I’m on vacation so why not read a book about murders on vacation?

I did enjoy this one in that it was quite comical and the unreliable narrator made it fun. It was, once again, a book with many characters and a whodunnit type plot while on vacation, so very much like an Agatha Christie type read. The main character was an author on a book tour with the lead that most of her books are based on and her entourage and other authors.

The writing style was good and it was an easy, fun summer read.

Every Time I Go on Vacation, Someone Dies is the first book in a new cozy summer series by Catherine Mack. Released 30th April 2024 by by Macmillan on their Minotaur imprint, it's 352 pages and is available in hardcover, paperback, audio, and ebook formats. It's worth noting that the ebook format has a handy interactive table of contents as well as interactive links and references throughout.

This is such fun: a bestselling female mystery author/amateur sleuth on a destination book tour, rabid book fans, other literary types and adjunct publicity folks on the same tour, a rogueish blackmailer from the author's past, and crime. Ms. Mack, writing under a pseudonym is actually an accomplished and experienced author (Catherine McKenzie). She excels at characterization and plotting, and here, too, her characters are three dimensional and well rendered.

Stylistically, there are a lot of departures from standard style. It's written in first person, from the PoV of Eleanor, and much of the story is relayed in asides, footnotes, and other non-standard ways, and it's quite jarring flipping back and forth. It rendered the whole choppy and disjointed. That being said, it's light, and fun, and the book within a book/author writing as an author technique doesn't get bogged down or trip over its own feet (it's just the flipping footnotes). For readers who enjoy footnotes (like Pratchett), snarky humor, and breaking the third wall, this will likely be a positive feature and not a bug.

The unabridged audiobook has a run time of 9 hours 34 minutes and is capably read by Elizabeth Evans. She has a light, breathy voice, but does a good job with the disparate cast (of both sexes and a range of ages). One positive benefit of the audiobook is that the asides and footnotes are woven in, obviating the need to flip back and forth; it flows much better.

Four stars. A series starter, but the second volume publishing info isn't released yet (presumably middle of 2025). It would be nice for public library acquisition, as a summer weekend read or a buddy read.

Disclosure: I received an ARC at no cost from the author/publisher for review purposes.

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Catherine! This was fabulous! I finished this in less than 24 hours. This is funnier than Finlay Donovan and I LOVE Elle's books. This is a must-read for anyone needing a lighthearted, twisty mystery that you can finish in one sitting. Also the audiobook was fantastic!

I really loved the prose of this novel. I had some trouble in the beginning because the formatting on my kindle app was so confusing since the book is still in early stages formatting. Switching to my actual kindle helped alot. Overall this was a really fun summer read. It was giving adult Nancy Drew vibes mixed with the Finley Donovan series.

I really enjoyed this book. It's fun, light, and hilarious cozy mystery, I really enjoyed the characters and how not serious they were. The mystery kept me intrigued throughout. The little notes throughout the book were a fun touch I enjoyed. Eleanor breaking through the fourth wall to talk to the reader throughout added to my experience. This a perfect book to read in the summer. I would definitely read other books from this author and series.

A book with a signature drink ? This one definitely has one - Eleanor Dash keeps downing Aperol Spritz's like there's no tomorrow "and keep them coming" !
Every Time I Go On Vacation by Catherine Mack is a funny and humorous mystery novel, the first in The Vacation Mysteries series, which I both read and listened to on audio, wonderfully narrated by Elizabeth Evans, who juggles the wide cast of different characters, the drama, and especially the significant number of foot notes masterfully, keeping me engaged from beginning to end.
I want to visit Italy now, there were such vivid and beautiful descriptions of classic Italian tourist locations that l'd love to visit. The reader gets deeply immersed since Caroline Mack uses fictional author Eleanor Dash and has her speaking directly to the audience bringing them in on their adventures and laying open that it may not be the wisest to fully trust her either.
Eleanor is not the most likable of main characters I found her a bit whiny and a bit too dependent on her younger sister/ personal assistant Harper waiting on her hand and foot. She finds herself on a 10 day book tour organised by her publisher from Rome through Pompeii and down the Amalfi coast with quite the entourage that includes her sister, Harper, other authors, fans and a stalker against whom she has a restraining order as well as her nemesis the dislikeable con man Connor Smith, the mold for the main character of her books but also her ex-lover and blackmailer. Add to this a slightly incompetent tour guide and get this show on the road ...
This was very fun to listen to ! Was this a little over the top ? Sure, but it was a fun ride that made me think of summer ... and now I'll have that Aperol Spritz!

A fantastic, entertaining read! The digital version was a little tricky with the notes throughout only appearing at the end of each chapter, but the physical copy clears it all up. Fantastic!

This is a fun, cozy mystery, full of plot twists and humerous mayhem. Eleanor is a successful author of a highly celebrated series of mystery books. Her book tour includes a trip to Italy with a group of fans and authors (and stalkers), all ready to enjoy a relaxing vacation and celebrate Eleanor's success. But everything takes a turn for the worse when Connor - Eleanor's writing partner - claims that someone is trying to kill him. As someone who knows a thing or two about murder mysteries, Eleanor takes it upon herself to try and figure out who is behind it all. As she delves deeper she realizes there is way more than meets the eye and the supposed killer may be part of the group.

I actually had a fun time with this one. I loved all of the sightseeing of Italy thrown in and all of the plot twists. Eleanor does break the fourth wall, and it is distracting to a certain degree, but if you get past that and the weird footnotes, the story itself works out well. What hasn't been mentioned much in reviews is Eleanor's relationship with her ex Oliver which I really loved. Oliver is interesting and they have great chemistry, which the story needs. This is pretty fast paced and finishes nicely. It is definitely a light-hearted cozy mystery so it has many light moments but Eleanor's back story is complex enough to give a nice balance to the story.

The only real issue I had were the footnotes and lack of fourth wall as it was continuous and didn't flow well. However it could have been an e-reader issue.

What did I read??????????

This book was all over the place, messy. And I freaking lapped it all up like it was a melting ice cream cone in 100 degree heat.

This is the type of cozy mystery I can read. Nothing against cozy mysteries. I enjoy one from time to time, but some of them just leave me shaking my head. This one left me shaking my head for all the (great) opposite reasons.

What a fun group of characters. Then throw in a little mystery. Throw in a little love (maybe?). And throw in lots of mayhem! Give me more! Oh yeah, this is just book one. Sign me up for the next two books, please and thank you.

While I received this as an advanced ebook, I opted for the audiobook to consume. Y'all, that was absolutely the best choice. This is a book that is done so well as a listen, and I'd highly, HIGHLY recommend consuming it in this way. This is like a book within a book within a book, and it's just a darn delight. The story is narrated by Eleanor who is on a book tour for her mystery series. Except then a real-life mystery happens, too, and she has to figure out who wants her dead. In other words, Eleanor is like a character in her book. The twists in this one are so great, and it's got a great cast of characters to keep you (and Eleanor!) guessing as to who's responsible for what's happening. There's also this really great aspect of the story where Eleanor brings the fourth wall as the narrator and speaks directly to the reader. For me that's the piece that worked best as an audiobook. This was just so, so well done - Truly storytelling at its finest. Thanks to NetGalley for the look at this April 2024 release!

I really wanted to like this. The writing was fun and it seemed like it was a cozy read. The footnotes were too distracting for me. Especially on a kindle.

4.5 stars!! I really enjoyed this book about an author and her books becoming so intertwined with her reality! Eleanor is so funny, Conner is the worst, and Oliver is the most cinnamon roll guy ever! At some point I felt like I was suspicious of just about everyone, main and side characters alike, but I didn’t put it together until the very end when everything was revealed! The footnotes were a little tricky to navigate, but I ended up really enjoying the little aside moments inside Eleanor’s brain. I knocked down half a star because the breaking of the fourth wall kinda took me out of the story. Asking if I solved the mystery yet, and reminding me of all the clues left behind, made me feel like I had missed something really big, even though I hadn’t. Overall, the story is a super fun read for summer time, and I really loved the settings all over Italy!

Thank you to Netgalley, St. Martin’s Press, and Minotaur Books for the digital ARC of this book in exchange for my honest review!!

I found it fun to read the 200+ footnotes. I really felt like I talked to Eleanor and got to know her in depth.

The book takes interesting turns and despite the crime, it maintains a light tone that did not generate tension or excess drama, which I expected from this story.

Although I enjoyed it, there were times when I felt that it went on too long in scenes that did not contribute to the advancement of the plot. As much as I enjoyed the footnotes, sometimes they took away a bit of the story and I found it difficult to fully immerse myself. However, I found it to be a creative structure and I would love to read another book by the author.

I think this story would work well as a miniseries with voiceover for Eleanor's notes.

As a reader of mysteries, I am often required to suspend belief to enjoy a series The premises are so bizarre that if it happened in real life there would be a major investigation. If I know someone who routinely encountered dead bodies, I would avoid them like the plague. Catherine Mack's wonderful title "Every Time I Go on Vacation, Someone Dies" sums up this lunacy well. Her protagonist, Eleanor Dash, writes mysteries that take place in vacation destinations. While on a publicity jaunt, Eleanor finds herself surrounded by a mixture of people who she would love to see fall off a cliff, or would love to see her fall of one. Mack entertainingly captures the trend of including foot/endnotes as a type of aside or to supply further information. She keeps the reader guessing and even if you may think you know who the culprit is, the reason why is not obvious. This has been presented as the first in a series and I hope that the second book is released soon.

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ 3,75 stars rounded up

Oh I love books that show a little bit of the behind the scenes of publishing. I had so much fun with this cozy mystery and loved the Italian setting. I wouldn't mind going on a press trip for some of my favorite books!

What a fun book. I plowed through Every Time I Go On Vacation, Someone Dies and can't wait for the next in the series. I really enjoyed that the story was basically the manuscript for the main character's new book (or at least I took it that way with all the footnotes) and thought that was unique. The story is fun, filled with drama, and the characters really make the story come to life.

This is one of those books I could 1000% see becoming a movie or a series. It was like Only Murders in the Building, but with a vacation in Italy instead.

This is the perfect summer book.
Thank you Minotaur Books and NetGalley for the eARC in exchange for my honest review.
4.5/5 stars

THE BEST SUMMER read for 2024
It has everything a little humor, wit, romance, a few juicy details, a lot of suspicion. But the best part? I love books that break the 4th wall.
and most novels I find with this style are serious and/or historical. It was a treat to find it in this novel. I first shrugged it off as a simple beach read. But it ended up being so much more and I am happy to hear it is part of a series.

All that bestselling author Eleanor Dash wants is to get through her book tour in Italy and kill off her main character, Connor Smith, in the next in her Vacation Mysteries series—is that too much to ask?

Clearly, because when an attempt is made on the real Connor’s life—the handsome but infuriating con man she got mixed up with ten years ago and now can't get out of her life—Eleanor’s enlisted to help solve the case.

The setting was perfect - 10/10! I will automatically read any book that has the setting of the Amalfi Coast because I think it’s beautiful, and I desperately want to visit some day. Every Time I Go on Vacation, Someone Dies, is a fun, light mystery that breaks the fourth wall with Eleanor Dash, the main character, speaking directly to the reader at times. I will say that I struggled to get into the story… it seemed slightly chaotic, I didn’t particularly love any of the characters, and I found the use of footnotes distracting – I didn’t love the back and forth of reading the footnote and then having to find my place in the book again, but that’s just personal preference. I did start to get into it around the 85% mark and flew through the ending. I seem to be in the minority with my feelings about this book so if you’re looking for a light, cozy mystery, you should check this one out.

Loved the book within a book. The characters were great and I enjoyed the story. The twists were good and not super predictable.

I quite enjoyed this book, and the footnotes were really fun little additions. (My ARC version wasn't formatted the greatest for my Kindle app, so trying to *find* the footnotes was an adventure in itself sometimes, but I digress.) The story definitely kept me on my toes and guessing about what was happening and who was behind it, and I slightly figured it out just before the big reveal, but still not entirely, which I liked. I will absolutely be picking up the sequel once it's available. =)

4 stars

**I received an advanced review copy from Netgalley and am voluntarily leaving this review. All thoughts and comments contained within are my own.**