This story is featured in CityBeat's March 8 print issue.
Cincinnati-based author Emily Henry says there is a key to exceptional storytelling.
As New York Times bestselling author of Book Lovers, People We Meet on Vacation and Beach Read – we’ll take her word for it.
“I think what makes a story exceptional and un-put-downable is tension,” Henry says. “It’s like a need to know the answer to a question. And with romance, it's usually, will they or won't they? Or, how will they?”
Henry’s forthcoming book Happy Place, like her precursory titles, conquers the romantic-comedy genre. It tells the story of Harriet and Wyn, a perfect couple, and their annual summer trip to the coast of Maine with their closest friends. Only, the seemingly perfect couple have secretly broken up. They learn that their home away from home is for sale and this will be the last friends trip to the beloved vacation spot.
Henry says Happy Place was inspired by comedy of remarriage movies from the ’40s in which ridiculous scenarios force divorced couples back together, in a screwball-comedy-style plot.
But by the end of drafting, Henry says the screwball derivatives end up as undertones, masked by more familiar escapist, rom-com qualities and a mood that shifts between joyful and angsty.
The book hits stores April 25.
“I really think [Happy Place] is overall a little more melancholy,” Henry says. “But that's just comparatively. It's also the first book I’ve done with a bigger central cast. Usually I really am honed in pretty closely on the hero and heroine, the couple. And with this one I really wanted to tell a story about a group of friends, and have all of those friends feel significant and central to the story.”
Henry uses the transitional nature of life in your thirties to contextualize the story, absorbing personality traits from real-life friends and acquaintances and infusing them into the six main characters. She says there is no one-for-one representation but as she braids tension into the narrative, character development becomes essential to how the story unfolds.
“It’s such an interesting time in life when you can just be in so many different places but still very close with people who are in the opposite situation that you are in,” she says. “It felt important to have a larger cast so that you could see that.”
Henry achieves relatable tales and characters with a serious dedication to getting to know the people she creates. She writes first drafts in a vacuum, no outside input and nothing to derail the direction, she says. She “hugely overwrites” the story, exploring the characters’ backstories in different scenarios and letting their personalities take shape – things that become irrelevant to the actual plot but essential to who the character becomes.
Then she graduates to a second draft, when she “writes the book with clarity,” she says, where the characters feel “real and lived in.”
Henry knows what love feels like and what it sounds like. She knows what it looks like from a stranger’s point of view. Someone who might be sitting in longing, staring woefully at a dancing couple across a room. Or a doe-eyed lover who is so immersed in their partner’s presence, no one else exists.
That’s how it feels to read even a small excerpt from any one of Henry’s romantic novels. She forms a connection between characters that can stir up a reader’s personal emotions; ones that summon the aches and yearning, the fulfillment and excitement of love. Most readers either already can, or want to be able to relate.
And readers from Cincinnati may feel a degree closer, as Henry (who was raised in and currently lives in Greater Cincinnati) sometimes unconsciously writes local places into scenes.
“I always write fictional towns so that I can just make changes as I need to,” she says. “But there are Ohio and Cincinnati references and a lot of times I don't even necessarily remember what they are and then readers are like, ‘Oh it was so cool seeing all the Ohio Easter eggs.’ So I think maybe Kings Island has been mentioned, maybe Graeter's and fictional towns where you are familiar with the dynamic of living really close to someone and not going to the same school but your friend groups overlap. These little things just sneak in and I don’t realize I’m doing it.”
As a self-described romance novel evangelist, Henry is proud to be part of a small renaissance of the genre, she says. In part, Henry thinks romance novels gained a new readership since the trend of bright, illustrated covers gave the genre a new face. Henry’s last four books, including Happy Place, sport neon pink, blue, orange and yellow sleeves with simple illustrations and oversized lettering.
Publishers Weekly reported a 52% increase in print romance novel sales in 2022. Trending book recommendations on TikTok or “BookTok” are also contributing to the genre's popularity in younger readers, according to the NPD BookScan, who also reports that romance was the leading growth category for print books in 2022.
Whatever the motivation, the sometimes shameful or shallow perception of romance novels seems to have dwindled with the rise in popularity. It’s leaving the sweaty, muscular man suggestively embracing a perfect woman on the black and white cover to the reader’s imagination – which is what reading is good for.
But as of late, Henry is learning what it means for her words to materialize on the big screen. People We Meet on Vacation, which debuted as number one on the 2021 New York Times bestseller list and best romance book in the 2021 Goodreads Choice Awards, is getting a movie adaptation.
Sony-owned film unit 3000 Pictures picked up People We Meet on Vacation in October 2022. 3000 Pictures specializes in book-to-film adaptations and produced Where the Crawdads Sing last year. Henry will be an executive producer of the movie. A release date for the film has yet to be announced.
“I am in exceptional hands as far as them wanting my input,” she says. “It’s been really fun so far getting the updates and giving my opinion. You’re not guaranteed to be involved at all so I’m really lucky.”
In addition to the movie production, Henry is looking forward to the release of Happy Place and fulfilling two more books under contract with Penguin Publishing Group, one of which is close to editing stages, she says.
“The rest of the books on that contract will definitely be rom-coms,” Henry says. “I would love to do other things, eventually move into other genres, but I’m really still enjoying this. So I'm riding it out as long as people are willing to have me. Hopefully next summer there will be another rom-com. I’m trying really hard to keep that pace while still making books that I'm proud of.”
For more information about Emily Henry and her books, visit emilyhenrybooks.com.
Coming soon: CityBeat Daily newsletter. We’ll send you a handful of interesting Cincinnati stories every morning. Subscribe now to not miss a thing.
Follow us: Google News | NewsBreak | Reddit | Instagram | Facebook | Twitter
