A Review of Happy Place by Emily Henry

Intro

Happy Place by Emily Henry follows the story of a surgeon named Harriet who comes from an over-acheiving family that only cares about success. What she really wants is to make pottery, but of course that's "not a real job" according to her parents, so she is forced to live out her life as a doctor just so her parents can have something to brag about on their Christmas card. After a long week of surgeries over and over again at the same job that she hates, all she wants is to escape her real life, so she is thrilled when her best friend Sabrina invites her to her family's cottage in Maine. Ever since they all met in college, Sabrina and Harriet and the rest of their friends have always stayed at Sabrina's parents' cottage every summer but now it is being sold, so Sabrina invites all her friends one last time. The cottage is the one thing that brings Harriet peace in life especially since she feels bad about being distant from her friends since they graduated college, so she is beyond thrilled when she is invited. Until she gets there and Sabrina surprises her with her ex-fiance Wyn. Who broke up with her over the phone a year ago. And is also in Sabrina's friend group. And none of their friends have any idea they broke up. To Sabrina, Harriet and Wyn are still her two best friends that have been dating for 5 years and are now engaged without a flaw in their relationship. Unfortunately for Harriet, she has despised Wyn ever since he surprise dumped her over a phone call, and Wyn promised her that he wouldn't be at the cottage, but Sabrina forced Wyn into showing up. And of course none of their friends have any idea they broke up, so they still have to act like the happy couple they used to be. Since they are still "together," they have to share a room, and a bed, because that's what couples do, right? For couples who broke up and still have to act in the perfect relationship, this is the worst possible situation. Especially when there is tension and longing between Harriet and Wyn that neither of them wants to be there, but neither of them can bring themselves to refuse it. While they act perfect together on the outside, this just causes more tension, and more chance for them to explore their old feelings toward one another, while also hating each other but not being able to bring themselves to stay away from each other. The perfect summer= family pressure + lying to friends + secret breakup that turns into something even more secret. What could go wrong?

How I came across the book

I found this book at an airport and was intrigued by the amount of romance implied, so of course I had to read it.

If I've read anything else by the author/in the series

This is a standalone book, and I haven't read anything else by Emily Henry but I know that her books are really popular.

The Good

• when Harriet and Wyn first realize their secret tension for each other and start an enemies to lovers/breakup with benefits situation while all keeping the same image of the happy couple

• when Harriet gets stuck in the basement of the cottage and Wyn rescues her and then they start making out which was the first place they ever made out which led to them getting together

• At the end of the book when Harriet finally admits to her parents that she doesn’t want to be a surgeon anymore and then her mom who it seems has hated her the whole book and just wants a successful child, says that she had to sacrifice everything she wanted for Harriet’s dad and she never got the true life that she wanted because she got married. She admits that all she wants is the best for Harriet and the reason she is so strict is because she doesn’t want Harriet to go through with Wyn what she went through and make all these sacrifices for an unhappy marriage

• The almost plot twists where Wyn and Harriet would almost get caught but would save themselves right in time and their friends would find them a split second after and questioned what was going on was very interesting and exciting because I didn’t know if they would get found out or not and what would happen

The Bad

• The fight between Harriet and Sabrina once Sabrina finds out that Harriet has been lying to her about her relationship for a whole entire year and the whole entire trip, although I really liked the emotion buildup in the chapter and how readers can see their friendship dynamic automatically go downhill with this new realization and betrayal of trust

• How Harriet’s parents only care about themselves and are incredibly selfish and don’t care about Harriet at all or her interests, they just care about having their own success to brag about

• Personally I think the romance in this book was kinda mediocre and not that exciting, there was definitely tension parts but very little of it and no other exciting side plots that involved romance

• I didn’t like how controlling Sabrina was of everyone and the fact that she made everyone a whole entire schedule for a vacation where they were just supposed to relax and she was also super controlling of her boyfriend too

Who Else Would Like This

• Found family trope obsessers

• Enemies to lovers addicts (not SUPER enemies to lovers, has very little spicy tension but still noticeable)

• People who just like a peaceful read with nothing too crazy

Final Thoughts/Rating

Rating:2/5 stars

Final Thoughts: This book was ok, I thought it was kinda plain since there was a lot of mediocre and not even exciting romance in the book between Wyn and Harriet like the scenes where they both felt tension were definitely enjoyable but like the only other romance besides that was them pretending to be engaged and really just hating each other but it was mutual hatred for a lot of the book not enemies to lovers hatred which came a lot later in the book. Besides the romance plot I thought it was kinda boring how the whole other concept of the book was Harriet lying to her friends and feeling guilty about it that wasn’t really interesting and how she was complaining about her job all the time but not actually telling her family about it because she didn’t want to ruin the family reputation, that was boring because she was keeping this big secret to herself so nothing exciting was actually happening. Overall I would not read this book again but the good part is that it had at least a little spice and tension.