The trope of friends turning into lovers is not new, but Henry has a fresh take on it. The book also incorporates another much-used trope in romance novels: the dilemma of being in a situation where there’s only one bed to sleep on. What makes this book enjoyable is that Henry created characters with an organic friendship, which makes for witty banter and lively conversations to flow naturally. The characters are real and well-crafted — we feel their angst and longing, we root for them to live happily ever after. It’s understandable that once you build a friendship with someone, and that friendship becomes so precious and prevalent, you don’t dare risk it by taking a chance on love. The fear of a friendship getting ruined if the love affair doesn’t work out often keeps people from taking the next step. However, I believe the best connections and love stories are the ones based on genuine friendship. As the story progresses, you clearly see that Poppy and Alex have incredible chemistry, and they pine for each other. The book is warm and authentic — it made me laugh, it made me cry, and it made me think about the meaning and purpose of my own life. I vicariously vacationed at the beautiful places like Tuscany, San Francisco and Sanibel Island which they visited in the book. The characters are well developed. We learn about the history of their relationship, we learn about their families, as well as the things they struggle with. Henry alternates each chapter between the present summer and earlier ones, starting from their first summer vacation to the last. The one thing I didn’t like was having to wait so long to find out what happened when they were in Croatia. Whatever it was, it was big — they felt awkward together and stopped communicating for two years. In the end, after the vacation at Palm Springs, Poppy and Alex are overwhelmed with feelings which they need to sort out. Poppy flies down to Ohio to a bar where Alex is enjoying a Friday evening out with teachers and delivers a knockout emotional speech. No spoilers here. You’ll have to read the book to find out what happens next. It was interesting to see Poppy draw out Alex’s personality. He started opening up to her and showed her his true self. At times, he would start singing loudly and become animated. I also loved their inside travel jokes and humorous back-and-forth. While on vacation in Canada, a woman tried to sell Alex and Poppy a tiny statue for $21,000 saying people will pay money for something that “speaks to them.” This incident led Alex and Poppy to pick up random objects and ask, “Does this speak to you?” in their later vacations, which I thought was hilarious.