The best books are those where you feel your feelings have been read and rewritten onto the pages in front of you and books like Happy Place are excellent for that.
Harriet and Wyn are the perfect couple until they just aren’t. Being the couple in the friendship group is hard enough but Harriet and Wyn still haven’t told their best friends they are broken up even after six months.
Now, they are sharing a bedroom again on their annual getaway and having to pretend that they are together, that nothing has changed like they still love each other. But as much as they are pretending to be okay for their friends, they are faking it with each other and hiding how much they truly still wish they had each other.
If you like getting into your feels but have already devoured Happy Place by Emily Henry then you are in the right place.
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10 Books like Happy Place
The Road Trip, by Beth O’Leary
In The Road Trip, the idea of driving to Scotland is daunting as it is but when Addie and her sister are hit by no other than her ex-boyfriend, Dylan and his best friend, things don’t look good.
The four share a ride up north to the wedding they are all attending along with Rodney, another wedding guest. The novel flips forward and back between the past and present and we watch Addie and Dylan’s relationship grow then wither.
An emotional and powerful story of love and flawed characters dealing with their insecurities and trauma, this book is a jam-packed read perfect for lovers of Happy Place.
Love Beth O’Leary? Check our list of books to read after The Flatshare!
Only Love Can Hurt Like This, by Paige Toon
Wren’s life falls apart when she realises the man she is going to marry is in love with someone else. In an attempt to pull herself together, she leaves to spend her summer with her family on their farm in Indiana.
There, she meets Anders, a man who’s also trying to heal from the loss of his wife four years ago. But somehow the pair find solace in one another and are given another chance at love among the fields and trees.
But Anders has a secret that could ruin everything for everyone but is love worth the risk?
Only Love Can Hurt Like This has ups and downs that could rival a thriller but ultimately ends in a fight for love.
Same Time Next Summer, by Annabel Monaghan
Sam’s life is perfect. At least that is what she tries to tell herself. She has a great job, a swoon-worthy doctor fiancé and is about to look at her dream wedding venue near her family’s holiday beach house.
But when she gets there, she finds Wyatt. The boy who broke her heart when she was seventeen.
Hearing his guitar from next door and spotting his hair in the garden, all the feelings she had from all those years ago come rushing back. Their connection is still as strong and vivid as it was and Sam can’t deny that there’s something she wants to explore with Wyatt, even now.
Same Time Next Summer is a bittersweet summery read that lovers of Happy Place will be sure to enjoy.
Meet Me at the Lake, by Carley Fortune
Meet Me at the Lake is an uplifting and swoon-worthy contemporary romance for those who love Happy Place.
Fern Brookbanks sometimes – quite often – thinks about Will Baxter. A boy who whisked her away on a day-long adventure back in her early twenties with a promise to meet the same time a year later.
Their connection was unlike anything Fern had ever felt but then, when a year came around, he never showed. Now, ten years later, she’s running her mother’s lakeside resort where her ex is the manager and there’s nowhere else to go.
So, when Will turns up with a suitcase and an offer to help, Fern can’t help but accept. In his suit, he is nothing like the free and optimistic artist she met all those years ago yet she can’t help but think that Will is hiding something.
Practice Makes Perfect, by Sarah Adams
Perfect for people that have read Happy Place, in Practice Makes Perfect we meet Annie Walker who is perfectly content running her flower shop and is looking for someone to live a quiet life with her.
But when a date goes wrong and overhears him call her ‘unbelievably boring’, she forces herself to become freer and flirtier with the help of Will Griffin.
Will is a bodyguard who is back in town and decidedly wants to stay away from the beautiful, lovely Annie Walker but when she begs for his help to change her ways, he can’t refuse.
Faking a relationship to stop people from wondering what is happening on their pretend dates, the pair try to remake Annie as the next “it girl” of Rome, Kentucky.
Tomorrow and Tomorrow and Tomorrow, by Gabriella Zevin
Books similar to Happy Place not only tell a love story but encapsulate the human experience within pages and words, much like what Zevin does in her novel Tomorrow and Tomorrow and Tomorrow.
Sam Masur and Sadie Green begin a collaboration which leads to them creating a blockbuster video game that leaves them rich and successful, all before they reach 25. But being bright and intelligent with money to spare doesn’t stop the heart and its betrayals.
This novel spans thirty years and numerous places, delving into all sorts of human experiences but most importantly, our need for love and to be loved, romantically or otherwise.
Already read this novel? Check out our list of similar books to Tomorrow & Tomorrow & Tomorrow!
Something Borrowed, by Emily Giffin
Something Borrowed by Emily Giffin is a bestselling novel turned movie that fans of Emily Henry and Happy Place will adore.
Rachel is an attorney living in Manhattan, living a good life where she considers herself to be a good person. But that all changed on her thirtieth birthday. Her best friend, Darcy, throws her a party and somehow after one too many drinks, she spends the night with Darcy’s fiancé, Dex.
All she wants is to put the one-night stand behind her and forget anything that ever happened, for the sake of her and Darcy’s friendship. But then she realises that she has real, romantic feelings for Dex, the one man she can’t have.
As the wedding date nears, Rachel has to make a decision but the lines between right and wrong are blurring and she doesn’t know what to do.
This book looks at love in all its capacities and shows friendship and betrayal in all types of forms.
Wild Things, by Laura Kay
In Wild Things, El’s life is at a standstill. Her office job is draining the life out of her, and her passive-aggressive roommate isn’t making her home life any better.
Not to mention the completely unreciprocated feelings she has for her openly lesbian and super cool best friend, Ray.
So, when she and her three closest friends decide to leave the city behind in exchange for an old English cottage, it is the perfect escape.
Whilst preparing for their housewarming party to thank all their welcoming neighbours in their small village, the intimacy of the cottage forces El to confront her long-lasting feelings for her best friend, Ray, without destroying their friendship.
The Seven Year Slip, by Ashley Poston
The Seven Year Slip, with its heartwarming plot and loveable characters, is a great alternative for those looking for something like Happy Place.
Meet Clementine, an overworked publicist who’s formed a cage around her heart. Living in her late aunt’s flat, she is surprised when a handsome man with a Southern accent turns up.
He’s exactly the kind of person Clementine could fall in love with but somehow, he exists seven years in the past.
It’s commonly known that love isn’t just about the person but about timing and Clementine can’t help but think this romance is destined to fail.
Love, Theoretically, by Ali Hazelwood
In Love, Theoretically, Elsie Hannaway is a theoretical physicist who is working hard in her teaching gig to get permanent residence (and hopefully an office). But she lives a double life.
In her free time, Elsie offers her services as a fake girlfriend to add to her pitiful paycheck. Everything comes crashing down when Jack Smith is on the hiring committee at MIT for her dream job.
Jack is an experimental physicist who destroyed her mentor’s career as well as being the older brother of her favourite clients.
Elsie is as much enamored by him as she is annoyed. However, she can’t seem to escape his presence yet soon finds that she doesn’t seem to mind that much at all.
Love Ali Hazelwood? Check our list of books to read after The Love Hypothesis!
Happy Place and books like it are full of drama and miscommunication and push characters and their relationships to the limit. But if you ultimately like a happy ending, the books above will give you just that… or will they?
Are you looking for more books like Happy Place? Have any recommendations that didn’t make the list? Let us know in the comments!
