Happy Place by Emily Henry is that book where you know the content is going to be a little tear-jerking and bittersweet, and you are hoping it will also be funny. With the themes and setting of the book, I knew it would lean in this direction the moment I started reading, and I am happy to note that, while nostalgic and bittersweet, the book carries a lot of merits with its deeper reflections.

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 six months ago and still haven’t told their best friends. They find themselves sharing the largest 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, blue week they leave behind their daily lives. Where they 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?

As far as plots go, this fake-dating scenario certainly has its twists. Throw in the conflicts and pressures of a perfect final week in paradise, and you have a tension-filled emotional bomb of a novel waiting to explode. The setting is majestic with this quaint town on the East Coast and a beautiful waterfront house filled with memories and magic. You can almost feel persuaded to go along with it all yourself, and perhaps you do. After all, could you ruin this final week of happiness for these best friends?

Harriet and Wyn are an interesting pair, and you can see how they could work as a couple, not to mention the simmering emotions under the surface. They obviously still care about each other a lot, and with their individual personalities and problems combatting with this need to appear as the happy engaged couple that could never lose love for each other, it creates a compelling drama to follow. Sabrina, and Parth but in a smaller way, acts as the main antagonist to their relationship (in a good friend way), but you can see there are secrets between them, maybe secrets they the other isn’t aware, that cloud judgements and complicant the holiday. Then we have Cleo and Kimmy, and Cleo seems to be holding something back the entire trip. Can these best friends really have the week of their dreams, or will the make believe come crumbling down? I know, of course, but I want you to feel immersed in the unknown because it is a suspenseful read so to speak, waiting for the other shoe to drop. And drop it does, my friends.

But let’s move onto something I will dissect – themes. Happy Place is full of adult themes, but when I say adult I mean things such as coming to terms with straining friendships, becoming a fully fledged adult who has to priorities other things over the fun holidays with friends, moving on from a part of your life that was exciting and relaxing, but is no longer in the cards for you. there is also the matter of losing a place that is like home to you, a place of sanctuary and good memories. When it comes to these characters, they are all dealing with internal conflicts and facing big moments in their lives, but one thing that I found really interesting was Harriet’s realisation about her work. Choosing a career pathway and then arriving at the point where you not only don’t enjoy it anymore, but it drains you in every sense of the word, is a serious dilemma. What this book does though makes all the difference. If you want to find out, read Happy Place.

Overall, I enjoyed the read and it felt different to Book Lovers in a good way, but still had those underlying themes and messages. If you’re a contemporary fiction fan, a romance reader, or simply looking for something in the vein of contemporary adult romance with little smut, then Happy Place is my recommendation to you.