{"id":40294,"date":"2025-02-07T11:04:27","date_gmt":"2025-02-07T17:04:27","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sites.imsa.edu\/acronym\/?p=40294"},"modified":"2025-02-07T11:04:27","modified_gmt":"2025-02-07T17:04:27","slug":"what-is-the-secret-to-emily-henrys-books","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sites.imsa.edu\/acronym\/2025\/02\/07\/what-is-the-secret-to-emily-henrys-books\/","title":{"rendered":"What is the Secret to Emily Henry’s books?"},"content":{"rendered":"

Warning: There may be spoilers throughout the article!<\/span><\/i><\/p>\n

If you\u2019ve ever been on the BookTok side of TikTok, you may be familiar with the name Emily Henry. <\/span>Emily Henry<\/span><\/a>, #1 New York Times bestselling author, has consistently pushed out successful novel after successful novel\u2014from <\/span>Beach Read <\/span><\/i>to <\/span>Funny Story<\/span><\/i>. And, maybe after the first few books, nothing seems out of the ordinary, but seeing as she has published hit after hit for the past four years, it starts to beg the question: How is Emily Henry so successful? And what is her \u201cformula\u201d for becoming so successful? Specifically, how was she able to <\/span>stay<\/span> relevant even after her 2020 book <\/span>Beach Read<\/span><\/i> garnered so much attention? If you\u2019re a young writer looking to churn out money-making pieces of writing, stay tuned, as I\u2019ll be diving into the common themes, plot devices, and archetypes Henry uses to produce her best-selling hits from 2020 and beyond! To analyze these components, I will be breaking down her 5 most recently published books.<\/span><\/p>\n

1. Beach Read<\/span><\/i><\/a><\/p>\n

Beach Read<\/span><\/i>, contrary to its name, is <\/span>not<\/span><\/i> much of a beach read. Instead, it\u2019s an emotionally tumultuous, deeply moving story. The main characters, Augustus and January, start off as enemies and eventually turn into lovers. Among Henry\u2019s books published after 2020, <\/span>Beach Read <\/span><\/i>is one of two books with the enemies to lovers trope\u2014a common dynamic that many romance readers typically enjoy. In addition, January and Augustus are polar opposites. The major turning point, in my opinion, is when Augustus and January make a deal to write in each other\u2019s writing styles. January, a romance writer who ends her stories with happy endings, must now write cynical dark fiction.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

While January is your typical sweet, hopeless romantic main female lead, Augustus is your brooding, mysterious main male lead. These archetypes, as discussed later, come to be a common theme among all of Henry\u2019s books.<\/span><\/p>\n

2. \u00a0People We Meet on Vacation<\/span><\/i><\/a><\/p>\n

We then meet Poppy, a spontaneous travel blogger, and Alex, a calm high school literature teacher, who are the main characters of People We Meet on Vacation<\/em>. Once again, their two opposing personalities come into play. Similar to January and Augustus in <\/span>Beach Read<\/span><\/i>, it\u2019s a peppy girl and a calm guy. The only difference is that instead of the enemies to lovers trope, it’s friends to strangers to lovers. In terms of the major turning point, I\u2019d say that Poppy reaching out to Alex to go on one more trip together is what causes them to become strangers to lovers. Previously, the two took frequent trips together each year, but after a few years, they stopped and grew distant.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

As the second book published by Henry, it\u2019s quite evident that there is a pattern forming. No matter the trope at hand, the girl tends to lean on the more bubbly, spontaneous side, while the guy is more mysterious and calm.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

3. Book Lovers<\/span><\/i><\/a><\/p>\n

This third book published by Henry, Book Lovers<\/em>, is essentially like a replica of <\/span>Beach Read<\/span><\/i>. Nora is a literary agent and Charlie is an editor. The two are enemies, and they become lovers after coincidentally being in the same tiny town, Sunshine Falls, during August. The only difference between <\/span>Book Lovers<\/span><\/i> and <\/span>Beach Read<\/span><\/i> is that Nora, the female lead, is put together and cutthroat, while Charlie is the exact same. <\/span>In terms of the turning point of Charlie and Nora\u2019s relationship, I believe it\u2019s when Charlie asks to edit one of Nora\u2019s client\u2019s books. Nora is vehemently against the idea at first, but after realizing that there is no one else who could do the job, she agrees. While this is the major turning point for the two characters’ relationship, individually, they have their own turning points within the story.<\/span><\/p>\n

So to summarize, <\/span>Book Lovers<\/span><\/i> is an enemies to lovers trope and is between two very similar characters.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

4. Happy Place<\/span><\/i><\/a><\/p>\n

Happy Place<\/span><\/i> is essentially like <\/span>People We Meet on Vacation<\/span><\/i> on crack. It\u2019s more dramatic, more tension-filled, and much more \u201cextreme\u201d compared to <\/span>People We Meet on Vacation<\/span><\/i>. The most glaring difference is that instead of friends to strangers to lovers, it\u2019s ex-fiances to strangers to lovers. In addition, the characters and plot move along very differently. The two main characters, Harriet, an aspiring doctor, and Wyn, a carpenter, have very different personalities. Harriet is very closed off and a people-pleaser, while Wyn is a womanizer and smooth-talker. After being broken up for six months, all of a sudden, their friends decide that they want to have one more getaway together\u2014a final goodbye to their annual vacation home. Just for a week, Harriet and Wyn have to pretend they\u2019re still engaged. The major turning point in <\/span>Happy Place<\/span><\/i> is when Harriet discovers that Wyn is also at the vacation home, contrary to her previous belief that he\u2019d be all the way back in Montana.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

To summarize, <\/span>Happy Place <\/span><\/i>is<\/span> a tumultuous ex-fiances to strangers to lovers story between two different characters. While similar to other books Henry has written, it has its own flair. This gives the book a unique \u201cpersonality\u201d of its own!<\/span><\/p>\n

5. Funny Story<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n

Henry wasn\u2019t kidding when she said that this book is a funny story. The main character, Daphne, gets engaged, and right when she\u2019s about to get married, her husband, Peter, realizes that he likes his childhood best friend, Petra, more than her. Daphne gets tossed to the side and forced to move out of her and Peter\u2019s house within a week. Left with no choice, she calls Petra\u2019s ex-boyfriend, Miles, to see if he’d be willing to room with a stranger. The unique thing about this book is that the turning point already happened before the book\u2019s actual plot started. As Daphne recounts the events that led to her living with Miles, the turning point of the book begins when she mentions moving in with him. Because practical, librarian Daphne and chaotic winery worker Miles are <\/span>complete<\/span> opposites. This extreme difference in personality combined with a plot filled with tension allows for a magnificent book! This book, unlike any other of Henry\u2019s romance novels, doesn\u2019t even have a cliche trope to slap on it. It\u2019s simply its own chaotic bundle of pages.<\/span><\/p>\n

It\u2019s evident that when you look at the first four books by Henry, she tends to interchange the tropes, the characters, and the personalities. Essentially, trying on every possible combination of tropes + personality types until we get to <\/span>Funny Story<\/span><\/i>. In itself, <\/span>Funny Story<\/span><\/i> is a romance novel unlike any other. While all the other stories could more or less be summed up by a story mountain, <\/span>Funny Story<\/span><\/i> starts off sloping downwards instead of upwards, but then it goes up and down a few times before finally landing downwards.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

I\u2019ve covered a lot in this article, but I still haven\u2019t answered the burning question: does Emily Henry have a secret formula for making these best-selling books?\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

No. She simply has an addictive writing style, relatable characters, and one hell of a marketing team!<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Warning: There may be spoilers throughout the article! If you\u2019ve ever been on the BookTok side of TikTok, you may be familiar with the name…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":922,"featured_media":40296,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1020],"tags":[2057,4457,3081,4451],"coauthors":[4240],"class_list":["post-40294","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-ae","tag-books","tag-funny-story","tag-romance","tag-romance-novels"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.imsa.edu\/acronym\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/40294","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.imsa.edu\/acronym\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.imsa.edu\/acronym\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.imsa.edu\/acronym\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/922"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.imsa.edu\/acronym\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=40294"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/sites.imsa.edu\/acronym\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/40294\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":40324,"href":"https:\/\/sites.imsa.edu\/acronym\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/40294\/revisions\/40324"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.imsa.edu\/acronym\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/40296"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.imsa.edu\/acronym\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=40294"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.imsa.edu\/acronym\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=40294"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.imsa.edu\/acronym\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=40294"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.imsa.edu\/acronym\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/coauthors?post=40294"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}