Here we go again...
Hello, my darling friends. Thank you for bearing with me as I dropped hint after hint, waiting for the moment I could finally tell you this. Now you’re here, I won’t do a long preamble, because I promised you all would be the first to hear things, and the longer this takes, the less likely that will be true. So here’s the deal:
My new book is called Happy Place and it comes out April 25, 2023 in the US (with release dates elsewhere to follow).
A couple who broke up months ago make a pact to pretend to still be together for their annual vacation with their best friends in this glittering and wise new novel from #1 New York Times bestselling author Emily Henry.
Harriet and Wyn have been the perfect couple since they met in college—they go together like salt and pepper, honey and tea, lobster and rolls. Except, now—for reasons they’re still not discussing—they don’t.
They broke up six months ago. And still haven’t told their best friends.
Which is how they find themselves sharing a bedroom at the Maine cottage that has been their friend group’s yearly getaway for the last decade. Their annual respite from the world, where for one vibrant, blue week they leave behind their daily lives; have copious amounts of cheese, wine, and seafood; and soak up the salty coastal air with the people who understand them most.
Only this year, Harriet and Wyn are lying through their teeth while trying not to notice how desperately they still want each other. Because the cottage is for sale and this is the last week they’ll all have together in this place. They can’t stand to break their friends’ hearts, and so they’ll play their parts. Harriet will be the driven surgical resident who never starts a fight, and Wyn will be the laid-back charmer who never lets the cracks show. It’s a flawless plan (if you look at it from a great distance and through a pair of sunscreen-smeared sunglasses). After years of being in love, how hard can it be to fake it for one week…in front of those who know you best?
So there it is! The book I have spent the last nine-ish months completely immersed in, writing and rewriting, and rewriting again, and then rewriting one more time, only to have to rewrite once more. I actually lost track of how many drafts this book has been through. I know I’m at number four, since it got its official title, but there were more before that. I’m not sure I’ve ever worked so hard on a book, and I really, really hope you love it, but even if you don’t, there will be more books, and I’ll keep striving to create things that make you as blissfully happy as having this job has made me.
I am so excited—and terrified!—to share this one with you, and I know it feels far off, but in the meantime, there will be more fun news to take the edge off.
If you’d like to preorder the book, you can do so here.
Now for the reason I really wanted to make sure everyone who wanted in on the grocery list signed up. To celebrate Happy Place, and moreso just to say thank you to everyone who’s been on this very ridiculous ride with me, I wanted to figure out something special just for grocery listers. My team and I went back and forth trying to figure out how to include absolutely everyone here in a special invite-only thing, and it gets tricky because there are a lot of you, and most places we would host this kind of thing have a maximum number of participants.
So here’s what we are going to do: We’re gonna do a live (virtual) event just to talk a little more about Happy Place and answer some questions and hang out together, only for people on the grocery list. Unfortunately, due to Zoom’s limitations, this will only be open to the first 500 people to show up, but what we can do is, record the event and send it out to the rest of you after, so it will still be something just for us. Not quite as fun as having absolutely everyone who wants to be there in the digital room together, but if there ends up being a lot of interest for this, in the future, we might try to figure out a way to do something like this again for a wider (but still grocery-list only) audience. And if no one really cares about doing something like this, that’s fine too! This is really about YOU and thanking you for the immense amount of love and support you’ve given me.
It’s so special to be able to speak directly to you, and tell you what it’s all meant to me. Honestly, it still doesn’t feel real. When people ask me what it’s like to have so many passionate readers (and thus to actually SEE my book out in the world!!), I always have to liken it to staring at the Grand Canyon. Like, I can see it, and I am aware how miraculous it is, and also a part of my brain just shuts down, because it feels much too big to compute. It is too big! I think about you reading my grocery list, and feel so overpoweringly honored, to be even a tiny part of your life, to be able to make something that helps you feel good, safe, happy, the way my favorite writers and books make me feel good, safe, happy.
So that’s all I have to say for now. Keep your eyes peeled on the list for the invite to our event, and whether you can make it or not, I will be sure to send it to you after!
With so much love, excitement, and the promise of more fun news SOON,
xoxo,
Gossip Girl
(Can I be sued for that?)
(Emily)