their near-decade relationship some six months earlier, to appease their friends, who are in the dark about their breakup, they agree to ‘fake their relationship; whilst meeting up for one week as their last hoorah at their favourite group holiday spot, to pretend they are still as happy as ever.

“Maybe I need to know that he remembers that he hasn’t totally forgotten what it felt like to love me.”

Easy, right? Wrong! With wounds unhealed, pretending everything is hunky dory proves extremely difficult and painful. But they soldier on for their friends, whilst giving their hearts a right battering. We could FEEL the pain, the loss, and the hurt between Wyn and Harriet and it killed us! However, despite the anger, resentment, and pain, one thing was paramount and that was the love between these two! Wow! It was so powerful; their love was almost a character all on its own.

“You can trust me, Harriet.” In that moment, he pierces a little deeper into my heart, opens another door, and finds an entire walled-off room I didn’t realise was there.’

Told in past/present switches in Harriet’s POV, we revelled in the beauty of their formidable love, whilst feeling the incredible pain of their months apart, as we slowly pieced together the moments that led to Wyn calling an end to their unbreakable bond. We’re not giving anything else away because the little pieces must be played out as they lead you to the highly emotive end.

‘Maybe that was part of the anger that burned in me too: disappointment that I hadn’t loved him well enough to make him happy, nor well enough to let him go.’

The love that emanated from the pages between Wyn and Harriet is palpable! We couldn’t help wondering what it was that broke them up. The build-up to the end was a slow beautiful burn, with the ending making all the heartache Henry put us through so rewarding, as she pulled this story together. The heart-warming stories, witty sense of humour, beautiful romance, and wonderful characters win us over time and time again. And a special THANK YOU for giving us, Wyn Connor!

I’m really pleased I got to read this, it was an absolute pleasure to read this book. Pretty sure I’ve recommended it to anyone that would listen!

Thank you NetGalley for my complimentary copy in return for my honest review.

Sometimes, it happens. You beguin a book, and then, you literaly can't put it down. That's what happened for me there. I HAD to know what happened to the characters, even if my heart has been constantly torn in the process.

Harriet has a group a friends that has become her family. Among those friends, she has found her soulmate, Wyn.
Every year, they all gather in Maine for a Lobster's festival. This summer house is her happy place, where all her best memories occured. And yet, this year, she doesn't look forward to this trip. Because Wyn and her have split up 5 months ago. And she fears that their friendship balance will suffer from his absence. That she will suffer from it.
Except, when she arrives, Wyn is here...

This book is a long trip down memory lane, where every important piece of Wyn's and Harriet relation is told, and every important friendship moments with Sabrina, and Cleo, and Parth, and Kim. But it's also all those "now" moments, when Harriet doesn't understand why they split up, when Wyn's behaviour doesn't help, because clearly, he's still attracted to her, when she tries to understand what when wrong, what she did wrong to disappoint her loved ones. And through this week, she realises a lot of things.
I rarely had my heart so tormented by a book : sadness, joy, hope, ununderstanding, and for my sake, I had to finish it. Thank you Emily Henry for that powerful piece, and thank you NetGalley and Penguin for sending me this ARC, definitely one of my must read this year !

Happy Place is a story of how two people can love each other but still grow apart because they never talk to each other about the important things. I do like a bit of miscommunication in romance novels, but here the female MC is constantly making assumptions which lead to her pushing her ex-fiancé away, as well as her friends, and never actually talking about her feelings.

I see that Henry tried to base all the six characters mainly involved in the story in some sort of backstory trauma that led to them behaving the way they did, but all in all this didn't work for me.

Lots of people will love this story, I'm sure. It was a mediocre read for me though.

When Harriet shows up at her best friend's place in Maine for their usual week-long holiday the last person she expects to see is her fiancé Wyn, because they broke up 6 months ago, and just failed to tell everyone. But this is the last time they'll all be together here. The cottage is for sale, and since they can't bear to break their best friends' hearts, they'll fake it for one more week.

As a bit fan of Emily Henry's romance novels I was dying to read this book. It is definitely her most emotionally charged and darker romance. I was worried at time where this was heading, and the story set my on a free-falling rollercoaster. But that doesn't mean I didn't absolutely love it. Emily Henry is the best at romantic banter between main characters and this book didn't fail to deliver on that front.

Harriet and Wyn are living separate lives after calling off their engagement months earlier. The annual friend holiday has come around and they haven’t told any of their friends about the breakup so they agree only one of them will go on the trip. Sabrina, trip organiser and owner of the holiday house, also has a secret. They are selling the house and it’s the last trip they’ll have there together. She has convinced Wyn to attend and now they have to pretend for a week that they are still together. But is it pushing the other friendships further apart. Secrets are revealed as the pressure cooker explodes.
I really wanted to love this as so many people rave about Emily Henry and this was my first book by her, but I just didn’t. Fair dues I am not a huge romance reader and have only just started getting in to it but something just fell short for me. I didn’t love any of the characters, they were all quiet annoying and made me lose interest easily. I normally love a super cheesy cliche but this one just missed the mark. I found myself not wanting to pick up the book and that’s a big sign for me. I know people will love this book, it’s still well written and I would still recommend it for romance lovers, unfortunately this one just wasn’t for me this time and that’s okay.

God, what an utter delight this was to read!
Having never read an Emily Henry novel before (and, in all honesty, having been wary of romances for so long), I ventured into this almost entirely blind, but with incredibly high expectations. HAPPY PLACE has exceeded every. Single. One.
This book takes place in both the current day, and the mental escapes of our protagonist, Harriet, to her various ‘happy places’, and charts the rise and fall of her relationship with her college sweetheart and former fiance, Wyn as she grapples with seeing him again for the first time since he broke off their engagement five months ago. Except they haven’t told their best friends yet. And now they’re all on holiday together.
Henry handles every character with a phenomenally deft hand. Even at their worst, their most frustrating, I never stopped rooting for a single one of them. The story’s progression was realistic, and free of the rather tiresome trappings that are associated with the genre. This is a modern love story about growth - both together, and apart - and I cannot recommend it highly enough.
I’m eager to immerse myself in more of Emily Henry’s work, and cannot wait to see her climb to ever-greater heights.

“Love, I think. That's new. And I'll never be happy without it again.”

Not to be dramatic but I’m not sure I’ll ever be the same after this book. There’s something about Emily Henry’s writing that has always spoken to me but this was next level. The most heartbreaking and emotive second chance romance I have ever and potentially will ever read.

"I thought I made you. Just by wishing."

The way in which EH writes Harriet and Wyn’s story is with the most stunning prose and characterisation. This was truly a story of two soulmates that were simply plagued by the outside world. The story unfolds by flipping back and forth from retrospective flashbacks to present day. This is one of my favourite plot formats so I was already sold. It is to be noted that EH does not write classic romance, it is very much a nuanced, between the lines kind of romance but it is done perfectly.

This book focuses on some heavier topics such as grief, the loss of a life you expected to have and how your environment can really affect your relationships. But beautifully paired with the joys of female friendship, found family and truly soul bonded love. I cried 15 pages in, which really just set the tone for the whole book.

“The feeling of being so grateful to have something worth missing.”

I have never experienced such delicious angst and tension: the whiplash of romance and sexual tension to heartbreaking moments was just wild. The way the characters find their way back to both themselves and each-other, oh my days. I think this book will hit home really hard for anyone that has been in a long term relationship but the strife is 100% worth the peace.

This will be a book I will reread forever and never forget. It’s been almost a week since finishing it and I still can’t think too much about it without crying.

Happy Place is out on the 25th of April, don’t walk, RUN to get this book! Thank you to Penguin via Netgalley for the ARC.

This book was such a cozy, feel-good second chance romance.

I loved the chemistry between Harriet and Wyn, and the choice to alternate between two timelines (e.g. when they met and present day) was so clever. I particularly loved the friendship between Harriet, Cleo, and Sabrina (their t-shirts — e.g. "Virgin that CAN drive" — reminded me of something my friends and I would do), and Henry's prose was beautiful and descriptive as always. I did find the plot a bit slow at times (particularly scenes like their trip to the grocery store, which felt a bit filler-esque to me), but the dynamic characters and witty dialogue kept me turning the pages. Another triumph for Emily Henry, for sure!

“Part of me wants to pretend I have you, but another part thinks I’ll die if you don’t tell me you love me, even if it doesn’t change anything. Even if it’s just getting to hear it one more time.”

Emily Henry has done it again! Another 5-star read from this wonderfully talented author. Wyn, Harriet, and their friends completely stole our hearts in a story of love, loss, friendship, grief, and growing up as we join them for a last hoorah spending a week in their favourite holiday house before it’s sold. Knotts Harbor, Maine holds so many happy memories for these friends, however, as the week wears on they’re forced to confront the realisation of change, adulthood, and the responsibilities of life. This is especially the case for Wyn and Harriett and their relationship.

“It’s killing me hearing how happy you are, without even understanding how I – how I –“My voice quavers, my breath coming in spurts. “I don’t know what I did to make you so miserable.”

Although Happy Place is a little heavier, more ‘sadder’ than her previous books, there’s one thing this author is particularly good at, and that is knowing precisely when to inject humour into a moment, to turn the heaviness and hurt into a smile. And she did just that with Happy Place.

‘Even when something beautiful breaks, the making of it still matters.’

Wynn Connor (be still our beating hearts!) and Harriet Kilpatrick are the perfect couple. The ‘it’ couple who would weather any storm and be together forever…until they weren’t. After ending their near-decade relationship some six months earlier, to appease their friends, who are in the dark about their breakup, they agree to ‘fake their relationship; whilst meeting up for one week as their last hoorah at their favourite group holiday spot, to pretend they are still as happy as ever.

“Maybe I need to know that he remembers that he hasn’t totally forgotten what it felt like to love me.”

Easy, right? Wrong! With wounds unhealed, pretending everything is hunky dory proves extremely difficult and painful. But they soldier on for their friends, whilst giving their hearts a right battering. We could FEEL the pain, the loss, and the hurt between Wyn and Harriett and it killed us! However, despite the anger, resentment, and pain, one thing was paramount and that was the love between these two! Wow! It was so powerful; their love was almost a character all on its own.

“You can trust me, Harriet.” In that moment, he pierces a little deeper into my heart, opens another door, and finds an entire walled-off room I didn’t realise was there.’

Told in past/present switches in Harriet’s POV, we revelled in the beauty of their formidable love, whilst feeling the incredible pain of their months apart, as we slowly pieced together the moments that led to Wyn calling an end to their unbreakable bond. We’re not giving anything else away because the little pieces must be played out as they lead you to the highly emotive end.

‘Maybe that was part of the anger that burned in me too: disappointment that I hadn’t loved him well enough to make him happy, nor well enough to let him go.’

The love that emanated from the pages between Wyn and Harriet is palpable! We couldn’t help wondering what it was that broke them up. The build-up to the end was a slow beautiful burn, with the ending making all the heartache Henry put us through so rewarding, as she pulled this story together. The heart-warming stories, witty sense of humour, beautiful romance, and wonderful characters win us over time and time again. And a special THANK YOU for giving us, Wyn Connor!

Now in their late twenties, three couples who’ve known each other since college reconvene in a summer house in Maine (USA) for their yearly Lobster Festival Week get-together. Wyn, a carpenter, and his fiancée of eight years Harriet, a hospital resident studying neurosurgery (!), have decided not to tell their friends about having suddenly split up five months ago in order not to spoil their friends‘ holiday. Wyn and Harriet never actually talked to each other about the reasons for that split and both instead keep making unsolicited sacrifices for what they imagined was to the good of their ex-partner and respective families and are no longer on speaking terms…This results in multiple misunderstandings, endless ruminations about each other and altogether very unlikely juvenile behaviour of the main protagonists.