Spoilers Ahead:
Wow. I can't describe the feelings that this book gave me. So many, all at once, all of them fantastic yet heart-wrenching at the same time. I wasn't expecting to like this book at first, I'm not going to lie. I've heard a lot about Emily Henry, and I know she is very well-liked, especially on TikTok, so when I saw this book, I had to read it. I didn't look into it too much, and just read it, hoping to get whisked away, and indeed, I was. 
We follow Poppy through the book as she's stuck in a rut, and decides to take a holiday. But, in reality, she really just wants to see her best friend, Alex, even though they haven't spoken in two years. She reaches out, and it's almost as if no time has passed at all. We have a few flashbacks of every summer holiday they went on, some where they were single, and others when they brought their partners along with them - although they rarely ended well. 
On this vacation, Poppy desperately wants to rekindle her friendship with Alex back where they started, trying to ignore this massive even that left them not communicating for two years. But nothing seems to be going right. When they turn up to their hotel, the heat is unbearable, and the AC doesn't work, so they're sweltering hot, and moody. Then, Alex has a back spasm, and can't move for a day or two, and Poppy is left to look after him. Then, when they finally go out, the heat gets to Alex and he feels ill, but Poppy is trying to fit everything in, to make the holiday memorable and to get her friend back. 
When they arrive back home, it's safe to say they're both annoyed. It's only when they spot some rain that they start to feel a little bit of hope, and they have a moment. All barriers gone, they get intimate, and it's better than both of them had ever expected. 
Poppy is unsure of where they stand the next day, but neither of them regret it. They turn up to David's, Alex's younger brother's, wedding holding hands, though they part when his father comes over. When his mother died, his father went into a spiralling depression that forced Alex to look after his younger siblings, and because of that, he thinks he isn't allowed to feel happiness around his family. Into the wedding, Poppy finds out that Alex was going to propose to Sarah, one of his ex-girlfriends, and she feels like he hadn't gone through with it because of her, and she didn't want to ruin his life, and their friendship, with this. 
When they leave the holiday, Alex asks Poppy if she even wants the same things he does, like marriage and kids. He tells her he's loved her for years, but she can't even think about whether she actually wants the same thing he wants, and he doesn't want her to give up her life for him. They part on bad terms, with him telling her that she needed to figure out what she wanted, before she broke his heart again. 
The incident rendering them contactless happened on their last holiday, in Croatia, where they'd got too drunk, and started to get a bit hot and steamy. Poppy didn't want them to stop, but Alex said they should, and to stop things from getting awkward, she agreed, and said it was a mistake. Things ended sourly after that, until Poppy messaged him two years later. 
And now, Poppy is figuring out what's wrong with her life. She has a good job, but it isn't for her; it's gone stale, and she isn't happy doing it anymore. She begins to see a therapist, becoming quite depressed and unsure of who she is, and then she quits her job. She finds out that she doesn't care what she's doing, as long as she's with Alex, and she goes to find him. She almost misses him, as he's about to go away, and for a moment she thinks it's a bad sign, the words he's saying, but when she runs off, he runs after her, and they end up together, happily. 
Well, there's not a lot I can say about this book, to be honest. It left me speechless, and was definitely a wake-up call. It has friends to lovers, and it is executed so amazingly that I could literally sob just thinking about it. They have a relationship built up solely on personality and communication, with intimacy only entering in the end, and it's so refreshing to read a romance book that doesn't focus on how much they want to rip each others' clothes off. And, even in the spicy scenes, they felt natural, not forced at all, and that made their relationship even more believable. It was so funny, too - Henry has a real way with writing, especially with dialogue and relationships between characters. Very informal, and it makes it more personal, and I, personally, love that approach. I felt ingrained in this book.  
In the first few chapters of the book, I didn't like Poppy's character. I don't know what it was, honestly, looking back on it. I guess I thought she was being mean to Alex, but then I found out they were good friends, and that's when I started to understand their relationship a bit better. I really fell in love with Alex, and Poppy as well, as both of their characters are flawed, but it isn't displayed in a negative way - they're just traits displayed as part of their character, and I love that. And I love how they went to therapy to work on it, and ended up both working on themselves - it's giving *character development*. 
I also want to say that I think Poppy's character struck a nerve with me, because I saw a lot of my own personality traits in her, and that was really refreshing to see. Someone that feels stuck in a rut, like all they've got to look forward to is work and sleep, and they have to do that for the rest of their life, it's a sobering thought, and yet, it isn't written about much in any of the books I've read. However, Poppy described it beautifully, and it's nice to have some of the thoughts I've had written down on paper, spoken by someone else. The representation matters, and it makes me, personally, feel less alone. 
One quote that really stuck out to me was ‘It hurts to want it all, so many things that can’t coexist within the same life.’ Wow. Such powerful words. Just the fact she wants all these things, but it isn't possible because everything conflicts, but she can't be happy without all of them, it just makes me so emotional. I really felt for Poppy, and I'm glad of her character arc, but I also loved her before that too.  
I just love Poppy and Alex's relationship, too. It's so cute. The words, the chemistry, the jealousy, it was just everything I could ever want in a romance novel. I have a few Emily Henry books on my shelf, and I will have to read them as soon as. Very happy that I was privileged enough to read this book.