I loved this friends to lovers story, it was really cute and a perfect summer read. The dual timeline was great, I love multiple timelines in a novel.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for a copy.

This was a fun read. The relationship was not without its hurdles and it was worth it in the end.

Emily Henry is becoming one of my favourite contemporary romance writers.

A gorgeous romance, with plenty of will they, won't they. Alex and Poppy are polar opposites. She brings out the weird in him, and he makes her feel safe. Meeting by chance at University orientation, they are set to cross paths once more a year later when they car pool back home to Ohio. On this journey a firm friendship is formed. Thereafter, they vacation together every summer for the next 10 years. Poppy has the growing realisation that she's fallen in love with Alex, but after a kiss two years ago, they haven't spoken.

Accidentally texting him late one night leads to a rekindling of their friendship, and they once again spend a summer vacation together. Will they both finally admit to their feelings, or will the chance pass them by once again?

I loved the dynamic between Poppy and Alex. Together they are funny, and weird and imperfect. Rooting for them to get together, this book kept me on tenterhooks right to the end. I loved it.

Okay, so this was SUPER cute.

We follow Poppy and Alex as they reunite for one last vacation after not speaking for two years. Before, they went on a trip every year but as they got older things got more complicated. Will they be able to forgive and forget?

I'm not usually one for a friends to lovers plotline but I was desperate for them to end up together after the first meeting. I loved that they were complete opposites but brought out each others strengths.

The dual timeline was great and I loved seeing them grow and develop over all their vacations.

This was funny, cute and the perfect summer read.

Thank you to Netgalley and Penguin for providing me with a copy to review.

This was one of those rare times when it was not the writing or narrative style that did not work for me, but the plotline (even though it is well done).
I thought long and hard about how I should write this review because the book has already made its waves in the blogosphere and rightly received a lot of praise. Since this is my review of my read, I need to also talk of the things that bothered me without making it seem like it was the book's fault but also to indicate that if there are others like me out there, to go into it knowingly.
I am a fan of the friends to lovers trope, for the most part. With this book (it is not much of a spoiler), I realised there was one version that I am not a fan of. This is the kind where everyone around them is supposed to know that they are meant to be, but they maintain that they are friends while their respective significant others realise there is something amiss. I do not want to elaborate more on this; if it makes sense to you, you know the scenario that I am talking about. It felt unfair all around.
Now that I have that off my chest, I can move on to the characters and storyline. Poppy and Alex have been taking vacations are friends for a long time. Their friendship is complicated, to put it mildly, and they are extremely different with polar opposite comfort zones, but they work. The author makes a solid case for how they manage to enjoy their time together. Something went wrong a couple of years ago, and Poppy is desperate to get things back to normal with a very odd holiday suggestion. This last-ditch effort throws up memories (and we get a flashback every few chapters at a whole other holiday/meeting).
It is well written and tugged at quite a few heartstrings. All the characters are very vivid, and the interactions between Poppy and Alex and the extended family was highly entertaining, making it a quick read. I would recommend it to readers of this genre.
I received an ARC thanks to NetGalley and the publishers, but the review is entirely based on my own reading experience.

Lovely heartwarming fun book about two people going from friendship to romance, I loved Poppy and Alex and the journey that they made. Great lighthearted beach read

I was lucky enough to get an invitation to read You and Me on Vacation before it's release.
Because life had other plans, I wasn't able to get into it earlier, but I am so glad I enjoyed this story before it officially hits the shalves.

Last year I read Henry's Beach Read and fell in love with it.
It is one of the best books I read in 2020 and I couldn't wait to read her newest adult novel.

After finishing You and Me on Vacation (published in US with a title People you Meet on Vacation) I can say that Henry's writing style really speaks to me (you see what I did here? 😉 ).
Jokes aside, I came to realization that I really enjoy her way of telling stories. I still haven't check her ya books, and I plan to read them all at some point. I feel like she has potential to become one of my favourite authors.

The book talks about two friends who every summer go to vacation together. We follow present day and see previous 10 years in their own chapters.
The story is told from Poppy's POV, first person, and it's perfect best friends to lovers story.
The author mentioned in her note that it was inspired by When Harry met Sally.

Even though this books talks about our main characters visiting places, including my home country Croatia which is so rarely featured in American novels), it is character driven story.
In my honest opinion, it lacks descriptions of places, and if I told you I felt like I was there with our characters, exploring countries, I would lie.
I felt their personal emotions though, and that is what really matters.

One other thing this book accomplished was to make me want to travel somewhere.
I know we are in time when traveling comes with obstacles a is not recommended (damn you Covid! 😡 ), but it was nice to daydream and reminisce).

I know this book is considered as romance. In my opinion it is somewhere between that and women's fiction.
Chick lit would be perfect genre.

I highly recommend You and Me on Vacation and suggest you to read it on a sunny day.

This is a lovely, profound, sweet, friends to lovers romance, and I'm glad I read it in the summer. It's a shimmering splendid love story and I enjoyed it more than I enjoyed Beach Read.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for an electronic copy to read and review.

Such a light and fun read. It's not all easy, but the relationship between Poppy and Alex grows over the course of many trips and experiences. Emily Henry is quickly becoming a favourite author!

From the first chapter, I knew I would die for these characters.

No, really. Alex and Poppy are fantastically written and just completely hopeless, loveable idiots that just need to SPEAK UP AND TELL EACH OTHER HOW THEY FEEL! I have a massive soft spot for Alex and love him almost as much as Poppy does. Honestly, he's just so bloody great. The sexual chemistry between the two of them is electric.

And if the only one bed trope is your thing, you are in luck...

This book played out like a movie in my head with each scene being vivid and full of humour and emotion. I want to see this book made into a film - scene for scene, word for word please.

A lot of the time, it takes me a while to actually get into a book but this one had me from the very beginning. When you have the ability to write relatable, funny, flawed-but-trying-their-best characters, you've got me and Emily Henry has got me. She understood the assignment and she made it happen. She has secured a spot on my auto-buy list.

Poppy and Alex met at college and discovered they were from the same town in Ohio. Sharing a car ride home one time, they realised how well they got on despite their differences – she’s loud, talkative and has wanderlust, whereas he’s neat, lives for routine and likes the quiet life.
Once Poppy became a travel writer, she took Alex, who returned to their hometown as a teacher, away on a holiday each summer. But two years ago, they stopped talking to one another and now Poppy is missing him and wants to suggest another trip. Will he be up for it? And will they ever get around to expressing their true feelings for one another?
From the moment of their college ride home, this story gave off some When Harry Met Sally vibes, which the author acknowledges at the end. Poppy and Alex were such adorable characters and I really loved how their relationship was portrayed – probably not surprisingly since that movie is my all-time favourite. Overall, it’s a charming and sentimental read which wraps up with a life-affirming message.

This style of writing didn’t grab my attention and I felt it took me longer than it should to read the whole book. The changing from present to past was slightly confusing at times and some parts seem to be drawn out without any need. I enjoyed learning more about the characters and the places they visited. Maybe it was a case of the right book at the wrong time for me.

I absolutely adored this book.

The prologue had me hooked straight away. Poppy and Alex were chaotic and I loved their friendship, which made me pine for their relationship even more. Their separate personalities brought so much entertainment to the book, and the travelling had me wanting for a vacation so badly.

Emily's writing was outstanding and I can't wait to read more of her backlist as well as see what she comes out with next.

A really lovely escapist read, and I really rooted for Alex and Poppy and their happy ending. I found the back and forth easy to follow and flew through it (on the beach).

I absolutely enjoyed this book and it was the perfect summer reading! I believe the author has improved so much since her debut novel and I have enjoyed the psychology of the characters and their dialogues! As much as I’d love to know more about them, I am happy with the ending.

“I'm on vacation. Vacations always end. It's the very fact that it's finite that makes traveling special. You could move to any one of those destinations you loved in small doses, and it wouldn't be the spellbinding, life-altering seven days you spend there as a guest, letting a place into your heart fully, letting it change you.”

Emily Henry is quickly becoming one of my favourite romance authors- an impressive feat considering I have only read two of her books. Beach Read was one of my favourites last year, and while I didn't like this follow up quite as much, I still greatly enjoyed my time reading it.

I read You and Me on Vacation while on a tropical holiday myself which I couldn't have planned better. The way Emily Henry wrote about the magic of holidays was absolutely perfect- the idea that you can be whoever you want to be, the freedom of knowing no-one, the endless possibilities.

I always forget how much I like the friends-to-lovers trope until I read a book that does it well. Because when it is good, it is good. I could feel the connection between Alex and Poppy, and actually understand why they wouldn't want to ruin their friendship.

I do feel that the middle of the story dragged a little. It was so obvious to readers that they both liked each other that it could get a bit repetitive and tedious at points. And when we finally got the reveal of why they had their falling out it felt lacklustre, especially after all the buildup leading up to it.

That all being said, my experience reading this book was largely positive and I hope Emily Henry continues with this genre and style. If you haven't read this yet, I would definitely recommend it- particularly if you were a fan of Beach Read. Like her previous book, this is the definition of a perfect beach read for the summer- or whenever you are feeling a bit of wanderlust.

Thank you to Penguin UK for this ARC

Release Date: 8 July 2021

Real rating: 2.5☆

You and Me on Vacation is not my favorite summer read, or anywhere close. After hearing all about it everywhere, I was disappointed. I only enjoyed a small part of it.

Plotwise, it's frankly a bit flimsy. Plus, the slow pacing of this novel was very frustrating. I adore well-written slow-burn romances, but the problem here is that not much actually happens in this story. Most of it feels like filler content, until the last 30% when I was finally really interested in it.

Another thing I really disliked about this book were the alternating chapters between the present narrative and the past. Although it was instrumental for the reader to get to know past Alex and Poppy's relationship, it really broke up the pacing. It would've been better if the past chapters were to occur with less frequency.

I loved the characters, their relationship, the way I could connect to their very different selves/lives.

The writing style was just lovely. It made me laugh and smile at their adorable moments, but it also filled me with a longing for travel. It was so beautiful at times.

All in all, You and Me on Vacation was not for me. It's sweet and well-written, but too slow and mostly too uneventful for me to properly enjoy it.

I'm not a fan of books that jump from present to past but this was not too bad it didn't set my world on fire but it was an OK read for me.

*I didn’t get a chance to read this book as I haven’t been active on netgalley so I cannot give a review*

Oh this was such an enjoyable, lighthearted read. Yes, you know where the story is ultimately going but I feel as though the changing perspectives of past and present keep you wondering what on earth could've gone wrong to cause Poppy and Alex to lose a friend.

The story is full of witty banter, proper laugh out loud moments, a fair share of smut, and two very real characters. The character development of Poppy and Alex was next to nothing and I feel like I have known them for a very long time. You get to know the small things about them both, what they love and what they hate and you really do discover how uniquely opposite the two really are. But, that's what makes them Poppy and Alex.

The last chapter had me crying a million bloody tears and I can confidently say that Poppy and Alex are two of my favourite people in the fiction world. What a wonderful, wholesome, funny, cute, and passionate read.

Thank you so much to NetGalley, Penguin and Emily Henry for an arc of this in exchange for an honest review!