happy indeed :)

I imagine this book has a lot of similarities to the The Summer I Turned Pretty series, because it was certainly reminiscent of the TV adaptation I've seen several times. Which is so fun! And what I look for in a romance book with a fun, colorful cover like this one! It encapsulates what I imagine an East coast summer surrounded by best friends would feel like (I've only experienced West Coast summers in my 23 years of life thus far). And really, I loved all the romance packed into this story, but most of my post-read thoughts are drifting to this book's strong female friendships. As I've noted with Book Lovers, Emily Henry knows how to write some great dialogue; I feel like her characters actually talk the way people talk in real life, even if those things are cringey at times. But through the dialogue and flashbacks, the relationships between Harriet, Cleo, and Sabrina jump up in three dimensional, relatable quality. From the very first chapter, nostalgia for specific college memories of mine had me hooked. Because the descriptions we get of these three girls going from randomly-placed college roommates to inseparable, sister-level kinds of friends is something I've been blessed to experience in my own life. The motif of a happy place, whether existing in Harriet's state of mind or the physical Maine beach house and quaint town, also manifests in how Cleo and Sabrina are a part of her girlhood, during and post-college. I could get so sappy with my own recollections of meeting my versions of Cleo and Sabrina, of dinners and beach trips and movie nights and late night drives that solidified friendships I can't believe I ever lived without. But I'll cut it short here by saying this: my favorite part of this book is its spotlight on the importance of holding onto best friendships through life's changing seasons. I should mention Wyn now, cause I love him and his self-deprecating humor, furniture making, and cute gentlemanly manners. He's a golden retriever/boyfriend/leading rom-com man if I've ever seen one. I like how he and Harriet balance each other out in so many subtle ways, and how they like to point those things out even when they're fighting and technically broken up. The fake dating trope popped off again and again and again. I loved the tension. I think one of Henry's strongest narrative decisions was  jumping back and forth between the series of events happening at the beach house post-breakup, and revealing the story of how they met, fell in love, and broke up. Clues are dropped left and right about what happened, because I really was leaning in thinking what happened, these two kids are clearly meant for each other. But when the whole picture comes into focus, and they finally talk about what should've been talked about months ago (classic miscommunication trope), the pay off was satisfying. I will say this, though -- I started to get annoyed with the pacing just a smidge. I have a minimal understanding of the romance genre's general plot blueprint, but I know it relies on dramatic irony. Aka, readers screaming like the characters can hear them, Just talk about it! You clearly love each other! But the amount of times Harriet and Wyn acknowledge that there isn't anyone else for them but each other almost made the whole thing feel like a joke. Because, if I were them, I would throw the rest of my cares and anxieties to the wind and say, I love you. We'll figure out everything else as we go along. So when Wyn says they should choose to be together rather than in love from a distance, I actually threw my fist in the air and said, "Finally!" Okay. Rant over. I did, however, like this book's spin on the "third-act breakup," instead having the two love interests broken up before the story's really begun. I cannot tell a lie -- Book Lovers still sits on its pedestal as my favorite romance novel, but this one's sitting primly on the pedestal right below. :)

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Some of my favorite quotes from Happy Place:

"My best friends taught me a new kind of quiet, the peaceful stillness of knowing one another so well you don’t need to fill the space. And a new kind of loud: noise as a celebration, as the overflow of joy at being alive, here, now."

"Like even when something beautiful breaks, the making of it still matters."

"I want my life to be like-like making pottery. I want to enjoy it while it's happening, not just for where it might get me eventually."

"He laughs against my cheek. I wish I could swallow the sound, that it would put down roots in my stomach and grow through me like a seed."

"'What if she wants to be alone?'
She has a point. It’s possible.
But people don’t run or hide only when they want to be alone.
'What if,' I say, 'she needs to know she isn’t?'"

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