For the past two years, Emily Henry has been a queen romantic novelsAnd that won’t change anytime soon. If you have any of her other books on your TBR right now, you’ll want to catch up ASAP as she prepares to release her next novel that will make you want to book a summer vacation with your best friend and maybe even your ex (yes, really).
While most of us would never be in this wild situation, Emily Henry allows us to see it all unfold in her latest book, Happy place, which will be released on April 25, 2023. The story follows an ex-couple who has to spend an entire week together on vacation. When they share a room, avoid all their feelings for each other, and keep a big secret from their best friends, things get especially heated when they remember that they’ll soon say goodbye to Maine heaven. But will they also say goodbye to each other as well?
If you’re worried about just that, get ready because the official description is from Berkeley It will make you more excited:
More from Cosmopolitan
A couple who broke up months ago pretend they’re still together on their annual weeklong vacation with their best friends in this sparkling and wisecracking new novel from #1 The New York Times Bestselling author Emily Henry.
Harriet and Wayne have been the perfect couple ever since they met in college – they go together like salt and pepper, honey and tea, lobsters and rolls. Except now – for reasons they still don’t discuss – they haven’t.
They broke up five months ago. And you still haven’t told their best friends.
This is how they find themselves sharing a bedroom in the Maine cottage that has been an annual vacation for their group of friends for the past decade. their annual rest from the world, in which they leave behind their daily lives for a lively and cheerful week; eat copious amounts of cheese, wine, and seafood; and soaking up the salty coastal air with the people they most understand.
Just this year, Harriet and Wayne are lying through their teeth while trying not to notice how desperately they still desire each other. Because the cottage is for sale and this is the last week they will all be together at this place. They can’t afford to break the hearts of their friends, and so will play them. Harriet will be the surgeon-in-residence who never starts a fight, and Wayne will be the laid-back charmer who never lets the cracks show. It’s a pretty flawless plan (if you look at it from a great distance and through a pair of sun-stained sunglasses). After years of love, how hard is it to fake it for one week… in front of someone who knows you best? “
before you run to previous system Happy place (And Maybe add Emily’s other books to your TBR), don’t miss an exclusive excerpt below!
excerpt from Happy place
Written by Emily Henry
Chapter 6
The real life
Monday
The “large bedroom” is a disaster. A beautiful, stunning and nightmarish disaster. The children’s room is at the front of the hallway and is therefore part of the original house. This is in the back, in the huge expanse. There are no wonky doors that rattle, no windows you have to open with books, or floorboards that snap and groan when no one touches them.
This room is absolutely luxurious. The king size bed has sheets with four zillion thread count. A set of double doors open onto a balcony overlooking the saltwater pool and bluffs beyond, and there’s a huge stone tub and two-person shower made of paneling and dark glass.
However, if I could make a simple interior design suggestion, it would be to place one or both of the aforementioned amenities behind the door. As it turns out, they are out in the open.
Sure, the the toilet He hides in a shameless little closet, but if I plan to change my clothes at any time during this week, my options are (1) accept that I will do it with one audience, namely my ex; (2) stuff myself into the wardrobe and pray for good balance; or (3) find a secret way to sneak into the infamous outdoor shower stall next to the guesthouse.
All this to say, I’ve had a good fifteen minutes of “relax” taking private Shower while I can. Then I put on jeans and a clean white T-shirt. One area of overlap for Wyn and my country is our complete absence of personal style.
His work has always required him to wear practical clothes, and most of his clothes quickly get battered, so there’s no point in getting anything too cute at first.
For me, my over-reliance on Levi’s and tight-fitting T-shirts has more to do with the fact that I hate making decisions. It took me years to figure out what kind of clothes I like on my body, and now I stick to it.
Another solar flare—a bright memory: Wayne and I lie in bed, lamplight spilling over us, his hair a mess, that stubborn lock on his forehead. His mouth pressed against the curve of my stomach, then the crease of my thigh. whispering to all my tender members, perfect.
Chills creep down the spine.
It is enough that.
I knot my hair over my head and head back downstairs.
Everyone moves to the wooden table in the backyard. Four feet of charcuterie run through its center, and because Sabrina is Sabrina, there are place cards, ensuring Cleo and Kimmy will be seated in front of the veggie offerings, while I’ll be face-to-face with Brie’s big wheel that could be fixed to a cart in a pinch.
Wayne looks down from his phone as I step onto the patio. I can’t tell if the momentary anxiety spilling over his face is wishful thinking on my part, because as soon as I check it out, he puts his phone away, smiles, and reaches out to gather me around the waist, pulling me to his side.
Stiffly, I fell onto the wrought-iron chair next to him, and he rearranged his arm, curling loosely around my shoulder.
Sabrina gets up from her seat at the head of the table. “I’m not sure if you’ve had a chance to look at your itineraries so far…”
“Is that what that was?” Cleo says. “I’ve been using it as a door stopper.”
“A lot of it was refined, and I assumed it was deposited,” adds Kimmy, who has two jerkins sticking out of her mouth like walrus teeth.
“Those are just two surprises,” says Sabrina. “The rest of the week will be our usual fare.”
Wayne takes a chomp of a carrot, which shakes me vigorously. I can’t breathe well without the hundreds of nerve endings along my ribcage and chest pressing against it, which means I hardly get any oxygen.
“Grocery gladiators?” Kimmy screams as Cleo hopefully says, “Murder, did you read?”
“Yeah and yeah,” Sabrina says, confirming that we’ll be doing two of our usual—and most completely opposite—activities in Maine: a trip to the local bookstore (Cleo’s and my favorite) and a seriously silly way to buy groceries, which have been Barth and Kimmy’s great passions ever since. We teamed up three years ago and a “winning streak” began, as far as one can “win” at grocery shopping.
Wyn and I used to debate whether Sabrina developed the game because she was tired of our long trips to the market. There’s a great bakery on one corner, a whole local snack section, and between the six of us, it’s like shopping with pretty drunk little kids, one person walking around at a time when the rest are ready to go.
“But tonight I thought we were going to go swimming, do the usual outside cookout and all that,” says Sabrina. “I just want to enjoy the teamwork spirit.”
“To teamwork,” Barth exclaims, making the fifth toast of the day. Once Wayne removes his arm from around my shoulder, I scrape aside my chair with the pretense of grabbing my open Prosecco to refill my glass.
“To the wrestlers grocery,” Kimmy joins.
To get drunk by your body weight and hope you wake up and realize this was just a dreamI suspect.
Across the table, Cleo looked at me thoughtfully, a small gap between her thin eyebrows. I forced a smile and raised the flute in her direction. “To that guy in Murder, it’s a read that still gives us a student discount.”
Cleo’s mouth smiles faintly, as if she’s not quite satisfied with my screen, but clinks her glass–water; Cleo gave up alcohol years ago, because it upset her stomach – for me anyway. “May we always be so lucky and so young.”
It makes my heart ache, thinking about this perfect last week I had planned for us and my utter inability to enjoy it.
one day. Let them have one perfect day, and tomorrow we’ll be clean.
Adapted from Happy place By Emily Henry, published by Berkeley, an imprint of Penguin Publishing Group, a division of Penguin Random House, LLC. Copyright © 2023
Happy placeAnd Written by Emily Henry, out April 25, 2023. To pre-order the book, click on the retailer of your choice:
Amazon audible Company: Barnes & Noble Million Books library Apple Books Independent Kobo LIBRO.FM targeting Walmart Powell Hudson Book