If you’re looking to discover the best Emily Henry books, I’ve ranked her adult romance books in this book list to give you an idea of where to start!
I adore Emily Henry’s books, not only because they are wonderful romance books but also because they bring so many readers to the romance genre.
The romance book genre can get a bad rap but Emily Henry’s romance books have consistently hit the New York Times bestseller list and I love that they’ve reached this broad appeal. Check out her best books below to determine which you should read first.
*Disclosure: This post may include affiliate links. As an Amazon Associate, I earn from qualifying purchases.
The Best Emily Henry Books Ranked
#1 People We Meet on Vacation
by Emily Henry
Friends to Lovers Romance
5 stars
Poppy and Alex. Alex and Poppy. They have nothing in common. She’s a wild child; he wears khakis. She has insatiable wanderlust; he prefers to stay home with a book.
And somehow, ever since a fateful car share home from college many years ago, they are the very best of friends.
For most of the year they live far apart—she’s in New York City, and he’s in their small hometown—but every summer, for a decade, they have taken one glorious week of vacation together.
Until two years ago, when they ruined everything. They haven’t spoken since.
Poppy has everything she should want, but she’s stuck in a rut. When someone asks when she was last truly happy, she knows, without a doubt, it was on that ill-fated, final trip with Alex.
And so, she decides to convince her best friend to take one more vacation together—lay everything on the table, make it all right. Miraculously, he agrees.
Now she has a week to fix everything. If only she can get around the one big truth that has always stood quietly in the middle of their seemingly perfect relationship. What could possibly go wrong?
Pick People You Meet on Vacation if you want to read a friends to lovers romance that will sweep you away to different locations. It’s the perfect summer romance book to take on your own vacation or to read on a staycation.
It’s my favorite Emily Henry book because the tension and chemistry between Poppy and Alex is so palpable despite them being complete opposites.
Related: People We Meet on Vacation Movie Guide
#2 Funny Story
by Emily Henry
Roommates to Lovers Romance
4.5 stars
Daphne always loved the way her fiancé Peter told their story. How they met (on a blustery day), fell in love (over an errant hat), and moved back to his lakeside hometown to begin their life together.
He really was good at telling it…right up until the moment he realized he was actually in love with his childhood best friend Petra.
Which is how Daphne begins her new story: Stranded in beautiful Waning Bay, Michigan, without friends or family but with a dream job as a children’s librarian (that barely pays the bills), and proposing to be roommates with the only person who could possibly understand her predicament: Petra’s ex, Miles Nowak.
Scruffy and chaotic—with a penchant for taking solace in the sounds of heart break love ballads —Miles is exactly the opposite of practical, buttoned up Daphne, whose coworkers know so little about her they have a running bet that she’s either FBI or in witness protection.
The roommates mainly avoid one another, until one day, while drowning their sorrows, they form a tenuous friendship and a plan.
If said plan also involves posting deliberately misleading photos of their summer adventures together, well, who could blame them?
But it’s all just for show, of course, because there’s no way Daphne would actually start her new chapter by falling in love with her ex-fiancé’s new fiancée’s ex…right?
Pick Funny Story if you want a roommates to lovers romance where two wounded souls find love at last. I think the heartache of break-ups is something universally understood by all and that many readers can relate to the heartbreak of our two main characters.
Both Daphne and Miles had their exes break things off in horrendous ways which felt like a punch to the gut and only had me rooting for their own happily-ever-after all the more.
Check out my book review of Funny Story.
Related: 10 Books Like Funny Story to Read Next
# 3 Happy Place
by Emily Henry
Second Chance Romance
4 stars
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?
You’ll want to pick Happy Place if you’re in the mood for a second chance romance. It had me hooked from the start and begging to know what could have possibly torn Wyn and Harry apart since it was so obvious how much they still loved one another.
Happy Place is a book that does a great job really exploring not only how people change from college to early work life but also how friend groups evolve as well. This book had a fantastic cast of characters that only help to flush out the characterization of the Harriet and Wyn so in that respect it was more than just a wonderful romance.
Check out my book review of Happy Place.
#4 Book Lovers
by Emily Henry
Rivals to Lovers Romance
3 stars
Nora Stephens’ life is books—she’s read them all—and she is not that type of heroine. Not the plucky one, not the laidback dream girl, and especially not the sweetheart.
In fact, the only people Nora is a heroine for are her clients, for whom she lands enormous deals as a cutthroat literary agent, and her beloved little sister Libby.
Which is why she agrees to go to Sunshine Falls, North Carolina for the month of August when Libby begs her for a sisters’ trip away—with visions of a small town transformation for Nora, who she’s convinced needs to become the heroine in her own story.
But instead of picnics in meadows, or run-ins with a handsome country doctor or bulging-forearmed bartender, Nora keeps bumping into Charlie Lastra, a bookish brooding editor from back in the city.
It would be a meet-cute if not for the fact that they’ve met many times and it’s never been cute.
If Nora knows she’s not an ideal heroine, Charlie knows he’s nobody’s hero, but as they are thrown together again and again—in a series of coincidences no editor worth their salt would allow—what they discover might just unravel the carefully crafted stories they’ve written about themselves.
Check out Book Lovers if you are in the mood for a rivals to lovers romance. I love how Henry played up a different side of the small town romance book trope with her portrayal of Nora and Charlie. I adored these two city lovers and loved every scene with them. I totally want in on their Bigfoot erotica text convo.
Nora’s sister Libby gets in on the action but it was Nora and Charlie that steal the show in this one about book editors.
Related: Book Lovers Movie Guide
#5 Beach Read
by Emily Henry
Neighbors to Lovers Romance
3 stars
Augustus Everett is an acclaimed author of literary fiction. January Andrews writes bestselling romance. When she pens a happily ever after, he writes off his entire cast. They’re polar opposites.
In fact, the only thing they have in common is that for the next three months, they’re living in neighboring beach houses, broke, and bogged down with writer’s block.
Until, one hazy evening, one thing leads to another and they strike a deal designed to force them out of their creative ruts: Augustus will spend the summer writing something happy, and January will pen the next Great American Novel.
She’ll take him on field trips worthy of any rom-com montage, and he’ll take her to interview surviving members of a backwoods death cult (obviously). Everyone will finish a book and no one will fall in love. Really.
I would actually end with Emily Henry’s first adult romance since it’s a bit more melancholy compared to the rest of her books. This is the book to read however if you like neighbors to lovers romances, books about authors or books that talk about cults. Yes, cults.
This one also read a bit more like women’s fiction to me so if you’re hesitant to read a romance then you could start here and see what her writing is all about.
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