Meredith's Reviews > Happy Place

Okay, I had a hard time rating this one. As with most buzzy and well loved books/authors, I tend to feel a little left out when I don’t end up loving them, too.

I’ll start with the pros:

-I enjoyed the realistic look at the struggles with family dynamics. I enjoyed seeing characters learn how to honor themselves and set boundaries

-the ending was sweet and it was nice to see most of the characters have some growth

Cons:

-I don’t really feel like anything happened until like half way through the book. The middle really dragged and there were many points where I just wanted to skip ahead because I was bored.

-while the author does write an engaging story, some of the dialogue felt really cringy and unrealistic to me. It felt like an inside joke that, as the reader, I wasn’t privy to. It almost felt like she was sometimes using slang words that I felt like I was supposed to understand but didn’t. “Stop trying to make fetch happen” 😂

-The romance, back and forth, miscommunication felt more annoying than endearing to me. It was sweet, toward the end, to finally see how much Wyn and Harriet cared for each other but, in the beginning I didn’t understand why they loved each other and that caused to not really care about them or the story.

Ultimately, I’ve been reading each of EH’s books hoping I’ll have the same experience I had reading Beach Read and they’re just not delivering. I’ll continue to read what she writes but, and I hate to say this, I think they’re getting overhyped.

3.75/5 ⭐️