People We Meet on Vacation
Fiction
Berkley
May 11, 2021
Paperback
384
Purchased
Poppy and Alex. Alex and Poppy. They have nothing in common. She’s a wild child; he wears khakis. She has insatiable wanderlust; he prefers to stay home with a book. And somehow, ever since a fateful car share home from college many years ago, they are the very best of friends. For most of the year they live far apart—she’s in New York City, and he’s in their small hometown—but every summer, for a decade, they have taken one glorious week of vacation together.
Until two years ago, when they ruined everything. They haven’t spoken since.
Poppy has everything she should want, but she’s stuck in a rut. When someone asks when she was last truly happy, she knows, without a doubt, it was on that ill-fated, final trip with Alex. And so, she decides to convince her best friend to take one more vacation together—lay everything on the table, make it all right. Miraculously, he agrees.
Now she has a week to fix everything. If only she can get around the one big truth that has always stood quietly in the middle of their seemingly perfect relationship. What could possibly go wrong?
I've been sharing some rather heavy reads for the last week or so, it's time to change it up a bit and recommend what I would call a true "beach read". Everyone has a different criteria for what they consider a beach read, but mine is usually something that involves a beachy location, and most often a romance. Summer is the only time that I seem to gravitate to romance reads, so get ready for a few of them over the next few months.
Now just because I tend to read more romance books over the summer, doesn't mean they all work for me (even in the season). I have very high standards for a romance to work, and this one fit the bill perfectly! I loved the characters of Poppy and Alex. For me to enjoy this type of book, the characters have to be skillfully crafted, and I have to become fully invested in them individually before I'm ever going to come close to believing in their romance. The banter between these two was some of the best I've read, it was cute without being cutesy (and there is definitely a difference when it comes to grown adults). I enjoyed the format of how this was written. We have the present day vacation interspersed with the previous vacations starting twelve years back and continuing until the ill fated one two years prior. The present day vacation has its share of pitfalls, but these two navigate it hilariously. While I was rooting for them to work things out, I would have been happy with any ending where they maintained a friendship and kept going on vacation!
One of my first beach read recommendations of the summer season (see also The Newcomers, The Siren and Last Summer at the Golden Hotel, which I reviewed previously and would also make great choices). I loved these two characters and would love to see what they are up to down the road (a sequel would be great!).
