Happy Place by Emily Henry #EmilyHenry @justjuliawhelan @PRHAudio @librofm

the setup…
Harriet (Harry) Kilpatrick met Sabrina and Cleo, her two best friends, when they were assigned as roommates in college. It was a match that seemed to be made in heaven as, despite them being so different in natures, they bonded quickly and permanently. The group grew to add two more friends, Wyn Connor & Parch who ended up in relationships with Harry and Sabrina, respectively, and later Cleo’s girlfriend Kimmy rounded out the crew rather nicely. They met annually at Sabrina’s family cottage in Maine for a week of fun, relaxation and connection…Harry’s happy place. Eight years ago, Harry and Wyn became engaged but six months ago, they suddenly ended their relationship. They’ve yet to tell their friends and when they get roped into attending the annual get together, Harry and Wyn reluctantly agree to pretend all is well and fake their way through the week, important because it would be the last at the cottage since it was being sold by Sabrina’s father.

the heart of the story…
It was Wyn who ended the relationship with Harry and he wasn’t very forthcoming about the reasons why. Harry is a surgical resident in San Francisco and he’s an upholsterer now working in his family’s Montana business but the long distance wasn’t really the factor. Harry’s emotions ran the gamut from being angry and heartbroken to ambivalent. She’s still in love with the man but is determined to not let him know her despair. They’re also forced to share a bedroom, adding another challenge to their fake persona. However, it was the deep friendship between Harry, Sabrina and Cleo that I found to be the most precious aspect of this story. The fear of disrupting the heartbeat of the group is what drove Harry & Wyn to be so duplicitous but causing them to face their breakup for the first time.

the narration…
Whelan never fails to deliver a great performance and did so here. She gave distinction to all of the friends, creating voices that seemed to fit their personalities perfectly.

the bottom line…
While there were a lot of humorous moments, I found the story to have much more depth as each of the women were coping with issues that were causing them to become more distant and disconnected from each other. Harry & Wyn’s forced reunion was cathartic, not only for them but the entire group. I enjoyed the journey they all undertook and the strong themes around friendship. They were three extraordinary women individually but their relationship with each other was special. It didn’t distract from Harry & Wyn’s situation because it was all so connected. It was a more complicated story than I’d anticipated, a very good thing.

Book Info

Release Date: April 25, 2023
Narrator: Julia Whelan
Audio Length: 11 hours, 3 minutes
Publisher: Penguin Audio

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(Thanks to Libro.fm and the publisher for my complimentary copy. All opinions are my own.)