Book Chatter

People We Meet On Vacation
By Emily Henry
Berkley, 9781984806758, May 11, 2021, 384pp.

The Short of It:

Not quite the resolution I wanted or needed but was entertaining and enjoyable nonetheless.

The Rest of It:

This pretty much sums it up:

Two best friends. Ten summer trips. One last chance to fall in love. ~ Indiebound

Poppy and Alex meet in college. They share a ride home. Two complete opposites. It reminded me a lot of the movie When Harry Met Sally. They don’t really have much in common but they vacation together once a year, even if they are with other people which is interesting. Can men be friends with women? They believe so.

The story alternates between past summers and the current one. The one where Poppy finally realizes that she is in love with Alex and has been for years. The thing is, she doesn’t think Alex is in love with her, but after a recent break-up she tempts fate and sends him a text to see if he’d be interested in a summer trip. She is a travel writer and what her employer can pay for a trip is a lot more than what she can afford on her own so why not take advantage of it?

There is a lot of back and forth with this story. A lot of he said, she said but also past and present time jumping. It took me awhile to get into it, maybe 60 pages? But I really enjoyed Alex so I stayed with the book. Poppy was all over the place but sweet and well-meaning. Together, they seemed wrong for each other but then again, opposites attract.

Towards the end, there was a lot of me thinking, let’s wrap it up which probably isn’t a good sign. This is one of those reads that I enjoyed but didn’t love or adore. As for the title, I pondered it. People We Meet on Vacation. In my opinion, the story has little to do with the people they meet. It has everything to do with them meeting up with each other every year and having to re-learn their likes and dislikes. Years can change people. Bad relationships can change people too. But good friends? They can last a lifetime.

I’ve not read Henry’s other books so I can’t compare this story with her others, but there was a enough in this book to like for me to try another book by her.

Source: Borrowed
Disclosure: This post contains Indiebound affiliate links.

Emma the Graduate

I share pics on Instagram and Facebook but for those who do not follow me there, here are some photos of my graduates! Emma graduated from high school last night. It was a lovely, brief, in-person ceremony. The song the senior choir members sang really choked me up. Her next stop is Missouri State in August.

Evan graduates from Cal Poly SLO next week. He will be coming home in a little while, staying for a short while and then heading to Kansas for AmeriCorps.

God, we love these kids. It was hard to see my son off to college but he was a transfer student and had already done the Disney College Program in Orlando so we had a taste of him being away, plus his university is a three hour drive from us. But Emma’s school will be a 20 hour drive. Not as easy to pop-in for a visit, for sure. I will miss seeing all her shows but we will try to attend a few now and then.

These next few months will be a rollercoaster of emotions for me. I know many other parents going through the same emotions right now so there are plenty of pals to have Margaritas with but wow, you figure this time will come but even though you prepare yourself for it, it’s a doozy.

Congratulations to my grads and to all those graduating this year. It was a year, wasn’t it? We never thought the pandemic would carry over into this year too. Boy, did it.

Chatting with friends about books and life…