Are you desperate for a vacation? Do you love group vacations with your oldest friends? Would you love a visit to a beautiful resort in France?

Something tells me that this is not the vacation these friends were hoping for. This is another edge of your seat thriller by T.M. Logan, a story that has so many twists and turns you’d never expect to happen.

Kate, a wife and mother of two is excited to get out of town. Yet, she’s been suspecting something and her worst fears could have come true, thanks to snooping on her husbands cell phone. An affair, the worst thing a wife can think keeps her suspecting everyone and worrying her marriage has been devastated. However, it’s much worse than she can imagine.

This novel was soo good! I couldn’t put it down and just had to know. Suspenseful and full of great, detailed characters that are so full of their own lives.

I highly recommend this read, particularly on a cloudy, drab day. So good! Special thanks to the author, St Martins Press and NetGalley for this advanced readers copy! These opinions and thoughts are my own!

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

How can a book with so many unlikable characters keep my interest? This was definitely a twisty, fun read although some parts felt a bit forced.

I was immediately intrigued by the byline of this book but this was a new author to me and didn’t know what to expect!

It sounded like a mix between Liane Moriarty (who I love) and like something I love to do in real life— get a big group of friends, husbands and families together and go on a fun trip! While it sounds ideal, there is one of the friends who is looking to get some revenge on the others, and each time I thought it was one of them, it was definitely not.

I thought all the characters were completely flawed and annoying, but I did appreciate the teenagers being teenagers and the kids being kids, although I would hate to think my friends and husbands would ever treat each other so poorly on a vacation!

The mystery kept me engaged the entire time and I was stumped to the very end!

So many twists and turns and I flew through it! ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

Warning…This is going to be a long, long review. And by no means a flattering one to the book. By no means do I recommend this book, but if you haven’t read it and want to, please be aware that this review is very, very…um, honest and covers a lot of plot aspects, though no any of the major twists. So if you want to save yourself some time and money and skip a dud of a book for a treasure of a review (yes, I know, immodest, but then again…accurate  ) proceed.
This was meant as a thematic read, a literary vacation in lieu of a real one. Very summer appropriate, most likely deliberately tailored to be a beach read. I mean, it’s titled Vacation. And that presupposes a certain level of quality, beach reads aren’t traditionally the cleverest things around, but this…this is pushing the envelope on what can and should be tolerated beachside or otherwise. So let’s get into this…four obnoxious female clichés go on an exotic vacation to another country. Sounds like Sex and The City the movie sequel, doesn’t it. Ok, I’ll be more specific, after all both are steaming piles of doodoo, but in very different ways. In this story the four women have known each other since college and used to this this exotic vacation altogether thing annually until life got in the way, Now that they are turning 40, they decide to rekindle the tradition and drag their families alone. So now you have 12 people, 5 of which are kids, in one very fancy retreat mansion (courtesy of Rowan, the financial success of the four) for a week. There’s pool, good food and Mediterranean sunshine. Sounds great, but do these people enjoy any of it? F no. They are all entirely too sh*tty and too preoccupied with their own dramas to do so. And then main drama of it all is that Kate (the main narrator) has discovered suspicious texts on her hunky man’s phone and now thinks he, Sean, is cheating on her. And it’s (gasp) with one of her three friends. Seriously, Kate? You work in police. You’re 40. You might have even read a book or two before. Don’t you know that vague overly suggestive texts that don’t actually say any direct things aren’t usually what they seem. Kate doesn’t. Kate proceeds to make everyone’s vacation sh*t with her suspicions. Why would her bffs screw Kate over like that? Oh…so many reasons. Kate is a terrible f*cking friend, terrible. She’s directly or indirectly responsible for Izzy’s fiancé’s death, dissolution of Rowan’s first marriage and stealing Jennifer’s first love, the sexy Sean. You should watch your back, Kate. But no, apparently the ladies have forgiven her, because it’s that kind of a book. But then who is screwing Sean? Oh the mystery of it all. So is this a thriller at all? Because pages pass and no one will die. And mind you, these are the people you wouldn’t mind killing off, but no, they just stick around and bicker. What the f*ck are you doing, you idiots? A vacation is supposed to be relaxing and pleasurable, spending time with people you don’t actually like out of obligation…that’s family. You’re doing it all wrong, ladies. And also can we talk about the ladies? These yummy mummies…and Izzy. WTF, T.M. Logan? Why are these women such walking talking clichés? Why aren’t they even remotely likeable or interesting…except for Izzy, but you see, she hasn’t reproduced and therefore gets almost no page time. Instead the attention is all on the three women who did. Kate has two kids, Jennifer has two kids, Rowan has one kid. You’re slacking there, Rowan, an heir and a spare, get with the program. Out of the five only one, Kate’s youngest, Daniel, is decent. The other ones are nightmares. Jennifer’s teen is a budding psycho and the other one’s like his henchman, Kate’s teen has questionable judgement and Rowan’s gingerhaired 5 year old devilchild is enough to make you rethink parental strictness up to, but not including corporal punishment. And mind you, these kids are the goal of these women’s existences, Logan (overt to a fault) even includes a scene where they discuss how they’d die for their babies. These women started reproducing as soon as the educational system was done with them. I mean, Kate and Jennifer followed the marry right after college and reproduce straight away scheme. Rowan took somewhat longer, because she had to get a new hubby, after Kate screw the pooch with her first one. And Izzy was all set on to skip down the aisle with her beloved at 25 too and do the baby thing, but Kate got wasted and asked him to drive her and he got killed in a car crash. See…how sh*tty Kate is? Told you. Anyway, WTF is with that representation of women, Mr. Logan? In my experience college educated white women in first world countries in major metropolitan areas do not reproduce like this, in such a freaking hurry. They might have goals, ideas, ambitions…I don’t know, a life to live without immediately going into mummy zone. Maybe some time to play around and have fun before the diapers set in. No? Well, ok then. Write them your way. And mind you, they aren’t even that great of mummies either, Jennifer has literally dedicated her entire freaking life to being a parent, she doesn’t just helicopter over her horrible teens, she’s like a low flying drone. With nothing to show for it either, because her kids are horrible. Following the death of her fiancé, Izzy actually had the temerity to pursue a life outside of the formula and now no one wants to talk about Izzy, it’s all about the other ladies, the ones who serves their biological purpose. So the ladies are no winners and their men aren’t either. Sean’s is hunky and has that Irish accent, sure, but he needs to either have proper secrets or not have secrets at all. Jennifer’s Alistair is a disgusting creature (tall, bearded, out of shape, with hairy shoulders, who tends to wear a tank top, speedos and black socks with sandals outfits) and is a shrink so tends to analyze all those around him. And Rowan’s Russ is just drinking himself into a semblance of peace most days as they both await the selling of Rowan’s company, a multimillion deal with a fundamentalist group. Seriously, how can you write a novel with 12 characters and only have one tolerable one and he’s nine? That’s just sad. So anyway, after all the suspicions and bickering, things finally heat up (literally, via a forest fire) and get very, very mildly interesting…around 80%. Yeah, it takes that long. There’s even a (gasp) dead body. Finally. And then the author throws his version of plot twists at you, all very underwhelming, because it’s difficult to impossible to care about any of these people and because it’s much too late and nowhere near enough. What are we really learning here? That Kate’s too straight laced, Jennifer’s too obsessed with her kids, Rowan is dumb enough to think that a pregnancy might deter a sale of her company to a fundamentalist group (seriously, Rowan? They are all about reproduction. Just like you and your friends. You should know this.) and Izzy is too…well meaning? Oh and there is off course that moral…nothing like mother’s love. Mothers will do all sorts of crazy sh*t for their babies. Oh yeah. 364 pages and that’s the pay off? That’s freaking tragic.
The funny thing is that back in the day women anonymizes or abbreviates their names to get published in genre fiction the James Tiptree strategy) and now it seems that a man has done so to insert himself into the ever popular female thriller and I don’t care about the politics of it all, but did he have to write women characters that way. For shame, y’all, for shame.
So there you have it, a mommy thriller extraordinaire, written not in ink, but in mother’s milk, lactating all over good taste and discernment. This was no vacation for anyone, not the readers, not the characters. I mean, it read quickly and mindlessly sure, but the infuriating kind of mindless, where it’s just tedious and disappointing throughout. Logan has got the genre basics down, but no panache or originality. So it’s readable, but not worth reading. It did manage to inspire this polemic, though, my longest review to date. If you read this entire thing…high five. And many thanks. But do pass on the book. Vacation in other imaginary places and in nicer company.

Perfect friendships. Perfect families. The Perfect vacation...a perfect mess!

Kate, Izzy, Jennifer and Rowan have been friends forever. They decide to take their families and vacation together at a luxurious villa in France. Sounds wonderful right? Beautiful location, good friends, good food, relaxing times -- except it is not for Kate who believes her husband is having an affair with one of her friends!

So instead of a perfect holiday, this trip becomes a nightmare. Think you have everything figured out? Think again! Go into this one as blind as possible. Kate was on a mission to learn the truth, but will it be the truth she is looking for? What if you think you know the truth and the truth comes back to bite you? Will knowing the truth set her free or cause even more pain?

This was a fast read that will irritate you at times, has characters that are not all that likable, have secrets, have serious flaws, and have an annoying child or two. Ever hear the adage "With friends like these."? Vacationing together can either make or break a relationship...what will happen here?

A fast read that had me asking all kinds of questions, coming up with all kinds of theories and not figuring a single thing out. I really enjoy when I can’t figure things out. Entertaining, frustrating at times, but everything comes together in the end!

Thank you to St. Martin's Press and NetGalley who provided me with a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review. All the thoughts and opinions are my own.

*Thanks to St. Martin's Press + NetGalley for the ARC!*

Four longterm best friends and their families go on vacation, and from the start, all is decidedly not well. Almost immediately, it becomes clear that something is amiss - but with who?

There is A LOT happening in this book, especially in the last 20% or so. I didn't really like any of these characters, and liked them even less when the plot got crazier. It felt to me like one of those books where every plot device is thrown in and it works but it's definitely best consumed in one sitting.

Like, not love!

Kate and her three best friends from college would take a trip together each year, just the four girls, until the responsibilities of husbands and children prevented them from getting together. After five years, Rowan planned a week’s vacation, husbands and children included, at a luxurious villa in the sunny south of France. It should have been a perfect trip, a respite from daily life, but Kate was on edge after discovering text messages in her husband Sean’s phone that pointed to him having an affair, seemingly with one of her friends. Was it Rowan, beautiful and successful? Maybe it was Jennifer, a blonde, athletic California girl who used to date Sean? Or maybe it was Izzy, Sean’s childhood friend, who had made a pact to marry each other if they were still single at 40? Kate plunges into detective work to learn the truth about her marriage, but overlooks many clues that might have warded off the tragic ending to their planned week together.

I really enjoyed The Vacation, and sympathized with Kate regarding the state of her marriage. There is so much happening behind the scenes, with the dynamics between Jennifer’s teenaged sons and Lucy and Daniel, Kate’s children. Add in Rowan’s five year old daughter Odette, a champion attention seeker, and the three husbands, all staying in a villa together, and you have a fascinating storyline. The characters were well developed and believable, and I appreciated that, behind the scenes, not everyone had a perfect life.

A thoroughly enjoyable mystery that kept me guessing right to the end.

The bulk of the plot centres on one of four friends, Kate, trying to figure out which of her friends is having an affair with her husband. Her suspicions start with some text messages she sees on his phone but what is great about this book is that all is not what it seems. The things we see through Kate’s eyes are slightly skewed and with her interpretation on them.

I wasn’t as keen on the multiple narrators to begin with as we get little snapshots of their narrative but it is unstructured. For example, we will randomly get Kate’s son Daniel’s perspective. I prefer my multiple narrators given more equal footing. However, by the end, as secrets are revealed, the reason for the random narrative snippets becomes apparent as they provided clues and facts that led to the final reveal. I did not predict the secret that many of the characters had been hiding but the book had plenty of subtle hints that meant the plot made complete sense when it unraveled.

I didn’t identify with some of the characters but they did feel authentic and believable so the whole novel came together well and was intriguing.

Thanks to Netgalley, the author and publisher for this advanced copy.

The Vacation, by TM Logan, is a highly suspenseful, edge-of-your-seat, captivating story that held my attention throughout and was so much fun to read. It is chock-full of countless twists and turns and as soon as you (and the main character) think you’ve got it figured it out...guess again.

The Vacation is the story of four longtime friends who decide to reunite on a vacation with their families at a grand villa in the south of France. Moments before leaving, Kate finds a mysterious and questionable text on her husband’s phone and it seems to implicate one of the friends she is preparing to meet.

While at the villa, we discover that each friend carries a secret or two of their own, and as Kate seeks to uncover the scandalous truth her husband is hiding, she discovers more and more lies, scandals and cover-ups until the shocking truth is discovered on the final pages.

This story has countless red herrings and misdirections, which make it great fun to read. It also has a strong moral message within its pages. It was entertaining, fascinating, and it kept me guessing throughout.

Four college girlfriends decide years later to take a vacation at a vineyard in France together with their families in tow. There kids are all different ages and don't really get along great. They all seem to have their secrets and while trying to enjoy each others company, looking out for their kids and deal with husbands who don't seem to really like each other they are trying to enjoy themselves. This book had short chapters which seemed to make it fly by. As I got to the end of a chapter I just had to keep reading one more to see what was going to happen next. I liked how things came together in the end and answered all the questions you were wondering about as reading the book!

🥳Happy Book Birthday to this amazing thriller by T.M. Logan! 🥳

I have to be honest I started reading this book thinking great another domestic thriller with a cheating spouse...there’s only a few ways this can go BUT....
✨
A word of caution ⚠️, nothing in this book is what it appears!
This is a twisty thriller about 4 women who met in college, reuniting with each of their families in tow for a luxury vacation in France. The setting is beautiful, the characters are equally relatable and unlikeable, the pacing was perfect, and the author kept throwing red herrings at me to keep me on my toes!
By now everyone knows I love the secrets and lies aspects of books and these people had more than their share, even the kids had secrets.

I thoroughly enjoyed this one, it surprised me! A solid ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ read for me! Thank you @netgalley and @stmartinspress for an advanced digital copy of the book for my honest review!
.

This book took me entirely long to get through and I don't feel like it's the best example of his writing.
The good: There are some good twists/surprises and I liked the way everything came together in the conclusion. There are some people who didn't like the ending, but I actually thought it added to the story.
The not-so-good: In the end, I see why the drama was dragged out the way it was, but it got very, very tedious. Kate suspecting and accusing everyone, acting silly rather than being rational and just sitting down and having a frank discussion with her husband like she did in the end.
The kids and the way the parents treated them were over the top in my opinion as well. Not a very realistic portrayal of teens or parenting like some other books I've read. Just so.much.drama.-- almost like melodrama most of the time. One example is that EVERY single time someone would start to have an honest conversation or try to get to the bottom of things--some "major" thing would occur and they would be interrupted mid-sentence to go solve the thing, find the thing, do the thing.
All in all, if you can get past the hysteria the core mystery is decent once it gets solved.

Thank you Netgalley .
Another fast pace twisty read by T. M. Logan. Surprise ending, Great beach read .

Sometimes you pick up a book and before you can blink it’s over and you’ve stayed up far too late. This was one of those books that transported me to another world and let me immerse myself in the lives of the characters inside. Kate and her family have gone on vacation with her three best friends from childhood and their families. It’s supposed to be a lovely week in a beautiful vacation home in France, but these friends have been keeping secrets and they are about to come out into the light. Kate starts to notice signs that make her question if her husband is having an affair, but the secrets within the walls of the vacation home go well beyond a potential affair. This was well written and I liked the style as it alternated from Kate’s perspective to the other people staying in the house.

Thanks to NetGalley and St. Martin's Press for the complimentary digital copy in exchange for an honest review.

The Vacation by T.M. Logan is one wild ride. Four friends take a week long vacation to France with their families in tow. What follows is a weird combination of family & friend drama, combined with some thriller elements and a whole lot of trying to guess what exactly is going on.

Logan does a masterful job of laying out an interesting, if somewhat unlikeable, cast of characters. Most of the story is told through Kate's viewpoint, but at some point you get snippets of what every person in the group is thinking, including the kids. This is what really made the book for me. I'm a sucker for character driven stories and that is certainly what this one is. I loved knowing what everyone was thinking and how they were viewing others in the group.

I also loved how the author told the story and the reader is kept guessing with a slightly ominous tension throughout.

I think this book will appeal to people who enjoy both family dramas as well as thrillers alike. I think it would also appeal to people who like a good character driven story. Thrillers are not my typical genre but I really enjoyed this one a lot. If you prefer your story to have likable characters, this may be one to skip. On the whole most of the characters in the book have character flaws and aren't entirely likable. Except for Daniel, Kate's son, I loved him.

With Characters you’ll love to hate, this thriller takes time to breathe, like a fine French Wine!

“The Vacation” by T.M. Logan offers us a different take on a domestic thriller! You’ll definitely want to savor it!

The last sip is extremely satisfying! But, be careful! You might choke!!

I received a copy of this book from St. Martin’s Press via NetGalley in exchange for a fair and honest review.

I was excited to take this journey with four former college girls who are meeting for their 40th birthday. Typically, it’s just the four of them when they get together. But this being a special year, they are bringing their families with them to a beautiful villa in the south of France.

Though Kate, one of the college friends, narrates most of the story, it occasionally jumps to one of the other guest’s viewpoints. And there’s even a somewhat confusing few chapters toward the last that go back several months in time. These chapters are rather vague and I even wonder at their importance.

The red herrings abound as we keep wondering when something awful is going to happen and who’s going to do it at the gathering. The red herrings are easy to create since everyone appears to have secrets and even be unstable.

I didn’t feel particularly close to the characters since they all were unlikeable to various degrees. Even Kate, who worked with the police as a crime analyst, had no backbone. When she discovered a questionable text on her husband’s phone she never addressed it with him. She just whined and sniveled around jumping from one conclusion to another. It’s not until the very last of the book that she began acting like a grownup.

But the story kept me reading, even though at times it felt repetitive. Plus the point seemed only to make the reader aware of everyone’s flaws, including the children. But then, of course, that was to keep the red herrings jumping. Trust me, I was about ready to grab a net and snatch one of those stinkin’ fish! I needed some character to make a difference and jumpstart the story.

Yet. I kept reading. L.M. Logan had me hooked. What was going to happen?

When things did start to happen They happened fast. Logan must have used a spreadsheet, thumbtacks, and string, to tie everything together. But don’t misunderstand me. It all tied together nicely. There was just a lot of ties!

This book is for you . . .
. . . if you’d like to go on vacation with old college friends and ponder over unique personalities.

Or you could open this book on your own visit to the beach and be glad you didn’t go on The Vacation with Kate and friends.

What Concerned Me
It was a story that felt more about red herrings and guessing than developing characters. And really it was all buildup until the last 30-40 pages.

What I Liked
Though it is still a little off-the-wall crazy, all the threads do weave together in the end.

I received a copy of the book from NetGalley and am voluntarily leaving a review.

Vacation is my first T.M. Logan book. It is a great book to read on the beach or on a rainy day. The first thing I noticed was the epigraph. I grabbed a pencil to write it down to save. “It is easier to forgive an enemy than a friend.” —William Blake. I agree. The narrator for most of the book is Kate, who finds a text on her husband’s phone which indicates Sean might be having an affair with one of Kate’s three college friends. The friends and their families are spending a week’s vacation in a villa near a village in southern France.

For me, the first half of the book was much more interesting than the second half. As Kate tries to figure out which friend it is. We meet spoiled children, husbands that drink a lot...The author builds a case that each of Kate’s friends could be Sean’s lover. The author begins to distract us with the children’s problems and there are so many directions that the plot moves. The ending comes rather quickly. I think more time could have been spent here. Thank you to St. Martin’s Press and NetGalley for an ARC in exchange for an honest review.

The Vacation is an engaging and interesting look at human behaviour. The story takes place in France where a group of friends, along with their families, embark on a group vacation. Friends and partners bound by shared pasts and untold secrets. Lives that intersect in the best and worst of ways.

I thoroughly enjoyed the multiple POVs. They kept me second guessing myself and still I hadn’t put it all together. This is the perfect book for book clubs. I cannot wait to talk about it. A stellar ending that left me shocked yet satisfied. I highly recommend The Vacation.

Reviews by the Wicked Reads Review Team

Ruthie – ☆☆☆
3 stars for characters
4 stars for the story

This is definitely a book that kept me reading – but really none of the people in it were very nice, at all! Although the story happens over a week in a luxury house in France, we do get snippets of previous events... sometimes they make something clearer, often they muddy the waters even more.

The four women, friends since Uni days, used to meet up every year, and then life got in the way, but now they are all about to hit 40 and they decide they should spend a week together and bring their families too. At this point I already knew this was a really bad idea... but little did I get just how bad a plan it was!

What is fascinating is how many things can bring groups of people who have known each other a while, but not had to live in the same house, mindful at least of each other’s rules, particularly parenting rules and reasons. Three of them are married and have children, the fourth, Izzie is a free spirit and alone. They are all in totally different career paths, different interests, and the children are at difficult ages to even have any desire to play with each other.

I found it sadly believable how one discovery led to a minefield of findings, suppositions. and misunderstandings. It was cleverly built up and broken down. But as I mentioned at the start, I really found it difficult to care about what or why things were happening. That didn't make it any less riveting, it just didn't emotionally grip me as it all comes tumbling down.

Definitely a good holiday read, although probably best not if you have gone on holiday with family and people you think of as friends...