People We Meet on Vacation by Emily Henry

 

Paperback edition

Poppy and Alex. Alex and Poppy. They have nothing in common. She’s a wild child; he wears khakis. She has insatiable wanderlust; he prefers to stay home with a book. And somehow, ever since a fateful car share home from college many years ago, they are the very best of friends. For most of the year they live far apart—she’s in New York City, and he’s in their small hometown—but every summer, for a decade, they have taken one glorious week of vacation together.
 
Until two years ago, when they ruined everything. They haven't spoken since.
 
Poppy has everything she should want, but she’s stuck in a rut. When someone asks when she was last truly happy, she knows, without a doubt, it was on that ill-fated, final trip with Alex. And so, she decides to convince her best friend to take one more vacation together—lay everything on the table, make it all right. Miraculously, he agrees.
 
Now she has a week to fix everything. If only she can get around the one big truth that has always stood quietly in the middle of their seemingly perfect relationship. What could possibly go wrong? 

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Title : People We Meet on Vacation

Author : Emily Henry

Pages: 364

Publisher: Berkley

Genre : Romantic Comedy

 

Whoa!!! This book has been recommended as a beach read that is supposedly light and fun. Yet, it is fun, fluffy, and full of filling like melted chocolate in a bun. I'll tell you why.

Poppy and Alex were college friends. Met randomly in a carpool when they came back from college to their hometown Ohio during a college break. They are polar opposite. Poppy is bubbly, disorganized, and didn't want to be tied in a routine. Alex is neat, organized, and a family man. Poppy is small and bouncy. Alex is tall and build.

 They never thought they will click and be a best friend, then they make a promise to always spend a summer vacation together. Throughout their adulthood, their life branched off. Poppy dropped out and work at a prestige travel magazine, R+R. Meanwhile, Alex comes back to their hometown, working as a Highschool teacher.

Recently, Poppy and Alex are no longer talking because of what happened on their last holiday two years ago. Present-day, Poppy feels her life is not happy. She gave everything, her dream comes true but missed a goal. 

As the chapter progress, the plot is forward and backward. After the chapter of summer this year, the next chapter is summer 10 years ago and so on until we know what happen in their last holiday that made them as cold as Siberia.

Well, I don't quite sure, when the plot is backward, Poppy's point of view is now or that year. Because it seems that I know from their first summer, Poppy is so much in love and adore Alex very much. Since Poppy felt their friendship is platonic, but it's clear like a crystal said otherwise.

Alex's character is like any protagonist in Romcom's book. He's so perfect and dreamy. Typical a good boy who will do anything for the person he loved, but so unlucky in love. He has a complicated relationship with Sarah, a longtime crush. He also adores his best friend very much, since he can release his character in front of her.

Meanwhile, Poppy's character is bubbly yet deep down she has sorrow from her past. During middle school, she's subject to bullying and that, made her want to run away from her hometown. She loves her family so much but her family is so eccentric that she wants to protect it from the outside world. Some of her past lovers, judge her by her family.

Two years without communicating so much with Alex made Poppy's heart as empty as the vast ocean. After late-night cold texting, Poppy and Alex decide to have a summer holiday several days before Alex's brother's wedding.

Poppy determines to resolve her feeling and mend their relationship, without knowing Alex's latest state so much.

What I love from this book, aside from butterflies on my stomach whenever Alex is a gentleman, but also that both characters are lovable. They are relatable people and relationships. But the big score is how deep the author tries to disentangle Poppy's trauma, what made who she is right now. 

The revelation in a subway station, where Poppy met her first 'boyfriend', was one of the pivotal moments, in my opinion. 

This, I realize, is what I've been waiting for for years. The moment when I finally know I've won: I got out. I made something of myself. I found a place I belonged. I proved I wasn't broken while the person who was cruelest to me stayed stuck in crappy little Linfield.

Except that's not how I feel. Because Jason doesn't seem stuck, and he certainly isn't being cruel. He's here, in this dis, in a nice white shirt, being genuinely kind.

 

There's a stinging in my eyes, a hot feeling in the back of my throat. 

 

And later, the end part of the book, the emotional Poppy confesses to Alex, is one hell of the most emotional rom-com I ever read.

It is a good read! I enjoyed it very much and maybe read it much time more.