People We Meet on Vacation

By: Emily Henry

Narrated by: Julia Whelan

From the #1 New York Times bestselling author of Book Lovers and Beach Read comes a sparkling novel that will leave you with the warm, hazy afterglow usually reserved for the best vacations.

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

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?

Named a Most Anticipated Book of 2021 by Newsweek ∙ Oprah Magazine ∙ The Skimm ∙ Marie Claire ∙ Parade ∙ The Wall Street Journal ∙ Chicago Tribune ∙ PopSugar ∙ BookPage ∙ BookBub ∙ Betches ∙ SheReads ∙ Good Housekeeping ∙ BuzzFeed ∙ Business Insider ∙ Real Simple ∙ Frolic ∙ and more!

©2021 Emily Henry (P)2021 Penguin Audio

Critic reviews

“What Henry is especially skilled at is writing dialogue. The banter between Poppy and Alex is so natural, quick and witty that it would make Shonda Rhimes do a slow clap.” (The Associated Press)

“The strength of People We Meet on Vacation [is] the clever observations, the dialogue (which is laugh-out-loud funny) and, most particularly, the characters. Funny and fumbling and lovable, they’re most decidedly worth the trip." (The Wall Street Journal)

“Henry’s biggest strength is in the sparkling, often laugh-out-loud-funny dialogue, particularly the banter-filled conversations between Poppy and Alex. The end result is a story that pays homage to classic romantic comedies while having a point of view all its own. A warm and winning When Harry Met Sally update that hits all the perfect notes.” (Kirkus Reviews)

Such a fantastic book

I love this book! I have laughed out loud and cried while reading this book and will most likely re-listen and feel all the emotions again.

Mediocre Love Story

Very slow moving, predictable, and anti-climactic. Poppy is an unsatisfied, spoiled millennial and Alex is so bland that it's cringy. Their banter feels like it's straight out of a Hallmark/Lifetime movie. There are a few good laughs, interesting people-watching, and plenty of sexual tension. But overall, I'm really not sure how this was a New York Times Bestseller.

Loved these characters!

This book was amazing all the way around. I love the characters, the narration. Poppy and Alex I miss you already!

Engaging love story - performance is perfection

This author is very talented and I was so impressed with how she outlined and organized this book and how well she got the reader to understand the inner going’s on of her two main characters. Alex was extremely likable and I think I was falling in love with him right along with Poppy. If you are NOT living your own perfect love story, be prepared to get that part of you all stirred up. I feel like I lived the first part of this book but never the resolution in my own life. This is a book that makes you think about old flames and what could have been. This book might even move you to reach out to them!

This is one of the very best performances of an audiobook I have ever heard. The narrator does a great job with the guys voice (really keeps you in the moment!) and she truly is an actress - she is excellent with the really emotive scenes. I am SO glad I chose to do the audio version of this versus physical reading, I would have missed so much of the humor and soul of it had I not had the narrators presentation.

I think you should listen to it! I’m off to check out the authors other offerings now.

Loved it!

I was at first only going to give this 4 stars but then after reading another book (another in the same genre at that) I realized how much I really loved this book. I did enjoy Beach Read more but this is still great!!!

Emily Henry's Best Book So Far!

This book is witty, well developed and a modern day romance. I love the established character traits and how they evolved. It was realistic as well as captivating. I love both the Poppy and Alex, which is saying something, usually I dislike a one of two romantic leads. They were both PERFECT. I was rooting for them from the first moment they met at new student orientation. This book did not disappoint and neither did the people they met along the way. I'll be re-listening to this again very soon, it was superb.

fun read

I liked it had trouble putting the book down. towards the end I was getting frustrated with the characters like come on what are you doing?

Really good

Great listen… the audiobook version was well done and the book is uniquely written. It
was hard to stop listening.

Great summer listen

A unique presentation of a love story. The story line is predictable, built I thoroughly enjoyed the ride. I also am becoming a fan of the narrator.

Not my favorite

I love Emily Henry… but this was so long and similar to her other stories, that I had to skip 5 summers….