One of my all-time favorite movies ever is Nora Ephron’s When Harry Met Sally. There is something so iconic about the movie that no matter how many times I’ve watched it I find new things to love (and yes, even hate) about it. Imagine my surprise and delight when I started reading People We Meet on Vacation and discovering that it is in fact a homage to my favorite movie. Y’all, it is wonderful, will make you feel all the feels, and guaranteed to leave you smiling. Emily Henry is now on my auto-buy list!

When the book opens, it’s been two years since Poppy Wright has taken her annual summer vacation with her best friend Alex, and she is miserable. Not exactly the best mood for a travel writer and blogger to be in. She desperately wants to fix things between them and be how they were, just Poppy and Alex. She feels lost without him. He is her other half, her best friend and she has to fix them.

I love Poppy. She is so easy to root for. Told entirely from her perspective, the story unfolds in flashes of present and past summers. From their first horrible meeting to their awkward reunion, my heart ached for her. I wanted her to find the happiness she was looking for, even when she was clearly looking in all the wrong places.

Alex is amazing. He is kind, empathetic, a bit neurotic (but aren’t we all), and above all clearly loves Poppy. She means as much to him as he does her. I love seeing him through her eyes. It made it so easy to see why she loves him, why their friendship works, and above all why she needs to fix it. Poppy made me miss Alex, and he’s not even a real person!

Overall, I absolutely loved People We Meet on Vacation. From the first page to the last (and y’all I even read the little book club questions and extras at the end, I rarely do that!), I was fully invested in Poppy and Alex. The alternating timeline chapters really added depth to their relationship and kept the story moving forward. It was all heading to the last vacation they spent together and how it brings them to now. I love how Emily Henry wraps the story. The finish is just as satisfying as the entire book itself….and now I’m gushing so I’ll stop