Emily Henry’s “Happy Place”, like all her other books, is summer beach read that sucks you in quickly. This is a second chance romance about a summer vacation with friends to get you ready for summer to begin.

“Happy Place” follows Harriet and Wyn, who are surprised to meet on their annual summer vacation trip with college friends to the beach house in Maine. They broke up five months prior to their trip, but they didn’t tell anyone; and now it’s caught up to them. Will their friends catch onto the lie? With their ending so abrupt, neither have gotten closer and as they piece together what went wrong, will find their way back? Following both Harriet and Wyn in present time and with flashbacks to when they first met to when things ended we experience the ups and downs, twists and turns of their relationship and their friendships.

With second chance romances, I like when there are flashback chapters to their relationship prior to where it is in the present because you get the full picture and see how things started and ended to understand what’s happening now. This allows the reader to understand the characters and their story better. With Harriet and Wyn, we get to read the chapters where they first met, the longing for each other, and them eventually admitting their feelings for each other. Even though we get to see the cute and romantic stages in their relationship, I really like that we get to see the ugly and dark parts as well because it adds more depth to the characters and shows that relationships aren’t always like the romcoms you read about or see in movies.

I really liked how Emily Henry delved into the harder parts of relationships that aren’t always represented in entertainment and did in a way where it was realistic and a common reason why many relationships end, but made so you were still hooked and wanted them to get back together. In many romance books the miscommunication trope is too dramatic or it just feels too orchestrated, but in this book it just fits and seems so natural to the story.

Overall I thought this book was really good, but It’s not my favorite of Emily Henry’s. If you haven’t read her other books I definitely recommend them.

Trigger warnings: some sexual explicit content

4/5 read