I loved this so much, so beautifully written and I just fell in love with the characters. It made me laugh and it made me cry but most beautifully of all, it allowed me to travel which, in COVID times, is not to be sniffed at! Amazing.

I finished a few days ago but i had to take a few days to recover lol. This was the perfect contemporary romance to me and I have read quite a few.

I really enjoyed this whole story and loved that the characters actually felt real and had real world problems

We get the whole story here from how they met and became friends to the vacations they took together throughout the years right up to the now when they are on their one last vacation for old times sake.

This book took me on a complete rollercoaster ride of emotions its funny, sad heartbreaking... it is so well written and so immersive.I just want more!!

Last year, I read and really enjoyed Beach Read by Emily Henry (despite me feeling like it was not truly a romance), so I was really excited to read Henry’s next release. People We Meet on Vacation (or Me and You on Vacation, as it is being released in the UK, for some bizarre reason) has a great friends-to-lovers romance, but it’s NOT a great friends-to-lovers romance book. Let’s discuss.

First of all, I think that the actual romance between Poppy and Alex is amazing, and there’s a lot of great tension there. Poppy and Alex were best friends, but they got in a fight, and are now on a trip together to try and patch up their relationship. This is a fantastic setup for excruciating angst and Henry does deliver on that part. Unfortunately, the author also decided to bog down the romance and bury it deep under unnecessary and dull stuff.

I hate to inform you that Poppy is a travel blogger, and not only do I personally find travel bloggers annoying and borderline offensive, I just think that it was a particularly poor execution. The story is so overburdened with descriptions of travels and places, but one that reads like it was largely inspired by Wikipedia. It is so vapid and devoid of any sort of real exploration of the place, and it feel very much like the stereotypical tourist trying to be CULTURED by going to PARIS. There’s always a note of privilege to it that I just find irritating. I think Poppy’s wanderlust and general descriptions of travel read so disingenuously. Moreover, while I do enjoy the stoic, bookworm, introverted guy meets quirky, FUN girl trope, I just think that it’s a slippery slope to writing a terribly frustrating character archetypes, which is exactly what happened here. Poppy is supposed to be this different, free-spirited, spunky gal, but we never really get to see that, we just keep getting told that’s how she is. There’s also a scene that read so “stuck in 2010s” where Poppy is feeling insecure about “other girls” on social media and Alex says to her something along the lines of they’re not real, but you are. It was also framed as this MOMENT, when in fact it was just stupid.

One other thing that I think was a huge detriment to the story is that we do not know exactly why they got into a fight until the very end. This made the pace of the novel too slow, and it was detrimental to actual emotional connection to the story because it was so dragged out. Instead of catching the reader up, we had to suffer through terrible descriptions of their past travels, that were maybe 20 percent their interactions (which were GREAT!! that’s so frustrating!!) and 80 percent vapid descriptions of travel that were uncandid and boring.

To Sum Up
Overall, a great romance buried under piles of NO THANK YOU for me. I do see people enjoying this one, but I am not one of those people and I think there are much better friends to lovers romances out there (but they are not traditionally published and packaged into some sort of women’s fiction thing but that’s neither here nor there).

*I received both an ebook and audio copy of this book and this is a review duplicated from the feedback I submitted from the audio version.

Thank you to NetGalley and Penguin Random House UK Audio for an advance reader copy in exchange for an honest review.

Emily Henry strikes again with another fantastic contemporary romance read following the success of her debut adult novel 'Beach Read' which absolutely soared through the book community in 2020, receiving numerous rave reviews.

I honestly have to say, in my opinion 'You and Me on Vacation' eclipsed 'Beach Read' by a mile. I loved the characters of Poppy and Alex and it was lovely to see these characters develop. Something that Emily Henry does so well is blending two different timelines to see the past and present of the relationships between the two characters.

I really liked that not everything was 100% fluffy and romantic in this book, we saw negatives to the characters, mistakes they'd made and also their hardships which made the whole novel feel 1000000x more real and believable as a whole.

Julia Whelan was the perfect narrator for this book, making the whole experience more immersive and enjoyable which really compliments how talented of a writer Emily Henry is and I'll be keen to see what she does next.

I really enjoyed this book, it was light and easy with the classic romance you'd love to read by the pool somewhere sunny. The characters are well built, and the structure of the book allows you to really understand the decisions they make and why - excellent character development.

I'd recommend this to anyone looking for their next holiday read!

Thank you Netgalley for the eARC of this book.

Alex and Poppy are two very different people who met in college and somehow became best friends. They take yearly vacations together until two summers ago. The story is told from Poppy's POV and alternates between the present summer and their past summers together.

I initially struggled with this. It just seemed like Poppy was overcompensating and Alex had no personality whatsoever but as the book progresses, Emily does a great job developing these characters and their friendship that at the end of the book, you can't help but love and feel every single emotion with them.

I loved how vulnerable Poppy was even though I was scared for her, I saw the strength in it. This book is fun, the banter is great, the chemistry was amazing, the style of writing is just right and the ending was perfect.

' and even on 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.'

What an absolutely wonderful book! Reading about travel (sigh) and a romance that felt real and true--and wow, can Emily Henry write dialogue! I've loved her writing since her YA novels, but moving to smart, funny and sizzling chemistry romances has been a gift for us all. I know I'm preaching to the choir, but People We Meet On Vacation is a well-written and wonderful tale of love, friendship, and everything between. This will be the beach/virtual beach read of the summer for sure!

Thank you NetGalley and the Penguin UK for this ARC in exchange for an honest review 

I am in love .
This book is an utter perfection.My cheeks were hurting from smiling.Every single thing ,from characters,writing to setting is a 5/5 for me.
If you liked Beach read you will absolutely love this book.perfect amount of funny,angst,fluff and romance.I wish I could read it again for the first time.
Book withdrawal in 3,2,1...
My favourite read of 2021.I am looking forward to her future books!
Go ahead and order a copy I promise you won't regret it!

Loved this book. True twist on the When Harry met Sally idea Alex and Poppy are truly best friends who just happen to vacation together every year and confide in each other all their hopes and dreams. When life starts to work out the way both of them wish they find themselves wondering whether what they wanted was right for them after all. Funny, charming, beautifully written and in a tome where travel is so limited a wonderful reminder of the joys of travel whether in luxury or on a budget!

Poppy and Alex have great chemistry which is something Emily Henry can write damn well. I enjoyed how the story kept alternating between the summers of their past and their present. Both the timelines are told from Poppy’s perspective which irked me somewhat and I would have loved to see what was going on inside Alex’s mind. Overall, I much preferred Beach Read than this book but it was a fun friends-to-lovers romance where we see two people who refused to see that they both love each other romantically. In the end, all is well.

Thanks to Netgalley and the publisher for the eARC in exchange for my honest opinion.

Can you guess how this lovely tale will end? Oh yes but do you love the journey there anyway? Absolutely. This book romps through different summer breaks that a couple of strangers who then become best friends take over ten years. Not only do we get to see their friendship develop in what pleasantly seems like real time, there is also the contrast with the last vacation where the pair are a bit stilted and trying to rekindle their friendship after a hiccup. The hiccup is slowly exposed as the book continues and you laugh and cry with Poppy and Alex as they work out whether their stark differences mean they have a future as lovers, best friends or just nothing at all.

This is a great book. You follow the lives of Poppy and Alex over the course of a decade and more whilst they navigate their friendship and they romantic relationships with other people. Along the way we get to visit wonderful places that they go too on holiday every summer, and laugh when Poppy gets drunk and says too many wine.

Great read, i really enjoyed it.

I loved the dateline of their summer trips and was willing these friends into romance. I knew they would but was wondering how?. I wasn’t disappointed! Well worth reading

Last year I was completely smitten with Beach Read, so when I was offered a widget for Emily Henry's latest rom-com I was beyond myself with giddiness. I had just started it and I was already of finishing too fast and didn't want to rush it. Also, I had exams to study for, so I definitely had to slow down. I'm not sure I loved it as much as Beach Read, and I want to re-read it to better savor it, but I loved it nonetheless. Poppy and Alex were adorable, their friendship and chemistry was off the charts, the kind of chemistry which burns and melts, and their relationship, both as friends and as lovers, was just so genuine and real that I could almost touch it. I love how Emily writes her characters, they're stubborn and flawed as any of us, and they're beautiful souls. Towards the end I grew a little frustrated with their decisions and at one point I was sincerely afraid things were about to go horribly wrong and for all the wrong reasons. They broke each other's hearts and went scarily near to ruin it all, but the ending was extremely satisfying and I was grateful for it and the overall beautiful read. I honestly couldn't love Emily's writing more, she's an amazing writer and writes the best kind of stories, so full of heart they make you truly ache for the characters, and I can't wait to read everything she'll put out next. Thank you Penguin General UK for the opportunity to read this wonderful book early and to the author for writing it in the first place. Highly recommended!

I was so excited to be approved to read this as I loved Beach Read when I read that and this book definitely lived up to my expectations! I absolutely loved this book and I knew it was going to be a 5 star read for me before I was even half way!

There was so many elements to this story that I loved:

∙Friends to lovers/second chance romance.
∙The way the story was told through a mixture of being in the now and flashbacks looking at what happened on previous vacations, building up to the vacation 2 years ago where it all went wrong.
∙Poppy and Alex! I absolutely adored both of these characters, I loved their chemistry and how you saw their friendship develop from when they first met all the way to how they are with each other at the end. It was done really well and I loved seeing how Poppy had been falling for Alex for years and brushing it off because she felt that their relationship didn’t need that kind of complication. I would have loved to have seen how things played out in Alex’s POV but that didn’t take away any of my love of this book!
∙Their relationship felt really natural, nothing seemed forced and I loved that I could tell just how much these two meant to each other.
∙Holiday settings are always so fun to read.

This book made me feel every emotion going! It made me laugh and cry, broke my heart and somehow managed to fix it again and I could not recommend this book more if you like reading romance!

Thanks to NetGalley, Penguin UK, to send me a digital review copy in exchange for an honest review. All opinions are my own.

I am sad that I didn't like it as much as I would like.

The concept of this story hyped me when I read the synopsis, especially that it's about travels at a time that it's difficult to do so. Also, I like that you will see the relationship between Poppy and Alex evolves through those journeys.
However, the execution wasn't for me. I wasn't fond of all the flashbacks that alternate with the present moments; they put me off of what is happening now. I was interested in those past trips at the beginning of the book, but I found that they became redundant at the end and didn't add a lot to the story.
Moreover, Poppy always talks about the trip from two summers ago without telling a lot, so you have a "suspense". Sadly you quickly understand what happened, but the whole story doesn't appear before a long time in the novel.

I liked one element in the book, but Emily Henry is a good author for that, and it's the characters. I like the complexity of them, how they revolve around each other. I am a big fan of the character's backstory, and here I was served. They are profoundly human. Even if I didn't like their behaviours, you want to understand them by knowing more about them and who they truly are. I like that you have complex characters stories intricated to this main story.

I can only advise you to read this book to see if you like it, but I know that many people liked it a lot more than me, so go ahead and see yourself.

I really enjoyed this light-hearted story of Poppy and Alex, and it was well written enough that the “will they fall in love” premise of the book swerved being merely formulaic. Thanks NetGalley!

This book was absolutely incredible. I laughed out loud way too many times to count, and it was adorable! If you like the friends to lovers and there’s only one bed tropes, you will love this book! The writing was perfection and the story was told so well. I loved the two timelines in this book, it kept me on my toes for the entire book. I highly recommend this book, it’s like a warm hug and is the perfect book to read on holiday!

Thank you so much to Penguin and Netgalley for the ARC!

You and Me on Vacation follows Poppy, a travel influencer and journalist who works for a very popular travel magazine. Through her job she has been able to travel to many different places with all expenses paid for and has always done this with her best friend Alex.

We follow Poppy and Alex’s friendship through their present and past summer holidays together. The past holidays are told from 12 summers ago and moves forward from that in every other chapter.

The book is told in Poppy’s POV and therefore, through-out we don’t see how Alex is feeling and just experience this through Poppy’s eyes and how she interprets his feelings. I found it so fun to be following the development of their friendship in the past holidays, whilst reading about the beautiful destinations they visited and the people they met and also reading the present timeline seeing how they were now!

Poppy and Alex were both complete opposites in terms of their personalities, but they worked so well together. I loved the family element from Poppy and Alex too thought this added a lot to understanding why both characters acted how they did. I was completely invested in the pairs story and was 100% rooting for everything to work out for them both.

You and Me on Vacation is such a fun, feel good romance story. I recommend it to anyone looking for a great romance read!

4.5/5 stars

I loved this book! You and Me On Vacation is a contemporary romance/romantic comedy that will make you both laugh and cry.

The narrator is 30 year old Poppy (1st person POV). She is a travel journalist who lives in New York City. She works at one of the top travel magazines.

Poppy met Alex when she was in college. And every Summer they take a trip together.

The book alternates between the past and the present. The present is the main time period. But we get to go back to previous vacations to see how Poppy and Alex ended up where they are now. The past storyline is mostly told from 12 Summers ago moving forward year by year.

I loved this book right from the first chapter. I really liked Poppy's job and her friends. And I was super curious to find out more about the past vacations. Also we find out that something major happened during their last vacation. And I was dying to find out exactly what that was all about.

We don't get Alex's POV. So throughout the book I had no idea what he was thinking or feeling. This definitely added to the drama. I don't normally like past/present storylines. But the past vacations were really interesting.

I really felt like I got to know these two characters over the course of this book. It was amazing to get to know them simply through their vacations. It was definitely an interesting way to tell a story.

The book had some surprises for me. There were definitely things that I was not expecting.

Overall, this story was heartbreaking and emotional and I loved it so much!