Happy Place by Emily Henry

Pages: 388
Method: Kindle
Rating: 3.9/5

This book started a bit slow for me and I wasn’t sure how to feel about it. For some reason the way that the flashbacks were done from “Happy Place” to “Real Life” was a little confusing and hard to get into initially. Fortunately, it made more sense as things started coming together and the fact that it all met at the Happy Place in the end was very satisfying.

It was essentially a fake dating trope but done a bit differently because the couple had been together for years and broke up several months before a group trip. Normally the miscommunication is very annoying to me and I would’ve thought that this would be more so because they had been together for so long, you would think they would be able to communicate better. But somehow, Emily Henry executed it in a way that was relatable enough to not be excruciating.

I often feel that the main character’s reasoning and struggle doesn’t feel very real or relatable. And not in a “I haven’t struggled so I can’t relate” way, more of a “this is so outlandish and unrealistic” way. In this case, it was both that it was realistic and that I could personally relate to it. With this book, the reasons behind keeping things hidden or not asking for help or not communicating, continued to layer and connect to each other. It wasn’t a sudden realization of why and then a refusal to acknowledge or admit it. It was a gradual unfolding of the inner workings of the heart and how it was shaped that was acknowledged and then worked to unravel.

I absolutely love romance, but I also try very hard to not let all of the romance from books and movies combine in a way that causes my brain to build an unrealistic expectation of romance in real life or love in general. It’s beautiful and swoon worthy to think about some of these romance book situations to work out, but it’s rarely as easy or clean as fiction makes it seem. But what I loved about this plot and the way the two characters worked things out was that they fought for each other. Life goes on and the world turns, but you can’t let life happen to you. You have to do the work, to figure out what you want, to be who you want to be, to work through the things that hurt you, to break the things that don’t serve you, and to build the things that will last.

I think that a happy place is a great concept for a book. And I loved the way that she dissected what that can mean throughout the book. There’s not a one size fits all happy place. Everyone’s happy place is different and even throughout one’s life, it can change and adapt depending on the season of life you’re in. It was a unique way to provide character development, to watch as the happy places changed for the FMC, and how that affected what was happening in the current timeline. So what’s your happy place? Is it a place? Maybe it’s a person, or a group of people. What makes it your happy place? What feelings does it bring out in you? Is it your happy place because it’s different from your everyday life/environment? Or is it your happy place because it’s the culmination of the best parts of your life?

My Happy Places:
Hugging my favorite people.
Getting lost in a good book.
Singing.
Anywhere near water where I can find sticks and throw rocks! 🙂