Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for making this title available to me in exchange for my honest review. I was excited to be approved for this book as I have enjoyed previous works by author T.M. Logan. The novel is set in an idyllic luxury villa in France. The author does such a fantastic job of describing the lush vineyards and charming town surrounding the villa, that it almost made me feel as though I was on the vacation!

Four best friends from college converge on the villa with their husbands and children for a week long fortieth birthday celebration. Although the story is told through several points of view, the primary narrator is Kate, a married mom of two who suspects that her husband is keeping secrets from her.

Soon after arriving at the villa, a series of text messages on her husband's phone lead Kate to conclude that he is having an affair with one of her friends. Rather than confronting her husband and her friends, Kate decides to keep quiet and observe the proceedings closely in an attempt to find out which of her oldest and dearest friends has betrayed her.

All of the characters in this novel are complex and while I did not particularly like some of them, I could not look away. Every character has secrets, even the children, and some are much darker than others. While this book is a slow burn, it was definitely compelling and I stayed up half the night to find out how it would end. There are so many twists and turns and every time I thought I had it figured out, I realized that I didn't!

The secrets and lies build ,pulling at the seams of the tenuous ties that bind these longtime friends. It therefore came as no surprise that not everyone made it out alive. It was interesting to see the lengths that some of the characters would go to to protect those they love. I particularly enjoyed the ending of the book and found that I had a new respect for Kate and her husband.

So if you are stuck at home but still interested in taking a vacation to the south of France, check out this book!

Thank you to NetGalley and Macmillan Publishers for an advanced copy of this book.

Four women who have been friends for over 20 years set out on a vacation with their respective families in a luxurious villa on a vineyard in France. But the vacation takes a bad turn before it even has a chance to begin; Kate finds suggestive messages on her husband Sean's phone from a mystery woman--and it's definitely one of her three friends.

Kate begins keeping a close eye on all the interactions Sean and her friends have to figure out which it could be but she was focused on what she assumed was going on that she really didn't realize the biggest issue of all.

I'm going to be honest, I enjoyed this book all the way to the end and then the rug was completely pulled out from under my feet. It was exciting trying to figure out which woman was wronging a friend but just like Kate, I was completely unfocused on the deeper problem. It's in front of you the whole time but it seems so small and unimportant. Any book that leaves me with my jaw hanging is a book I need to recommend to everyone so get your hands on a copy of this book, you won't regret it!!

In all the reviews I’ve read, people really dislike the characters. For me, Kate would move to the top of the list. Logan has gone out of his way to show us that Kate had an ideal marriage. While they had tough times, it was a good marriage. Yet she immediately jumps to conclusions and can’t be bothered to just ask her husband. When she finally confronts him, he’s blase and blows her off, end of convo. Listen, if I suspected my s/o of infidelity, we’re going to hash it out. It wouldn’t matter if we were on vacation. Kate’s with her best friends. If they aren’t prepared for their best friend to sort her marriage, then they’re probably not the best friends they’re supposed to be. It made for a long, drawn-out, unnecessary drama because you can’t paint an ideal marriage, but then have it closed up from the start. It doesn’t work.

The characters are all fantastically flawed, and Logan has written great, unlikable characters (outside of Kate, she doesn’t count anymore for me). Jennifer’s children are just flat out monsters, and I’m a huge fan of well-written characters that you love to hate. I hadn’t read anything by Logan before, so I don’t know if the screenplay-esque style of a character finding something “shocking” (which really isn’t) and then tucking it away to reveal the “shocking” bit later, is typical of his writing. It’s read more like a movie every time that happened.

But I’m giving this four stars, so obviously I enjoyed the book. When I look past all the Kate silliness that drives me nuts, there is a fun story here. Especially once the secrets of everyone else in the house come to light. The constant drama made this highly enjoyable and I think this one will be hit or miss for readers. Thank you, St. Martin's, for sending this along!

Another winner from T.M. Logan filled with all the edge of your seat excitement!
Kate and her friends are taking a dream vacation at a beautiful villa in France to celebrate their 40th birthdays! They have been friends for over 20 years and all met at college! They have also brought their husbands and children along. Kate feels that this is the best time to find out what her cheating husband is keeping from her and she believes that one of her best friends on this trip is the adulteress! Packed with a wide range of characters at different stages in their life, from the single Izzy to Kate and her 16yr old, the women have take different paths but have remained friends throughout. But, that all changes when secrets threaten to destroy lives and hurt those close to them! All storylines came together and were wrapped up in a neat bow at the end with nothing left unknown!
Thank you Netgalley and St Martin’s Press for the ARC in exchange for my honest review!

Vacations with a group of friends and their families may sound like fun, but for one group, a week in the south of France becomes a living nightmare for some, heartbreaking for others and definitely deadly. Secrets are easier to keep when no one is around to uncover them, but secrets have a way of festering and becoming twisted. Three families are about to discover how little they can trust themselves or those around them, all because no one will face the truth that could set them all free. If you can’t trust your family or your best friends, who can you trust?

Twisted and dark this tale is filled with the greatest poison of all, secrets. Mix in a mash up of personalities, jealousies and financial discrepancies and you have the perfect recipe for disaster as this group finds that sometimes a once in a lifetime vacation is not worth the price to be paid.

THE VACATION by T.M. Logan is filled with high octane angst, children craving attention or rebelling against it and a group of adults who are wrapped up in their own little dramas, real or imagined that it is hard to care for any of those characters. There comes a time when enough is enough with the hidden lies, secrets, etc., and if I was offered the opportunity to join this group, my answer would be a resounding NO!

You want suspense, a kaleidoscope of characters that muddy the waters and a painful revelation or two along the way? Don’t have a problem with deceit between couples or friends? A solid read that had me wanting to slap a few faces!

I received a complimentary ARC edition from St. Martin's Press! This is my honest and voluntary review.

If you’re looking for a fast paced, well written thriller this book is definitely for you. The Vacation will keep you hooked to the very last page. Lots of twist and turns. Truly captivating.

Thank you to netgalley and the publisher for an advance copy in exchange for my honest review.

Our favorite author is back. Thanks to #Netgalley and #TMLogan #stmartinspress I was a lucky reader who got an #arc. Remember the ride we went on with #29seconds ? (No not a sequel, just a great author 😉). It's coming close to your fortieth birthday. You and three friends from college are going on a vacation. This time WITH husbands and children. It's been a few years. You're excited to reconnect. To be in a magical place. But. You suspect your husband is having an affair. Is he having an affair WITH one of YOUR friends? That would be your karma. Follow to find out if the husband is indeed a cheater. How a vacation of a lifetime turns in to a nightmare. And these four families full of secrets and dysfunction. Highly recommend this one 4⭐ for this one #netgalleyreview #booksofinstagram #bookreader #bookstagram #beachreads #summerrelease #ordernow

Excellent book! I love a good suspense summer read and this one is just that! It will take you on a roller coaster of emotions! Highly recommend!

A quick, entertaining read. Although I found it predictable, it was fun to break away and use this as a palette cleanser for my next read. Not bad, but not great either.

Itis an intriguing, if not novel idea, of getting 4 close friends together with their families for an exotic vacation. As with all multi-family dramas, misunderstandings escalate and detonate. There is some interesting character development and the story starts with fun plan. I suspect many of us can identify with the feeling of the bottom dropping out and attempting to cope when it's the last thing in the world you want to do.

As comments and actions are misterpreted and misconstrued and the friction becomes fracture, something really bad happens then even more bad things happen before the whole story is revealed.
This was an ok read, some of the foreshadowing got tiresome and I did skim some sections simply to find out what was going on.

I remember now why my best friends have 4 legs and can't talk. 3.5 stards

Four best friends from University meet up in France for a vacation with their families in tow. What could go wrong? Told mostly from the point of view of Kate but multiple voices appear telling the story of what's going on in France. A slow burn of a story that keeps you turning the pages. I finished this one in two sittings and truly enjoyed it. Thank you to St Martins Press and Netgalley for my advance copy. All opinions are my own.

4-4.25 STARS

Kate gets more than she bargained for when her getaway to a luxurious villa in the south of France reveals that one of her close friends is engaged in a secret love affair with her husband. Unfortunately, Kate doesn’t know which one of her besties has betrayed her. Hence, she sets out on a quest to uncover the truth. However, that isn’t the only secret that could be unearthed if Kate (or someone else) goes digging. And there is one amongst them who is willing to kill to ensure that it remains buried.

“The Vacation’s” intriguing premise pulled me in right from the get go. And despite the sluggish pace and some less than appealing characters, I remained engaged throughout. Overall, this was a good, enjoyable read, but just not as great as I had initially hoped it would be.

This is a good beach read about four old friends getting together for a week in the south of France. Three are married with children ranging in age from 6 to 16 and one is single. While there is the normal conflict simmering just below the surface when so many people of different ages share one house, family squabbles, overindulging of alcohol, teenage angst, and long-standing wrongs; there is also the added tension caused by one friend believing her husband is having an affair with one of the other women.

So, put all of these elements together in a gorgeous villa, add unbearable heat, throw in cryptic writing and, gasp!, you have a nice beach read.

My copy of this book was provided by the publisher via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. My thanks to the the author, the publisher, and NetGalley for the opportunity to read and review it.

Drew me in from the first pages a tense chilling read a book with great characters .A book with so many twists and turns kept me guessing till the last pages.#netgalley#st.martinspress

A group of friends (or is it frenemies?) on vacation together, a rental home full of plots and suspicions. Thank you for the opportunity to read and review!

THE VACATION is a book that, for me, started well, slowed down in the middle and had a predictable ending. Having read the author’s book THE LIES, I was totally excited to be able to read this one, but parts of it fell flat for me. A week’s vacation at a beautiful villa in France seems perfect for three families plus single Izzy. The four women involved have been friends forever and are celebrating their fortieth birthday here in style. Kate, the narrator, discovers at the beginning of the vacation that her husband Sean is having an affair, and she Intuits that the other woman is one of her friends on vacation with them. The main point of the book is Kate’s determination to find out who Sean is sneaking around with. But someone is not happy about Kate’s sleuthing and may kill to keep the secrets hidden. This book was like a daytime drama, complete with deceit, twists and a lot of the aforementioned drama. The second storyline of the teen children of two of the families fell totally flat for me and I think that part could have been omitted without losing anything except pages. All in all, however, I did enjoy the book but I did not find it fast-paced suspense as I expected. Instead, it was a slow build-up with a lot of character development and deception. Fans of Logan and suspense will not want to miss this book that is worth reading just for entertainment. (Kind of like watching backstage at a Judge Judy show).
Disclaimer
Disclosure of Material Connection: I received a complimentary copy of this book from the publisher via Netgalley. I was not required to write a positive review. The opinions expressed are my own. I am disclosing this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission’s 16 CFR, Part 255, “Guides Concerning the Use of Testimonials and Endorsements in Advertising.”

5 Stars!

I couldn't put this book down! The Vacation is T.M. Logan's third novel, and the second book I've read and reviewed and given 5 Stars. His books really are a cut above the rest with exceptional, tight writing and great characterization, plotting, motivation and pacing. There are many characters in this novel, all integral to the story, and we come to understand each one.

When I reviewed the author's second book, Lies, I wrote that I would have preferred he'd not done an info dump at the end to resolve the mystery, but rather woven the resolution into the story. In The Vacation, I was delighted to see the plot lines all unfold at the right times, with each plot point resolved right up to the last page. I'm officially a fan.

The Vacation would make a great movie, and I wouldn't be surprised if a deal was in the works. I wish this author the best and will definitely look for future books. Many thanks to St. Martin's Press and NetGalley for providing an ARC of this novel.

3.5 Stars

Kate and her family are spending a week away in France in a gorgeous villa with four of her best friends and their families. Shortly before the trip Kate discovers her husband is cheating on her....with one of those best friends. She spends the week digging and looking for clues so she can try to figure out which one of her friends it is. As she starts to uncover secrets she realizes there is much more to the story.

It's weird to give a book 3.5 stars when almost literally nothing happens for 3/4 of the book. All of the families just lie around the pool all day and hang out. The tweens and teenagers hang out together a little and cause some trouble. Kate keeps checking her husband's phone and dragging the whole cheating affair on alllllll week instead of just sitting all her best friends down with her husband and hashing it out. Putting that all aside, the book was still entertaining even though nothing was happening! I even found myself rolling my eyes and saying how dumb it was.....but I kept reading it! The author was able to write in a suspenseful way that kept me engaged. The last 1/4 of the book was the best part. A little scattered and thrown together, but all the pieces fit at the end. **Possible spoilers ahead** A few things that I couldn't get past: When a student in your town gets injured (especially under the circumstances as in the story) the entire town knows. It wouldn't come out weeks later after that student has been fighting in recovery. I found it so hard to believe that Kate was completely clueless that it happened. However, maybe it's true since there was an open gorge at the end of their property and their children continued to go near it again, and again, AND AGAIN. When you have a 9 yr old (I do) and your vacation home has a dangerous cliff on the property you watch your kid like a hawk and you beat into his/her head that they are not to go there under ANY circumstance.

All in all it was a quick and fun read and I would read more from the author.

This book had me hooked from the start. Just when I’d think that I knew what was going on there would an unexpected twist. And the end really caught me off guard. Very well written. Thanks to NetGalley for the opportunity to read and review this book.

A group of long time friends and their families are vacationing together when the central character, Kate, finds what she feels is evidence that her husband is having an affair with one of the friends they are sharing their vacation with. Kate's efforts to find evidence to prove her suspicions will lead her to uncover much more than she was looking for. This story line may not be an original one, but T M Logan has added enough twists and turns that you cannot figure out what will happen next. Kate's actions and observations will lead her into many open doors that she should not have looked behind. Loved the story, the tension between the characters and especially the events leading up to the end.