The Ultimate Ranking of Every Emily Henry Book

One day last summer, I ducked into a café on my street while out walking my dog and proceeded to stay there for the entire afternoon. My initial goal was simply to escape the mid-July heat, which had left me sweaty, parched, and in desperate need of the biggest iced coffee of my life. As I sat there lazily stirring my drink with a disintegrating paper straw, I looked up to see a tall, dark, and extremely handsome stranger walk in. My eyes tracked his movements as he approached the counter and placed the exact same order I had — right down to the drink size, type of milk, and extra sprinkle of cinnamon on top. I slipped back into my own little bubble and didn’t think much of it until a few minutes later while mid-bite of a deliciously flaky croissant, I noticed him standing right in front of me. The mystery man smiled, and I willed myself not to stare too hard at his perfect features. “That looks good,” he said, pointing to my glass, which I’d only taken a few sips of and which still resembled his order exactly. My dog started wagging her tail and wandered straight over to him — a level of comfort she never displayed with strangers. It was then that I felt it: a spark. From that very moment, I knew, deep in my heart, that something magical was about to happen…

END SCENE.

Okay so most of that story isn’t real. But who doesn’t love a good meet-cute?? The first part was true in that last summer, I spent one afternoon in a cute café mainly as a way to take advantage of the air conditioning and free Wi-Fi. I was looking and feeling rough that day — the heat had eaten my makeup, burned my shoulders tomato-red, and left my hair resembling what I can only describe as Sabrina Carpenter post-concert. About halfway through the aforementioned giant iced coffee, I noticed a woman, not a man, sitting alone nearby. I remember exactly three things about her. One: she was very glamorous, wearing a cream-coloured pantsuit and somehow not sweating her ass off. Two: she was drinking an espresso outside…in the summer. (How chic). And three: she was engrossed in an Emily Henry novel.

The whole combination lodged itself in my brain as: girl who has her shit together. That night, I bought my first Emily Henry novel (Beach Read) and made it through a few chapters before declaring it — and, by extension, all Emily Henry novels — the worst thing I’d ever read. This is all an extremely long and meandering way of saying that I was not, for a very long time, an Emily Henry fan. In fact, I actively despised the hype surrounding her books...until January 2026, when the adaptation of her novel, People We Meet on Vacation, landed on Netflix. Was the movie great? No. Did I have a fun watching? Absolutely. Maybe I just enjoyed trashing it with my friend for the entire 117 minute run. But…it did get me thinking. If the movie was fun, the book couldn’t be that bad, right? And that is how this journey began: going from Emily Henry's biggest (book) hater to voluntarily reading — and definitively ranking — all of her post-COVID novels. There were many highs on this journey, and just as many lows. SO finally, without further ado…

Keep reading for a definitive ranking of every Emily Henry book <3

6. Happy Place (2023)

★★.1/5

“Even when something beautiful breaks, the making of it still matters.”

My copy of Happy Place was gifted to me and thank god for that because I would have hated to spend any of my actual money on this book. When I said there were many highs on this journey, don’t get me wrong, there were. However, delving into Harriet and Wyn’s story was NOT one of them. In fact, in MY happy place, this book doesn’t exist. What exactly went wrong here? A better question is what worked…because the answer is not much. In Happy Place our leads, Harriet and Wyn broke up five months ago and are in a B A D place right now. During a weeklong getaway with their ride-or-die college friend group in Maine, the two must hide their breakup and fake a relationship for the sake of one last perfect summer with the gang. One of — if not the — most frustrating aspect of Emily Henry’s writing, is that she genuinely comes up with INCREDIBLE premises (then fails to deliver). In this setup alone, we have perfect opportunities involving a lethal combination of forced proximity, enemies-to-lovers, second chance romance AND fake dating…are you kidding me??? Too bad there is no enjoyment in any of this because we instead get a toxic, boring and ultimately nauseating mess (and this is me holding back). I hated absolutely everything about this book from the characters to the conflict, to the “romance.” If you are thinking of starting down the Emily Henry road, my biggest recommendation is to avoid this one at all costs. Read my full review where I go off on maybe my most unhinged rant to date.

Pros

• The cover is pink

• Maine is a gorgeous setting

• It ends eventually

Cons

• Everything else.

5. Great Big Beautiful Life (2025)

★★.6/5

“I find myself thinking that maybe every bit of heartbreak in life can be rearranged and used for something beautiful, that it doesn't really matter whether I chose this path or I was born onto it, so long as I stop and appreciate the path itself.”

I debated for a long time if I’d rank this above or below Beach Read…the only reason it is lower is because of it’s re-readability factor. In my Goodreads review for Great Big Beautiful Life, I mentioned how it was admirable that Emily Henry was branching out and trying something different…unfortunately this book still missed the mark for me. Not necessarily because it was awful, but because it just didn’t know what it wanted to be. To quote my own review, this story follows “annoyingly upbeat journalist Alice Scott and the grumpy-to-her-sunshine fellow writer Hayden Anderson” who both travel to a remote Georgia island to compete for the chance to write the memoir of reclusive former heiress, Margaret Ives. Also from my review, this novel felt like if “Taylor wrote Jessica Day and Nick Miller into the Last Great American Dynasty.” Cutting between Margaret’s past and the novel’s present unfortunately left both halves feeling underdeveloped and as dry as the sand on the Georgian beach where Alice and Hayden shared many chemistry-less scenes. Once again, 10/10 premise, 0/10 execution…read my full review.

Pros

• I read this on vacation so I associate nice memories with it

• Beachy, summery vibes (or maybe that was just because I read it on the beach)

• Hayden is a cool name

Cons

• “Chortle” makes a return

• Alice is not a serious writer no matter how much we’re told she is

• “His smile — wide enough to reveal teeth — dazzles me for a moment. I want to climb inside of it.” (if the genre wasn’t romance it would be horror)

4. Beach Read (2020)

   ★★.8/5

“If you think the story has a sad ending, it's because it's not over yet.”

If you read the long preamble to this piece, you’d already know this book would be ranking low. In Beach Read, writers (and rivals) January Andrews and broody Gus Everett are neighbours for the summer on a lake in Michigan. The two decide to make a bet that involves swapping writing genres, agreeing that January will write a dark literary novel (Gus’ specialty) and Gus will write a sappy romance (January’s thing). They will also each coach the other on their unique tricks of the trade — which is an AMAZING premise if you ask me — and yet. If you’re sensing a theme here you’d be correct. The execution here is…okay. But there’s just way more wrong than right, and for that I can’t enjoy this as much as many EH fans do. In my Goodreads review, I wondered what this book trying to be: a cute summer romance? Aspirational chick lit? A PSA on the dangers of cults? (spoiler, it’s all of the above). Then there’s the truest reason for the ick this book caused me: January’s Serious Novel: The Great family Marconi (always defaulting to macaroni in my head), her attempt at mature, grown up literature™ about a traveling circus family. Don’t even get me started on Gus’ romance novel which involved an ending only a psychopath like him could think up. The only reason this one ranks higher than the previous two is because the leads had more chemistry than the others combined…read my full review.

Pros

• Amazing title

• References the You Belong With Me music video

• The characters have chemistry I guess

Cons

• They hardly ever go to the beach

• If Gus was a country, his flag would be red

• Both leads are 1000% alcoholics and we never acknowledge it

3. People We Meet on Vacation (2021)

   ★★★.3/5

“Most of us are too scared to even ask what we want, in case we can't have it.”

OKAY, we’re finally out of the trenches now and getting to some better reads. I will admit, any positive feelings I have associated with this book are due to the movie and the actors’ performances (which were good despite the otherwise below average material they had to work with). I will also be using this Emily Henry piece to plug unrelated content, go watch Emily Bader in My Lady Jane! PWMOV is another great title, with a great premise and less than ideal execution. BUT, I do think it’s at least more compelling and well thought-out than the previous books I’ve listed. Tonally and structurally it flows better, and it (finally) knows what it wants to be. In fact, this might be EH tightest, and most well executed novel from a plot perspective. The story follows best friends Poppy and Alex who take one vacation together every year. After a falling out ruins one of their annual trips, they stop speaking until Poppy reaches out to fix their bond. I loved the leads mainly because both felt extremely ND coded…I related to both Poppy’s undiagnosed ADHD and Alex’s untreated OCD/Anxiety. I’m not a massive fan of the friends-to-lovers trope, but I didn’t mind it here. That said, I famously hate Emily Henry’s side characters, and thanks to the travel-heavy premise, this book is packed with quirky strangers, which definitely hurt its ranking…read my full review.

Pros

• Vacations

• The movie is a cute adaptation to watch after reading this

• The ending is very satisfying

Cons

• Side-characters gave me several life-threatening cringe attacks

• Poppy has a fake job

• Friends-to-lovers will never beat enemies-to-lovers

2. Book Lovers (2022)

   ★★★.7/5

“Sometimes, even when you start with the last page and you think you know everything, a book finds a way to surprise you.”

Book Lovers may actually be the best Emily Henry novel imho. The ONLY reason it is not #1 on this list is because of two key issues. First, the fmc’s sister Libby, otherwise known as: quite possibly the most annoying character to ever grace the page. Second, the wackadoodle premise which frustrates me to no end. The story follows present day yet stuck in the 2000’s era #girl-boss New York literary agent Nora (named after Nora Ephron…no really), who travels to a small North Carolina town for reasons I can’t remember now. There, she keeps encountering her overly cynical and professional rival, book editor Charlie Lastra. I’m guessing the pitch for this book went something like this: imagine the bitchy side character (always a one-off female fixture of the workplace) from every romcom who lives off $20 salads and verbally abusing her colleagues ends up in her own small-town Hallmark movie. On paper, sounds promising right? And yet, after savouring the delicious Nora/Charlie banter that may just be Emily Henry’s best, all I wanted was for this story to take place in NYC in the cutthroat world of book publishing. The small town-ness got old fast, and their Big City Energy felt out of place. In my original review, I mentioned how much better these characters would fit in a workplace setting like The Hating Game. The other issue I have stems from Nora’s characterization, which is weak and quickly falls apart. She is not Cameron Diaz in The Holiday, no matter how many times they point out her boss bitch traits — aka having to work, wearing heels and owning a Peloton.

From this ramble, it may sound like I hate this book but I promise I don’t. Charlie and Nora have great chemistry, and like I said their banter is as yummy as all the sickly sweet treats consumed in the cozy town of definitely not Stars Hollow. One other thing I love about Emily Henry books is how they all focus on books or writers or writing in some form — this is one example I find to be the most interesting. The conflict comes from Charlie and Nora’s professional dynamic and isn’t as forced as some other iterations of literary foes who fall in love. In conclusion: I enjoyed this book and I think you will too. Read my full review.

Pros

• Amazing banter

• Charlie Lastra is the best book boyfriend

• The fmc and mmc felt more sane than previous books

Cons

• Libby

• Should have been a workplace romance

• This book is heavy on the tell don’t show, a classic hallmark of Emily Henry books but maybe the most distracting in this one

1. Funny Story (2024)

   ★★★.8/5

Anddd we have finally arrived at my pick for the best Emily Henry novel to date. I don’t know what it is about Funny Story. The book is far from perfect…in fact it’s kind of a hot mess. Structurally it’s all over the place, tonally it’s even more confused. Yet, amid the entanglement of inconsequential events and weird character dynamics lies (at least imo) some of the best romantic chemistry in any Emily Henry novel, ever. In this one, our fmc Daphne has a picture-perfect romance with her dashing fiancé Peter…that is, until he realizes he’s actually in love with his childhood best friend, Petra. Stranded without friends or family, but with a dream job as a children’s librarian, Daphne proposes to be roommates with the only person who could possibly understand her predicament: aka Petra’s ex Miles. I thought we’d get Miles and Daphne fake dating each other while both attend the massive destination wedding of their exes. Add in the fact that they absolutely HATE each other but care way more about making Peter and Petra suffer than having to share a room for a few days. By the end, they realize they actually aren't so different and perhaps maybe, actually, who knows, possibly even like each other??? And Peter and Petra end up breaking up anyways at the end! Oops. Unfortunately we didn’t get this. What we actually got: No climactic wedding to attend. Not enough fake dating shenanigans.

Once again it sounds like I hate this book…I promise I don’t. In fact, the more angry I get about a book, the more I probably liked it. This is mainly because I WANT IT to be the best it could be. Emily Henry is famous for taking classic tropes and twisting them around until they are somewhat subversive and different. Sometimes it works, but most of the time (as in this case) it doesn’t so much. Daphne and Miles’ fake dating is milesss (I went there) ahead of the mess that was Happy Place. However, it is still far from being a tight and satisfying execution of the trope. The issue I have is that Daphne and Miles are friendly from the get go and even hot for each other (like way too soon, there is absolutely no slow burn here), meaning there is literally nothing stopping them from being together? They are both single, they don’t hate each other and therefore the fake dating concept has no stakes whatsoever. In fact, they pretty much forget about their annoying exes immediately after beginning to spend time together. The eventual conflict feels half-assed and don’t get me started on the slew of maybe the most annoying side characters ever (did I say that about PWMOV? Never mind). BUT, Daphne and Miles, like I said, have great chemistry. It’s undeniable. I’m not ashamed to say I consumed this book in two days and savoured every delicious morsel. So if you are thinking of venturing into the world of Emily Henry, I would wholly recommend starting right here. Read my full review.

Pros

• Insane chemistry

• If Miles was a country his flag would be green

• Good vibes and a cute summery lakeside setting

Cons

• Annoying side characters final boss

• The best friend’s name is spelt Ashleigh

• Slow burn and fake dating are basically forgotten plot points

Share

And that’s it! Contrary to how negative this entire piece may feel, I in fact can admit I am an Emily Henry fan. I love the psychological component to all of her books, how characters motivations always feel strong and purposeful, and also how each novel has a central question/theme that is always engaging and thoughtful. Maybe I’ll pop back in to refresh this article once a new book is released, but until then…

What’s your favourite Emily Henry novel?? What is your least fave?? What are your unpopular opinions?? Let me know! And until then, see you all next time xx

If you made it this far, thank you!