Emily Henry is officially a staple author for me. I’d enjoyed her other books before, so knew I was in for another gorgeous, funny, romantic read but she even surpassed my expectations this time. All characters felt really rounded and the will-they won’t-they relationship of Harriet and Wyn is heart-achingly addictive. The dreamy setting makes it a perfect beach read and even made the three hour delay to my 11pm flight actually enjoyable. I just read all night, laughing at Emily’s funny one-liners, hooked by Cleo, Sabrina and Harriet’s heart warming friendship and completely caught up in Harriet and Wyn. I’d not only recommend Happy Place to anyone who’d listen, I’d recommend Emily and all her other books too.
Huge thanks to the author, Emily Henry, and publisher, Penguin, for this advance review copy. Views my own. 5*

Emily Henry never fails to write amazing books.

Having read and adored multiple of her others, receiving an arc of Happy Place without even knowing she had a new one coming out, I was so excited - I had just been about to reread Beach Read because I couldn't find anything else I wanted to read. And Happy Place did not disappoint. Emily Henry's writing is so beautiful - and I don't say that lightly - which helped make the book even easier to enjoy. Outside of the amazing romance you seen in all her books, there were really lovely and (as always, well written) friendships too.

I could not recommend Happy Place enough.

Big thanks to Netgalley and the publisher for a free ARC in return for an honest review of this lovely book.

Every time I think Emily Henry can’t outdo herself she proves me wrong! This is hands down the best book she’s written to date and it’s swiftly moved to the number one spot in my Emily Henry book ranking list (I love them all but Happy Place, Book Lovers, You & Me on Vacation then Beach Read, if you’re curious)

“Go to your happy place Harriet, I think desperately only to realise I’m literally in my happy place, and he. Is. Here”

Instantly from the first couple of chapters I knew this was going to be a five star read which rarely happens for me. Not only did I instantly fall in love with Harriet, Wyn and the whole friend group but Henry’s writing grabs me every time.. the location, the banter, the humour, the romance, the heartbreak, the friendships! There are also some of my favourite tropes in this book- second chance romance, found family, fake dating and forced proximity. Who doesn’t love a good trope?!

If you hadn’t guessed by now, Harriet & Wyn are my favourite EM couple, I was rooting for them so hard. Their love for each other was palpable, I needed them to be okay. Every interaction, every look, every tear.. I was willing them to work it out!

“I don’t cry. It’s not real. He promised he would always love me. It can’t be real”

I only have one slight negative, well two actually!
1) I don’t have a friendship group like theirs!
2) I have to wait far too long to get a physical copy of this book in my hands.

I can’t do much about the friend group but the SECOND my pre-order arrives, I will immediately be doing a reread and annotating the shit out of it!

Thank you so much to NetGalley and the publisher for providing an eARC in exchange for an honest review!

Fooling Everyone…?
Can Harriet and Wyn really fake it till they make it and get away with it? The holiday is a taken - it happens for them every year with familiar and well loved company who all think that Harriet and Wyn are the perfect ideal couple. This year everything has changed. Broken up, keeping it secret and lying to everyone - can the pair keep it up and who can they fool? Or are they really fooling themselves. Enjoyable, heart warming and deftly done with a well crafted cast and an often emotionally charged storyline.

Happy Place has quickly become my favourite book by Emily Henry. I loved the setting, and the contrast between the rest of the world and their little cottage. I’m usually not a big fan of flashbacks, but this time around I enjoyed seeing the early days of the six friends, how they met and how they grew together. The six of them, Harriet, Wyn, Sabrina, Parth, Cleo and Kimmy, were so different from each other, but I loved how their friendship was stronger because of that.

I swear this book has the most perfect imperfect characters. Harriet and Wyn made me cry way too many times. I loved their relationship, how soft and quiet it was, but also my heart was breaking for them, for their problems and their struggles. Wyn is such an atypical love interest, and I love that so much. As Harriet always describes him, he is full of contradictions, and such a soft cinnamon roll. His and Harriet's chemistry and love for one another was undeniable, even when they were broken up. When it comes to Harriet, I could relate to her so much and seeing her development throughout the book made me so happy. I enjoyed the side characters a lot too – my favourite was definitely Cleo (with Parth being a second favourite). If you need convincing why Cleo was my favourite, her vibe was an artist turned farm owner with lots of tattoos.

I cannot remember the last time a contemporary romance kept me on my toes so much.
I couldn’t wait to finally find out why Harriet and Wyn broke up, especially with all the little clues given throughout the book. Overall, Happy Place is a book that’s gonna make you feel warm and fuzzy, it’s gonna make you feel happy while crying a lot, and I cannot recommend it enough.

The BEST book I’ve read this year! It’s gripping and funny and heartbreaking and totally #Unputdownable If you read only one book this year make it this one. It’s a romance, it’s a life lesson it made me cry and it had me laughing. I love love loved it!!!!!

Sometimes when you really love a book by an author, you're almost nervous to pick up their next one, in case it isn't quite as good. I adored Book Lovers, I wrote in my review that it was my favourite romance I'd ever read and I think that remains true, but this one comes in a close second.

Emily Henry has a way of writing that sucks you in, the sense of place she creates is astonishing, I was genuinely bemused when I looked up from my book and I wasn't in Maine and I couldn't hear the sea crashing or smell the lobster. She really gets that a sense of place comes from the emotions that people embue those places with, that's why Maine felt so real, because I felt all of the nostalgia and love and years of joy and friendship and contentment that filled it for Harriet and her friends.

And I loved the romance. Second-chance romances aren't usually my favourite trope but this really was something special, the love story was captivating and the way it fell apart was messy and painful and human, mixed up and real and heart-rending. All too believably true. So the second chance felt earned for me, and I couldn't wait for them to find their way through .

Thank you so much Penguin for sending me an advanced copy of Happy Place.

As we all know, I'm not a massive contemporary reader. But when it comes to Emily Henry all my rules are out the door.

I am obsessed. And Happy Place has one of my favourite tropes - fake dating.

A formerly engaged couple are forced to pretend that they are still together in front of their friends. But when old feelings start to resurface what are they to do?

It's everything you want from a cheesy rom-com as well as the usual emotional depth from Emily's books.

A pleasure as always.

This is a fantastic book about the development of friendships, and relationships, as the characters grow from college students to adults who are starting to think about marriage and children rather than beer and beer.
Set mainly in Maine the scenery is so well described that you can almost smell the sea, the lobster and the sun cream.
The characters are all likeable and that alone keeps you on tenterhooks waiting for them to reach the realisations you have know for the get go.
There are moments when it feels like the group will fall apart, or perhaps already have, but Emily Henry deftly keeps weaving them together in new permutations to bring the whole story to a satisfying ending.

I think this might be my favourite Emily Henry book yet and i thought that nothing would beat my previous favourites.
Harriet, my beloved mirrorball girlie absolutely owns my heart, but so does Wyn and actually every single character in this book.

Posted on good reads



Words can’t even being to explain how beautiful this book was! I said to my partner a few months ago I wanted to read a book that was going to break my heart, rip it out and make me mourn love. (Isn’t that what everyone wants?!) what Emily Henry delivered was even better than my wildest dream! The feeling in my heart, in my chest while reading this was indescribable. The YEARNING?!!! The TURMOIL . The BEAUTY of this book. I really am in awe at how well Emily Henry writes, around the 40% mark I had this moment where I couldn’t believe , these people, this place , what I was reading wasn’t real, because it felt so real, the emotions were real. Harriet
feels like a piece of me, Wyn has my heart and their friendship group feels like home , like a happy place.

The complexity of relationships not just with a significant other but our friendships shine through in this boo too. Not only is this a book of second chances, it’s found family and finding yourself . Finding you way back can be hard, and in the process we lose ourselves, the ones we love and what makes us yearn for life. Harriet was completely relatable, we can be so wrapped up in our own heads of what we believe is the right thing to do, we end up neglecting ourselves and in turn pushing people away! As a people pleaser this one hurt and then healed me.

This story is different from what we are used to within an EH book yet it’s still the same magic , in a new way. I don’t think I’ve cried so much at one book either, my chest swelled reading about the beginning & breakdown of Harriet & Wyn.

I don’t want you to think this is all sad times, it’s not , there as so many fun moments and some good steamy ones too that I was ITCHING FOR .

You will fall in love with an abundance of characters, you will laugh, you will hopefully cry and be so gleeful and dizzily happy your heart will be full.

This is my favourite Emily Henry book, I will forever continue, to read , root and love any fictional piece of art Henry makes but this one really has a special place in my heart, like she cracked open my head and said here, this one is for you. I can’t wait for so many others to feel this too.

Thank you Net Galley & Penguin random house for this arc!

I don't know how she does it, but Emily Henry's books, and her characters just worm their way into my heart, into my bones..

"Before I knew Wyn, I could have been okay without him. Now I’ll always feel the place he isn’t."

Her best book yet in my opinion, and I am a fan of all of her other romances.

Here we are again, ready to talk about how much I loved an Emily Henry book. Discovering this author thanks to the release of Book Lovers is one of my highlights of 2022.

I don't want to go too much into the plot, since the book doesn't come out until April. But the 5 stars on the review make it quite clear I loved it. I loved the plot, the tropes, the characters...
And that's where I want to stay for the longest time in this review, the characters. With Book Lovers, I saw myself in Nora in a way that was so special to me. And I could say that I'm a Nora and not a Harriet but life isn't that simple, right? When characters are so well developed, they are nuanced. They have layers. And Emily's characters are perfectly developed. So I could see a bit of myself in Harriet, Wyn, Cleo, Kimmy, Path and Sabrina. And that's what's so special. Peeling all those layers and discovering who all those characters really were made the reading experience so fantastic. And in this case, the cast was a bit bigger than in other books and the character development didn't suffer at all. So I'm looking forward to maybe even bigger casts in future books.
In one of her newsletters, Emily Henry mentioned her readers and called us empathetic. And I couldn't agree more. I need to have a level of empathy towards the characters I read about in order to truly enjoy a book as much as I enjoy hers. Because it allows me to care. No matter how good or bad the characters are. Some will make stupid choices and annoy me, but still I care. And that's a sign of a favourite author to me.

The trope here is exes that meet again and we wonder whether they'll go back together or not. Obviously, no spoilers for the ending but I love how both outcomes would have been good. At about 60%, I thought that I was going to be okay with whatever the characters decided. Of course, I wanted a happy ending. Who wouldn't? But I realised that a not so happy ending could be a great choice too. And that's because of, again, the characters. The lessons they learn throughout the book. How they realise that they can't be stuck in the past when it comes to the way they cope with life, and how they need to change in order to be happy and allow those around them to be happy as well. It was truly lovely to read how each character found their happy place, whatever that meant for each one of them.
And yes, I cried a lot reading it because that's what I do. And that's what good books do to me. They make me feel things. And I love it.

I'll keep on reading all the books Emily Henry writes. I have a feeling that it's going to be hard for her to disappoint me.

I think I say this every time, but this is Emily Henry’s best book yet! I squealed with excitement seeing I’d been approved for an advance eARC of of this, and I then devoured it in one day. I hated having to put it down for even a second.

Emily Henry’s writing feels like being enveloped in a warm hug. I wish I could be as witty and smart as the characters in this book; and that I could’ve been part of their trips to Maine.

Within the book we get flashbacks, we have a one bed situation, we have friends to lovers to enemies to lovers, reverse grumpy sunshine, forced proximity, found family and so many more tropes that make my heart sing.

But we also get storylines that make your heart just ache. There’s mental health representation, childhood trauma and the tumultuous pains of growing up.

This is one of those books you’ll remember and think back to long after reading. It’s sweet, with a touch of spice and whole big-gulp size amount of love.

Thank you Penguin Random House for the ARC - you’ve made my month!

Emily Henry never misses. At this point I honestly think I would read her shopping lists if someone published them. Happy Place is another triumph, with authentically drawn characters and heartwrenching entanglements that keep you hooked into the story and rooting for everyone throughout. I loved that this book tackled the subject of a couple being tied to different places and being kept apart, which I think increasingly is something people aged around thirty struggle with when trying to balance a relationship with working on a career, supporting family members and still trying to have a social life. I also thought it was great that the book showed a semi-estranged sibling/sister relationship as that is very rarely seen in fiction without there being some enormous fight or event which distanced them. In Happy Place, the sisters not being close is just a fact of life, it happens sometimes. The only downside to reading this book is that now I'm finished I have to wait ages for the next one! Sparkling with romance, humour and friendship - I loved it.

I'm not a big romance reader, and yet Emily Henry is one of my auto-buy authors, cuz I know I can count on her for brilliant banter, loveable characters, and a happy but not saccharine ending. And she's only gone and done it again.

Happy Place gives you all the goods you expect from Emily Henry, and yet there's something different about this book. It feels more tender, more introspective than her previous books. Harriet is a different type of heroine, and a highly relatable one at that. She's not plucky like Poppy or January, or brash like Nora. Harriet is a gentle soul who does whatever she can to avoid conflict and keep the peace – often to her own detriment. The poignant backstory about her family and her craving for love makes her a softer character than Henry's earlier heroines.

But lest you go thinking this is a serious book – it's not. That delicious banter and wit we love about Emily Henry's writing are there in abundance. And the characters are so beautifully crafted that you fall in love with each and every one of them, even when they're being annoying.

Let me wrap this up by saying that, as a rule, I never give a book 5 stars until I read it a second time and still love it. (Weird, I know, but that's my system.) But, I'm breaking my rule and giving this 5 stars. Do yourself a favour and go pre-order your copy now.

Eternal devotion and gratitude to the wonderful people at Penguin and NetGalley for blessing me with this ARC.

I’d like to thank NetGalley and Penguin for approving me for an ARC of this book. I am a huge Emily Henry fan and couldn’t believe my luck when I got a widget of this one!

What can I say about this book? It is fantastic! I inhaled this over the course of a weekend and had I not had to parent or do adult things I probably would have read it in a day. Emily Henry is one of my go to authors and she never seems to disappoint me.

From the start I could see that this was going to be amusing. Can you imagine having to spend a week with your ex fiancée and trying to convince your friends that nothing is wrong? It’s surely going to be a disaster! Whilst Harriet and Wyn started off with the best of intentions they soon started to find ways to trip the other one up, without giving anything away. Whether it’s grinding with each other on the dance floor or teasing these two seem to be experts at putting on a show. Or is it a show?

They skate around the reason they broke up in the first place and we do eventually get there but leading up to it you can’t understand why these two are not together. The chemistry is on point and they clearly have a lot of history so naturally I am egging them on to put things right.

Throughout the story we learn all about Harriet’s happy places. Theses are memories she has, mainly consisting of her and Wyn, that help her remember the times in her life when things were good. I think we could all do with those kind of memories and it made me think about those times I’ve had with friends and family that bring a smile to my face.

Whilst we have the steamy, will they won’t they romance going on we also have the glorious friendship between Harriet, Sabrina and Cleo. These beautiful women found each other and have been the life support each other needed. I can understand why Harriet was resistant to say anything to her two friends and why her break up with Wyn was a discussion she wanted to have in person. Sabrina and Cleo could not be more different from each other but they are the perfect pairing with Harriet. She’s the rock that keeps them all together and seeing how their friendships had changed through the years was not only expected but believable.

Emily Henry’s writing is honest. She takes relationships and dissects them to their fullest, giving us characters that we can recognise ourselves in, relationships we want to see put back on track and friendships to warm our souls. Her characters are not perfect, they have flaws and they make choices we can’t understand but that it what makes her books perfect.

This book was given to me as an eARC by the publisher

Warning: this book is for all the people pleasing middle children out there who alway tried to be the glue of the family. So if that is you then what are you waiting for? Go and preorder right now.


I don’t know where to start. This is the second book I’ve read by Emily Henry and I just truly love it. Not in the way that it was exiting and adventures but in that that it was warm, healing.

Harriet was such a nuanced character. She was deep but not Boeing and she was realistic in the best way possible. I related to her character so so much and it felt healing seeing her grow and learn.

At the same time I loved all the other characters. I loved their friendships and how they all learned and grew together.

I don’t really know if it counts as a spoiler but anyway.
<spoiler> The love that Wyn and Harriet had for each other was so beautiful. And they had me waiting until the last moment to see if they would let each other go or if they would end up together. And for The first time I didn’t mind if they didn’t because they truly loved each other and wished the other happiness. But at the end, thank God that they did end up together. </spoiler>

All the deep and emotional development did not make it boring or take away from the fact that this book was also fun, lighthearted and at the same time angsty. The tension and angst was ✨chefs kiss✨ and I loved every moment of it.

Happy place has definitely become one of my favourites.

I was so incredibly lucky enough to receive an early copy of Emily Henry's next novel being published next year. Needless to say, my TBR got thrown aside and I jumped straight into it!

I went into this book thinking it would be a light-hearted romance, which at times it is, but boy this one hurt my heart.

We follow Harriet as she visits her friends beach house for the final time before it's sold. A time for reminiscing and a much needed catch up with her best friends, takes a turn when her ex-fiance, Wyn, arrives for the same reason.

Harriet and Wyn are yet to tell their friends they have separated, so begins a week of faking it - but are they, indeed, faking it?

I loved back tracking to the beginning of Harriet and Wyn's story, and learning what eventually broke their relationship. Their connection is so strong, and it's hard to believe they would end up apart. Their banter and electric energy is written so well, Emily Henry knows how to make you connect to a character.

I loved the present day storyline just as much. The pain in Harriet's heart feels so real, my own heart was feeling heavy as I followed her impossible situation. That feeling of knowing 'goodbye' was coming, yet I really didn't know how it was going to end. When it did, it was exactly what I had hoped for.

Another book by Emily Henry I will definitely be recommending. I can't wait for you all to read it 💗💗💗

Harriet works hard to make everyone happy and for life to be as perfect as she can manage it. Pleasing her parents, pleasing her fiancé and pleasing her friends. Her own happy place is a house by the sea owned by her best friend's family where she and her friends have been going every summer for a decade. It's the place she dreams of when she isn't so happy. This year things are different. Her friends Sabrina and Parth drop a bombshell when she arrives at the cottage and then Wyn, her fiancé arrives, which should be perfect except that Harriet and Wyn broke up six months ago, but haven't told the others. Now they must spend a week sharing a room in the perfect place in the least perfect situation Harriet can think of.

This seems a little darker and more serious than Henry's other books. It still has a huge, feel good factor and obviously buckets of charm and romance, but there is less light relief here than normal. I think this is a good thing. Henry is very clever at delivering what looks to be light and fluffy, but actually has some serious points to make. She is a talented writer and this has depth and timbre that I really enjoyed.