Happy Place by Emily Henry: review by Ahana Sil

 Happy Place

by Emily Henry

All of their friends think that Harriet and Wyn are the absolute perfect couple, and for a time, they very much were. Too bad that’s not the case anymore. Harriet hadn’t expected to be seeing her ex-fiancee for a while yet, but due to their meddlesome friends who have no idea about their break up, she finds Wyn standing right in the middle of the cottage that’s supposed to be her happy place. While both agree that they can’t keep lying to their friends, neither wants to see the disappointed look on their friend’s faces, especially when it’s found out that the cottage they’ve stayed in every year is about to be sold, and this will be the last time they’ll be able to vacation there. As the pieces slowly click into place, it’s learned the exact circumstances that ended up sparking Harriet and Wyn’s breakup, and that there may be more to this vacation than what’s on the surface. All in all, this book was simply alright. Miscommunication is usually one of my favorite tropes, but in this novel it wasn’t done too well and just ended up coming across as irritating to read. I also enjoyed the dynamics of the entire friend group for the most part, and it’s sad to see how people have to cope with the unfortunate reality of becoming older and the cons of not being able to hang out with your friends the same way, but some of the personalities ended up feeling more overbearing and controlling than probably intended. Overall this definitely wasn’t a bad read by any means, but at times it definitely made me want to put my book down.