I read a lot of literary stuff, but as I get older I also read a bit of fluff. When I am on vacation, I reach for at least one fluffy book, and Emily Henry has become a staple for those moments (though she only has four adult, romance books at this time, so I’ll have to find other titles and authors for the future). People We Meet on Vacation was the second adult, romance novel she wrote and is, in some ways, bumpier than the two that surrounded it while also being more aspirational. She is a writer whose actual writing is improving with time, though even her original stuff has made her ridiculously popular. Vacation is not as straight-forward, genre-wise, but it is an entertaining book that will keep you happily engaged for any beach vacation in which you want an easy, breezy, romantic read with decent writing chops and lacking in laughably bad moments. Because Henry is not just fluff; it’s also pretty good story-telling with engaging characters and well-defined settings and stakes.

People We Meet on Vacation jumps back and forth in time, from Poppy’s present situation on the outs with her life-bff to a run-through of all the previous summer vacations she has taken with Alex. It’s been two years since their falling out and more than a decade since their unlikely meeting in college when Poppy realizes that the one thing that brings her happiness in life is Alex, not the amazing career she has created in the Big Apple, so far from their small, hometown. So she manages to talk (perhaps trick) Alex into another trip, putting her job on the line in order to put the pieces of their unlikely relationship (she’s an artistic, wild free-spirit and he’s a buttoned-up, nice boy) back together with yet another amazing trip. But will he see through the white lies? And will Poppy finally face the truth about their relationship and herself? And what else could possibly go wrong on the vacation that needed to go perfectly right?

I will admit that I am getting my experience with Vacation mixed up—at least emotionally and a tiny bit—with Colleen Hoover’s It Ends with Us, simply because I chain-read one then the other romance/women’s literature novels while on one vacation. However, I am one hundred per cent sure that Emily Henry is a romance author I can enjoy happily every once in a while, and that she is going to be one of the only ones. Despite how frickin’ huge Colleen Hoover is at present, I did not like her (most popular) book as much as a Henry. Actually, not even close. I’m sure that will raise some hackles, and we’ll talk about it in the next review. But that’s how it is for me. Henry is a fairly solid, genre writer who nails the romance tropes and expectations and delivers it with sustained sizzle, fun characters, an enjoyable cast, and lots of twists and turns and action.

I did use the adjective “bumpier” earlier in the review, because this particular book can be confusing with the many time shifts, and is also long-winded. We didn’t need quite so much information about all those vacations, quite so many back-and-forths, quite so much time in the past. But I would still recommend the book for someone who likes reading in the genre. Also, I’m still mystified by Henry’s titles. This title doesn’t capture the book at all. I mean, is this book about the people we meet on vacation in any way? (They meet people, but that’s peripheral to the core relationship.) It’s about the people we take on vacation. It’s about vacations. And, as always, it is about someone who writes for a living (though this time it’s a travel writer who starts out as a blogger). The bright covers, at this point, are just a signal for a modern book, likely a romance, and one written by Henry. If you want a real idea of what it’s about, you’ll have to go past the title and cover.

QUOTES:

“’…sometimes, when you lose your happiness, it’s best to look for it the same way you’d look for anything else …. by retracing your steps’” (p23).

“Apparently the completion of long-term goals often leads to depression. It’s the journey, not the destination, babe…” (p23).

“’It’s not your job to make me happy, okay? You can’t make anyone happy. I’m happy just because you exist, and that’s as much of my happiness as you have control over’” (p303).

“Maybe things can always get better between people who want to do a good job loving each other. Maybe that’s all it takes” (p310).

“Suddenly we’re not kids anymore, and it feels like it happened overnight, so fast I didn’t have time to notice, to let go of everything that used to matter so much, to see that the old wounds that once felt like gut-level lacerations have faded to small white scars, mixed in among the stretch marks and sunspots and little divots where time has grazed against my body” (p336).

MOVIE:

The movie has been green-lighted as the first Emily Henry novel to go to the big (or small) screen (as a movie). Two others of her books are also in production, just later in the process. There aren’t any real details, though, yet, except that Brett Haley will direct, Yulin Kuang already adapted the book to screenplay, and 3000 Pictures is the studio producing it. We might see it in the next year or so (perhaps allowing for all these industry strikes). Although romantic comedies are supposed to be “dead” or at least “dying,” I can’t imagine millions of fans won’t flip out at the first preview they see of an Emily Henry novel.