Thank you NetGalley for letting me read an arc of this book! What a good read! I liked the past and present timeline along with the dual pov. There were some parts that I predicted but at the end there were a lot more connections and realizations that I hadn't guessed. Honestly this story is kind of heartbreaking, but it was written well and the story came together to make you root for the main characters.

The Vacation House begins in beautiful Greece where an English family stays on holiday in their vacation home. The Greek family that cooks and cleans for them are nearly invisible until this summer. Twelve year old Sophie is careful to visit the beach where she won't run into any of the guests. She and her younger brother, Nico, love the sand and water. But this summer she catches the eyes of two of the guests and her life is never the same after that. Told in duo narratives and timelines, twenty years later we follow the story of Julia, the daughter of the English family. She is married to the headmaster of a private school and has quite a few obligations as the wife including looking perfect, cooking gourmet meals, writing her husband's speeches, etc. She finds the most fulfilled in helping out at a local shelter. After meeting a charismatic therapist, Julia returns to the vacation home for a visit and learns of its secrets. She had no idea. When Julia returns home, her life is turned upside down. The Vacation House is a mesmerizing book with many twists and turns. It was a quick read for me and I look forward to reading more books by Jane Shemitt.

Thank you to NetGalley and William Morrow for the opportunity to read the ARC of The Vacation House.

A hauntingly heartbreaking and beautifully interwoven tale of two fractured women attempting to overcome the abusive atrocities and hidden secrets of their past.

This one started out a little slow and I was starting to wonder what I'd gotten into but then...THEN it really picked up and I flew through this one! It's dark and twisty and has a satisfying ending! Thank you NetGalley for this advanced copy!

The vacation house is a fast thriller about two young women, Sophie and Julia. When the novel opens in 2003, Sophie is a young Greek girl, age 13, and Julia is a British girl, age 19. Julia is the daughter of a truly wretched man and a mother who seems to be absent at best. Sophie on the other hand is the daughter of the caretakers of the vacation villa, and she is a part of a warm and loving family- until tragedy strikes Sophie at the hands of two disgusting young men who are guests of Julia’s father at the vacation villa. The novel moves between the events of 2003 and Julia in Britain in 2023. As the novel unfolds you realize that Julia is trapped in a loveless marriage to a really terrible man James. The one bright spot of light in her life is her wonderful daughter Lottie. I don’t want to give much away, but I will say that this is a suspenseful read and one that will keep you up reading past your bedtime or make you late for work in the morning because you just want to know what’s going to happen. The just one more chapter thriller, I like this book. There are parts that are far-fetched, but if you can look past that I think you will like it too.

This is the first book I’ve read by this author, and I really enjoyed it. I liked the dual timeline POV and the twists and turns throughout the story.
I couldn’t figure out how it was all going to play out. I really like the sentimental ending and how it all wrapped up.

This was a compelling and suspenseful novel that weaves together a tale of betrayal, family secrets and a haunting past. The story unfolds in two different timelines and locations filled with mystery and psychological intrigue. The descriptions were so vivid and realistic and provides an amazing backdrop for the events that transpire. It pulls you into the story and you become fully immersed.

The way the timelines interweave and gradually reveal the connection between characters is executed well, and keeps you engaged and eager to learn the truth about what happened. The plot is full of unexpected twists, which gives a sense of anticipation and suspense.

It was a great psychological suspense with well-crafted characters, intriguing plot and beautifully described settings. It keeps you engaged and turning pages to find out what happens next.

Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for the ARC in exchange for an honest review.

4/5 stars

After a slightly slow start I stayed up until quite late to finish this book, and I'm glad I did. Warning here for an extremely horrible sexual assault the traumatic aftermath of which is dealt with quite honestly. I appreciated the upstairs/downstairs perspectives of the people who keep a vacation house running and the vacationers who take it all for granted; the casual child labor of it all was particularly striking, followed by the grim paucity of job options when the caretakers leave for the city.

I think I'm the most impressed by how engaging this was even as most of the twists became obvious! I would have liked Julia to have caught on a bit earlier - to anything going on, really, because girl get it together your life is not good - but it was a satisfying ramp-up to revenge, even if some plot elements felt like a stretch to get there. With an inciting incident so awful the stakes were extremely high here so this really needed a satisfying resolution, and it got one. Really well done, I'll be checking out more of Jane Shemilt's work.

My thanks to William Morrow and NetGalley for the ARC.

Such a necessary and thought-provoking story. Mainly set on the beautiful island of Paxos, alternating between present day dreary London, this slow burn thriller tells the story of tragedy, heartbreak, but also sweet sweet revenge. Highly recommend!!

thank you NetGalley for this ARC, all opinions are my own.

I really enjoyed this book. I enjoyed the dual POV but found the multitude of characters at the beginning of the book difficult to track.
I felt the story was fast-paced and both main characters to be interesting.
I did guess the twist pretty early on, but it seemed so obvious to me that maybe the twist was not for shock factor but rather just a literary tool for the overall story. 3.5 stars
Of note, there is a typo in Chapter 31 - Athena is spelled ‘Athenea”.
Thank you for privilege of reading this book early!

Book: The Vacation House
Author: Jane Shemilt
Format: Digital
Genre: Thriller, Crime/Mystery
Places Featured: Paxos Island, Greece and London, England, United Kingdom
Review Score: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ (4 ½ rounded down)
Review: The Vacation House surprised me–there is much more to the story than your typical twisty/turny thriller (though it does have a few of those, too). The story is told from two different perspectives and two different time periods: in 2003, we meet Sophie, a young Greek girl whose parents work at a vacation home on the Greek island of Paxos, and in 2023, the story follows Julia, a woman struggling with her marriage and her goals in life. Although we figure out fairly early on that Julia’s parents owned the vacation house where Sophie’s family worked, it takes much longer to figure out just how their stories are intertwined in the present moment. Shemilt covers some really difficult subjects (please note there should be several trigger warnings), but she covers those topics with respect and authentic emotion that is done really well. It’s a different kind of thriller, but a very good one. This one will stick with me.

Thank you NetGalley for an advanced copy in exchange for an honest review.

At first, I couldn’t get into this story. I was ready to abandon it, but then it picked up and I was sucked in.

The story is complex and alternates between the past with a little girl whose family is the caretaker of a Greek vacation home for a wealthy family. Her family lives on the property in a small shack. One year she was able to pal around with the wealthy family’s older and glamorous daughter, Julia. The next year, Julia isn’t interested in her as she’s too busy being exploited by her father. Then, the young girl experiences a traumatic attack that changes the trajectory of her entire life.

Meanwhile, in the present, Julia’s life is one she carved for herself, but it doesn’t belong to her. She starts therapy sessions with Laurel and starts to reclaim her life. She finds herself back in Greece to check on her family’s long abandoned vacation home. Then, she works to solve the mystery of what happened all those years ago when her family stopped going.

This was an intense story, hard to read emotionally speaking in some parts, but really gripping. This was a great read!

Thanks to NetGalley for the advance copy of this book. 2.5 stars. This was an average thriller for me. I did find it fairly predictable and overall felt the narrative wasn’t that developed but was written to service it coming together at the end.

This was a slow one for me. The first chapter felt really confusing to me with so many people involved in the vacation home in Greece. I don’t feel like each person was explained who they were in relations to Sofia. They were just mentioned but never fully explained. I felt so disinterested in Sofia’s sections because of this. A really really slow burn with a pretty predictable ending.

Thank you to NetGalley and William Morrow for this arc in exchange for an honest review.

This was a very slow book. I struggled through it and skimmed the last 40+ pages. It had some good parts but for me it just didn't hold my attention.

The tagline is Two women. Two secrets. One terrifying night. This story should be absolutely be read without spoilers, so I won’t give the typical synopsis. It was gripping. In fact, I read it in one sitting! Jane Shemilt’s writing evokes the warm sunshine of Greece and the idyllic setting for this harrowing tale, full of twists that I never saw coming. I loved the details of the beautiful house by the glistening sea down to the fresh lemon-scented soap and the aroma of the herbed bread. The finish is equally satisfying as everything comes full circle. I look forward to reading more of Ms. Shemilt’s novels.

I’ve always been a fan of Jane Shemilt’s writing and this was no exception. A traumatic event leads to unforeseen and devastating consequences. The story weaves between two settings and dual time periods. I love how everything was tied together in the end, although I did find it to be predictable. Still, a fast-paced, entertaining read with a good message.

This book dragged for me and there were chapters that I skimmed through. This was probably because of its predictability. A third of the way through I figured out how it would end and that ruined it for me. Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for the digital ARC. This review is my own words.

Thank you Netgalley for an early copy in Exhange for an honest review.

This was really such a sloooow burn, but it was a good story. It has some very heavy material that is talked about from start to finish and was really sad to read. This book is told from two different perspectives (Julia and Sofie) during two different time periods (2003 and 2023). I felt like I was zoning out some throughout, but I think that the last 20% of the book made it worth the read. I had some of it figured out but when it all came together, I was surprised. It has a satisfying way of tying things together. I don't feel like I will recommend this book a ton to others, but it wasn't necessarily bad. The dialogue and pacing was slow for me... I am thinking of giving it a 2.5 Star rating. Some parts really shined, but overall, it was a miss for me...

The Vacation House
Written By Jane Shemilt
Publisher William Morrow
Release Date December 26, 2023

Characters: 4/5
Plot: 4/5
Pace: 4/5
Suspense: 3/5
Overall Enjoyment: 4/5


“ Two women. Two secrets. One terrible night.”

This is an amazing fast pace psychological thriller set in two different time frames. In Greece 2003 we meet Sophie. Her family are the caretakers of a beautiful home by the sea that is owned by very wealthy vacationers from London. One evening, Sophie strolled along the beach and something happened to her that will change her life forever. It is then we are in London in 2023 where we meet a woman, Julia, whose marriage is falling apart and who despises her husband. Yet she is also raising a daughter while figuring out how to deal with issues from her childhood. Her family owned the home that Sophie’s family worked for all those years ago. Now she has started seeing a therapist in hopes of figuring out how to not feel so trapped in her loveless marriage. What could possibly bring these two women together all these years?
Both women want to forget the events of the past and learn how to not struggle in the present time. This is a well written story by the author who does an amazing job of building the scenes for the reader from two different times as well as two different POV’s. There is not really much suspense but I would say that the book was not predictable at all. It was slow at first but did pick up speed about half way through. It is hard to write a review about this book without giving too much info away but I would certainly give this book 4 stars.

Thank you to NetGalley as well as the author and publisher for giving me an opportunity to read this book in exchange for my unbiased and honest review.