Thank you Netgalley for this ARC. This is my first read by this author and I really enjoyed it.
The story alternates between the past summers over the last ten years and the current summer. It’s insinuated at the start that something happened two summers ago and there is a suspense building up through the story to find out what that is!
I love a friendship to lovers story and Alex & Poppy are so cute together!
A great book to get you in the mood for a summer vacation.

I really enjoyed Beach Read, but You and Me on Vacation was even better and was the cause of far too many late nights this week. I rooted for Poppy from the start and thought she was the most brilliant heroine, and the wonderful Alex was her perfect counterpoint. If anything I identify with Alex more than Poppy, but I loved her enthusiasm for exploration and travel - I would love to be like that a little more.

As someone who fell in love with a friend, I thought the narrative walked that balance of 'what if' and not wanting to say or do anything that can't be undone so well. Many years later we're still together and I like to think there's a happy ever after for Poppy and Alex too. I loved this book!

I’m definitely getting more into books like this as I enjoyed it. It made me think of beach read and I definitely feel like I’ll easily be ready for any books that Emily Henry puts out in the future. Some errors did make it a little difficult to read but I still enjoyed the book regardless and I would read again once it’s officially out!

You and Me on Vacation also known as When Harry Met Sally and they went on Vacation, I got this very quickly and imagine my smugness when the author’s note at the end ‘fesses up to exactly that and now all the marketing is centred around it. Smug, smug, smug. Although it’s pretty blatant so I’m not calling myself a genius. Anyway it’s not a bad thing When Harry Met Sally is probably my least favourite Ephron but even my least favourite Ephron is better than most other things, so any novel that bears a passing resemblance is worth a gander.
It’s pretty clear from the beginning that Poppy is absolutely bats about Alex but in that massive river they call denial. As a wise man once said men and women can’t be friends, sex always gets in the way. Poppy and Alex meet in college And over the course of a series of shoestring vacays they build a mega friendship but ‘oh wait’ they both fancy each other rotten and are too damaged to risk it. It takes them ten years, a slight falling out over not very much and a good therapist to sort out all their shit and get over themselves.
It’s not Ephron but it makes a good stab at it. The examination of Poppy’s feelings of Alex are so minute and intense at times it feels super clostraphobic. It’s slightly exhausting and if Poppy weren’t such good company it would be a little tiresome. Alex doesn’t get quite the same attention. He just gets tarred with the repressed white guy brush and goes to therapy. Done.
This is a very sweet story and a good read and everyone gets a good therapist to help them reach self actualisation what more could anyone want.

A completely gorgeous read for when you need a bit of a hug in book form. This book will make you laugh but is also heartwarming in the best way.
This story is character driven and since we see the characters over the course of 12 years, we really come to know and love them. Many of the supporting characters are fabulous too and I adored Poppy's family who reminded me in many ways of my own. There are many will they, won't they moments and at times, you will want to scream at Poppy and Alex but only because you love them!

Have to add, in theses strange times - boy, did this make me yearn for a holiday!!

I really really enjoyed this book. I did love that we got to see Poppy and Alex through the years, as the chapters did go show you holidays from past and present. . It was a lovely easy read and a really good Rom com. Emily Henry just made this book light and fun. Although it was a tear jerker. I’m excited to read beach read if it’s as good as this!!
I marked it down a star as it took me a while to get used to the jumping chapters but loved it overall and would 100% recommend!

I'm sad about this! I was so looking forward to it as I loved Beach Read so much. Unfortunately I didn't find it anywhere near as good. The chapters jumped around a lot, back and forth from present day to past holidays. It was quite jarring and whenever I started to get into present day chapters I would be dragged back out again to a past holiday which didn't always seem to add all that much to the relationship or plot. I also didn't find their relationship particularly convincing and the reason they had stopped talking two years ago was very underwhelming, especially given that it was teased for such a large part of the book. Towards the end of the book it got rather heavy handed and over emotional, with them explaining how they felt to one another and why and I wasn't keen on the quick wrapping up of the epilogue. I'd rather have had that integrated into the book and had far less of the holiday flashbacks so it wasn't so choppy. Also, I don't know what was up with the weird egg cracking analogies, very odd and off-putting. I will pick up her future books still, in the hope of another like Beach Read!

Due for release in May 2021, I was thrilled to be invited by the publishers to read this prior to publication.
Without giving too much away, this is a book where everything seems as if it should go horribly horribly wrong but it works so well.
Our main characters are Poppy and Alex, two very different people, whose first meeting seems as if it will quickly become the kind of meeting that you talk about in years to come with a sense of having escaped something. They are unlike each other in so many ways, and everything one likes the other dislikes. They have little in common - their only shared ground discovered in their first meeting is that they both have an irrational hatred of anyone who calls boats ‘she’. Yet that first meeting sets in place a relationship like no other.
Poppy and Alex spend years on the outskirts of each other’s lives. A remnant of their college years, they spend time each summer on a vacation. Their only stipulation that it should give them the chance to experience something new.
Over the years they’ve had some memorable trips...and we get to catch up with a few of them, learning as we go just what a place these two have for each other.
Alongside learning about their past, we see them in their present. Poppy writing for a travel magazine and based in New York; Alex teaching at his former high school, in the town Poppy couldn’t wait to escape. Still very different, but with a history whose reach is hard to ignore.
It didn’t surprise me to see what happened by the end. That always seemed likely, but it was great to see how they got to this point in their lives.

This was an amazing read - brilliant characters, easy to slip into and difficult to put down. I tore through it in less than a day and I’m definitely going to have a book hangover.

Full of the feels.

Highly recommended.

If you liked "Where Rainbows End" (also known as "Love Rosie") by Cecelia Ahern or "Five Years From Now" by Paige Toon, I'm fairly certain you will love this book.
I love books that explore friendships that are so unique that no one outside of that friendship truly understands it and this book (like the 2 others I mentioned) explores a brilliant friendship between Alex and Poppy.
It takes you on a journey of 12 years, 12 summers, 12 adventures during that time Alex and Poppy explore their amazing friendship and just what "home" means to each of them.

I really enjoyed this book and finished it quite quickly.

One thing I loved at the end of this book was a section called "Behind the Book" which I've never seen in a book before. Emily Henry explains the inspiration behind the book and what she wants you to get out of it, aside from a fantastic story that is. Maybe more authors should do this!

You and me on vacation has been compared to When Harry Met Sally and I guess that's a fair comment. The story first starts 12 years prior, when Alex and Poppy first meet. A year later they become best friends and we follow their journey over the years. The story falls forwards and backwards in time to piece together the tale of these two people and how their friendship evoves.

Thanks to Netgalley and the publisher for providing me with an arc in exchange for an honest review.

4.5 Stars ⭐️

I read and loved Beach Read by this author last year and so I was thrilled to read this book early and I really enjoyed this one as well. Me and You on Vacation follows best friends Poppy and Alex who are complete opposites and yet have great chemistry and are always there for one another. They start going on vacations together, having the best time, until something happens on one of their trips that leaves them on no speaking terms for two years. Poppy misses Alex and wants to reconnect and somehow they end up on another vacation before Alex’s brothers wedding. We switch between two different timelines - present day and back when Alex and Poppy first meet and start going on trips together.

This is your classic friends to lovers trope and I want to say that Alex and Poppy alone are a full five stars. Their connection felt real and believable and their relationship is so complicated but I was rooting for them both the entire time. I feel like they are characters and a couple that I won’t forget anytime soon.

The reason I didn’t give this book a full five stars was because of tue dual timelines. Whilst I think this was absolutely necessary to really get to know these characters and their history, one minute I am reading a scene from the present and I was never quite ready to switch back to the past scene and then I would get invested in that scene and then we would switch again. Overall I loved this book and would highly recommend.

A well written book about two people friend-zoning each other even thought it’s clear from page one where this is going. Very weak plot. I do enjoyed Emily Henry’s sense of humour, I just wish she came up with something more sophisticated.

Honestly, too predictable.

Appreciate that some more important topics were touched upon: family trauma, millennial burnout (even if rather briefly).

Also, correct me if I’m wrong, but did Poppy mentions that she only showers 3-4 times a week? (And it was not one of the jokes!)

I read Beach Read last year and loved it so I was very excited for this new story. And it absolutely did not disappoint. This book featured some of my favourite tropes - friends to 'enemies' to lovers, there's only one bed, mutual pining - plus there's some rom-com worthy banter. Poppy and Alex's relationship is what makes this book. They are both so sweet with each other and I loved the exploration of their individual issues and how they together resolved them. I also liked the jumping between the present and past; it made it a lot harder to put down. Overall, a fantastic read and one I'm sure I will re-vist in the future.

I was very excited to read this after having loved Beach Read by Emily Henry, and I was not at all disappointed by this book. It was a perfect friends-to-lovers romance, with elements of ‘When Harry Met Sally’, but it’s so much more than that too.

Henry has such a talent for describing emotions in a beautiful way which makes you truly feel like you’re feeling them as the characters do. I was utterly absorbed in this book from the very first page and I feel so deeply invested in the relationship between Poppy and Alex, I think in part because the characters are flawed and frustrating and funny and smart and lovable and this multifaceted nature makes them feel so real. In some romance novels I feel like we get the point that the main character is ‘sassy’ shoved down our throats, but in this book Poppy *is* sassy but convincingly so, and it is one of many traits which make up her personality.

The chemistry between Poppy and Alex was wonderful, and honestly it’s all I could ever wish for in a relationship. If you like love stories which feel like having your heart broken and then gently put back together, then read this book.

My heart is so full and I loved every minute of reading this book. This is the story of Poppy and Alex and the author draws you completely into their relationship from the very first chapter. Alternating between their current summer vacation and the vacations of their past we go on the journey of these two characters and how they connect and embrace the weird in each other. The whole book is funny, engaging, painful, heartbreaking and achingly beautiful. A truly excellent read.

I adored this book. I loved the mixed timeline and thought it gave a really great image of poppy and Alex’s relationship. I think they’re both so different but well suited and felt like Henry had created such vivid and 3D characters who I loved reading.

The chemistry and banter between Poppy and Alex is brilliantly written. At some points you really just laugh out loud. I especially love Poppy’s character. She’s outspoken, adventurous and energetic in comparison to Alex’s reserved and routined nature.

I really like that this was written in a non linear narrative. The chapters alternate between this summer and flashbacks to previous summer trips they have taken together. We go on a journey with Poppy and Alex and see how their friendship develops over the years, alongside how previous trips have influenced their feelings towards each other in the present. There’s also a bit of mystery as to what happened on that infamous Croatia trip to keep you wanting more!

I can't really fault this addictive and heartfelt read, I just loved it! I loved traveling around the world with Alex and Poppy, especially seeing as no-one’s been able to do much travelling recently! It's definitely the perfect summer read!

Not at all what I expected - howeve an interesting read. Poppy is a travel writer and has been friends with Alex for some considerable time. This book takes you on a journey together with the couple to various destinations and builds a picture of their relationship. I wasn't keen on the format of the book and sadly it didn't keep me engrossed. I think that was more my problem than the books, as other readers seem to have loved it.

Wow wow wow

I’m serious when I say that if I would give this 10 stars out of 5, I could. I usually wait until release day to post NetGalley reviews but i couldn’t wait for July.

I finished Beach Read this week and had already planned to buddy read You and Me on Vacation.

Since I enjoyed Beach Read so much, we got straight into it the next day. We planned to read 40 pages a day over 10 days but neither of us could put it down and we ended up reading it in about 24 hours!

The book is told from the perspective of Poppy and Alex who are polar opposites. Poppy is a risk taker, energetic and bubbly. Alex is bookish, reserved and calm.

The story spans 12 summers and 10 vacations. The time line jumps from one summer to another really nicely. Then something goes wrong on a trip to Croatia and Poppy is left missing her friend. I loved that we didn’t find out what happened in Croatia for such a long time. We had many theories!

This summer, Poppy asks Alex on one last trip which may determine their future. Will they still be friends? Can they be more than that? Has she ruined everything?

I love how Emily builds her stories so slowly and intentionally without them feeling slow paced. She beautifully mixes hurt, love and sarcasm to the point where you don’t know whether to cry or laugh or both! We just wanted to give them a hug!

I also loved how Emily doesn’t tell us until the very last pages what happens to Poppy and Alex. The build up in detail really keeps you on the edge of your seat. At times, we had to stop reading and mentally prepare ourselves with a cup of tea as we knew it would tear our hearts out.

It differed from Beach Read in that it’s characters start out as enemies so anything more than that would be nice but with this book, they’re are already such solid friends that they have so much to lose if it doesn’t work out.

I absolutely adored this and honestly I recommend you check it out on NetGalley AND buy it on release day. I definitely will be.

Thank you to NetGalley and Penguin for this copy!!