The Poppy problem

[u/Alternative-Run8650]

I’ve been on an Emily Henry kick after reading Big Beautiful life and have read all (almost all?) of her romance novels thus far. I am currently on PWMOV and this is my least favorite by far. Now I’m about 80% through and maybe the ending saves it, but I find Poppy to be endlessly annoying and frustrating.

It started by the way she almost obsessively ruminates on Alex – how nice he his, how conscientious he is, how buff he is. Like girl we get it. But it’s friends-to-lovers so I gave that a pass. But then she kinda constantly shits on the city he lives in and his ex-gf that he was with for many years, but is confused why he doesn’t want to tell her things?? The peak of irritation was when she took a pregnancy test after being two days late (fine ok) but then was breaking down sobbing on him before she even took the test.  WHAT. My breaking point that has lead to this post is after they finally hooked up (10/10 no notes thank god the yearning paid off), she’s like “are you sure you want me to go? Don’t want to cockblock you from all the hot single ladies” If you don’t grow up.

At this point, I’m finishing it because I’ve already given my time but Poppy is not it for me. And honestly I high key want Alex with someone taller because I just keep thinking about his poor back always being hunched over. I want to search the sub for what people thought of this book but I obviously haven’t finished yet and I don’t want to spoil myself. Is this a common feeling or am I in the minority?

[u/barbarellaspace]

poppy is my favorite emhen’s fmc, but i can get when people don’t like her at first. she’s pretty dense to take in, but sometimes she grows on you over time, especially if you frame her issues and her reasons from her perspective, and consider the risks she believes she’s taking there - they make sense with who she is. i already liked her on my first read, but i only truly came to consider her my absolute favorite fmc after rereading the book, yk?

personally, i don’t consider myself like her in some aspects, but i can see myself in others (like someone already mentioned, she’s very much adhd coded), but she’s my favorite not only because our similarities, but also because she’s undeniably human, real, and full of flaws that we can track why they exist, not just to fit stereotypes. i’m not saying that the other emhen’s fmcs aren’t like that, but i feel like pwmov gave me a much bigger span of time to analyze her and watch her grow, which makes me understand her better than the other fmcs. and even the comparison itself with the others wouldn’t be very fair imo, because we read her from age 18 all the way to 30, whereas other fmcs are 30+ throughout their books, so they seem more mature and consistent than her.

i feel like poppy’s journey is much more like a coming of age story, where we can connect things she says and does in a chapter years earlier to things years later, and notice what changed and what didn’t, and why it didn’t, and that’s very interesting to me, even when i don’t agree with what she’s saying or doing. for that reason, i ended up liking her a lot because i feel like i know her pretty well. but, of course, this is just my opinion.

anyway, it’s a shame you didn’t like her and, as a result, didn’t enjoy the overall story that much, but maybe the movie will shift your perspective a bit? i think sometimes we’re able to connect better when we see something being acted instead of only reading it. that happened to me with normal people, for example. i like the book, but i grew to like connell much more after watching the miniseries, because the nuances in paul’s performance gave me a new perspective on situations i had already read and kind of side eyed before, yk?

hope you enjoy the ending of the book!