Review: Happy Place

Happy Place by Emily Henry is a forced togetherness second chance romance about a recently broken up couple, Harriet and Wyn, who spend their last friend vacation pretending to be together — because neither of them has spilled the beans about the breakup to any of their friends. 

Synopsis

Our narrative begins with Harriet explaining her love for her best friends Cleo and Sabrina and how they’ve established this friend vacation through laughter, tears, and literal scars. How they’ve expanded over the years to include their partners, and how they bounced around school to school dorming together. But it’s clear that she’s burying the lede when mention of Wyn, her now ex-fiancé, keeps coming up in blink-and-you'll-miss-it statements. Harriet gets picked up at the airport by Sabrina and immediately starts dodging questions about Wyn...only for Wyn to be at the vacation house when she gets there. And not only is he there when he’s not supposed to be, he’s kissing her and pretending the last five months didn’t happen! 

Harriet is obviously distraught and tries to tell everyone the news, but Wyn stops her each time, telling her there’s things she needs to hear first. That’s when it’s revealed the vacation house is going to be sold by next month, so the trip as everyone knows it won’t be happening next year and because of this news, Sabrina and her long-time boyfriend Parth are engaged AND having a small wedding at the end of the vacation; which leads Harriet to realize she can’t be the reason this vacation falls apart. So a ruse is born: Harriet and Wyn agree to pretend to still be together until after the wedding, then they’ll break the news to everyone and the trip won’t be ruined. The problem is, Harriet is still extremely heartbroken and Wyn is his domineering, extremely flirty self. 

Harriet and Wyn had been together for over 8 years, engaged for quite a few of those of those years, and their relationship ended over a 4-minute phone call and a promptly shipped box of Harriet’s things across the US to her now lonely San Francisco apartment. Harriet still isn’t completely sure why Wyn broke up with her or how he’s so much happier now, a fact he keeps mentioning, without her when she’s been spiraling ever since. 

 Constantly throughout the book, past and present, Harriet yearns for Wyn to let her in; for him to talk to her about his life, his hopes, his dreams, his fears, and every attempt she makes to reach him is met with subtle yet clear resistance. It’s like he’s slowly wading into a pool but never gets further in than his ankles.

Wyn asks for rules to be set so he doesn't overstep boundaries as he tries to sell the ruse and goes on to act as if everything is fine in front of the others and behind closed doors, pretending expertly to still be coupled with Harriet, which only serves to frustrate her further. Things change when the two of them get locked in the wine cellar when looking for a very specific bottle of wine for the wedding festivities to come. Since Wyn has claustrophobia, Harriet makes every attempt to help him calm down asking him to focus on a happy memory. He picks the memory of their first kiss and things gets slowly more sensual between them, only for Wyn to ask Harriet if she’s happy now, which kills the moment for Harriet. The group eventually saves them, but things have clearly taken a shift in the dynamic. 

Harriet and Wyn go on to almost have sex and then pull back from each other, which basically starts them back from zero until Wyn discloses that the reason Harriet thought they broke up was not actually the reason he dumped her. He doesn’t go into further detail, but it’s clear that Harriet has begun to fall for him again. This pattern of falling and then restarting from bitterness continues. 

After a few choice moments with Wyn that bring Harriet immeasurable emotional pain and yearning, Harriet finally asks Wyn why he dumped her and what she ever did to make him so miserable in their relationship, to which Wyn reveals that he was depressed and his father’s passing only made things worse. He felt like a failure for not finding a high-paying job in San Fran, and Harriet consistently putting off wedding planning only made him feel unwanted. This conversation seems to heal a bit of their relationship, but it’s still clear that Harriet and Wyn aren’t at a place where they can be together — despite this encounter leading to sex. 

The book then takes a sharp turn to focus on the friend group splintering after Harriet, Wyn, and Cleo decline to get matching tattoos with the whole group. Sabrina reveals that she knew Harriet and Wyn broke up and manipulated them into coming on the trip and staying together because she thought Harriet was throwing away the love of her life, and Cleo reveals that she feels smothered by Sabrina’s constant need to control everything and alienated by Harriet shutting everyone out and keeping secrets from the group. 

 if this book was shifted to be about the three main friends, Sabrina, Harriet and Cleo, growing apart and trying to find a new normal that allowed them to keep their found family without completely dropping out of each other’s lives, the book would have been ten times better

Everyone goes their separate ways, and it isn’t until halfway through the next day that anyone realizes that no one has seen Sabrina, so everyone goes out to look for her. Cleo and Harriet find her, have a heart to heart, and go back to the vacation house together so Sabrina can marry Parth.  

Harriet and Wyn have a controlled conversation where they express their minor and major gripes with each other and share another intimate moment. Harriet reveals that she’s been miserable in her job and expresses an interest in moving out to Montana, which Wyn shuts down, citing his own experience moving to a different state for someone and being miserable as a reason why she shouldn’t make the decision. So Harriet leaves for San Fran contemplating what her next move should be and lands on not letting what other people think she should do run her life. Harriet does a dramatic run through the airport to Wyn and declares that she’s moving to Montana to be with Wyn, ending her residency at the hospital she’s been working at, and becoming a potter full-time. And with that, they’re officially back together, complete with an epilogue of their quaint life in Montana.

Happy Place Review 

I have such a love-hate relationship with this book. The writing is absolutely gorgeous. Every description of Harriet’s complex, wrenching emotions you feel whole-heartedly. Every rejection, embarrassment, anger, and sadness you feel as if you ARE Harriet, which I am not afraid to admit got me to cry several times. Because each description is so vivid you really root for Harriet to find her happiness, since it’s so clear she’s been miserable for a straight year of her life, but that presents a problem for me — since I absolutely despise Wyn. 

Even in the flashbacks to memories where things were good in their relationship it never feels like Wyn actually loves her. It feels more as if she’s there and is head-over heels for him so that’s enough. Almost like he’s using her for an ego boost and sex, since every encounter has to do with his excessive touching and unabashed flirting. Constantly throughout the book, past and present, Harriet yearns for Wyn to let her in; for him to talk to her about his life, his hopes, his dreams, his fears, and every attempt she makes to reach him is met with subtle yet clear resistance. It’s like he’s slowly wading into a pool but never gets further in than his ankles. Instead, in every conversation he gives a small tidbit about his life and then deflects everything back to Harriet — even after they’ve established a romantic relationship and have exchanged “I love yous”! We hear consistently from Harriet, even in conversations she has with Wyn, how much she loves him, what she loves about him, and how much his presence alone means to her. From Wyn? Crickets. 

But what really makes me hate him is the circumstances of the breakup. Wyn is having a difficult time adjusting to a new city, having moved to San Fran for Harriet’s residency. He can't find steady work despite his business degree, which only exacerbates his now well-documented self-worth issues. Then, his father dies and Wyn is severely depressed. He shuffles around the apartment like a joyless husk and cries everyday, but he still expects Harriet to be onboard with starting a marriage this way, constantly asking her if she wants to plan the wedding, which she of course puts off to give him time to heal. Anytime she deigns to ask him what’s wrong or makes any attempt to help him work through his grief, he has sex with her to avoid talking about his feelings. He only feels any joy when he visits his mom in Montana to sort out her care, so Harriet encourages him to move back. And when a colleague of hers makes a quite entitled move on her, she calls Wyn immediately to cry and vent, to which he meets by breaking up with her and immediately hanging up — fully letting her believe the reason for the breakup is because she was kissed against her will. DISGUSTING. 

And then he has the nerve to continuously try to assuage his guilt for his objectively crappy actions by asking Harriet throughout the trip, after his shameless flirting and bouts of horniness and jealousy, “are you happy?”. Are you happy? ARE YOU HAPPY?! ARE YOU HAPPY!!?!!? 

I legitimately could not contain my rage. The only thing that got me to finish this book was a vested interest in Harriet finding a way to be contented and the truly astounding writing style. 

I genuinely believe if this book was shifted to be about the three main friends, Sabrina, Harriet and Cleo, growing apart and trying to find a new normal that allowed them to keep their found family without completely dropping out of each other’s lives, the book would have been ten times better for me. The love Harriet had for her friends was always clear and resounding despite the little time they get to interact with each other, while with Wyn it honestly felt like they hated each other for a good quarter of the book. I was only convinced that Wyn maybe did love her right before the ending, and even after letting the book stew for a bit, I still am iffy about that. Meanwhile, Harriet is always remembering the "good ol' days" and how her friendships with these two women shaped most of her adult life and how much that means to her. It's made all the more confusing because the book refuses to let the main trio interact past group events with their partners, even though one of the simmering conflicts is the three growing apart an how that splinters the group. If the trio was given more time together to truly act like friends, not only would the late conflict between them work way better, but the book would have felt more realistic. Instead, all we have to flesh out these supposedly important relationships are memories — that they still feel like background characters in.

Speaking of memories, the narrative also felt a bit confused. The flashbacks were mixed in in ways that were jarring and confusing at times, especially with such long chapters and no consistency for when flashback chapters would happen. This may have been accentuated by me reading the audiobook, but that was a sticking point for me. It’s also a sticking point that the major conflict happens between the core friend group and is resolved by only the core friend group, especially since Sabrina and Cleo feel almost background until these moments happen. It felt like a literary coming-of-age, friendship love story, and forced togetherness romance all in one, which left things feeling very disjointed. It really needed to just pick a lane and stick to it, because the three concepts — with the flashback chapters — felt like too much for one story. It didn’t leave enough room for the friendships to breathe, for the romance to rekindle, or for Harriet’s realization that she was deeply unhappy with her job and her relationship with her family to be explored. All of these things just sort of happen, mushed together in a way that makes sense but doesn’t feel like it does any of the topics justice. 

Lastly, while it’s clear Harriet definitely isn’t perfect and could have done things differently, she ends up taking the brunt of the blame for the relationship crashing and burning, not only from Wyn and herself, but from her friends too! Wyn says Harriet not wanting to marry him in his perpetually mopey state made him feel unloved and was a reason he broke it off, Sabrina says Harriet’s letting the “love of her life” get away because she’s too afraid to fight for what she wants, and Harriet begins to think they’re right — when Wyn is the one who rarely fights for the relationship! Through flashbacks and present day it’s like Harriet is pulling teeth to be with him! Every attempt at connection she makes he shuts down or becomes so insufferable she’s caught in a whirlwind of emotional pain she can barely scrape out of, and the relationship ending is her fault? I found myself thinking the best ending would be Harriet walking away from Wyn forever and learning to love herself, but that’s not what we get nor is it the way pretty much any romance book ends. 

Official Rating

Given that this is a romance book and I couldn’t root for the romance, I can’t justify giving this book anything more than 2.5 stars, no matter how beautifully written the book was, or how said writing moved me to tears. Really the writing style is the only thing bumping Happy Place from a 1 to a 2.5, and I still feel like that might be me being generous. However, you may have a different opinion, so let me know what you think.