Happy Place by Emily Henry
I don’t know what prompted me to pick up Happy Place by Emily Henry, but I will be forever grateful that I did! A popular read on bookstagram and booktok, Happy Place is a must-read for anyone in their late-twenties and early-thirties, experiencing the growing pains of adulthood that no one really warns you about. Following a group of college friends on their last trip to a beloved cottage — their happy place — this book made me laugh, cry, and everything in between. Read on for my honest thoughts on Happy Place by Emily Henry:
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About the Author, Emily Henry
Emily Henry is a bestselling romance and young adult author. Based in Cincinnati, Henry keeps her private life pretty well under wraps. Her first YA novel, The Love That Split the World, was published in 2016. Beach Read, her first non-YA novel, was published in 2020. Since Beach Read, she has published a new book each year, with her most recent, Funny Story, coming out in April 2024. Three of her books are currently in development to be made into films.
Plot Summary
Harriet and Wyn have been the perfect couple since they met in college—they go together like salt and pepper, honey and tea, lobster and rolls. Except, now—for reasons they’re still not discussing—they don’t.
They broke up five months ago. And still haven’t told their best friends.
Which is how they find themselves sharing a bedroom at the Maine cottage that has been their friend group’s yearly getaway for the last decade. Their annual respite from the world, where for one vibrant, blissful week they leave behind their daily lives; have copious amounts of cheese, wine, and seafood; and soak up the salty coastal air with the people who understand them most.
Only this year, Harriet and Wyn are lying through their teeth while trying not to notice how desperately they still want each other. Because the cottage is for sale and this is the last week they’ll all have together in this place. They can’t stand to break their friends’ hearts, and so they’ll play their parts. Harriet will be the driven surgical resident who never starts a fight, and Wyn will be the laid-back charmer who never lets the cracks show. It’s a flawless plan (if you look at it from a great distance and through a pair of sunscreen-smeared sunglasses). After years of being in love, how hard can it be to fake it for one week…in front of those who know you best?
My Thoughts on Happy Place
5/5 Stars
I listened to the audiobook of Happy Place by Emily Henry and then went out to pick up a hard copy of the book because I felt drawn to annotating it. I wanted a hard copy to hold in my hands because so many parts of this emotional story resonated with me. The narration is very good, though, if you prefer audiobooks!
Happy Place follows a group of college friends as they spend one last week at their happy place — a vacation home of one of the friends that is being sold. There is a profound sense of loss throughout the novel, of losing a place that feels like home, which is entirely relatable, alongside the feeling that everyone is moving on and the fear of change.
Whether or not you see yourself in the characters or the situations, Emily Henry’s emotive writing and ability to put into words the absolute growing pains of your late twenties and early thirties are incredibly powerful. I went into this expecting a lighthearted rom-com, not a novel that would challenge me and help me through some of my own emotional turmoil. Honestly, a must-read, and I can’t wait to read the rest of Emily Henry’s works!
Favorite Quotes from Happy Place
- “In every universe, it’s you for me. Even if it’s not me for you.”
- “My best friends taught me a new kind of quiet, the peaceful stillness of knowing one another so well you don’t need to fill the space. And a new kind of loud: noise as a celebration, as the overflow of joy at being alive, here, now.”
- “You are in all of my happiest places.”
- “He’s become my best friend the way the others did. Bit by bit, sand passing through an hour glass so slowly, it’s impossible to pin down the moment it happens. When suddenly, more of my heart belongs to him than doesn’t, and I know I’ll never get a single grain back.”
- “Like even when something beautiful breaks, the making of it still matters.”
- “I wasn’t afraid they’d be mad at me, exactly, for how things ended with Wyn. I was afraid of their sadness. I was afraid of running this trip that meant so much to them. I was afraid of ruining this place where they’ve always been happy. I was afraid they would resent me and never say it, afraid they wouldn’t like me as much without Wyn, because I didn’t like me as much without him.”
- “Everything is changing. It has to. You can’t stop time. All you can do is point yourself in a direction and hope the wind will let you get there.”
- “There doesn’t need to be a winner and a loser. You just have to care how the other person feels. You have to care more about them than you do about being right.”
- “One more deal I struck with a disinterested universe: If I’m good enough, I’ll be happy.”
- “‘She ran because she’s scared that, in the end, she won’t be worth chasing.'”
- “We don’t talk about tomorrow, when we’ll say goodbye. To one another, to this house, to an era of life we wish could have lasted forever.”
- “This is how I used to think of love. As something so delicate it couldn’t be caught without being snuffed out. Now I know better. I know the flame may gutter and flare in the wind, but it will always be there.”
- “I don’t want to live my life like it’s a triathlon and all that matters is getting some imaginary ribbon…. I want to enjoy it while it’s happening, not just for where it might get me eventually.”
- “I want them to have everything they’ve ever wanted.”
Emily Henry Themed Merch & Books
Where to Buy Happy Place by Emily Henry
Happy Place by Emily Henry is available for sale from Amazon and Bookshop.org. Be sure to subscribe to Emily Henry’s newsletter here for more details on her books and recommendations. You can find some bonus content for her books on her website here as well.
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