I thoroughly enjoyed this twisty thriller and its lovely setting. Lots of deceit going on and secrets being discovered - with dire consequences. A great quick read.

Wow! Wow!! Wow!!! This is an intense, riveting read that takes you right into the two families who have agreed to a holiday house swap. Well plotted and oh so readable, you'll be hooked from the start! If Shalini Boland writes it, I'm reading it!

Many thanks to NetGalley and Bookouture for this ARC!

Wow! What a book. I had to read it in one sitting. I loved the plot and was quickly engrossed in the characters.
Shalini Boland is an exceptional talent and remains one of my favourite authors.

How many secrets can two families have? Beth and Niall live in rural Dorset and have arranged a house swap with Amber and Renzo in Italy. Each family have their reasons for not wanting to be in their own homes.
When the Italian dream holiday turns sour for Beth and Niall, why then are Amber and Renzo not having a lovely time either.
There are plenty of twists and turns, with Amber and Niall knowing each other, Beth finds out on holiday when she finds a photo of the two of them together. When Niall is found dead on the patio one night, what were the events leading to the tragedy?
I really enjoyed the book, however I felt it was a bit rushed at the end after the plot was so well laid out, with the events leading up to the climax. The end twist however was good and I didn't see it coming.

Many thanks to NetGalley and Bookouture for gifting me a digital ARC of the latest thriller by Shalini Boland - a favorite of mine. 4 stars!

Beth is thrilled that her author husband, Niall, finally agreed to take a family holiday with their two boys. He found a perfect house on the Italian coast on a house-swap website; that family will spend their holiday in their cozy English cottage. Sounds idyllic, right?

This is best to go into blind - don't even read the publisher synopsis! It's a quick, gripping read with lots of twists and turns. I thoroughly enjoyed getting lost in this book today, as well as dreaming about a vacation in either house! Not sure quite how the cover relates to the story though!

I'm never ever disappointed in Shalini's books and this one was no exception. I loved it!

The story starts with Beth, Niall and their two children, Connor and Liam, swapping their quaint Dorset home for a stunning modern villa in Italy, owned by Amber and Renzo and their children. Everything seems absolutely perfect, until Beth finds a picture of Amber with Niall, Beth's husband. Finding this is the start of a web of secrets and deceit and murder....

Once I picked this book up, I couldn't put it down and stayed up late into the night to finish. The characters were well rounded and, although not all likeable (Amber and Niall-I'm looking at you!) they were all hugely believable. Although the tension built quite slowly, the simmering uneasiness is always there below the surface which I loved. Although Beth exasperated me at times with the way she put up with Niall's behaviour, I did feel for her too.

This is a brilliantly written taut psychological thriller and I highly recommend it to anyone who likes these kind of books. I've read all the author's previous books, so I'm now impatiently awaiting her next one!

Thanks to author, Shalini Boland, publishers Bookouture and Net Galley for this ARC in exchange for my honest review.

This thriller gets 5 brilliantly-unexpected, mysterious, nightmarish stars~

Two seemingly-normal families on holiday.. what could go wrong?

I read this thriller surprisingly fast. I really liked getting to know each of the main characters - I think their personalities really came through well in Boland's writing. Here we have two families, each with two children. They are living completely different lives, in completely different locations.

We have Beth and Niall, and Amber and Renzo and their kids. Beth is shocked when Niall mentions a new vacation opportunity involving a "house swap" and they both decide to give it a go. Beth and Niall leave their home in England to swap with Amber and Renzo and their home in Italy. It could be a great opportunity for Beth and Niall to rekindle their marriage, and for Amber and Renzo to get a change of scenery. But then... things quickly prove to be more than they seem, with odd occurrences and mystery at every turn.

Maybe this house swap wasn't the best decision after all?

Thank you to NetGalley and Bookouture for providing a digital ARC in exchange for review!

This one was definitely a holiday read! Loved the story of two families swap their houses for a couple of weeks. Loved all the emotion and thrills within it.

Two families in need of a holiday - one house swap - not everyone will be going back home.
This was a fast paced page turner with so many twists right up til the very end.
Beth and Naill decide to try a house swap vacation to have a getaway from their English cottage and end up swapping with Amber and Renzo, who have a gorgeous Italian villa. When it sounds too good to be true, it’s because it probably is. So buckle up and get ready to go on a wild ride!
Thanks to NetGalley and Bookouture for this arc in exchange for my review.

An engaging psychological thriller about 2 families who swap houses between England and the Amalfi coast of Italy and wind up regretting the fallout.

Beth wants a vacation with her family, and her author husband Niall suggests a house swap. Amber has her own reasons for wanting to get away from Italy and stay in England. I don't want to give any of the story away, most is surprising. The book is short, and goes by quickly. I found myself a little annoyed with Beth, she seemed so naive through most of the book, but it became clear why toward the end. The ending/endings were surprising. Definitely worth a read.

The Family Holiday
Shalini Boland
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

I will say this book doesn’t get real interesting until the end but the twist that comes is totally worth a 5 star rating! This was an okay book until the end but most def. still worth reading!

The Family Holiday by Shalini Boland is another one of her domestic psyhological thrillers which she does very well.

This is a story about two seemingly random families who swap houses for a short holiday. It is set both in England and Italy with beautiful settings. Then it starts to unfold and it appears that they are somehow connected.

I found is so athmospheric, especially one couple's marriage dynamics and relationship that I wanted to put it down and not finish it as I found it pretty disturbing.
Characters are extremely well drawn out and developed. It is not hard to imagine that they really exist.
There are many twists and turns to keep readers guessing and engaged.

I must say that I am not entirely happy with the ending it think that it could have been done differently, although it was not what I expected so there was an element of suprise.

All in all, a solid thriller.

personally, i didnt like this book, which was very shocking to me because it is in a genre i love (mystery and thrillers). it wasnt the best shalini boland book i've read :(

thank you netgalley for providing me with the arc in exchange for an honest review

Yikes! What a twisted story! Or, better yet……what a nightmare!
House swapping with a twist……
Though The Family Holiday started out a bit slow and then it really picks up speed! Definitely keep on reading!
Who can be trusted? As tensions build, so many questions arise.
This is the first book I have read by author Shalini Boland. Anxious to read more by her.
Many thanks to NetGalley, the publisher and author for the opportunity to read this book for my honest review. All opinions expressed are my own.

This was such a fast paced thriller, I could not put it down, and read it in one sitting. The book is told from multiple perspectives of both wives and an anonymous narrator. I am a massive fan of the anonymous narrator as it adds a greater sense of mystery and suspense, and leaves you trying to figure out who it is. The book is full of twists and turns and I did not see that ending coming.
Two families decide to arrange a house swap, Beth and her husband Niall and her children go to Italy to stay in Amber and Renzo's beautiful modern mansion while Amber and her family go to stay in Beth's house in Dorset. The only thing is that people are keeping secret's from their partner's, and aren't the person they say they are. I really appreciated how the side characters Sally and Luciana were not overlooked, and the book really did empathise the importance of friends, and how they have got your back.
The character's are well rounded, I did feel for Beth even though I felt she was a bit naïve about Niall and why he kept wandering off. Niall was the most infuriating character, he is super unlikable and is horrible to Beth but he was very well written. Amber is just as unlikeable as Niall and only care's about her self and I don't have much to say about Renzo but I did know that he could do so much better than Amber.
This book is perfect for people that enjoy family/domestic thriller's and want a quick read.

I really enjoyed this. It was quite an elaborate story, and while I thought I knew what was going on, I couldn't make sense of it. Thankfully it was all revealed by the end, and even included a nice little twist. Can't wait to read more by Shalini Boland

As soon as I hear Shalini Boland has another book coming out I don’t even need to read the book blurb to know it’s going to be great read. Well The Family Holiday was no exception. An absolutely brilliant suspense thriller that had me completely engrossed from the very start. When I was reading this book I just didn’t want to do anything else until I had finished so anxious was I to know how it was all going to end. Everything about this book was brilliant right from start to finish. There was one particular character who was truly horrible and many times I wanted to reach into the book and slap this person very hard 😂😂.

Another brilliant book from Shalini Boland.
This one had me hooked from the start and I really enjoyed it.
Niall persuades Beth to do a house swap for two weeks so they can go to Italy and the other family stays in their home in the UK.
Beth is not keen at first but when she sees the villa, she’s soon persuaded.
Niall is a writer and likes time to himself but even on holiday, he seems tense and snappy with Beth.
Beth tries to keep the peace for the sake of her two boys but it’s not easy.
We get an insight into Amber’s life and her time at Beth’s cottage in the UK and it’s clear there’s more to the house swap than Beth knows.
I can’t say anymore as I don’t want to spoil it but this is a brilliant psychological thriller that will definitely have you hooked.
Thanks to Bookouture and NetGalley for the opportunity to read this book.

Wow what a book! As soon as I read the description I was hooked and the book did not disappoint. It was fast paced, with so many twists and turns my head was in a spin and I was gripped right the way through to that ending. I highly recommend The Family Holiday.

Thank you to NetGalley and Bookouture for my ARC.

So that ending let's talk about that though. Like I am shook.

So the novel follows a house swap between two families, however, what seems like a vacation to both families turns out to be an unsettling, secret unraveling nightmare.

Beth and Niall Kildare, along with their two children, don't have a lot of time for family vacations since Niall, a fantasy author is constantly "working". As a result of his work, Beth must give up her dreams and stay home to take care of their children. Which she claims not to mind. However, then suddenly Niall says he has found the perfect place to go on vacation in Italy. They end up swapping homes with none other than the Mason family

In Italy, Amber and Renzo Mason, and their two children are also thrilled with the idea of going to England for a family vacation.

Once the swap has occurred things spiral and take the wrong turn. The deception, the craving for perfection and so much more drives the events that occur in this novel.

The characters that I did not like were Niall, how dismissive, unappreciative, and deceptive he is towards his wife Beth. He blames all mishaps on his wife and, fails to stand by her side. As well as none other than Amber Mason, what a psychopathic character she is...I don't need to say more about these two. Other than that their both messed up.

My overall impressions of this novel are that I enjoyed some parts of it and others not so much. However, I was on the edge of my seat to find out the truth. And being left on a major shocker was pure bliss but now I want to know what happens next.

Thank you, NetGalley for allowing me to read this novel.