But your want-me-back eyes, get-me-back smile: HAPPY PLACE.

Happy Place by Emily Henry
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

Harriet is headed back to her favorite place in the world, a Maine cottage belonging to her college friend Sabrina. She's spent over a decade returning to this beloved place with her college pals. But now she's back at the cottage with her fiance, Wyn. Sounds great, right? The only problem... Wyn and Harriet broke up six months ago--and haven't told their best friends yet.

I have loved many Emily Henry books and while I liked pieces of this one, it was not my favorite. Sacrilege, I know! I did not care for present-day Wyn or Harriet much at all. Honestly I did not like most of the characters. It seemed like Henry dropped in our token lesbians, Cleo and Kimmie, who were the only sane ones. How did these people last so long as friends? All they did was drink, fight, and not communicate with one another. Basically all the issues in the book could have been avoided if they just talked! And Harriet--all she did was whine, whine, whine. I wanted to shake some sense into her.

Our story is told in present-day sections and then flips to the past, as Harriet and Wyn meet and fall in love. I enjoyed those pieces and always felt annoyed when we came back to the bickering present. Sure, there were sexy moments and the lingering wanting between Harriet and Wyn was beautifully tense at times, but mostly they were frustrating.

I wanted Kimmie and Cleo to leave the rest of these folks in the dust and head back to their lovely farm. Still, there were sections of the book I liked, so 2.5 stars, rounded to 3 here.


View all my reviews