I enjoyed this book. Well written. Has its point to make and makes it well. I’m not sure I would say I enjoyed reading it but I can recognise a well written book when I read one.

The Family Retreat by Bev Thomas begins with husband and wife Rob and Jess deciding to take a holiday on the Dorset Coast with their 2 children. Jess is a GP "taking a career break" under a cloud and not overly keen on the idea but somewhat reluctantly she agrees to go.

With Rob unexpectedly called away for work reasons Jess finds herself relaxing and making friends with the neighbours,not least perfect couple,Helen and James, who also have 2 children. As time goes on ,however events conspire to make the holiday one to remember for all the wrong reasons.

This is quite a hard book to categorise,it's almost a mini soap opera with so many things going on at the same time with equally dramatic but separate story-lines involving both Jess's friends and family.
There are quite a few difficult subjects covered in the book that in the hands of a lesser author could have made it melodramatic or tawdry and it's one that will make you think.

The only niggle for me was that one twist was so obvious that I found it very hard to believe that Jess,given her profession and previous experiences, didn't click straight away..as I'd guess most readers will. It's also quite slow to get going but once it does it's gripping and involving.

The Family Retreat by Bev Thomas
To be frank, as a male reader and based only on its description, this is not a book I would have chosen to read. I did so because I was sent a copy to review and ended up glad that I did read it. The story, told from the point of view of a working mother with 2 young children, starts off describing life during a period away from home in London at a cottage in a village by the sea in Dorset - idyllic. It unfolds to reveal what for me is another world - a world of very different lives. The author covers several important and disturbing topics and clearly she is very knowledgeable about these areas.

I have to say I was gripped by the story and invested in the characters. The story highlighted some very important topics. One could not call it an enjoyable read but I felt pleased and satisfied that I had read it. This book will make you sit up and think and it poses some difficult questions.

Jess and her family are on holiday while work is being done on their London home; Helen and her family are on holiday just because. Neither is telling the whole truth. Jess is a GP on ‘sick’ leave, and her husband, Rob, is a screen writer based in London and often away on business. Helen’s family have recently returned from Germany and are buying a new property in London. Her husband, James, is starting a new business and is either in London or travelling on weekdays. Rob is immersed in script problems and quite laissez-faire about domestic matters, while James is highly focussed on his family, constantly doing things to entertain them but also genial and helpful to neighbours and friends. Inevitably, Jess and Helen become close, especially since they both have two young children who constantly want to spend time playing by the sea. In many ways they are having an idyllic time but underneath Jess, outwardly a happy, scatty mum, is ridden with worry and guilt over her failures as a GP. Helen on the other hand, is outwardly placid, highly organised although reticent about her past. The only cloud on her horizon comes from the frequent, at least daily, phone calls from her troubled sister. No one sees the rapidly approaching catastrophe.
This book is classed as general fiction which, on the face of it, conforms to the family drama tropes. However, the underside is of the story is a mystery, things are not as they seem, but small clues are scattered through the tale enabling the reader to puzzle out the true nature of the drama. The writing is of high quality and the whole thing proceeds at a surprisingly fast pace, while feeling, in the early stages, like a meander on a warm afternoon. The ending is well constructed and the final tidying up expeditious and satisfying. I would give it 4.5 so rounded to 5.
I would like to thank NetGalley, the publishers and the author for providing me with a draft proof copy for the purpose of this review.

I received a copy of this novel from the publisher via NetGalley.

This story focusses on Jess, a GP on leave from her job, who rents a farm cottage for a month with her two small children and her husband Rob, who is working on a film script. Their neighbours in the farm cottages include Helen and James, who have children of similar ages. The first half of the book felt long, with 'present day' sections slowed down by chapters describing how Jess came to be taking a leave of absence ('the mistakes she made'). The second half sped up quite a lot and a whole series of 'issues' reared their heads, which it would be a spoiler to list. Suffice it to say there were many, and the surprisingly obtuse Jess is in for a few surprises (although given her training, at least one of them should have been obvious to her).. I didn't love this; I didn't warm to Jess, and the author had a habit of ending chapters with Kathy Reichs-like statements along the lines of '...something I would later come to regret'.