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I’m resisting the urge to make essentially the same joke I made the last two times I reviewed an Emily Henry novel, which is that loving EH books is basically the literary equivalent of “Florals for spring? Groundbreaking.” Her books just do something to me! They’re about grief and love and uncertainty and giddiness and romance and friendship. They’re about second chances, and not just in the romantic sense. They’re often about book lovers and always about young people trying to find their way through. Happy Place is no exception. Told in alternating timelines (something I usually hate but that’s done well here), Happy Place follows Harriet, who is hiding the end of her engagement from her best friends, theoretically because she doesn’t want it to effect their friend group, and actually because she is devastated and can’t explain why it ended. This book’s alternate title could easily be Childhood Trauma — so much of this story is about characters coming to understand the role their parents, siblings, and communities play in the way they view themselves and the world, the way they handle conflict (or don’t), and the way they think about relationships and love. I’ve seen readers and reviewers struggle to put EH books in a box, but I enjoy the way she marries romance, which focuses primarily on the relationship of the protagonists, with contemporary Bildungsroman, or coming of age stories. I related to Harriet’s tendency toward avoidance and with these characters’ struggles with career and identity, and was in turns empathetic toward, in love with, and frustrated by Harriet and Wyn. If you have, had, or wish you had friends that are family, you’ll appreciate the way in which this story unfolds! This book loudly proclaims what the luckiest people already know: that a happy place can be a location, but it’s even better when it’s a person. ID1-2: Emily Henry’s novels lay in pub order on a white comforter ID3: A gif of Meryl Streep in The Devil Wears Prada with the caption “Woman loves Emily Henry novel? Groundbreaking.” via Instagram https://instagr.am/p/CuCSkT_gUQ1/