**Book Review: Happy Place by Emily Henry**
Happy Place is a book that brought me back into a childhood/pre-teen habit I dearly missed-speeding through a book in remarkable time, reading until 3am on my bed, and not being able to go long without needing to start the next chapter. I’m glad this is the book I chose to reignite my reading journey.
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I’m a sucker for romance plotlines where the couple has to fake it for a while, which is exactly why I picked up the book in the first place. Harriet reminds me of myself in some ways. Being the kind of person who sometimes retreats within themselves when conflict is present, choosing to distract, avoid, or please others to keep things calm, even at my own expense. Harriet’s main flaw is clear, she’s always worked hard to please others constantly, in a way that hid her true desires and needs (with her parents and later with Wyn), and also in ways that pushed others away when they could’ve helped her (with her friends and also with Wyn).
Wyn is described as handsome and charming while also being self-deprecating. I liked how he spoke to and about Harriet so lovingly but was also frustrated with him. I think although communication issues are present throughout every relationship (romantic and platonic) throughout the story, Wyn was more to blame for his lack of communication with Harriet. I found myself wondering how I could come to understand why he would break up with her in the way he did, but it’s understandable that neither he nor Harriet were equipped for the grief that followed Hank’s death.
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I found the friend group to be realistic and occasionally annoying (which is realistic). I liked and most related to Cleo, as she seemed to be the most emotionally secure out of the bunch. Her partner Kimmy was okay, in my opinion, but the least developed of the characters (second to Parth). Although I feel like if there was more development beyond the main couple and the 3 girls, the story would’ve gotten muddy. I liked Parth, but I couldn’t stand Sabrina. Not in a way that I don’t think her character was important to the story, but in a way that I wouldn’t stand a real-life Sabrina. There are people like her in real life, people who decide for others, people who meddle when they shouldn’t, believing that they’re helping. I will say a disappointing aspect of the story was that she and Parth stayed together. I found it hard to believe that she actually wanted to get married, and I was frustrated that Harriet and Cleo forgave her so easily. Everytime Cleo pushed back on Sabrina’s controlling behavior I was internally rooting for her.
I have to wonder if the friend group hadn’t come together that week, would Wyn and Harriet have ever gotten back together? Would Harriet have ever gotten closure? Would Wyn have ever stopped hating himself for not being enough for her? I guess I’ll never know.
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I’m glad Harriet was so angry with him, and that it was hard for her to hide it from him. I was just as frustrated with him as she was when she saw how calm and collected he was. I’m glad she played a bit dirty while pretending to be with him, and how he felt that he was being punished.
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I liked learning about how they came together and fell apart as they were coming together again. I don’t think it was ever about them being in the “happy place” again, well it was but really they needed the space to be mad at each other. She needed to be mad that he left her in San Fransisco for so long, and that he ended things the way he did. He needed to be mad that she pulled away and didn’t express her hurt to him.
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I appreciate that she wasn’t the reason he was starting to get better, so much of his self-worth came from having the opportunity to love her. If it weren’t for Hanks’s death, his mother’s fall, and his descent into a deeper depression he may have never gotten professional help and medication. I’m glad he found a career that made him feel worthy, so he didn’t have to constantly hold her “genius” over her head all of the time.
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Although Harriet was completely miserable without him, I think had he not left she wouldn’t have realized how much she hated her job. And she wouldn’t have stepped out of her people-pleasing role. Had she not quit and if she and Wyn were never broken up, she would’ve become just like her mother. Changing, and making decisions for the comfort of a man and not for her internal desires.
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All in all, I enjoyed the book and will read it again. This is my introduction to Emily Henry, looking forward to her other books.
by True-Author-7904