EMILY HENRY
Every time I start to watch When Harry Met Sally . . . , it feels like the first time. Not because I don’t remember every iconic scene in Nora Ephron’s rom-com masterpiece—I do.
But because I hate Harry. Every time. I catch myself thinking, however briefly, I don’t remember him being this awful! Or Sally really carries this movie. During their first scenes together, I find cynical, horny Harry almost unbearable. But then Ephron works her magic, and everything changes. A softer Harry emerges, the true Harry, a Harry capable of great love and tenderness, one who only needed some time to grow up and to grow on Sally, and you.
And together, over the course of minutes and years, Sally and I fall in love with the last person we expected to.
When I started People We Meet on Vacation, I didn’t set out to write a homage to one of my favorite romantic comedies. But perhaps it was Ephron who left this indelible mark on me, planted a seed of ardent appreciation for characters who grate and irritate and infuriate, until the moment they suddenly don’t. Not only because they’ve changed, but because you’ve begun to see the full picture of who they are.
And that was what I set out to write in this book. Two characters with no obvious reason to like each other, let alone love each other. Two people with so little in common that romance never seemed to be on the table, and thus friendship could blossom. That once-in-a-lifetime kind of true, bone-deep, unconditional friendship that becomes such a part of your DNA that you could never feel quite like yourself again without it. Alex and Poppy, Poppy and Alex.
On the surface, of course, this is a book about vacations, written in a time before COVID-19, when weekends away and transcontinental flights felt much more within reach than they do these days. But as with Harry—and with Alex—the surface image of a thing is rarely the truth, at least not all of it.
This is, ultimately, a book about home. About finding it, about staying in it, about wrapping your arms tightly around it and breathing it in until it fills up your lungs. It’s about a world built for two, the magical Venn diagram formed by a special friendship: You, Me, and the sacred overlap called Us.
So, while we might not all be able to hop on an airplane or stuff ourselves into a Greyhound seat, scour Groupon for discounted country-music-themed motels and questionably safe water taxi services, I hope this book carries you somewhere magical. I hope it lets you feel ocean breezes in your hair and smell spilled beer on a karaoke bar’s floor. And then I hope it brings you back. That it brings you home, and fills you with ferocious gratitude for the people you love.
Because, really, it’s less about the places we go than the people we meet along the way.
But most of all, it’s about the ones who stay, who become home.
1.
When they first meet, Alex and Poppy are immediately put off by each other.
Have you ever made a friend after a bad first impression?
2.
What’s something you do on vacation that you’re unlikely to do in your daily life? Is there a certain comfort in anonymity?
3.
Have you ever met a goal and found that your reaction wasn’t quite what you expected?
4.
What is your worst vacation memory? Your best?
5.
Poppy is going through professional burnout. Have you ever experienced that kind of fatigue? How did you get through it?
6.
Which vacation of Alex and Poppy’s would you most want to take? Which would you least want to take?
7.
Having grown up in a small town, Poppy struggles to break free of her reputation—or at least struggles to believe she can do so. When have you felt misunderstood, and how did you get past it?
8.
Why do you think it takes Poppy and Alex so long to admit their feelings to each other?
9.
Rachel has a lot to say about contentment versus purpose. In your own life, do you prize one above the other? Are these ideas mutually exclusive, or can you have both?
10.
Do you think Poppy and Alex are going to make it?
Evvie Drake Starts Over by Linda Holmes
The Invisible Husband of Frick Island by Colleen Oakley The Boyfriend Project by Farrah Rochon
The Marriage Game by Sara Desai
Eliza Starts a Rumor by Jane L. Rosen
Royal Holiday by Jasmine Guillory
One to Watch by Kate Stayman-London
East Coast Girls by Kerry Kletter
Luster by Raven Leilani
Last Tang Standing by Lauren Ho
Something to Talk About by Meryl Wilsner
Queenie by Candice Carty-Williams
Photo by Devyn Glista/St. Blanc Studios
Emily Henry writes stories about love and family for both teens and adults. She studied creative writing at Hope College and the New York Center for Art & Media Studies, and now spends most of her time in Cincinnati, Ohio, and the part of Kentucky just beneath it.
CONNECT ONLINE
What’s next on
your reading list?
Get personalized book picks and up-to-date news about this author.