Riley Locke

No one currently working the beach-read seam does it like Emily Henry: comedies with grief in the basement, banter with load-bearing walls. The desk holds all five novels, so here they are, ranked, meaning argued over. Start anywhere; they stand alone. But if you want the case for each, read on.

  1. 1

    Book Lovers — Emily Henry

    The sharpest of the five: a heroine who is the trope's villain in every other book, given her own story and her own terms. The small-town romance, interrogated and improved.

  2. 2

    Beach Read — Emily Henry

    The one that built the empire. Two authors, one genre swap, and Henry's signature move — a comedy that turns out to be about grief — executed for the first time and nearly perfectly.

  3. 3

    Funny Story — Emily Henry

    Her warmest: two castoffs of the same wedding sharing an apartment out of spite. The banter is the draw; the tenderness is the surprise.

  4. 4

    People We Meet on Vacation — Emily Henry

    Friends-to-lovers across a decade of annual trips. Slightly softer machinery than the top three, but the ache is real and the ending pays every debt.

  5. 5

    Happy Place — Emily Henry

    Fifth by a hair, and only because the fake-couple premise demands more suspension than Henry usually asks. The Maine setting and the friend-group elegy are among her best writing.

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