Romance

Review: People We Meet on Vacation by Emily Henry

January 29, 2026

When Funny People was released in 2024, I learned about her for the first time. Since then. I’m working myself through the back catalogue. With the movie adoption of People We Meet on Vacation being released earlier this month on Netflix, I wanted to read this book beforehand to know what to expect.

Synopsis:

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?

Review:

I wanted to read this ahead of the movie release and got it done just in time.

When Alex and Poppy initially meet, they seem to have nothing in common. Just strangers passing by, not interested to connect more. Then one day they are thrown together and surprisingly learn, that that they seem to enjoy each others company. This is a start of a friendship of going on a yearly summer vacation and finding out, that there might be more than just friendship.

Every year it becomes more and more obvious, that they something is there that both are afraid to speak out. Everyone else around them is aware also. Until something happens, that forces both to make decisions.

I enjoyed the way of telling the story. We spent time with them in the future while learning through their summers in the past of how they interacted with each other and it becomes clear easy on, that there is something between them, which is rare and special. I felt with them and some of the interactions has me close to tears.

I adored them and it is one of the best romance novels I have read.

🌙 Recension: People We Meet on Vacation by Emily Henry
📚 Genre: Romance
📅 Release Date: May 11, 2021
📖 Publisher: A Jove Book, Berkley
📱 Read as: Physical
📗 available in various formats
💸 Bought
🗣️ Language: English
📆 Pages: 400
⭐️ 5/5