You and Me on Vacation | ARC Review #18

THIS BOOK SPEAKS TO ME!

About The Book

Title: You and Me on Vacation | By: Emily Henry

Expected Publication: 8 Jul 2020 | By: Penguin UK

Pace: Fast | Pages: 368 |Age: 13+

Standalone | Genre: Contemporary Romance

12 SUMMERS AGO: Poppy and Alex meet. They hate each other, and are pretty confident they’ll never speak again.

11 SUMMERS AGO: They’re forced to share a ride home from college and by the end of it a friendship is formed. And a pact: every year, one vacation together.

10 SUMMERS AGO: Alex discovers his fear of flying on the way to Vancouver.
Poppy holds his hand the whole way.

7 SUMMERS AGO: They get far too drunk and narrowly avoid getting matching tattoos in New Orleans.

2 SUMMERS AGO: It all goes wrong.

THIS SUMMER: Poppy asks Alex to join her on one last trip. A trip that will determine the rest of their lives.

You and Me on Vacation is a love story for fans of When Harry Met Sally and One Day. Get ready to travel the world, snort with laughter and – most of all – lose your heart to Poppy and Alex.

 | Goodreads  |

I received a copy of this book from Penguin UK courtesy of NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. All thoughts and opinions expressed here are my own.The quote is taken from an ARC and is subject to change upon publication.

Triggers: Bullying

It’s been a long time since I indulged in a Romance novel, not in the traditional sense. This book was so freaking cute. It was goofy, hilarious, and made me smile like an idiot for the silliest things. Even I got used to Alex’s sad puppy face. It was so adorable and made me smile without any effort.

The story is told in a back-and-forth manner from Poppy’s perspective, which traces back to Alex and Poppy’s friendship 12 summers before and switches to the present. So you have one chapter in the present, and then you are taken back to each summer they traveled and records their memories and journey.

I could connect more with Alex. He was an introvert who had a book in his hand, likes to be in a clean environment, and a stuck-to-the-rules and organized kinda guy. I liked their first two encounters; even Poppy couldn’t have guessed that she would be best friends with Alex after those chance encounters.

Poppy was outspoken, funny, loved to travel and meet new people. Her view of life was simple– to live in the present. Alex and Poppy’s relation stayed the same except for 3 summers. They were in their 30’s, but they were so alive and spirited. Life wasn’t dull when they were together. They made every moment together with something memorable. We all get these details in the flashbacks, and you can see how Poppy wants to go back to that and put an end to the awkwardness between them.

I liked David, Alex’s younger brother. He appeared in few chapters, but he was adorable. He was gay and liked his and his boyfriend’s representation in the book. They treated them as any other person in the book and appreciated the writing to pull off this rep.

Each chapter was descriptive, and I could almost see the places through Poppy’s POV. The writing was slightly different from the romance authors I was used to, and it felt as though it was demanding my attention so that I wouldn’t miss any small details.

I felt that the last two summers in the book could have been placed earlier than saving it for the end. Because that made the plot focus more on the past, which left very little time for the story to get back to the present.

This is a slow-burn, friends-to-lover romance novel. So I didn’t find much change in their relationship after taking it to the next step. This trope often tends to push the romance aspect to the background, which happened in this story, making it more a story of friendship than love.

I had to overlook the cliché elements in the book. Some chapters were corny, but it wasn’t too cringy but too sweet to handle. There are very few Romance authors who made me feel like this, including Emily Henry. I like books when they touch me emotionally when they make me smile, cry or make me want to be in the book. So in that light, this book moved me and made me feel bubbly and grin throughout like an idiot.

One thing that struck me after reading this book was the idea of friendship-breakup. Sometimes friendship is taken for granted and never worked on it as much as love. This book was a story about mending the broken connection between Poppy and Alex, which they had for a decade. A second chance to their decade-long memories, travel, and love.

I love this book. Thoroughly enjoyed it. Since this is a friends-to-lovers trope, the book mostly concentrated on friendship, eventually leading to love. It is light, adorable, well written, and filled with so many itineraries. I liked travel books; and, that combined with romance is the perfect book for me. I highly recommend this book to anyone who loves reading Romance novels.

There’s nothing in this whole world that I’ve built in my head that I’m not prepared to go of to build a new one with you.

My Rating: 3.4

I kept the tagline short for this book. It is also a line that appears often in the book, and I couldn’t think a better way of summing-up my thoughts in a single line than that. Let me know if you read Romance or not. If yes, then recommend me your favorites; if no, then tell me why you dislike them.