Emily Henry Books in Order: A Journey Through Her Best Novels

I still remember the moment I stumbled upon my first Emily Henry book. It was the summer of 2020, the world wrapped in the surreal quiet of lockdown. My days felt like echoes of each other—too much screen time, too little joy. I missed bookstores, coffee shop eavesdropping, and the simple act of planning a future. That’s when I downloaded Beach Read on a whim.

The name Emily Henry didn’t ring a bell then. But by the time I finished the book, I was hooked—not just on the story, but on her storytelling. There was something profoundly human in how she wove humor and heartbreak, how she made her characters feel like old friends and aching wounds all at once.

From that point forward, I was determined to read all the Emily Henry books ever written—and that journey became a kind of emotional roadmap through my own shifting world. Here’s how it unfolded.

Beach Read (2020): The Beginning of It All

Beach Read by Emily Henry It started with Beach Read. The premise was simple: January Andrews, a romance author grieving her father’s death, moves into his secret lake house and finds herself neighbors with Gus Everett—her cynical literary rival. They strike a deal to swap genres, and sparks fly.

But what set it apart from typical rom-coms was its emotional honesty. January wasn’t just writing a romance—she was learning what love means when the fairy tale ends. Gus wasn’t just a grump; he was a man carrying trauma so quietly it took chapters to hear it. It was funny, yes. But it was also raw. Beach Read didn’t just give me escapism—it gave me reflection.

It was more than a book. It was a balm.

I devoured it in two days.

I googled “Books by Emily Henry” before the credits even rolled.

People We Meet on Vacation (2021): Nostalgia in Every Page

People We Meet on Vacation by Emily Henry Next came People We Meet on Vacation. I didn’t even read the blurb—I just trusted her by then.

This story followed Poppy and Alex—polar opposites, best friends, vacation partners for a decade. But something had broken between them two years prior. Now, they take one final trip to heal whatever had gone wrong.

This book felt like summer bottled in words—airports, awkward hotel rooms, inside jokes, years of unspoken feelings. It was written in alternating timelines—one chapter in the present, the next a memory from a past vacation. By the end, I felt like I had traveled with them through time, watching them fall in love over and over again.

This was the moment I realized: Emily Henry books don’t just tell love stories. They unearth the quiet, overlooked chapters of our lives—friendship, loyalty, silence, and the moment when pretending everything is okay stops being enough.

Book Lovers (2022): For the Readers Who Felt Seen

Book Lovers by Emily Henry If People We Meet on Vacation was the nostalgia of friendship, Book Lovers was the romance of reinvention.

Nora Stephens was a literary agent—a self-proclaimed villain in her own Hallmark plot. When her sister insists on a summer in the tiny town of Sunshine Falls, she runs into none other than Charlie Lastra, a grumpy editor from back home. They’re rivals. Until they’re not.

This felt like Emily Henry’s love letter to people like me—people who grew up with their nose in a book and a to-do list in their soul. Nora was ambitious, unapologetic, and terrified of needing someone. Her dynamic with Charlie was sizzling, but their relationship unfolded through vulnerability, not fireworks.

As someone who often feels “too much,” I cried while reading this book. It was the first time I saw myself on the page—not just the reader, but the character. And that’s when I knew I had to read not just the new Emily Henry books, but every one she’d ever written.

Happy Place (2023): Love After the End

Happy Place by Emily Henry By the time Happy Place released, reading books by Emily Henry had become a ritual. I would pre-order. Cancel plans. Make tea. And let the words undo me.

This one was a second-chance romance: Harriet and Wyn had broken up but hadn’t told their friends. Now, stuck in a summer house with the very people who once defined their love, they must pretend they’re still together—for one last vacation.

What made this book unforgettable wasn’t just the slow-burning tension or the gorgeous Maine setting. It was the truth it told: that sometimes love doesn’t die, it just gets buried under miscommunication, ambition, and fear.

Happy Place was about chosen family, about the moments that make us, and the ways we lose ourselves trying to keep others happy. It was tender and shattering and beautiful.

It made me look at my own relationships and ask: What do we preserve, and what do we let go?

Funny Story (2024): The Power of Starting Over

Funny Story by Emily Henry Then came Funny Story. And oh, how I needed it.

After a particularly rough winter, I picked it up hoping for comfort—and found exactly that. This time, Emily gave us Daphne and Miles, two jilted exes left behind by their respective partners who ran off with each other. They become roommates by necessity and friends by accident. And eventually—something more.

Set in a small Michigan town, the book was cozy, charming, and unexpectedly profound. Daphne, a librarian, felt adrift in her own story. Miles, chaotic and warm, helped her rewrite it.

There was something delightful about watching two people find solace in each other not through grand gestures but through routines: shared breakfasts, music playlists, the quiet safety of someone who listens.

Among all Emily Henry books, this one reminded me most that healing often comes through the people we least expect—and sometimes, through stories that feel ordinary on the surface but are quietly extraordinary beneath.

The Love That Split the World (2016): Where It All Began

The Love That Split the World by Emily Henry After the emotional high of her adult romances, I decided to journey backward—into the magical realism of her YA roots.

The Love That Split the World was Emily Henry’s debut—and it was as ambitious as it was beautiful. Natalie Cleary begins seeing cracks in her reality. One night, a mysterious woman appears and warns her: “You have three months to save him.” Then she meets Beau, and suddenly, timelines shift.

This book was part metaphysical thriller, part love story, and part spiritual reckoning. It explored identity, culture, and the spaces we inhabit—not just physically, but spiritually.

It was also deeply personal. Natalie is a Native girl adopted into a white family, and her search for belonging—culturally, romantically, universally—was quietly devastating.

While different in tone from her newer work, it held the same heart: love wrapped in mystery, characters asking the big questions, and a prose style that felt like music.

A Million Junes (2017): Grief, Memory, and Magic

A Million Junes by Emily Henry Of all the early Emily Henry books, A Million Junes might be the one that haunts me most.

Set in a rural town ruled by folklore and family feuds, it follows June O’Donnell, who’s always been warned to avoid the Angerts. But when she falls for Saul Angert, the truth behind their families’ rift begins to unravel—through ghostly visions, cursed apples, and surreal memories.

It was grief turned into poetry.

Reading it was like peeling an onion made of stardust and regret. I kept thinking about how much we inherit—from the people who raise us, the love they couldn’t show, the secrets they left behind.

This was not just a romance. It was an exploration of memory as magic, and forgiveness as freedom.

And by the end, I didn’t just want to forgive others. I wanted to forgive myself.

When the Sky Fell on Splendor (2019): Friendship in a Dying Town

Then came When the Sky Fell on Splendor, perhaps her most atmospheric book.

Set in a post-industrial Ohio town, it follows Franny and a group of misfit teens who call themselves “The Ordinary.” After witnessing a mysterious explosion, they begin experiencing supernatural visions—and unraveling secrets none of them are prepared for.

This wasn’t a traditional love story. It was a love letter to friendship—to the kind that saves you when everything else falls apart. It explored trauma and survival, what happens after the disaster, and how we find meaning when the world we knew no longer exists.

I read it during another wave of the pandemic, when the world felt fragile again. The story reminded me of the magic of small communities, the resilience of teenagers, and the strange grace of not having all the answers.

It was raw, luminous, and deeply personal.

Hello Girls (2019, with Brittany Cavallaro): The Road to Freedom

Hello Girls by Emily Henry and Brittany Cavallaro Co-written with Brittany Cavallaro, Hello Girls was a wild ride. Literally.

It follows Winona and Lucille, two high school seniors escaping their abusive homes. They steal a car, some cash, and hit the road, determined to start over. What they find along the way is danger, betrayal, empowerment—and each other.

This was Emily Henry at her most unapologetically feminist. There was anger in these pages—righteous, blistering, deserved. But there was also tenderness. The kind that forms when two girls save each other, not through magic or romance, but through solidarity.

If her other books asked what it means to love, this one asked what it means to survive—and thrive.

And I loved it for that.

Great Big Beautiful Life (2025)

The One That Felt Like a Masterpiece

Great Big Beautiful Life by Emily Henry By the time Great Big Beautiful Life landed in my hands, I wasn’t just a fan—I was a devotee. I had walked with Emily Henry through magical worlds, soul-healing romances, and devastating heartbreaks. But this book? This was different. This felt like her most ambitious novel yet—sweeping, literary, layered with love and legacy.

The story follows Alice, a bright-eyed journalist desperate for a career-defining feature. Her subject: the enigmatic Margaret Ives, a reclusive former socialite-turned-artist who vanished from public life two decades ago and now lives quietly on a secluded Georgia island. But Alice isn’t the only one vying for the scoop. Hayden, a brooding, Pulitzer Prize-winning biographer, is already living on the island, deeply embedded in Margaret’s world.

What begins as a professional rivalry becomes a slow-burning, emotionally tense love story between two writers who carry their own burdens—failures, family trauma, and fractured dreams. As Alice and Hayden dig into Margaret’s past—piecing together her lost years, her estranged daughter, and the real reason she walked away from fame—they’re forced to examine their own stories. What parts have they chosen to tell? And what parts have they left out of their own narratives?

This novel was quieter than her romances, more meditative, but no less affecting. It was a book about writing, legacy, and the people we become when the spotlight fades. And in true Emily Henry fashion, it was filled with longing, resilience, and a love that simmered slowly until it became undeniable.

When I closed Great Big Beautiful Life, I sat in silence for a long time. It felt like the final piece in a decade-long mosaic—a portrait of everything Emily Henry had been building toward. From Natalie’s dual realities to Poppy and Alex’s missed moments, from Daphne’s fake dating to Alice’s literary rivalry, it all traced back to the same heartbeat: we are stories—unfinished, imperfect, and worth telling anyway.

Why These Books Resonate

Emily Henry’s evolution—from YA magical realism to nuanced adult romantic comedies—comes with an internal consistency: razor-sharp dialogue, longing protagonists, and emotional stakes that transcend genre boundaries.

Her YA novels explore time, memory, and grief through supernatural lenses.
Her adult romances combine humor and heart with literary meta-themes—writers writing about writing—while wrestling with personal trauma, identity, and growth.

Recurring motifs include found family (When the Sky Fell On Splendor), sibling bonds (Book Lovers), second chances (Happy Place), impostor syndrome (Beach Read), and cultural legacy (Love That Split the World).

Each novel feels emotionally intelligent: self-aware, bittersweet, and deeply character-driven. Henry never shies from emotional labor in service of a satisfying, authentic payoff—with banter that warms and dialogue that scalds. Critics and readers alike appreciate her as a modern-day rom-com auteur who understands both laughter and tears.