Notes from the Shelf

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Emily Henry is one of my favorite romance writers lately. I’ve been reading all her books this year, and while some have been a bit frustrating, overall they are still very fun reads with witty, flirtatious banter and relatable characters with strong community and family dynamics. Here are four books I’ve read that have similar vibes to Emily Henry.

1. Well Met by Jen DeLuca

In Well Met, Emily comes to the small town of Willow Creek, Maryland, for the summer to help her sister after an accident. She gets roped into volunteering for the local Renaissance Faire alongside her teenaged niece, and there she meets one of her niece’s teachers, Simon. The faire is Simon’s family legacy, and he makes it clear from the start he doesn’t have time for Emily’s peppiness. However, at the faire he comes a completely different person, flirting with Emily when she’s in her wench’s costume. Is the attraction real or just part of the characters they’re playing?

Jen DeLuca’s Well Met is similar to Emily Henry’s Beach Read with the grumpy-sunshine trope. There is also a ton of witty banter that brings out the couple’s chemistry organically. Well Met is the first of a series, so if you like the first one, check out the others! I will say, I didn’t like the second as much as the first, but the third was pretty good.

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2. Love Your Life by Sophie Kinsella

In Love Your Life, after a recent breakup and embarrassing dating app mishaps, Ava puts love on hold and goes on a writer’s retreat to Italy to finally finish the novel she’s always dreamed of writing. At the retreat, she cannot use her real name or reveal any personal details. When the neighboring martial arts retreat is canceled and some attendees join the writer’s retreat instead, Ava meets “Dutch.” They embark on a baggage-free love affair, but then the retreat is over and they must go back to their real lives in London. They realize the way they live life is fairly different, and have to navigate if they are truly compatible for a long-term relationship.

Love Your Life gives the same vibe as Emily Henry novels in that the characters’ relationship issues are very realistic. They must navigate how to blend their lives to make a relationship work. It is also similar in that there is escapism at first with Ava going to Italy to remove herself from dating and instead falling into a short-term fling with “Dutch” that then spills into their normal lives.

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3. Love Lettering by Kate Clayborn

Love Lettering focuses on Meg, the designer of beautiful custom hand-lettered journals for New York City’s elite. She also has a hidden talent: reading signs that others miss. For instance, when she sat across from Reid Sutherland and his fiancée and just knew their upcoming marriage was doomed to fail. When she hid a secret word into their wedding program, she was sure no one would notice. She hasn’t considered Reid was sharp-eyed and pattern-obsessed. A year later, Reid tracked down Meg to find out—before leaving New York for good—how she knew his future was about to implode. Meg doesn’t have time for Reid’s questions, unless he can help her find her missing inspiration. As they open up to each other about life, work, and regrets, they both try, and fail, to ignore the fact that their unlikely connection is growing deeper.

This reminded me a lot of Emily Henry’s People We Meet on Vacation in that it was a slow-burn romance and there were outings that the couples did to get to know each other better. Also, I would categorize it as friends-to-lovers since it is such a slow-burn. As they open up to each other, they develop a friendship first before the romance comes into play.

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4. Josh and Hazel’s Guide to Not Dating by Christina Lauren

In Josh and Hazel’s Guide to Not Dating, Hazel knows she’s a lot to deal with, with her numerous pets, thrill for the absurd, and lack of filter. Josh has known Hazel since college, where her zaniness is incompatible with his buttoned-up nature. From the first night they met where Hazel throws up on his shoes to when she sent him a nonsensical email post-surgery, Josh has always thought of Hazel as a spectacle rather than a peer. However, ten years later, after dealing with a cheating girlfriend, going out with Hazel is refreshing. But Josh and Hazel are not dating, at least not each other. Sure, they set each other up on progressively terrible double blind dates, but there’s nothing between them.

This book reminds me a lot on People We Meet on Vacation again, since it is friends-to-lovers once again, and they are adamant that they are not romantically interested in one another, just like Alex and Poppy. Also, the couple’s have similar vibes, with Poppy and Hazel being the zany ones and Alex and Josh being more restrained. I definitely enjoyed reading this book more than People We Meet on Vacation even though it does share similar vibes in terms of the relationship.

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Those are four books that give me the same vibe as Emily Henry’s books. Let me know your thoughts!

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