People We Meet on Vacation
Ratings622
Average rating3.8
Definitely not my cup of tea. I hadn't believed in this relationship for one second.
One of the most frustrating books I've ever read. Really puts the ‘slow' in slow burn. But it was nice to feel all romance-y
I try not to meet anyone on vacation. I lugged around a boring lunk on vacations for far too long. Now I can go and actually SEE the place. This was a fluff piece and an easy read. I really dislike romance novels dressed up by sales sites as something else. I learned exactly nothing from this book.
Contains spoilers
This was my first Emily Henry book, and I can say overall it was a cute but easily forgettable story. I spent a majority of the story wondering what the heck happened in Croatia, and how does someone just plan a trip with someone they haven’t spoken with in two years.
Poppy and Alex meet during a freshman social in college, and they do not hit it off at all. Fast-forward to the end of their first year, and they end up sharing a ride to their mutual hometown in Ohio. This not only takes opposites attract to a whole new level, but the fact that Poppy hates their hometown and he loves it adds another obstacle for their relationship. The structure of the story is not hard to follow, but there are so many elements in this story that distract us from the romance that should be building.
While the writing structure itself was good, I just felt like so much was lacking in their relationship to make the jump from friends to lovers believable. It’s not to say it isn’t probability, but I would've much preferred to see their story as opposed to the interactions with the people they met on vacations. I will eventually try another Emily Henry, since I did really enjoy the parts that focused on Poppy and Alex’s interactions, but I was left wanting with this one.
Originally posted at youtu.be.
Contains spoilers
"It's possible that all these little moments that meant so much to me never meant quite the same thing to him."
This is me, trying very hard to keep an open mind, about a genre I don't normally read. I love that this genre exists for people, because I earnestly believe that there's a book out there for everyone, I just never connected well with romances in general. Maybe I'm too much of a realist.
I'll start with what I liked, because there are good things here for people who enjoy the genre. I loved the early days of Poppy/Alex's friendship, maybe because I can identify with that part. Just two awkward college students exploring a maybe friendship and being along for the ride as it slowly morphs into something more (in their heads). I thought that was done well, realistically, believably. I also did like how the author managed to build up some feelings about how things end up. I wasn't totally in love with the back-and-forth in time format of the story, but it did keep me reading to figure out A) what happened in Croatia (spoiler alert: not as much as I was expecting), and B) how they managed to resolve things.
Poppy started out endearing with how over-the-top she is in basically everything, but as the book went on, it started to become a bit much. I especially thought it was unnecessary after (late book spoilers)Alex and Poppy finally start being honest with each other about their feelings. Rather than confront things head on, Poppy makes jokes, deflects, and flails about to avoid being direct and honestly exploring her feelings. She seems a bit needy in both attention and affection, and that seems like a poor match for Alex.
I also have never seen two people who claim to be such good friends be so entirely unable to communicate with one another. Jokes, lighthearted conversation, anything superficial is fine, but having an honest, direct, deep conversation about the two of them seems entirely beyond them. Had they just said what needed to be said 8 years ago, they wouldn't be pining after each other for so long. Plot built on miscommunication/noncommunication drives me up a particular wall, so I admit this is maybe a personal hangup.
Finally, while I did like how the author portrayed Poppy and Alex, I didn't feel like enough of the story was actually dedicated to them. Instead, we get lots of short chapters with short, choppy sentences about the places they go together, but nothing that really shows their relationship developing at all. We just have to trust it happens at some point, based on the This Summer story happening concurrently with the flashbacks. Show, don't tell.
I promise I love my husband and am not anti-love/romance. But I just couldn't get into this one.
Didn't love how it started. Hate seeing self sabotage. Good smut though and was happy by the end.
lol the fact that she literally finished watching When Harry Met Sally and started typing is so real of her 3.7
In a couple of her books, Emily Henry writes this really specific flavor of character who just kind of lets life happen to them and doesn’t seem to have much agency or oomph. Alex is a sweetie, but he is that person. I ultimately was so frustrated by the way these two just kind of floated around each other for a decade, never being honest with themselves or each other.
I also don’t prefer books that flip back and forth between past and present for the duration of the book. To me, it makes both timelines move too slowly.
Contains spoilers
Rating Description:
1.0 - DNF/Despise
1.5 - Almost DNFed and wish I had
2.0 - Almost DNFed but had redeeming qualities/just boring
2.5 - Alright with lots of notes
3.0 - Alright with notes but I'm not raving about it
3.5 - Technically good but I'm not raving about it
4.0 - Technically good, and/or I enjoyed it a lot
4.5 - Loved it, I wanted to highlight lines in the book but still with notes
5.0 - Loved it, I wanted to highlight lines in the book, and notes are very positive
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I was really stressed during the time I was reading this but couldn’t take my sweet time to read it because it was due to be returned to the library in just 2 weeks. I supplemented my reading with text – to – speech to finish it because I was too tired to “read” it. Given the circumstances, my rating of this book could go up or down later after I do a re-read.
This was the 2nd Emily Henry I’ve read and I can’t help but compare them. Overall, this was a better read than Book Lovers. Here, it’s more believable that they fell in love with each other.
1. The characters of Poppy and Alex were more fleshed out so we could see what about them made the other person fall in love with them.
2. Their affection for each other was cultivated through years. It wasn’t something that happened suddenly.
But despite the fact that this story avoided what I consider the major flaws in Book Lovers, I still felt like something was missing. That, while I could see them falling in love, I felt like it was wrong for them to get together that quickly after such a big conflict. The conflict being, Poppy basically asking Alex to perform boyfriend duties when he wasn’t her boyfriend, causing problems in Alex’s own relationship because he failed to set boundaries with Poppy.
There was so much time spent telling us about the different vacations they went to. Which was ok because it laid the groundwork for their bond. But I would have loved it if the story showed us how they repaired their relationship after Poppy made the grand gesture of coming back to her old high school and professing her love for Alex. I wanted to see what happened immediately after that. But what we got was them months later, happily living in New York. It seemed too convenient and I felt robbed of the angst I was looking for in this book.
I'm so sad that this book got over. this was so good. The story was funny, heartfelt and relatable. I wish I could read it for the first time all over again.
“People We Meet on Vacation” might not be flawless, but it's undoubtedly the best romance I've ever experienced.
LOVED this. Loved it! Cute premise, loved the energy between the two mains, and realized that the thing Emily Henry is best at is writing about longing. I could have used a bit more balance between the neuroses of the main characters (at times Poppy was a bit much!), but that's a minor complaint and overall this was a great summer read.
It was fun! Definitely different then her other books. Sometimes it got a little hard to follow. Still amazing!
I give this one 3.5
I loved a lot about this book, with the main thing being the characters. This is very character driven book not so much about the plot. Even tho the anticipation of know what happen in Croatia was building like the best tension I've ever read to leave me like... meh. I can't believe after all that back and forth that's the only thing that had happened...
but I have to be honest—I think it could've wrapped up around chapter 32. That would've been such a dramatic ending, leaving me sprinting to know more! After that, I didn't really know where the book was headed. Chapters 33-36 felt like they dragged a bit and could've been condensed into a bomb epilogue instead.
Overall, it was a solid read with some great moments in between the characters. The banter was top tier in my eyes, but it lost a bit of its momentum towards the end.
I genuinely like Henry's books, so nice to read to get out of a slump.
Listened to the audio version of this but should stick to just reading the actual book, it's so much nicer
Maybe friends to lovers is not my favorite trope. I did like both Alex and Poppy and the slow crawl to their romance was entertaining, but it just felt to me that there was no real spark.
Um, I really did not expect to like this book. Yet here I am, boohoo crying.
I don't usually immediately review books. I usually let them sit in my brain for a couple days. I broke that rule with this one. I LOVED this book. I don't really gravitate towards romance novels, I'm more of a dark and twisty reader, but this one was so good. The character were so relatable for me and the story was so beautifully woven together.
I wasn't ready for this AT ALL
I really didn't like beach read, very cliché but it was a year ago so I gave a shot to this one and omg I don't regret my choice
the problematic of the two mc hits me right in the middle of my heart, alex is me, I'm alex
AND it's important to say that I don't like romance like I used to, I almost never gave a romance 5 stars but... here we are friends !!
Nie jest to najgorsza książka, jaką przeczytałam w tym roku – palmę pierwszeństwa w tej kategorii dzierży dumnie self-insertowy fanfik nieudolnie przerobiony na książkę, czyli koszmarek autorstwa Olivii Dade – ani nawet druga czy trzecia najgorsza książka, jaką przeczytałam w tym roku – patrzę na was, „Pumpik Spice Cafe” i „The Ex Hex” – ale po Emily Henry spodziewałam się chociaż poprawnej konstrukcji bohaterów i języka, od którego nie bolą zęby. A tu mnie bolały i nie była to kwestia tłumaczenia.
