It’s been eight months since I stumbled across The Vacation at an airport bookstore in Europe, so I was delighted to see it’s finally available in the USA (thanks, NetGalley!).

This book is set in a luxurious villa amongst the gorgeously picturesque vineyards of France, where four best girlfriends from college reunite with their families for a week of funning and sunning. As the days go on, the discovery of a secret affair and the events that follow threaten to ruin everything for everyone. This page-turning thriller keeps you entertained and guessing until the very end. Highly recommend - especially as a beach read, and accompanied by a chilled glass of rosé! :)

A twisty thriller that would be a perfect read for the beach, pool, or bathtub.  

Crime analyst Kate reads ambiguous but suspicious anonymous texts on her husband's phone and jumps to the conclusion that he must be having an affair with one of her friends from college.  As the friends and their families gather in the south of France to celebrate their fortieth birthdays, suspicions and secrets smolder and flare.

The author skillfully ratchets up the suspense, shifting POVs and weaving together seemingly disparate storylines until they knit into a larger narrative.  The setting is compelling - beautiful, sweltering, and perilous all at the same time.

A few things I didn't like:  The adult characters are mostly unsympathetic, which makes it difficult to care about their squabbles and possible marital strife.  Kate narrates her chapters in first-person POV, but her character never seems convincing as a crime analyst.  Her alleged rationality and analytical mindset seem absent until the last part of the book.  

Many thanks to NetGalley and St. Martin's Press for the free copy in exchange for the honest review.

I received an ARC of The Vacation in exchange for an honest review. The Vacation was described as a thriller. Four best friends and their families all go on vacation together. One of the women suspects that one of the other women is having an affair with her husband. That in itself doesn't sound like much of a thriller, and it wasn't. While reading the book, there was no "can't wait to see what's going to happen next". I have read other thrillers by T.M. Logan and they could easily be described as thrillers. However, this book read more like family drama and at one point I even thought this is a made for TV movie. Towards the end the book did pick up and there was a lot going on. However, the slowness of the book before getting there forced me to give the book three stars.

Kate and her three close girlfriends of many years have planned a vacation get-away in the south of France, as they are all turning 40. Their first day there, Kate intercepts a text message on her husband Sean's phone. From all indications he has been indulging in an on-going affair and is planning a rendezvous with the woman at their vacation site. Hence, it HAS to be one of Kate's best friends!

The writer has us suspecting, first, one of the gals, then another, then another, as does Kate. So what is going on, and which gal pal has betrayed her?

While there was some objectionable language (not as objectionable as the characters, however), I have enjoyed reading TM Logan and wouldn't hesitate to again

I loved the twist but wishing there were a few more. This felt like a slow build for me and like my thrillers to be jam packed! Still an interesting book and solid thriller.

Pathetic Kate suspects her husband is having an affair with one of her three best friends. Which one is it? Rowan, the clever one; Jennifer, the pretty one; Izzy, the funny one. “How could I compete against that?” 

Well, Kate, if you have nothing going on for you, why did your husband, Sean, marry you? Because you sure must have something! Is it big boobs? 

But that’s not all! Rowan is becoming wealthy and could now afford the lifestyle Sean had always wanted. Jennifer is Sean ex girlfriend and he once told Kate that Jennifer was the best sex he’d ever had (for real?!). And Izzy, Sean’s old friend, comes back from the UK and wants to settle down (so Kate is watching Izzy like a hawk because, why did she come back? Obviously to settle down with my husband! Yeah, that’s what best friends who don’t live in the same country as you do). 

Oh! And Rowan’s husband thinks his wife (Rowan) is having an affair. Great, now low-self-esteemed Kate can put two and two together and spend the rest of the story paranoid (more). 

There is a lot of family chat (oh my God! The kids are so big. OMG the beach is beautiful), Blah blah blah, and of course Kate’s thoughts about when they were in college and how they met. Oh! And not to mention the drama with their children (from teenagers to 5 year olds). Even they had their little own chapter/pov. 

Obviously, Kate, now watching her husband, sees/finds a lot of suspicious clues that her husband is hiding something (preferably an affair). 

In the privacy of their rooms, the couples are not as happy as they seem in public. Whaaat!? What a shock, really. So any of these women could be having an affair with Kate’s husband because there is more fun in cheating with your best friend’s husband than any other guy out there. 

Anyways, Kate is pretty sure Sean and Izzy aré getting jiggy with it. But then Izzy dies in and accident and now Kate thinks Sean killed her to hide the affair. I mean, how can the man go from “we have to tell Kate the truth” to killing to hide the truth?  

Oh! Sean has no personality whatsoever. If Kate is paranoid, Sean is... a wall flower? When Kate confronted him about having an affair all he said was no, I am not having an affair. And later, when Izzy died and they were all together making sure they didn’t tell the police too much, Kate confessed about “the affair” that Sean and Izzy were having, and how did Sean react? “No, I’m not having an affair,” and the conversation moved on. Wow! That’s a lot of emotions!

Well, the end was interesting (who was having an affair and who was not). Just because of the end I give it two stars. Ah! Also, because it takes time and brains to write a book, a story that makes sense (even if I didn’t like it). 

Thank you Netgalley for providing me with a free copy of this title.

I received a copy of THE VACATION on NetGalley in exchange for my honest review. Thank you to the publisher and author.

Five stars and here’s why:

HOLY MOLY! LOVED IT! I suffered a serious book hangover! This could have been anyone. Seriously. Four best friends meet in college and stay in touch over the years. Then, twenty years later, the layers and layers of friendship are peeled away and they find a whole lot more about each other. It’s a story filled with suspicion and betrayal, but my head kept spinning from the plot twists so that just when I thought I knew what was going to happen next, the author surprised me. If you like excellent writing and fantastic plotting, then this story is for you. Highly recommend.

A vacation of old friends. Two years in the planning. A beautiful, huge villa with its own vineyard rented in the south of France to celebrate the fortieth birthdays of the friends. But there is a tense undertone. Something more sinister seems to be occurring beneath the forced gaiety. 
And one of them won’t return home.

The Vacation by TM Logan is one of the best books I've read in a long time.  Warning, this review will contain spoilers.

The book started slowly and built up to a boiling point which, of course, led to a boiling over incident.  The suspense was great - when the funeral scene started I almost threw my tablet across the room I was so angry.  Thankfully, I kept reading and discovered my anguish was for naught as it was a funeral for a different character.  

Having read numerous books and seen movies, I knew Sean wasn't having a affair from the tone and wording of the texts and the pantry scene.  I never guessed what was going on though - I had imagined a surprise birthday party or some other nonsense.  

Kate was a strong moral character but at the end she chose to compromise some of her principles to protect her child.  Is that being a good parent?  That answer will vary according to the reader.

I was unhappy that one thread seemed unresolved regarding Alistair and Sean.  I didn't like leaving the story with Sean believing Alistair was a pedophile.  Kate knew Lucy wasn't groped by him but we never got to witness a scene where Sean was given this information.  And both Kate and Sean needed to know Alistair hadn't been lurking on Lucy's online account.  Not a major plot point but not something I was comfortable leaving unsaid.  

All in all, great book!!

3 stars.*

This is the second title by T.M. Logan that I've read and I had high hopes based on how much I enjoyed the suspense of Lies.  Unfortunately, The Vacation (or the Holiday if you read the UK version) just stretches too far, wraps up too quickly and neatly and has some flat characters.

The premise is interesting- Kate and her three best friends gather their families for a week-long getaway at an amazing rental villa in the French countryside to celebrate their fortieth birthdays.  But something about the friendships don't make sense when it becomes clear that they're not friends reconnecting-they are all simply friends OF Kate who don't have that much connection on their own.  And some of their connections are actually through Kate's husband, Sean.  As she arrives at the Villa, Kate discovers texts on Sean's phone that lead her to believe that sh'e's having an affair...with one of the friends she is meeting.

There are strange, illogical relationships between the couples' children, not-quite-believable exchanges between the partners, and a complete lack of support between the female characters.  I confess I thought T.M. Logan was a woman until I read a bio just prior to writing this review and learning that he is a man clears up some of the disconnect between how the female interactions are written and how they would actually play out in real life.

Ridiculous miscommunications, mis-steps, and really exceptional dramatics make for some suspense and I confess I did not see where the twist was going-I was also not that invested in how it was going to end because I didn't really like any of the characters.

It was enjoyable, but not amazing.  I'd recommend it for a beach read.

*with thanks to NetGalley for the digital ARC in exchange for this honest review.

This book started out great, I loved the characters and the story. Then it started to feel convoluted and strange. The things that happened started to seem unbelievable. The characters became unlikeable. I also didn't like that some of the chapters ended with an unneeded 'cliffhanger' maybe to make you think something bad is going to happen. I'm giving it three stars because over 50% of the book was great.

THE VACATION takes us to a gorgeous villa in southern France where three families and a single woman convene for a once-in-a-lifetime vacation. The four women were best friends and roommates in college, and have now gone their separate ways; in addition, there are three husbands and five children (including three teens). Protagonist, Kate, a crime analyst with London's Metropolitan Police, suspects her husband is having an affair. After breaking into his phone and reading his secret messages to a woman called CoralGirl, she's convinced it's one of her three best friends. Upon making her discovery, Kate forgets everything she ever learned about crime and begins acting like one of the surly teenagers in their group. Thrown together in a strange place, each family begins to reveal its ugly underbelly, and the exotic vacation becomes the holiday from hell. This is a story with a lot of drama, a disturbing amount of horrible parenting, teens with scary secrets, and the ongoing mystery involving Kate's husband and his supposed affair. It reminded me of reality television. Thank you to NetGalley and St. Martin's for an ARC of the book. Release date is July 21, 2020.

I read Lies by T.M. Logan and enjoyed it so I had high hopes for this one. It fell short for me. It was a slow burn for the first 80%. The ending did kick it up but it took far too long to get there. Mostly just drama between four families and their children during a vacation to France and maybe Kate’s husband is cheating on her? That’s basically all you get for the majority of the book.  Other reviewers seemed to really enjoy it so maybe for me it was just wrong book wrong time. 
Thanks to Netgalley, T.M. Logan, and St. Martin’s Press for the ARC in return for my honest opinion.

The vacation they have all been waiting for! Four best girlfriends from college along with their families are headed to a beautiful villa in the French countryside. Only problem is that Kate has found out her husband Sean is cheating on her. Even worse…he is cheating with one of her three best girlfriends. Kate needs to take this vacation to suss out which one of her besties is betraying her.

Holy crap-ola! This book! It was a slow burn in the beginning but damn was it worth every second. So many lies, so much deceit, so many cover-ups! I have to say, I kind of hated all of the characters a little bit. Not one of them besides poor little Daniel had any redeeming qualities to speak of. I loved that this book had family drama, plus mystery, plus a little thriller. It really hit so many of my favorite genres, it was kind of impossible for me not to love it. I don’t want to say too much and give anything away, but if you have enjoyed T.M. Logan’s other novels, this one will not disappoint! 

Thank you St Martins Press for my gifted copy of this book!

Here’s to wishing we could all go on a much less dramatic vacation right now!

This book is a fun thriller with great twists and turns and a fantastic ending. I like being surprised, and this one delivers. It's a great read!

We’ve been friends forever... we know everything about each other. Or do we? We only know what others allow us to see. This book is about four besties, who met during their university years, and did their best to see each other and keep in touch. Now it’s twenty years later and time for them to find out more about each other than they ever wanted to know. This book is about suspicion, betrayal and going from love to distrust once the mind starts examining things happening. I recommend this book to anyone who enjoys plot twists, suspicion and angst. I loved how the author gave many of the characters a voice. 
Thank you to the author, T. M. Logan, and @NetGalley for the advance copy of this book. I will be recommending it to my friends!

This storyline was just okay. I really wanted to like it, but gone story just didn't get me hooked. I found it hard to feel involved with the characters. I wish that the storyline would have pulled me in from the beginning,  but it didnt.

The synopsis of this book caught my interest. A week-long vacation at a luxurious villa in France with your long time friends and their family. It was the perfect getaway, so Kate thought.  Kate finds a text message on her husbands phone and suspects that he is having an affair with one of her friends and its going to find out the truth by the end of the week. Someone else has something else in mind and is willing to keep the secrets hidden at any cost, even killing someone. 

This was a slow start but it quickly picked up. The twists and turns had me guessing the ending. I felt I was vacationing at the villa with the author's great description of the villa and its surroundings. Great story. Will be looking into this author's other works to add to my reading list. 

Thank you NetGalley, Author and Publisher for the eARC in exchange for an honest review.

This excellent book , very much scary to think what parent would do for child!  Friends and family; the difference years make!  WOW!

What a wild ride!  A book is really only as good as it's ending, and this ending delivered!  Just when you think you have it figured out, you realize that you are wrong!