The People We Meet on Vacation
This month's Romance Required book is The People We Meet on Vacation, by Emily Henry. I read the bulk of this book, perhaps ironically, while I was on vacation myself, and it did not disappoint. We did meet some lovely people while on our trip, and I enjoyed talking about Henry's books with some young ladies even before we left the airport. She is definitely a rising star in the romance world (read Elle magazine's interview with her here) and I can't wait to read more from her; I just hope Henry doesn't end up oversaturating the market like some other popular authors (*glances pointedly at Colleen Hoover*).
This is the second of Henry's books I've read, and I simply adore her writing. She is funny without being corny, sentimental without being saccharine, and sexy without being lewd. As the two main characters met while in college, it brought me right back to my own college days, and made me wonder what's in store for my son, who leaves for his own college experience in just a few weeks. I do wish Henry spent a little more time building up the "friends to lovers" trope (if you're new to romance novels and are unclear what a "trope" is, don't worry I have a blog post on tropes coming soon), because I felt like it was less a question of "will they or won't they" but rather "when will they?" right from the very start. I appreciated the look into Poppy's and Alex's respective psyches, though I feel like Henry might have focused a bit too much on Alex's and not enough of Poppy's. And can I just say - the name "Poppy" seems to have an absolute chokehold on romance authors lately and personally I'm looking forward to them moving on from it. The name makes me think of the Trolls movie and it's kinda a mood killer for me, you know?
In the end though, I really can't speak highly enough of this book or Emily Henry's writing in general. As a writer myself, I've found there are two types of authors: ones that make me think, "If they can do it, surely I can do it too" and those who make me think, "You will never, ever, be published; might as well throw your laptop away." Emily Henry is definitely in the latter category! If you are interested in reading this book, or perhaps another, stop by the library any time. We currently have five different Emily Henry novels in our collection. Tell them Colleen sent you!
Questions? Comments? Opinions on this book? Post them below!
(Disclaimer: the opinions expressed in this blog are mine and mine alone; they do not reflect the library's official opinions in any way. Likewise, opinions expressed in the comments section belong to the commenter and the commenter alone.)