If there’s one book that the collective internet has been anticipating for 2023, it’s Emily Henry‘s Happy Place. It is all over the place with early reviews, NetGalley rejections, TBR lists, and any other kind of post you could think of. I was among the lucky ones who got a coveted e-ARC approval, so now you get to read my thoughts.

Happy Place [Buy Bookshop Amazon] is a mash-up of the classic second chance and only one bed tropes. Harriet and Wyn have been the perfect couple since college, except for the part where they broke up months ago and never told anyone.

Harriet makes the trip to her friend’s dad’s cottage in Maine, aka their happy place, like they do every year. She and Wyn made a whole bunch of excuses why he wouldn’t be there, so she’s shocked to find he’s already at the cottage. Oh, and their friends decided that they needed the only room with one bed. It’s just a few days, right? But, there are a lot of layers to this story and secrets floating around, so it’s a complex story.

These pages are chocked full of pining and emotional trauma, so it’s a whole dang adventure. I do feel like the one bed trope wasn’t utilized to its fullest potential. Overall, I enjoyed Happy Place alright, but I still prefer Book Lovers [Buy Bookshop Amazon] much more. Maybe I’ll get around to reading Beach Read [Buy Bookshop Amazon] and/or The People You Meet on Vacation [Buy Bookshop Amazon] at some point after this. Drop a comment telling me which one of those two is better.