This was a light, fun, escapist read – exactly the type of book I needed at the moment after a slew of heavy reads. With that said though, I'm not a huge fan of rom-coms and while I liked both of the main characters Alex and Poppy well enough, there were times when the dynamics of their relationship frustrated me. I don't take well to "angsty" love stories where the main characters (both single and unattached) clearly and obviously love each other, but intentionally suppress their feelings and choose not to communicate it, then proceed to "torture" themselves by pining for each other for majority of the story. Nothing wrong with this type of setup of course, it's just that, for me personally, I don't have the patience it. The structure of the story also didn't really help things, as the jumping back and forth between Alex and Poppy's past summer trips and the current one was confusing and while I understand this was meant to show the evolution of their relationship, it actually made it harder for me to stay invested, as I felt it got too repetitive after awhile.
Overall, I would say that I did enjoy this one while I read it, but there wasn't anything special about it that would make me remember it later on or want to re-read it. The travel aspect was a nice touch though, especially during this time period with most of us having been cooped up at home for the better part of a year – I had fun traveling around the world and seeing which exotic locaiton Alex and Poppy would end up in next! The humor in the story I also felt was spot on – in fact, the best part of the book in my opinion was the witty banter between Poppy and Alex, which I definitely had a lot of fun reading.
I had read this author's previous book Beach Read last year (in May / June, so around the same time as now), also with the intention of taking a break from heavier reads (as well as everything else that was going on in the world at that time) and in looking back at my review of that book, I found that my sentiments toward it were very similar to how I felt toward this one (which I guess isn't too surprising since the stories themselves are kind of similar): both were well-written, smart, funny, and altogether enjoyable reads, albeit this one had a slower moving plot than I would've liked and also took me longer to read. Readers who enjoy rom-coms will probably love this one, so if that's you, I'd definitely recommend picking this up!
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