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REVIEW: Happy Place by Emily Henry


Genre: Romance | Romantic Comedy

Release Date: Expected 27th April 2023

Publisher: Penguin UK | Viking

Harriet and Wyn are the perfect couple - aside from the fact they aren't actually together anymore. Ever since college, they've been the power couple everyone has aspired to be; sweet, supportive, successful. 

But as Harriets yearly trip with her best friends draws closer, they still haven't talked about the real reason they broke up, or even told anyone. They're not ready to break their friends hearts, or their own, so when Wyn is unexpectedly invited to their trip, they give themselves this last week of sunshine and sea before their lives change for good. 

They just need to make it through a few more days and they can stop pretending - but they've both been pretending for a lot longer than they'd like to admit, and now it's time to get real.

"I know this place, even if I can't name it. I know that I'm safe, that I belong."

Witty, wise and wonderful - Emily Henry does it again with this charmingly beautiful and heartfelt story about love in all its messy, painful and amazing glory for this second-chance romance.

Harriet and Wyn were enchanting - so evocative and relatable, invoking so many feelings about how love can shape our lives even after it ends. Harriet was an anxious but determined surgical resident who's more of a 'slow release' kind of hot, and even though Wyn is almost her opposite as a smooth and suave ranch boy, they compliment each other. As we learn about their relationship today, and in the past, we watch as they grow together but also grow as their own people - but we're left waiting to learn about the one moment in their relationship they won't talk about - the end. I felt so invested in them, wondering whether the end of the story would be the end of them, or the start of something new. This book made me think about the endings I've experienced, the good and the bad, and the bittersweet ones that paved the way for a beginning.

The supporting characters in this story were delightful - strong, individual, so very real women who spoke their minds, made mistakes, set boundaries without apologies - Harriets best friends made me glow with warmth and I loved seeing the open love and affection between them. These relationships were shown as just as important as any romantic one, and they grow and change just like Harriet and Wyn with their own complications and issues. 

The setting was absolutely stunning - I felt the sea breeze on my face and the sun on my skin and felt transported to my own happy place. This entire book felt personal and cosy, flowing seamlessly from chapter to chapter, switching between the past and present to give us a picture of the past, but also to help us figure out what the future might hold. But underneath that beautiful exterior is a painful, emotional journey into loss, grief and endings that is so very raw and authentic but unfortunately another case of a beautiful story that's been marketed as a light-hearted tale when it's actually got some pretty heavy undertones. 

Full of utterly brilliant mishaps and mistakes that can only happen in a romcom, thoughtful reflections on love and a dose of playful humour; this book was a lot of laughs (and quite a few tears.) As always, this reminded me that reading a beautiful story is my own happy place.

⭐⭐⭐⭐


I was gifted an advanced reviewers copy of this title in return for an honest review.

cw: breakups, alcohol, complex family dynamics, recreational drugs, illness, loss, depression, sex. 


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