Rating ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️/5 stars

Genre: Romance, Romantic Comedy, Contemporary Romance, Women’s Fiction

I have a love-hate relationship with Happy Place by Emily Henry for a few reasons. My biggest: you cannot go into this book expecting to be happy. At all. It’s gut-wrenching. I literally cry through the entire back half every single time I read it. I’ve reread this book far more times than someone who claims they don’t like it should, but with each reread, I understand why.

In my opinion, it leans more toward contemporary or literary fiction than a traditional romance. Maybe, in some ways, it’s a more realistic romance, but you don’t get nearly enough time between the main characters for my taste. That said, it’s beautifully written, and it makes you experience complex emotions in a way that I love.

Harriet is a neurosurgery resident who’s miserable in her day-to-day life, and the only thing she’s been looking forward to is her Happy Place, until she arrives and discovers her ex-fiance is there, the same ex who shattered her heart five months earlier. None of their friends know they’ve broken up.

The story alternates between the present and flashbacks to their past relationship, which are beautifully written. These aren’t just glimpses; we experience the past through Harriet’s point of view, seeing everything unfold as she perceives it, which makes the emotional impact even more powerful.

They are both so obviously still in love with each other, yet neither will communicate it, and that infuriates me. This isn’t a traditional miscommunication trope; their inability to talk comes from the fact that they both need to learn and grow in order to be good partners to each other. Still, it frustrates me because they’re basing their actions on misconceptions rather than reality.

I do think they may have needed to break up and grow individually to eventually grow back together, given their traumas and life experiences, but they didn’t need to feel abandoned in the process. It shows that their eight-year relationship was built on a very small portion of who they were, and who they thought the other was, rather than on truly relearning and growing with each other.

Overall, from a literary standpoint, Happy Place is an amazing book. My opinions have evolved with each reread, but that remains true. There is room for criticism regarding the ending and the choices Harriet makes to make a relationship with Wyn work. Yet I think there’s something beautiful in the idea of giving up what you feel like you have to do for what you truly yearn to do.

Harriet doesn’t give up her dreams for him, she gives up a version of herself she felt she had to be for everyone else, to avoid disappointing people. She isn’t digressing into a traditional mold; she’s giving herself space to discover who she wants to be and what she wants to do, without measuring her worth by academic validation or the imagined “struggle Olympics” of the healthcare field.

I love it. I sometimes hate it. But I still highly recommend it, it’s a book that, to me, showcases the best version of a love story the romance literary community has to offer.