Thank you NetGalley and Bookouture for this arc!! 4⭐️

After reading the blurb about this book, i HAD to read it! I was disappointed to find that the spoiler of Niall’s death in the summary doesn’t happen until you’re already 3/4ths in, but the pacing and although simplistic, really intriguing writing kept me drawn in.

There were so many plot twists, some predictable and some definitely not 😂 I really enjoyed the pacing and how everything was slowly revealed. The only character I really liked was Renzo, Amber’s husband, as he felt like just an innocent bystander in all of this. I did end up feeling bad for Beth towards the end even though she was basically Niall’s doormat. Not to speak ill of the dead, but she definitely deserved better!

I really enjoyed this thriller and will definitely be reading more of Shalini Boland’s work!! Highly recommend if you’re looking for a quick read packed with good plot and lots of tension.

Another gripping read from this author, I am never disappointed and she is one of the few that I never have to read what the book is about beforehand.

Extremely well written as always, a great story line with interesting characters and full of twists and turns until the very last page.

I can thoroughly recommend this book as all her previous ones, a definite 5+ stars from me and thank you to Netgalley and Bookouture for this advanced copy. Well done Shalini, can't wait for your next masterpiece.

A family holiday should be relaxing, fun and stress free. But imagine going to another country expecting to have the best family holiday ever, only to have it turn into your worst nightmare with the violent murder of your husband.

Beth and Niall Kildare decide to take their two kids on a long over due family vacation. Niall suggests they go to the Amalfi coast in Italy and convinces Beth that a house swap would be the perfect thing to try. They would trade their home, a lovely cozy cottage in Dorset England, with a family from the Amalfi coast.

Amber and Renzo Mason and their two children live in a stunning villa with ocean views of the Amalfi coast, and coincidentally, want to holiday in the English country side and swap houses.

The two families swap houses and what should be an incredible experience for both families turns into a living hell for the Kildare's. Supposedly, blissfully unaware of the terrifying events happening back home at their Italian Villa, the Masons are safely tucked away in the Kildare’s cozy cottage.

Once again, Shalini Boland writes another brilliant psychological thriller. The Family Holiday was full of secrets, deception and lies. It was a fast paced, page turning book full of Shalini Boland’s magical writing style. I do wish the ending of the story was a bit more developed, I would have loved a bit more detail. That being said, perhaps that was the authors intention and a sequel is in the works!

Thank you Bookouture, NetGalley and Shalini Boland for my advanced readers copy in exchange for my honest review.

This my first book by Boland. I did enjoy it alot. It was about 2 family's swapping house for a vacation. There are alot of twisted and turns in it. I like house how both point of view for each wife. I just wish had point of view with the husband's also. I would give it 4 stars.

The house swap from hell!!

I'm always excited when a new book by Shalini Boland is out, because I just know it will be another gripping, mind-blowing psychological thriller. As her other books The Family Holiday is addictive, fast paced and full of twists, and OMG the ending is just genious!

I would recommend not to read the blurb before reading the book, because it gives away too much and you might lose part of the tension and enjoyment.

Thank you to NetGalley and Bookouture for providing me with an ARC in exchange for an honest review.

This is my 3rd Shalini Boland book that i have read and what a story. I read it in one sitting.

I felt like i was apart of the characters lives because Shalini brought them too life through the details.

I loved everything about this story, the twists, the turns, and the ending which left me gobsmacked.

This was an amazing psychological thriller and for any psychological thriller book lovers out there you will love this one

Thank you netgalley and bookouture for allowung me to give an honest review.

My thoughts and opinions expressed in this review are my own and are not influenced by anyone else.

Author : Shalini Boland
The Family Holiday
Publisher: Bookouture
Publication date: March 29, 2022
*A R C • NETGALLEY R E V I E W*
5 ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

Description
Two families. One house swap. A vacation to die for.The white-washed Italian villa is perfect. I thought it might feel odd, living in a stranger’s house for the summer, but as my husband and children swim in the infinity pool, I start to relax. And then, in the back of a wardrobe, I find a photograph that shatters everything…Sparkling green eyes, square jaw, lopsided smile. A young man with his arm around a beautiful woman. The picture is old and faded but I’d recognise him anywhere. The man is my husband. But we’ve never met the family we’ve swapped homes with and my husband swears it isn’t him in the photo. He’s lying. We argue on the balcony with the sun setting behind us and I storm out. When I finally calm down enough to go back to the villa to confront him, I find him sprawled across the veranda… dead. Why would someone kill my husband? Am I in danger? And how well did I really know the man I married?

⭐MY REVIEW⭐
Shalini Boland has done it again with yet another completely enticing thriller. What happens when the perfect family trip becomes the perfect nightmare?This book has been impossible for me to put down, it engulfs you and drags you deep into the characters lives. The characters are all realistic and described so well I really felt that I got to know them all. Some you will love and some you will hate. Shalini Boland does a great job of putting us in the head of her characters. The plot is told from two points of view Beth's and Amber's and it really makes you wonder just how well do we REALLY know the person we are married to ? I loved everything about this story, the twists, the turns, and the ending which left me shocked to the core with my jaw on the ground. I absolutely couldn't put this book down . The author done an amazing job as always with keeping me hooked and turning the pages as fast as i could. She also done such an amazing job of bringing alive all of her characters and really got me into their minds, including the crazy one.
*******Disclosure*******
I received a free E -ARC copy of this book from netgalley prior to release. Many thanks to NetGalley ,the publisher and the author for the chance to read and review a copy of this interesting book in exchange for my honest review. I do not receive any type of compensation for reading & reviewing free books from publishers & authors. Therefore, I am under no obligation to write a positive review, only an honest one. All opinions I have expressed are my own. As always if you like the book you read please take the time to leave a review for the author in places like goodreads & Amazon. It does not have to be long. Just a few sentences saying you liked the book will do. Authors really appreciate every review they get !

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I received an advanced copy of this book from the publisher through netgalley in exchange for an honest review. This book is well written and the characters are described well. This is my second book by this author I have read. This book will keep you on the edge of your seat from the first page. I really enjoyed Beth and Amber's characters. This book is very fast paced and twisty. The description of Italy and England is perfect. It makes you want to visit each country. This ebook will be in stores on March 29, for £1.99 (GBP). I highly recommend reading this book by this author and all of her books.

Beth and her husband Niall agree to swap houses with and Italian couple. Beth could never have imagined when she agreed to this how the lives of everyone involved would unravel.
The thing about this book is that the characters are not what you would normally excepted. There was not one characters that I really liked. Niall was a complete jerk, Beth was his door mat and Amber - well if you are looking for a character you love to hate you will find none better.
This book had some many twists and turns I simply could not put it down. I have not read any other books by this author but I plan on changing that fact.
Thanks to Netgalley the author nd the publisher for a chance to read this novel.

I absolutely devoured this tangled web story it was so good. I loved the way the story flowed and the way it all connected in the end.

I do love a Shalini Boland book.

Shalinis writing is quite simplistic but so very enjoyable so I was delighted to be approved for an ARC of her newest book.

Once it arrived I started it right away and I really fell into the story.

Beth was a really great character and very easy to like, a bit of a downtrodden wife but always trying to see the best in every situation. Married to a real tool but ya know.....she loved him and they had a comfortable life together.

Now reading the blurb and reading the story didnt really quite match up for me- and the major point in the blurb is that Beth does find her husband dead while on this holiday...and she does but this doesnt happen until very late in the book and once it does happen the story is over relatively quickly.

In my opinion I think this should have been left out of the blurb as the reader you're waiting and waiting for this moment to happen and when it does there isnt much left as the book ends at 90%.

But overall this really was a great book and I'm looking forward to the next story from Shalini!

I’m a big fan of this author! As always with her books, this one was captivating from the very beginning and held my interest until the very end. I highly recommend everything this author writes!

It's a house swap! Beth and her husband decide at the last minute decide to go on a family holiday. by swapping homes with an Italian family (Amber and Renzo) living on the Amalfi Coast. Both women are hoping this swap is the answer to some necessary changes in their marriages. Beth and her unlikeable husband are amazed at the beautiful home when they arrive. But Beth begins experiencing some strange issues in her Italian getaway. Is someone staking thiem? Is there more to this swap then meets the eye? If you like dramas, want to drown yourself in beautiful images of vacationing in Italy and of course love a domestic thriller then this #TheFamilyHoliday is for you! #bookouture #netgalley

If only house swaps were without anxiety we would all do it .....and this story, in the extreme, illustrates this! I liked the premise of the plot ‘ The holiday’ for families but this was no fuzzy happy holiday for these families and the story progresses from anxiety to disaster. Beautiful people in lovely settings and a dreadful outcome, however the epilogue was a triumph and also set the reader up for a sequel, maybe.
I found the writing style ok, not great but not awful and the pace seemed a little fractured, sometimes getting nowhere and at the end a little hasty.
Thank you Netgalley for the eARC in exchange for an honest review .

Two families swap houses for a vacation. One in England, the other in Italy. Secrets are being kept in both families that have dire consequences. An interesting premise for the story but I found the main character and her husband annoying. I had trouble feeling empathy towards her plight which put me off the book unfortunately.

The Family Holiday
Shalini Boland
Thriller
241 pages

My rating: ⭐️⭐️⭐️

Thank you to NetGalley + Bookouture for the eARC in exchange for my honest review!

I found the premise of this one very interesting; two families, seemingly total strangers, swap houses for a two week holiday. But are the families actually connected in some way, and if so… how? While I loved the premise, I felt the execution was a little off. It’s a very slow burn; I spent much of the first 50-60% being endlessly frustrated with Niall (and honestly, with Beth who put up with his horrible behavior). Once we started actually getting into the action, it felt rushed and anticlimactic to me. Some of the decisions the characters made felt like they were out of left field. I did enjoy the epilogue and was pleased that the author took that particular character in the direction they did. If you love a quick domestic European thriller, add this to your TBR!

🏊 Domestic thriller
🏊 Set between England and Italy
🏊 Multiple POV
🏊 Slow burn
🏊 Secrets, secrets, secrets
🏊 Mysterious unassigned chapters
🏊 Explores how far you’d go to protect your family
🏊 Epilogue

#caitsquietplacereviews #caitsquietplace #cqpthrillers #netgalley #thefamilyholiday #bookouture

What a gripping book

This was a very disturbing but good read.

Thoroughly enjoyed from start to finish and could not get enough of.

This is a must read for anyone who enjoys a good thriller!!
Absolutely loved the characters, the plot, the tension - impossible to put it down.
Certainly recommended!

The Family Holiday is full of secrets, betrayal, scheming and a few nasty characters to hiss at.

The Masons swap homes with Kildares

The Masons live in a small village in Italy and the Kildares in a small cottage in England.

Sounds perfect.

What could go wrong.

Everything.

Nothing is as it seems.

The pages fly by as you race to see what will happen and to whom.

I for one did not see that ending coming .

Shalini Boland never fails to entertain with a heart stopping story that keeps you guessing from the first to the last page.

Don't miss The Family Holiday, though you might think twice about booking one by the end of the book.

Thanks to NetGalley and Bookouture for a page turning read.

Love, Love, Love this author! A sadistic plan has been formed and neither family will ever forget this house swapping vacation. So suspenseful and twisted, with jaw dropping moments. A must read!

Beth can't believe her luck when Amber decides to do a house swap with her. Why would Amber want to swap her sun-drenched Italian villa for Beth's crumbling English cottage? Beth is so excited that her husband has finally agreed to a family vacation that she decides not to question it. She should have because if something sounds too good to be true, it probably is. And this is going to be the vacation from hell for Beth and her family.

I love the settings in this book. You have the cold, dreariness of England against the warm, sunniness of Italy. I loved that contrast. Everything was well thought out and described, I felt like I was there on vacation with them.
The characters are also a huge highlight of the book. It's full of characters you'll love or love to hate. I had a particular attachment to Lucianna. She was such a great character!

Where the book failed for me was the plot. I read a lot of psychological thrillers and maybe that's the problem. I found the plot pretty generic-especially stacked up against the other Shalini Boland books I've read. There was a twist at the end that I thought was unnecessary...essential a plot twist for the sake of having a plot twist.

Overall, though, there were a lot of aspect of this book that I did like. If you're a fan of thrillers, certainly give this one a try. There's nothing new or exciting here, but the characters are really great.

Thank you to NetGalley for the ARC in exchange for an honest review.