I knew I liked to keep everyone happy, but it’s wild when you start realizing all of the little ways that you might be managing or trying to mitigate other people’s feelings. She says later in the novel, “I’d do anything to go back to that happy place, outside of time, where nothing from real life can touch us.” What led you to write Happy Place from Harriet’s perspective, as a character balancing what it means to be happy with what’s real in her life?Įmily Henry: I wanted to write about someone who was a people pleaser, because I’m a people pleaser, and I was really just starting to realize how much of a people pleaser.

Here, Henry discusses her writing process with Bookselling This Week.īookselling This Week : Happy Place alternates chapters between what Harriet describes as her “happy place” versus “real life”. “Emily Henry is the master of the romance novel and Happy Place is her best one yet!”

“ Happy Place is absolute magic, bottled up and delivered in the form of saccharine summer days, happiness, teary moments, and newfound longing,” said Robin Limeres of Phoenix Books in Burlington, Vermont. Happy Place follows Harriet as she and her ex-fiancé, Wyn, fake date their way through an annual couples’ trip while deciding if love and friendship are worth fighting for as their group enters new stages of adulthood. Independent booksellers across the country have chosen Emily Henry’s Happy Place (Berkley) as their top pick for the May 2023 Indie Next List.

Emily henry happy place