Happy Place

INSTANT #1 NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER! “The beach-read master hooks us again."-- Named a Most Anticipated Book of 2023 by BuzzFeed ∙ Paste Magazine ∙ Elle ∙ Southern Living ∙ SheReads ∙ Culturess ∙ Medium ∙ Her Campus ∙ Readers Digest ∙ Zibby Mag and more! A couple who broke up months ago pretend to still be together for their annual weeklong vacation with their best friends in this glittering and wise new novel from #1 Harriet and Wyn have been the perfect couple since they met in college--they go together like salt and pepper, honey and tea, lobster and rolls. Except, now--for reasons they’re still not discussing--they don’t. They broke up five months ago. And still haven’t told their best friends. Which is how they find themselves sharing a bedroom at the Maine cottage that has been their friend group’s yearly getaway for the last decade. Their annual respite from the world, where for one vibrant, blissful week they leave behind their daily lives; have copious amounts of cheese, wine, and seafood; and soak up the salty coastal air with the people who understand them most. Only this year, Harriet and Wyn are lying through their teeth while trying not to notice how desperately they still want each other. Because the cottage is for sale and this is the last week they’ll all have together in this place. They can’t stand to break their friends’ hearts, and so they’ll play their parts. Harriet will be the driven surgical resident who never starts a fight, and Wyn will be the laid-back charmer who never lets the cracks show. It’s a flawless plan (if you look at it from a great distance and through a pair of sunscreen-smeared sunglasses). After years of being in love, how hard can it be to fake it for one week…in front of those who know you best?...

Auteur

Emily Henry

Résumé
"Henry's new novel is a slow-burn romance and an ode to the chosen family we need when everything gets too complicated...The beach-read master hooks us again."
People

Blur[s] the lines between women s and literary-leaning commercial fiction, departing from the fantasy spaces of bodice rippers and misty moors to depict a world that looks a lot more like, well, our own Henry operates at the top of her and her readers intelligence, telling sophisticated, heartfelt stories that are conscious of the romantic comedy conventions without being overly meta about them Henry s dedicated readers know what to expect: wit, charm and heart, satisfying to the last page.
The Washington Post

With tender insight and quick wit, Henry delivers prosecco and sea breezes alongside startling mediations on friendship, loss, and adulthood.
Oprah Quarterly

"Just in time for summer, Henry's latest rom-com is a charming, heartwarming read about second-chance romance."
USA Today

Here she is at last, a reigning queen of beach reads Henry returns with another of her surefire-hit romantic comedies this spring, this one about a forced-proximity fake relationship Expect to see it on vacationers Instagram feeds all summer long, and deservedly so.
Elle

For the last couple of years, Emily Henry has been the queen of romance novels, and that is not changing any time soon.
Cosmopolitan

The queen of beach reads."
The Hollywood Reporter

"Another knock-out from the champ. The woman doesn't miss."
Taylor Jenkins-Reid

"Emily Henry has done it again! Happy Place is a dazzling, poignant love story about the people and places our hearts call home. Bursting with warmth and wit, this unforgettable romance is one more reason my happy place is an Emily Henry book."
Carley Fortune, New York Times bestselling author of Every Summer After and *Meet Me at the Lake

• This has the makings of a rom-com classic.
  Publishers Weekly (starred review)

"This sexy and profoundly romantic novel will satisfy fans of best-selling Henry s thrilling trademark mix of witty banter and intensely emotional storylines.
Library Journal (starred review)

Henry's novels are sparkling bestsellers, and her newest will be an immense draw for her fans and every reader looking for a stellar romance.
Booklist (starred review)

"As always, Henry s dialogue is sparkling and the banter between characters is snappy and hilarious. Wyn and Harriet s relationship, shown both in the past and the present, feels achingly real. Their breakup, as well as their complicated relationships with their own families, adds a twinge of melancholy, as do the relatable growing pains of a group of friends whose lives are taking them in different directions. A wistfully nostalgic look at endings, beginnings, and loving the people who will always have your back.
Kirkus

Happy Place proves that Henry is a writer with no skips, her oeuvre as expertly crafted as a perfect summer playlist.
Bookpage (starred review)

"If you're looking for a magical second-chance romance that will make your heart ache and read compulsively to find out what happened to the perfect couple (and whether they'll get their happily ever after), then Happy Place is sure to keep you up all night!"
The Nerd Daily

"...no matter how large your TBR list is, Happy Place by Emily Henry needs to be on it."
The Everygirl

"Alternating between past and present, Henry crafts a tender, bittersweet story about the bonds that help define us and the inevitability of change."
The Washington Independent Review of Books

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Happy Place

Knott's Harbor, Maine

A cottage on the rocky shoreline, with knotty pine floorboards and windows that are nearly always open. The smell of evergreens and brine wafting in on the breeze, and white linen drapes lifting in a lazy dance. The burble of a coffee maker, and that first deep pull of cold ocean air as we step out onto the flagstone patio, steaming mugs in hand.

My friends: willowy, honey-haired Sabrina and wisp of a waif Cleo, with her tiny silver septum piercing and dip-dyed box braids. My two favorite people on the planet since our freshman year at Mattingly College.

It still boggles my mind that we didn't know one another before that, that a stodgy housing committee in Vermont matched the three of us up. The most important friendships in my life all came down to a decision made by strangers, chance. We used to joke that our living arrangement must be some government-funded experiment. On paper, we made no sense.

Sabrina was a born-and-raised Manhattan heiress whose wardrobe was pure Audrey Hepburn and whose bookshelves were stuffed with Stephen King. Cleo was the painter daughter of a semi-famous music producer and an outright famous essayist. She'd grown up in New Orleans and showed up at Mattingly in paint-splattered overalls and vintage Doc Martens.

And me, a girl from southern Indiana, the daughter of a teacher and a dentist's receptionist, at Mattingly because the tiny, prestigious liberal arts school gave me the best financial aid, and that was important for a premed student who planned to spend the next decade in school.

By the end of our first night living together, Sabrina had us lined up on her bed watching Clueless on her laptop and eating a well-balanced mix of popcorn and gummy worms. By the end of the next week, she'd had custom shirts made for us, inspired by our very first inside joke.

Sabrina's read Virgin Who Can't Drive.

Mine read Virgin Who CAN Drive.

And Cleo's read Not a Virgin but Great Driver. We wore them all the time, just never outside th…