Emily Henry

From the#1New York Times bestselling author ofBook Lovers andBeach Read comesa sparkling novel that will leave you with the warm, hazy afterglow usually reserved for the best vacations.

Two best friends. Ten summer trips. One last chance to fall in love.

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?

People We Meet On Vacation

You and Me on Vacation

Stas

Why do all guys want girls who look like they're carved out of Soap?» «What are you talking about?» Alex says. I mean, you had no interest in all those cool, sexy girls and then you see this wannabe kindergarten teacher and she's the first person you even consider. It's just... typical.» She's not a kindergarten teacher" he says. «What do you have against this girl?»

And honestly, aside from that, I don't want you to marry her, because she never liked me, and if you marry her.. I trail off before I can start sobbing. If you marry her, I think, I will lose all of you forever. And then, Probably no matter who you marry, I will have to lose you forever. 

Kymora Wang

He pulls out a Sarah Waters novel, which he finishes, then follows with an Augustus Everett book.

In the middle of this (otherwise perfect) studio apartment, there sits one bed. 

OH OH OH🫵🏻🫵🏻🫵🏻🫵🏻😳

its giving the worst girl you will ever meet, if a man has a girl friend who is like this, RUN

Truthfully, I like and/or love nearly everything about my best friend, Alex Nilsen, and I want him to be happy, so even if I've never particularly liked any of his past love interests - and especially didn't care for his ex, Sarah -  I know it's up to me to make sure he doesn't let this most recent heartbreak force him into full hermit status. 

Julia Rutgers

"[ . . . ] You asked me who I was and- it was like the answer came out of nowhere. Sometimes it feels like I didn't even exist before that. Like you invented me."

tiffany 

“Then you thought you were pregnant and it scared me so much I got a fucking vasectomy. And it didn’t even occur to me to ask Sarah what she thought. I just made the appointment, and a few days after, I was walking past this antique store and I saw this ring. An old, yellow-gold art deco thing with a pearl. I saw it and thought, That would be a perfect engagement ring. Maybe I should buy it. And my very next thought after that was, What the fuck am I doing? Not just the ring––which Sarah would’ve hated, by the way––but the vasectomy, all of it. I was doing it all for you, and I know that’s not normal, and it definitely wasn’t fair to her, so I ended things. That day.”

“I didn’t know how to.” It sounds so pathetic. I’m twenty-six years old with a full-time job and health insurance, and an apartment and student loan bills, and I live alone in New York City, but there are just some things you don’t want to have to do on your own.

“It’s okay,” Alex says, pulling me gently into him. “Let’s get you back in bed and see if we can get rid of the fever.”

“I have to pee,” I say tearfully, then admit, “I may have already peed myself.”

“Okay,” he says. “Go pee. I’ll find you some clean clothes.”

“We have to stand so close I have to tip my head all the way back to see him at all. He brushes my hair from my eyes and cups the back of my neck, as if to stabilize it. “I’m sorry for being so tall,” he says over the metal music thrumming through the bar.

“I’m sorry for being so short,” I say.

“I like you short,” he says. “Never apologize for being short.”

“I’m fairly sure Alex does not want to sleep on the ground, but he takes one look at me and must see how into this idea I am—this is exactly the kind of spur-of-the-moment, out-of-nowhere surprise turn I’ve been hoping this trip would take—because he lets out an almost imperceptible sigh, then turns back to Buck with a fixed smile. “Yeah. That’d be great. Thanks.”

“ON VACATION, YOU can be anyone you want.

Like a good book or an incredible outfit, being on vacation transports you into another version of yourself.

In your day-to-day life, maybe you can’t even bob your head to the radio without being embarrassed, but on the right twinkly-light-strung patio, with the right steel drum band, you’ll find yourself whirling and twirling with the best of them.

On vacation, your hair changes. The water is different, maybe the shampoo. Maybe you don’t bother to wash your hair at all, or brush it, because the salty ocean water curls it up in a way you love. You think, Maybe I could do this at home too. Maybe I could be this person who doesn’t brush her hair, who doesn’t mind being sweaty or having sand in all her crevices.

On vacation, you strike up conversations with strangers, and forget that there are any stakes. If it turns out impossibly awkward, who cares? You’ll never see them again!

You’re whoever you want to be. You can do whatever you want.”

Hana 

🫶🏼

"When I look back up at him, he's beaming at me, and I think I love you more now than I ever have. How is it possible that this keeps happening with him?"

Christina Farkona

Tomorrow we will love each other a little more, and the next day, and the next day.

And even on those days when one or both of us is having a hard time, we’ll be here, where we are completely known, completely accepted, by the person whose every side we love wholeheartedly. I’m here with all the versions of him I’ve met over twelve years of vacations, and even if the point of life isn’t just being happy, right now, I am. Down to the bones.

He sniffs through a laugh, cups my jaw in his hands, and presses his forehead against mine, his eyes closing as his breath syncs with mine, our chests rising and falling like we’re two waves in the same body of water. “I never want to live without this,” he whispers, and I knot my fists into his shirt as if to keep him from slipping through my fingers.

The corners of his mouth twist as he breathes out, “

His eyes slit open, and the flutter in my chest is so strong it almost hurts. I love him so much. I love him more than I did yesterday, and I already know tomorrow I’ll love him even more, because every piece of him he gives me is another to fall in love with.

“I like it there, and I think you would too, but you asked me what I’d be willing to give up for you, and now I know the answer is: everything. There’s nothing in this whole world that I’ve built in my head that I’m not prepared to let go of to build a new one with you.”

“You’re not a vacation, and you’re not the answer to my career crisis, but when I’m in a crisis or I’m sick or I’m sad, you’re the only thing I want. And when I’m happy, you make me so much happier. I still have a lot to figure out, but the one thing I know is, wherever you are, that’s where I belong. I’ll never belong anywhere like I belong with you. No matter what I’m feeling, I want you next to me. You’re home to me, Alex. And I think I’m that for you too.”

I thought I had to run hundreds of miles away from here to find some place to belong. I spent my whole life thinking anyone outside my family who got too close, saw too much, wouldn’t want me anymore. The safest thing was those quick, serendipitous moments with strangers. That’s all I thought I could have.

“But most of us are too scared to even ask what we want, in case we can’t have it.”

, not away. My only hope for figuring this out is to stay, sit in the discomfort.

Living, being responsible for myself, seems like an insurmountable challenge lately.

I always knew there was a reason we kept a boundary up. We’d let our libidos get the best of us and now he couldn’t even look at me, text me back.

Ten years of friendship flushed down the drain just so I could know what Alex Nilsen tastes like.

For the first time in my life, the airport strikes me as the loneliest place in the world.

All those people, parting ways, going off in their own directions, crossing paths with hundreds of people but never connecting.

Eva Ströberg

All the other reviews convinced me that this wasn’t some chick lit book, and that’s why I picked it up.

You know what? It is just some chick lit book and I spent half of the reading time wondering when the interesting story would pick up, and felt deflated because it didn’t for the next half of my reading time

Poppy and Alex, such difficult romance. Such complicated relationship, that was probably only valid if they were in highschool and fuelled by teen angst.

But no, Poppy and Alex are two grown ups who couldn’t admit to themselves what they wanted.

And I lost respect to Poppy and the author once she confused Austria with Australia. Say what?? Amateur. 

If only I could give zero star, I would

Jennifer Gosnell

Loveddd this book. Really cute. I love a travel romance! Definitely felt some frustration with the characters at points — but it was because I was invested! Love them both, really love all her books.

steph

'A gorgeous romance' BETH O'LEARY 'The perfect getaway' JODI PICOULT TWO FRIENDS TEN SUMMER TRIPS THEIR LAST CHANCE TO FALL IN LOVE 12 SUMMERS AGO: Poppy and Alex meet. They hate each other, and are pretty confident they'll never speak again. 11 SUMMERS AGO: They're forced to share a ride home from college and by the end of it a friendship is formed. And a pact: every year, one vacation together. 10 SUMMERS AGO: Alex discovers his fear of flying on the way to Vancouver. Poppy holds his hand the whole way. 7 SUMMERS AGO: They get far too drunk and narrowly avoid getting matching tattoos in New Orleans. 2 SUMMERS AGO: It all goes wrong. THIS SUMMER: Poppy asks Alex to join her on one last trip. A trip that will determine the rest of their lives. You and Me on Vacation is a love story for fans of When Harry Met Sally and One Day. Get ready to travel the world, snort with laughter and - most of all - lose your heart to Poppy and Alex. **PREORDER NOW** ------------------------------------------------------------ WHAT PEOPLE ARE SAYING ABOUT EMILY HENRY 'The hottest book of the summer - the pages simply sizzle!' JOSIE SILVER 'Full of banter, heat, and sexual tension. A gorgeous page-turner of a novel' LAURA JANE WILLIAMS 'Full of sexual tension and tantalizing possibility. I fell head over heels for Alex and Poppy, and loved travelling all over the world with them both' BETH O'LEARY 'Emily Henry is my newest automatic-buy author . . . a heartfelt, funny, tender escape that you wish could last forever' JODI PICOULT 'A compulsively readable book full of sparkling wit, dazzling prose and a romance that grabbed me by the heart and wouldn't let me go. Absolutely my favourite read of the year, and probably one of my favourite books of all time' ABBY JIMENEZ 'Funny, and seriously sizzling' BEST 'Original, sparkling bright and layered with feeling. If whipcrack banter and foggy sexual tension is your catnip, you'll adore this book' SALLY THORNE 'What an absolute flipping triumph of a novel!!! I LOVED it ' EMMA COOPER

Sajiya Chaudhary

Before buying it, I read a sample and the prologue was so good, I bought the book instantly and devoured it in a day. I mean i am going to go back to it again, definitely, but this first read was just too good! I laughed out loud so many times, i loved Poppy's character and related a lot to both Alex and Poppy, and the kind of dynamics they have! 
It's relatable and very very real, also the millenial problems they have. It is a very relevant book, especially now when people are analysing their life, work and assessing their choices, at least I am. It comes at a perfect time, and I am so glad I read it.

"What happens when best friends with nothing in common come together, fall apart, and fall in love? The Vacationers meets When Harry Met Sally..., from the author of Beach Read When Poppy met Alex, there was no spark, no chemistry, and no reason to thinkthey'd ever talk again. Alex is quiet, studious, and destined for a future in academia. Poppy is a wild child who only came to U of Chicago to escape small-town life. But after sharing a ride home for the summer, the two form a surprising friendship. After all, who better to confide in than someone you could never, ever date? Over the years, Alex and Poppy's lives take them in different directions, but every summer the two find their way back to each other for a magical weeklong vacation. Until one trip goes awry, and in the fallout, they lose touch. Now, two years later, Poppy's in a rut. Her dream job, her relationships, her life--none of it is making her happy. In fact, the last time she remembers feeling truly happy was on that final, ill-fated SummerTrip. The answer to all her problems is obvious: She needs one last vacation to win back her best friend. As a hilariously disastrous week unfolds and tensions rise, Poppy and Alex are forced to confront what drove them apart--and decide what they're willing to risk for the chance to be together"--

People We Meet on Vacation

Rebecca Hurd

LOVED!! Super cute story, makes me want to go on a vacation!! Enjoyed reading about all the vacations that they took while also seeing where they were in present time!!

Kath

3.5 ⭐️
I like that this book is just so light—a great story to be lost in while riding a bus home from work. There's a lot of scenes where I can totally relate; feeling some kind of professional burnout is a real thing. One day, you'll wake up and not know what to do anymore than stare blankly at the screen of your laptop, not being able to move a limb because you don't think you still want your job, but you can't do anything because it pays the bills. As much as I don't want to experience that "millennial ennui," there's not much that I can do as long as I haven't figured out my life yet; this is how I relate my own story to Poppy's.

As much as I like Alex's personality—he's a standard, really—I feel like the characters could've decided better on what to do with their feelings because it is sooo obvious that they are obsessed with each other. There were moments as well when I felt like some flashback stories were just too long. Other than that, I love hearing about these kinds of friends-turned-lovers stories. I also love their spontaneity during their trips, and I hope I can be as comfortable with anonymity as them.

I'll leave this question to myself:
Since when did we stop being kids?

Kiran Aftab

i think poppy is a sagittarius unfortunately 
-a sagittarius 

the ending was cute though

༺ kat ༻

"From the New York Times bestselling author of Beach Read, a sparkling new novel that will leave you with the warm, hazy afterglow usually reserved for the best vacations. 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?"--

Very very very much not my book. A let down for sure from her others, but 🤷‍♀️

Kerry McHugh West

Annalissa Powner 

Insanely boring book I did not even bother to finish. Stopped at 30%. Poppy has her head in her ass. 

gishelle

Liyah 🤎

Overall a cute concept. I liked the little nugget about happiness coming from pursuing your purpose not just having it. Wasn’t the point of the book but was a cute tidbit. Love friends to lovers. Felt like the book could’ve done more to develop that Poppy travels b/c she’s insecure and lonely because she was bullied. It feels like that sort of came out of left field. I like that the third act breakup was less of a break up (because they werent really together) and more of a come to jesus moment. That was really refreshing and made sense plot wise and with the characters. I loved how it was told nonlinearly as well really fun touch.

Tsamarah

I must say that I like finishing the book more than actually reading the book (does that make sense?) The first half was slow and I was quite scared I'll end up not liking this book, but the second half was SO. FUCKING. GOOD. Henry knows how to build tension and I just love how real the characters are. I love that her books aren't trying to overachieve or create unnecessary drama or character arc. Everything is just so well put and written. 

And as many of us like to do; comparing PWMoV and Beach Read; I definitely like Beach Read better, but that's just a preference because I like the enemies-to-lovers trope better than friends-to-lovers, nevertheless, I still enjoy this book. I will definitely re-read this while I'm on a vacation.

It was a fun and sweet read, exactly what I expected from an Emily Henry book.

I read some part of it on my vacation in Croatia, which was a fun coincidence.

Yega

It was a fun and sweet read, exactly what I expected from an Emily Henry book.

I read some part of it on my vacation in Croatia, which was a fun coincidence.

THE #1 NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER! Named a Most Anticipated Book of 2021 by Newsweek ∙ Oprah Magazine ∙ Marie Claire ∙ Parade ∙ PopSugar ∙ BookPage ∙ BookBub ∙ Betches ∙ SheReads ∙ Good Housekeeping ∙ BuzzFeed ∙ and more! Two best friends. Ten summer trips. One last chance to fall in love. From the bestselling author of Beach Read comes a sparkling new novel that will leave you with the warm, hazy afterglow usually reserved for the best vacations. 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?

Bria

3.5 rounded up

This book started off so slow to me, but I grew to like it. I love second chance romances, so that definitely helped.

Poppy and Alex are soulmates but not the typical love of my life soulmate. They’re definitely karmic soul mates. They come in and out of each other’s lives and wreck things. Let’s not pretend that Alex didn’t do anything wrong either because he is a grown man. He can learn how to communicate just as Poppy learned how to better deal with her feelings for him.

The ending is cute, but like Alex, I can’t help but think they’re gonna fall apart a year after the book ends unless they both consistently work on themselves.

I didn't really like it like I thought I would, but the ending was amazing

4.5 stars.

This was such a fun read!

I picked it up because I liked Beach Read and wanted to read more by the author, but imagine my surprise when I started reading and it's far better than Beach Read. I even had to buy a physical copy because of how much I was enjoying the book.

In my opinion, friendships are the hardest relationships to write about, and she nailed it. This remind me of the dynamic that me and friends have (without the sexual tension) and found myself laughing with the inside jokes these two had. This was my favourite part and what made me like this book so much.

It's what it promises, a friends-to-lovers summer read. It's cute, funny and feels real. Like, I felt that the characters were friends, I felt the awkward moments, the tension. The only downside I have is that I felt that the final was rushed, that the book needed to be finished and she did it. Suddlenly they were a couple and everything was ok, the end. I wished it showed more of the change in the relationship, how the dynamic was different between them. I don't know, I felt kind of dissapointed, like we know that they are going to get together at the end so give me something that keeps my interest till the last page.

Also didn't like the whole "I faked to not remember the details of our vacations together because I felt ashamed of how obsessed I am with you" Like???? I saw it coming from page 1 and the scenarios where it was shown didn't make sense, saying that you like architecture is not going to make her belive that you are in love with her, Alex.

In any case, this was the fun light read that I was looking for.

arwen

THEY GOT ME (probably more a 4.5/5 than a 4/5)

Hanna Rybchynska

4.5 stars
This was so cute and amazing! 
However, friends-to-lovers is not my favourite troupe.

Chloé

ingrid 

for a sec I thought she was gonna move back to Linfield and got real scared 
she ended up with my dream job in NYC tho solid 4 stars

1.75/5


took me around 2 months to actually finish this and i had to force myself

update: definitely better the second time around

original review (2 stars): this was really slow-paced to the point where it was frustrating when it shifted from present day to a series of past summer vacations. overall, it was fun, but not one i would read again.

People We Meet On Vacation

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