Emily Henry already entertained me with the last three books I’ve read of her. Happy Place, Book Lovers and Funny Story made their way into my top 10 books of their according year. I love how different the protagonists seem at first but how they trigger the right spots and feelings in each other to eventually grow together. In You and Me on Vacation, this becomes already apparent in the prologue that made me swoon over the friendship of our protagonists. That there will be more feelings involved for certain, made me fall for them immediately and long to read faster and faster. The first chapter then again made us realize that their relationship moght be more complex and complicated then is good for them.

The story is told almost alternatingly between „This summer“ and the previous ten summers that the protagonists spent together. We get to go back to their first encounter, to when and how their connection was built, and then live through a whole decade with them. I absolutely adored this storytelling and how the author built up a lot of tension by keeping the last summer trip that made their relationship fall apart from us until almost the very end. Instead we get to feel Poppy’s eagerness to make things return to the way it was before and to recreate this connection they once shared, wondering what made them fall apart in the first place.

Emily Henry certainly has a talent for conveying lots of emotions and meaning in small gestures and apparently ordinary conversations. While we experience the story through Poppy’s eyes, we nonetheless get a good sense for Alex‘ behavior and ticks, while also sensing their significant others‘ mannerisms. I love that the development of each of their other relationships is not just a way to create drama but feels authentic for the time being–for the characters and us. I adore the depth the author could crrate for all of them and the joy and also dread we got from experiencing them with Alex and Poppy. And their relationship surely engaged me more than any other the last months. I was rooting so hard for them, and every small development, up and down, affected me greatly.

In conclusion,

You and Me on Vacation is another exciting, romantically tense and entertaining book by one of my favorite authors. I got to suggest it for our book club and thus show off Emily Henry’s writing talent to my book buddies. Alex and Poppy have certainly left their finger prints on my heart.