People We Meet on Vacation by Emily Henry

Amy   Lynnie

romance, contemporary fiction

Poppy and Alex became best friends in college and made a habit of traveling together every summer. But two years ago, they had a falling out. Poppy is now at the point where she really misses Alex and decides to extend the olive branch.

Amy's Review

This was a really cute romance along the lines of When Harry Met Sally. I liked it even though the two people in the couple are the first people to whom the reader is introduced. (This usually doesn’t bode well for my enjoyment of a romance.) There’s no mystery about how it will turn out. But I really liked the banter and the structure of the novel. Each chapter would jump around Poppy and Alex’s timeline (5 years ago, 11 years ago, current summer, etc.) It made things interesting and kept the reader guessing what sort of disagreement had caused a two-year silence between them. The time-jumping was also the perfect mechanism for the reader to learn the full picture, with a little something new revealed in each chapter.

People We Meet on Vacation won the 2021 Goodreads Best Romance Award which is why I decided to read it. This is, by far, the best of the three Emily Henry novels I’ve read. I really enjoyed the story and the storytelling. I also had fun reading about all the travel destinations the characters visited. However, I did not like the book's title.  While there is significance to the people met on their trips, that is not the focus of this novel and I find the title to be unmemorable.

I’ve decided I don’t like Julia Whelan’s “narrator” voice when she is not actually voicing character dialogue.  Her default voice just sounds bitchy to me.  Perhaps this is Julia’s actual voice and, similar to resting bitch face, she has resting bitch voice?  I’d not noticed this annoyance until the last few books I’ve heard her narrate, though.  While reading actual dialogue, she’s amazing! She has a fantastic vocal repertoire and is a great voice actor when speaking in an actual character’s voice. It’s just the voice she uses when not speaking dialogue that bugs me.  Since this voice is often used to describe the protagonist’s internal thoughts, it ends up making the character seem bratty. But I don’t feel the character is all that bratty, based on the author’s writing. It’s just Whelan’s tone that forces me to make an effort to ward off disliking the character (and takes me out of the story). Because of this, I’m only giving Whelan a B for this novel.

Lynnie's Review

I would have to look to be certain but I think I have read more "chick lit" books this year than any previous year. At least, it feels that way.

I wanted to like People We Meet on Vacation much more than I actually did and in the final analysis, I think it comes down to the fact that I just didn't like the main character, Poppy. Sure, she was funny and adventurous, but I could never get over the fact that she spent the entire book lying to her best friend about basically everything. Dude, have a conversation, best friends are supposed to be the most understanding of all of your people! Oh sure, they eventually have the conversation they need to have, and yes, if they had it sooner there would not have been a book, but I spent most of the book furious on Alex's behalf that Poppy would snap her fingers and Alex would jump. The entire book was Poppy turning Alex's world upside down for her own benefit.

Amy said she thought it was the narrator that made Poppy seem like a brat. Nope, I didn't listen to the audiobook- Poppy was written to be a brat. She tripped over that chip on her shoulder in every single scene. Did you see disapproving Sarah over in the corner with her arms folded, all judgy? I feel you Sarah. The travel was lovely, I enjoyed the nonlinear storytelling, I just didn't like Poppy. That makes this a tough book to love.