People We Meet on Vacation by Emily Henry

Narrated by Julia Whelan

I have the ebook of People We Meet on Vacation to read but when I saw that Julia Whelan was narrating the audio version, I decided to listen to it instead. Good decision past me! Ms. Whelan is one of my very favourite narrators and I don’t get to listen to her nearly enough these days.

Nonetheless it takes a good story as well for me to enjoy an audiobook – it can’t just be a great narrator. I’m pleased to report that the story is as good as the friend who recommended it to me said it was.

People We Meet on Vacation is a kind of “When Harry Met Sally” tale – so be prepared to take a very long trip on the friends-to-lovers train. The story spans 12 years, jumping around in time (by chapter) from “now” to various “thens” as the tale is told. It was never confusing and I didn’t find it at all annoying either.

Alex and Poppy met in freshman year of college in Chicago and as it happened, they came from the same small Ohio town. Their first vacation was a shared car ride home for the summer break and over the course of a memorable road trip, these polar opposites became fast friends. Every summer thereafter they plan another holiday together – sometimes going to places like Nashville, other times heading to more exotic places like Croatia.

In the “now”, Poppy is a travel writer for “R&R Magazine” a luxe travel publication. One of the perks of her job is expensive holidays which she gets to take Alex on in the summers. Alex is a high school teacher and part time writer, back in Ohio, teaching at Poppy’s old high school.

Listeners know early on that “something” happened in Croatia 2 years before “now” and that Alex and Poppy haven’t spoken since. It takes most of the book for exactly what that something was to be revealed but it’s pretty obvious from the start that there was some leakage of romantic feelings which caused some discomfort. By the time I got to it I understood the characters enough to appreciate the significance of what happened and why it led to such a prolonged silence in their previously very close friendship. I would not have understood it at all had it appeared in the book earlier. The context makes the difference here and (not that either of them are ever monsters or inappropriate or anything gross like that – Poppy is thoughtless sometimes, that’s about the worst of it). It’s just that the events themselves may seem fairly innocuous; it’s knowing who these people are, what they are to one another and what they believe they can be to one another that gives it structure.

I’ve read some reviews which found the long slow burn frustrating but I did not. I was just along for the ride. Partly it’s because the nature of the story meant that the overt romance part was only ever going to be at the end and my acceptance of that premise but largely it was my delight in the narration.

The story is told entirely from Poppy’s perspective – kind of necessary because she doesn’t realise how Alex feels about her for the longest time. Obviously it’s a romance with a HEA so we know that Alex loves Poppy and Poppy loves Alex but we don’t know know. We find out for sure when Poppy does.

Poppy is a bit (well, okay, a lot) of a manic pixie dream girl and Alex is uptight and more set in his ways. Poppy is adventurous, fashion-forward and up for just about anything. Alex wears khakis, is practical and a bit of a germophobe. Alex is not exactly grumpy but the “grumpy one and the sunshiney one” also fits the tropes for this listen. The clearly adore one another and their banter sizzles and snaps. It’s funny and fun and poignant and, at times, raw. It is here where Ms. Whelan’s narration truly shines. She acts the dialogue. I could hear the emotions in her voice, the tones pitch perfect to deliver the subtext as well as the words on the page. It’s all filtered through Poppy’s perspective of course but there are gleanings of what’s really going on with Alex in amongst it.

The revelations that they eventually come to are deeper and more nuanced than “hey we love each other now, let’s be together forever” and their journey is not without some tears but as I listened to their story I was completely convinced they’d be truly HEA. While they have very different personalities, they complement each other perfectly.

I like the tone of Julia Whelan’s voice in any event. I find her pleasing to the ear, but she has a broad range of accents and a convincing “hero voice” which I just sink into like the best comfy couch (this may not be my best analogy).

I found reasons to continue listening and was never tempted to switch to the ebook no matter how much I wanted to find out what was next; I’m convinced the story was more successful for me because of the narrative performance.

I found Poppy and Alex’s story charming and fun and I was just happy to be along for the ride.

Kaetrin

---

Buy People We Meet on Vacation by Emily Henry on Amazon