mtv cribs: the lemonshortbread episode

SCREAMING ok book review time (spoiler free): Happy Place by Emily Henry

2/5 stars

I'm so sorry if u liked this book cuz ur not gonna like my review

I never rate a book 1 star unless it's a DNF so that's why it's a 2. Maybe it's my fault I hated it, I'm not the biggest fan of books just centered around romance, it has to be like a side plot usually for me to like it. But regardless, this books protagonists were SO BAD 😭😭😭 please please please do not read this book if you hate female leads with no spine (for a neurosurgeon, she could not identify a spine in a single labeled diagram in one of her textbooks if her lofe depended on it) and will in fact change their entire lives for a man. And not just any man, the most pick-me, non-communicative, manipulative man I have ever had the displeasure to come across. The kind that is scarily like some other men who's names I will not utter irl that I have dated before meeting my husband lol maybe that's why I hated him sm? idk. Like girl be so so so serious rn - it took her 3 PAGES to convince this man that he won't mess up her art project, and the entire time the convo was like "i'll mess it up" "no you won't " "but I will" "no you won't " AAAAAAAAAAaA
And okay, I forgive like unrealistic things happening that just kinda make things work out for the most part you know, it's just a silly little book. So pretty much my problem with it comes entirely from these 2 not star-crossed (more like....earth shatteringly terrible maybe?) lovers and a lot of the dialogue....choices made. It was very like tik-tok quirky millennial vibes. For having 6 central characters, it's weird that all of them spoke exactly the same way lol
But that's not to say I didn't like parts of this book. My favorite parts were the descriptive writing and the scenes without the dreaded man of the hour...Wyn....
Ms. Henry is great at vibes, excellent at making you feel those vibes, the nostalgia, the sights, smells, feeling, I loved her prose! And when the other 5 characters were interacting whether in 1-on-1 settings or small groups, it was great. I really wish the book just focused on the friend group rather than just Wyn and Harriett. Or better yet, if it focused on the main 3 girls who are the core of the friend group. I didn't go into this book that it would be about the main girls, I knew it was a romance book, I just kept finding myself really enjoying the scenes where Wyn was NOT around lol or the main topic was not their awful relationship. I really loved what this book could have been, because Henry is a very talented writer, so I'm just disappointed her energy went towards writing the most realistically bad man in a book that's about finding your happy place when anywhere with him is in fact a Depressing Place. Maybe if the love interest was better and the plot didn't center around miscommunication, and we got more scenes of not Wyn and Harriett, I would have enjoyed this a lot more.

have to pop in to say, i love your vibes here <3