by Emily Henry
About this book
Harriet and Wyn have been the perfect couple since they met in college. They go together like salt and pepper, honey and tea, lobster and rolls. Except, now – for reasons they’re still not discussing – they don’t.
They broke up five months ago. And still haven’t told their best friends.
Which is how they find themselves sharing a bedroom at the Maine cottage that has been their friend group’s yearly getaway for the last decade. Their annual respite from the world, where for one vibrant, blissful week they leave behind their daily lives; have copious amounts of cheese, wine and seafood; and soak up the salty coastal air with the people who understand them most.
Only this year, Harriet and Wyn are lying through their teeth while trying not to notice how desperately they still want each other. Because the cottage is for sale and this is the last week they’ll all have together in this place. They can’t stand to break their friends’ hearts, and so they’ll play their parts. Harriet will be the driven surgical resident who never starts a fight, and Wyn will be the laid-back charmer who never lets the cracks show. It’s a flawless plan (if you look at it from a great distance and through a pair of sunscreen-smeared sunglasses). After years of being in love, how hard can it be to fake it for one week… in front of those who know you best?
Book review
Rather fresh trope, with a reverse fake relationship – pretending to still be together. It is a beautiful story of friendship and growing up. There are seeming undercurrents of the friends drifting apart as they move to different cities and grow into their separate lives, but come together still as strong as ever in the end.
However, I can’t help but draw a parallel to ‘People We Meet on Vacation‘ by the same author with the alternate present-past-present chapters and not knowing what caused the rift between Harriet and Wyn until towards the end. It felt kind of annoying to be honest, to be reading a book so similar in pattern especially since I had finished reading ‘People We Meet on Vacation‘ so recently.
I also didn’t like Harriet and Wyn very much – for two people who are so in love with each other, why didn’t Harriet question Wyn at all when he broke up with her over a phone call? Wyn also has a terrible inferiority complex and thinks he is not as smart as his friends. It’s fine if someone is not feeling confident about themselves, but I felt this issue of Wyn’s inferiority complex was emphasized so much that it overshadows his supposedly ‘laid-back charmer’ personality.
In conclusion, I was rather disappointed in this book. There was a lot of hype about this book on social media and the library has a long waiting list for it, but the story didn’t live up to my heightened expectations.
Rin Ranger 