This book wasn't really for me.

I really liked the idea of the book and the way that everything was connected together, but it was far too predictable for my liking.

Sophie is the daughter of caretakers for a wealthy family's vacation house. Julia is the daughter of the owners. One horrific night will change Sophie's life forever. The book is set in 2003 when Sophie and Julia were teenagers, and also in 2023, when they have grown into adults.

The book started off extremely slow. The first third of the book didn't feel like a thriller, mystery or suspense. The present day timeline felt like it had zero plot until almost 2/3 of the way through. Then it just got so weird and unbelievable.

The book is slow until it gets to a part where you need to check the trigger warnings because it centers around CSA. The book picks up from there, so it held my attention a little better, but it was so predictable.

It is just a mix of a really slow and sad story with some murder thrown in at the end. Overall, it was a valiant effort, I liked the idea of it, but the plot twist was glaringly obvious from the very first chapter in the present timeline.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for an e-arc of this book.

I am very disappointed in this book. I was expecting a thriller/mystery. It did not read like a thriller at all. There are many trigger warnings in this book but from the beginning it is disturbing and gross in the content. A lot of sexual abuse throughout the book. It was not difficult to figure out the twists, though I am not sure I would consider any of it a twist.
It is a dual timeline story with Sofie in the past and Julia in the present. Both girls suffered abuse from an early age. Men are portrayed horribly and for the most part we see men behaving badly. It seems money can buy silence and that allows abusers to continue to abuse.
There is a revenge plot to the story but it isn't written very well and so it was not very exciting to read about. I really didn't like the writing as I was bored for much of the story. I just really did not like the plot, the characters or the way it ended.

If you want a book that involves revenge then this is definitely for you. ;) I enjoyed it from start to finish.

This was such a great, suspenseful thriller! I couldn't put this book down and I would love to read more by this author. You'll never guess the twist at the end!

I went into this blind, and I will say—it was nothing like I expected. When I saw the title, I pictured a bunch of young people on vacation together, partying it up, with a murder maybe. Nope. That didn’t happen! But I was surprised in the best way! I loved this one! It was my first book by this author and will not be my last! It was told from two POV’s, Sofie in the past and Julia in present day. Horrific things happened to Sofie at the vacation house where her family worked. Julia’s family was vacationing at the house Sofie’s family was employed. Julia has some trauma of her own from those days. Flash forward to present day, Julia’s traumas have shaped the woman she is today. She comes across secrets….many secrets….that link parts of her present day life with Sofie’s in the past.

I received this e-book through NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. Thank you to NetGalley and the author/publisher for the copy!

What an interesting book! It was a little hard for me to get into it in the beginning, but once the story started to unfold, it was a page turner! I will say that had I known that rape was going to be a plot point in this book, i might not have requested it.

Throughout the story, we are brought through the lives of 13 year old Sofie in 2003 and 30 or 40-something year old Julia in 2023. Sofie's family were the caretakers of a luxurious vacation home in Greece of a wealthy English family. Julia is married to the headmaster of the school and is content in her life, although anxiety has started to take hold to keep up her perfection. After the English family has brought their guests to stay with them in the Greece home, the caretakers suddenly leave everything behind. What happened? How are Sofie and Julia connected and will the connection bring them together or destroy their lives forever?

The Vacation House
by Jane Shemilt
Pub Date: 26 Dec 2023

This is a story about revenge, two women, and the brutal crime that tied them together. It's a powerful novel that captured my attention from start to finish. If you're looking for a fast-paced psychological thriller that will completely disconnect you from the outside world for a few hours and immerse you in a tragic story, this is the book for you! I highly recommend it.

Thank you to #TheVacationHouse #WilliamMorrow & #NetGalley for an E-ARC of this 5 star book. All opinions are my own.

THE VACATION HOUSE is a powerful novel that captured my attention from start to finish. The dual timelines and alternating points of view were weaved together perfectly. I felt terrible for both Sofie and Julia and the things they both endured. I thought that Jane Shemilt handled it with care and even surprised me with a few twists at the end. Overall, this was a well written story that was different than most the books I've read lately. I'll definitely be reading more her books in the future!

Many thanks to William Morrow and NetGalley for my gifted copy.

This review will be shared to my Instagram account (@coffee.break.book.reviews in the near future.

I wasn’t able to get into this. The writing was a bit all over the place and didn’t flow in a concise, linear format. It was hard to decipher what was supposed to be character thought and their actions. It wasn’t suspenseful and nothing really happened until the end of chapter 7. But by then I unfortunately lost interest because of the writing style.

Anyone looking for a quick and satisfying thriller, need look no further than The Vacation House. Set along a beautiful coastline, sits the vacation villa where Sophie and her family live.
Her family takes care of the villa throughout the year and they live on the property.

The owner’s daughter Julia befriends Sophie, but Julia is older and is dealing with adult issues that would be difficult for Sophie to understand, so she later keeps her distance from Sophie. One year when Julia is at the Villa, some teenage boys arrive with a family friend. Julia ignores them, so they turn their attention to Sophie.

Sophie is barely 13 and not yet wearing a bra. She’s the definition of innocence. Here is where I will tell readers that a horrible act is about to occur and for readers who need trigger warnings—this is it. Honestly, I was afraid to read the next chapter at a certain point in the story.

Thankfully the writer goes back and forth from Sophie to Julia, so readers get a bit of a breather in between the two storylines. What happens is horrifying and caused harm to an entire family.

The story was a bit predictable, but I found the ending to be redeeming—a good dose of karma that was well-deserved.

Many thanks to NetGalley and William Morrow for allowing me to read an advance copy. I am happy to offer my honest review and recommend this to readers who love a thriller and aren’t too sensitive in their reading.

Yikes. I just couldn't get into this one. I don't know what it was, but the intro, or rather the first chapter was just so bland and couldn't hold my attention. I am very thankful to William Morrow books, Jane Shemilt, and Netgalley for granting me digital and physical access, but it just wasn't for me.

This book is told from two different points of view one is Sophie and the other is Julia. Sophie is in 2003 she and her family are the caretakers for a rich British families Greek villa on the island of Paxtis. Sophie is excited for their visit she’s even made their daughter Julia who is two years older than she a bracelet with her name in shells every summer the two girls play together but this summer Julia doesn’t even spare her a glance. It seems Julia is too cool for school and especially to cool for Sophie. The first morning after they arrive however she does make friends with two teen boys that are the families guest their name is Jay and Ginger and Jay teach Sophie how to swim something she cannot wait to show her cousins she can do. For the next few mornings Sophie wakes up super early to keep her swimming lessons appointment because the rest of the day is spent cleaning up after their rich British guest. The meetings are innocent until Jay and ginger catch her on the beach at night and forced her to drink wine and then savagely take it vantage of her. The other POV is Julia in 2023 she is married to James the headmaster at a very elite private school and she is a stay at home wife when she met James she was a single mother to seven year old Lottie She was a teacher but still struggling to support them both especially after her rich father cut her off for not Marring who he chose but marrying Who she wanted. She was at first very in love with James but now sees his condescending side not to mention his very controlling nature even when it comes to sex. All of Julius life it seems men including her father has used her for sex even though her father never did it for his pleasure he still used her for his business partners in his own advancement and Julia is tired of it. It will be when she starts seeing a new therapist named Laurel that things in her life start to change and not for the better, At least not at first. Like most reviews there is a lot I am not saying that happens in the book because like most books the POV‘s will collide and when they do fireworks will happen I thought I was following the narrative and knew what was going to happen but the last chapter was a surprise and an OMG moment or I should say the last two chapters. This was a great great book a definite five star read and one I highly recommend. I love a book where people get what’s coming to them and that is exactly what happened but all how they get it! I want to think William Morrow, Harper fiction and net galley for my free arc copy of this book please forgive any mistakes as I am blind and dictate my review.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for allowing me to review this book.

First I want to say that there are some trigger warnings on this book. If you have issues with SA of minors, skip this one.

While I didn't find the writing to be bad, I did feel that this book just wasn't what I wanted it to be. The characters felt stiff and predictable. I knew from the first pages how this book would turn out, down to the last "twist'. There was no tension, no excitement. It was just very mundane.

Thalmassa, a vacation home in Paxos, Greece is a grand estate taken care of by a lovely Greek family and owned by a wealthy English family. One evening, the English family's guests visit a terrible violence on the young teenager, Sophie, of the caretaker.
20 years later, we meet Julia, the daughter of the English family that owns the vacation home in Greece. She had left the island before that terrible night 20 years prior and does not realize how that night will impact her life until she meets Laurel Rossi, therapist.
You can kind of figure out who Laurel actually is but the rest of twist is too good!

*Special thanks to NetGalley and William Morrow for this e-arc.*

The Vacation House by Jane Shemilt is a compelling and well-crafted story!
This book had fantastic characters and a plot that kept me guessing.
It was an entertaining and engaging read. I definitely think it had a nice flow and built up the suspense for what was going to happen.
I thought this was a very enjoyable and satisfying read; the characters were written very well, and the book had a nice flow that made it hard to put down. I was totally invested through the whole thing.
Overall, it was a good page turner, I was invested the whole way through and would definitely recommend it to others!

Thank You NetGalley and William Morrow for your generosity and gifting me a copy of this amazing eARC!

I truly loved this book. It’s my first by Jane and I really enjoyed the writing. I felt like I was in Greece and London. You know when there’s too many details and it makes it confusing, this is NOT THAT. I really loved how all the twists were well plotted and thought out.

The vacation house

I do not read psychological fiction to feel warm and fuzzy. I read it to feel uncomfortable, to feel my heart race, to be on the edge of my seat. The Vacation House achieved all of this and then some. It is a very, very dark psychological thriller that centers around some incredibly sensitive topics that some may find triggering. (ie. rape, abuse, suicide)

The Vacation House starts out a slow burn. We’re transported back and forth between two different timelines as the foundation for the story is laid out. This is where it took me a few tries to really get into the book and I questioned whether I was really reading a psychological thriller. Fear not!! The story gets uncomfortably dark and twisty around a third of the way in, and I could not put it down once the story unfolded.

The writing is fantastic. It’s some of the better writing I have read in this genre, and I will definitely be reading more of Jane Shemilt’s work.

Thank you NetGalley and William Morrow Paperbacks for the advanced copy. All opinions are completely my own.

A brilliant fast paced novel on two timelines coming together to get justice for a girl who was wronged.

2.5 Stars

I think your enjoyment of this book will be decided on how you like the pacing and how quickly you figure everything out. This started out really slow for me and I figured out the whole book within the first few chapters. It felt like the mystery and suspense was forecasted loudly, leaving no secrets or twists to be discovered. However, the writing was good, the characters largely despicable and unlikeable, and the atmosphere felt dark and foreboding.

Trigger Warnings: [Rape, statutory rape, degradation of a minor, sexual assault of a minor, exploitation of a minor (hide spoiler)]

This book was a little slow for me. It was a little dark for my liking but I did enjoy the dual POVs. There were lots of twists and turns. I was shocked by the ending!
Thank you NetGalley, Jane and William Morrow for the ARC!