Thank you to Netgalley for this book.

In this story we follow an extensive list of characters: Nicole, Eric, Tommy, Declan, Matty, Savannah, Ron, Ruth, and Jake. Nicole and Eric are both nurses who arrive in LA to scatter the ashes of one of Nicole's patients who also happens to be Eric's mother who he has been estranged for years. Nicole finds diamonds that was supposed to be Eric and his sister's inheritance but their mother believed them to be greedy and they never visited her until they killed her in order to get the inheritance. Tommy moved to LA because his brother's were killed in a car crash that Jake (Stuart) caused. Tommy ends up finding out the truth and ends up reuniting with his family after avenging his brother's deaths. Declan and Matty are hiding because they accidentally caused an elderly man to die after robbing a post office in order to try and get Matty a new heart who ends up dying at the end. Savannah is trying to escape who controlling pastor father and ends up pregnant and is almost kidnapped before she makes her final escape to freedom and away from her father. Nicole gives Tommy some money for helping get Eric arrested after he tries to kill her. Nicole ends up purchasing the hotel that they had all been staying at and with the help of her new boyfriend Declan fixes it up. Also Nicole and Declan are expecting their first child that they are naming Matty after Declan's best friend. Ruth comes to LA after receiving a email saying she won a date with her favorite actor. Ruth has a lot of weight that her mother and brother make fun of her for. Her brother actually was the one to send the email so Ruth kills them both after endearing their mental abuse as well as her father leaving her and starting a new family and a new daughter. Ruth ends up going to her favorite actor's house after being stood up and believes that he will love her once he gets to know her. Ruth stalks his house in order to talk to him and he tries to get her to leave multiply times but ends up getting killed by Ruth after he rejects her and gives her money in the same way as her father and Ruth snaps and kills him with netting needles. Ruth kisses his lips as her dies and ends up going to a mental institution after being evaluated unfit to stand trial.

I really loved John Marrs's The One, and The Marriage Act, so I was really excited to try another one of his books. However, The Vacation is not so much a thriller or mystery in my personal opinion.

The Vacation follows Marrs's typical writing style in that you follow multiple characters' point of view. I would say Tommy seems most like the main character out of all of them just because his POV crosses with so many other characters, but you also have POVs from Nicole (and Eric), Declan and Matty, Jake, Savannah, and Ruth. There are also other characters such as Ron, Peyk, and Jane, who are also a part of the hostel in which the story takes place.

The premise is that all of these characters' paths cross at this one hostel in Venice Beach, CA, and they all have something to hide. Some characters are simply hiding personal secrets and guilt, while others are hiding major crimes. I personally enjoyed Savannah's storyline the most, and found it the most interesting, with Nicole's being a close second. Overall, the book was alright, and I think many people will enjoy it, but it just wasn't as exciting as some of his other novels for me.

Thank you to NetGalley and Harlequin Trade Publishing for an ARC of this novel in exchange for my honest and unbiased review.

There is a rundown hostel in Venice Beach. It's not fancy but it's cheap and that's the attraction for many. This story focuses on eight people who staying there including Tommy who started off with his friend, Louis, touring around the States and is working there in exchange for room and board, Nicole and Eric who are reliving the adventure of an elderly patient of Nicole's who had recently passed away, Matty and Declan who are two young fun Irishmen, and Savanah who has run away from her controlling father and is trying to start a new life.

I liked this book. This is the fourth book I've read by this author and I liked the writing style. I found that it started off a bit slow but really picked up about halfway through. It is written in third person perspective in the various voices depending on what's going on. I found there were a lot of characters so it took a while to get to know them and keep them straight. The timeless jumps back and forth from present day to the past and it took a bit to get used to the rhythm. The endings of the characters' storylines were a bit farfetched but I went with it. As a head's up, there is swearing and violence.

Another edge of your seat, locked door thriller from one of the masters of the genre! This was twisty and at times dark but always a complete thrill ride. Many thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for an early digital copy in exchange for my honest review!

Eight strangers in a hostel who all have secrets.

I was expecting this to be more of a suspense/thriller, but it felt more like an action book. If you go into it with that mentality, you should enjoy it more.

I also think there could have been more separation with the flashbacks. Like perhaps there could have been chapters with characters' names with that point-of-view and then we could have flashed back within that character's chapter. As is, it was hard to tell at times when we were and with whom.

This book follows the (temporary and long-term) residents at a Venice Beach hostel. Among the eight main characters, each have secrets that impact their lives and relationships.
This book isn’t bad. It’s well-written and the short chapters keep the pace brisk. But for a thriller it’s just… not thrilling. There’s no central mystery or conflict, just the overlapping dramas of the hostel’s inhabitants. Some of these storylines do include twists and surprises, which elevates my score at three stars, but I found myself feeling as though the pieces of the book needed to be more tightly braided together into a connected story. I felt that any of the individual storylines would have been better expanded into its own book, but separately the seemed a bit surface level. I think this book will be greatly enjoyed by those seeking a drama, but as a thriller lover I found that it wasn’t for me.

I'm confused...this was supposed to be a thriller? I guess there were a couple suspenseful moments, but for 95% it did not read like a thriller at all. I think I might have disliked it slightly less if I had expected more of a contemporary fiction instead of a thriller, but I still would have struggled overall.
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Quick synopsis: Eight people (some strangers, some friends) are staying in a Venice Beach hostel, each has secrets, and each is running from something.
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Eight main characters (some of whom are living under alias), and the language is always jumping back and forth between POVs (sometimes sentence to sentence), and also jumping back and forth between present day and flashbacks. It was honestly distracting and really hard to follow, because you never get any momentum with anyone.
*
I was also really underwhelmed with the writing. It wasn't the worst, but also was not particularly good. Character development (when it happened) was really sudden.
*
I ended up rating it 2.5 stars, with the extra half star because some of how the storylines intertwined was interesting at the end. But I would not recommend this.

THE VACATION by John Marrs is a fascinating story that feels like I read a crazy season of a mystery drama.

I had no expectations, but this was unlike anything I have read in a while. I liked it a lot!

There is a hostel in Venice Beach that has collected a motley crew of inhabitants. As their days begin to mesh, it is clear that some harbor dark, dangerous secrets that affect more than just one of the hostelers. Some have deeper stories that may surprise as well. Not all of them make it through the season, and all of them come out changed.

I wasn't expecting to have a story with so many characters. It was surprisingly easy to keep track as the people in the hostel organically came and had clear backstories that were compelling! I loved how so many of them grew on me and how some came to help each other. The connections were really engaging! I also loved the final wrap ups! If a lot of perspectives seems daunting, I felt that the shifts were done so well and there were a couple that seemed to lead the story.

If you are looking for a portrait of characters brought together by a place that brings a wide variety of connections, be sure to grab this one. It had a great cast for character studies!

Thank you to @netgalley & @htpbooks @hanoversquarepress for this great story and letting me share my thoughts! This publishes on December 12th!

I tried so hard to get into this one but after a week and only getting to 65%, I had to give up. The story was so disjointed and hard to follow. It didn’t seem like there was much of a plot. All of his books have come highly recommended but now I’m wondering why. If they resemble anything like this book, yikes. I wish I could have finished it but it really just didn’t go anywhere for me.

The Vacation has short chapters with a ton of action, which is what I really enjoyed about this book. The amount of storylines and timelines was just too much for me. It was very confusing and a lot to keep up with. All the storylines get tied up in the end, but in too much of a rush. I liked the book, but I would not recommend it as a go-to thriller/mystery.

Terrific twisty read that while the plot might at first seem familiar, still surprises. Marrs has skillfully woven together the stories of a quite varied group of strangers who have more in common than it first appears. No spoilers from me! Thanks to Netgalley for the Arc. Happy to see this published in the US- it's a good read.

The Vacation was surprisingly good. It's the story of several people who stayed at the Venice Beach International Hostel. First, there's Tommy, who showed up from England after his two brothers were killed in an automobile accident. And then there's Stuart/Jake, who was a washed up member of a boy band in England. His name was Stuart in the band, but when he left England he changed his name to Jake. He also changed his appearance, as he didn't want to be recognized. He had his own huge secret. Nicole and Eric were best friends from England. Nicole had been a nurse and had inherited a substantial sum from one of her patients, Mrs. Baker. Eric was Mrs. Baker's son and he hated her. As a result, he killed her. Nicole knew nothing about this until Eric finally confessed it to her. Savannah was the daughter of an extremely wealthy televangelist who was also a racist pig. She had a Black boyfriend, Michael, that she was keeping secret but her father found out about him. He was studying to become a surgeon. Her father found him, brought him to his house and smashed his hands and forehead with a sledgehammer. Her father made Savannah promise never to see him again and locked her in her bedroom. She escaped from her home in Alabama and arrived in Venice. She was raped by Ron, who owned the hostel, and she ended up pregnant. Jane became Savannah's roommate and befriended her. She rented a house so that she and Savannah could live there and raise the baby. Matty and Declan were from Australia. Before they left, they robbed a post office and the postman died. Matty had a heart condition and he was dying. And finally, there was Peyk, who was the handyman at the hostel.

The author did a fabulous job weaving their stories together to make a compelling tale. The way the author did it was brilliant. One after thought: Savannah's father had PIs and investigators searching for her. There was a $250,000 bounty on her head, and two of them found her. Michael showed up to rescue her, but Savannah had other ideas. He tripped himself up when he lied to her. She had him pull over and get out of the car. She pulled a gun on him and stole his car.

I thoroughly enjoyed this book and couldn't stop reading it. I gave it five stars.

Main Characters:
-- Tommy – originally from England, works the front reception desk at the Venice Beach International Hostel in exchange for a room
-- Eric & Nicole – best friends, were nurses at a hospital in England, Nicole befriended a terminally ill patient who told Nicole stories about when she and her husband traveled Route 66, Nicole and Eric believe that they are in search of some sort of treasure while on a great American adventure
-- Savannah – lives at the hostel, works as an exotic dancer, escaped an abusive and bigoted evangelist father, good friends with Peyk
-- Ruth – originally from Australia, obsessed with A-list actor Zak Stanley, ridiculed by her mother and brother for being unattractive and overweight, came to Venice Beach after winning a contest to meet Zak
-- Matty & Declan – originally from Ireland, best friends, on a backpacking journey across America
-- Jake – originally from England, has spent the past two years backpacking around the world, tattooing coordinates on his body of important places he’s been
-- Peyk – handyman at the hostel
-- Ron – owner of the hostel

This “new” release by John Marrs is actually a re-release and rename of a previous self-published title from 2015, "Welcome to Wherever You Are." It appears that the audiobook was released under the new title "The Vacation" in 2018. The author’s acknowledgements indicate that the book has been re-edited for the new release, but I feel like this was just a way to capitalize on Marrs’ current success. Frankly, he should have left it in 2015.

The fact that this was a re-release wouldn’t have mattered to me if I had known. I have read two previous titles by Marrs and loved them. I previously reviewed "Her Last Move" and suggested that Marrs needed a movie deal because the screenplays would write themselves. I also said "The Good Samaritan" reads like a multi-week run of a "Criminal Minds" episode. I was excited to read this. I wanted to read this. I am a fan.

But not this time.

The short chapters start in the present day, alternating between points of view for all the main “hostelers,” with flashbacks to relevant times in their past that explain how they got where they are. I’m sure the intent is to keep the reader on the edge of their seat and turning pages, but I started to roll my eyes after a while. The number of times the author ends a chapter indicating that the character didn’t notice someone watching or following or listening got a little ridiculous.

These are supposed to be people who are constantly looking over their shoulders because of the bad situations they have escaped. I find it hard to believe they would trust virtual strangers the way they do and be so oblivious to their surroundings in their most vulnerable moments.

I don’t mind books with a lot of characters if they are well-developed. These are not. We uncover each backstory over the course of the book, but their relationships are surface-level. Dialog doesn’t ring true. Everyone has a horrible secret in their past, and the number of dead bodies surrounding these eight people who all happened to end up in the same place…. Let's just say I had trouble suspending disbelief.

And if this is a re-edit, then we shouldn’t be seeing things like “Three days after making headline news, Stuart’s phone him. Three days after making headline news, Stuart’s phone foot East Sussex cliffs.” I know I have an advance copy, but I assume the re-edit started with the original text. I’d hate to see how that read in the first release.

Presented as a thriller, "The Vacation" doesn’t seem to have a plot at all, let alone a thrilling one. Marrs mentions in his notes that the hostel is fictional but based on a hostel he stayed at when he backpacked through America. “Adventure stories,” which is what this seems to be more than a thriller, do not seem to be his forte. This book didn’t need a re-edit. It needed a complete overhaul with the seasoned writing skill Marrs has developed over his career.

I recommend passing on this one and picking up one of the author’s more recent titles.

I am a fan of John Marrs, I have read a number of his books. They are entertaining and a good read. This book however just didn't do it for me. The characters are vapid and shallow. There were too many characters and I wasn't interested enough to keep track of them all. Short chapters which makes for a quick read, which was good as I couldn't wait for it to finish. There was a split timeline which is hard to pull off and I found it confusing and irritating. Lots of twists and turns a few surprises but not enough to really engage me.

The Vacation by John Marrs is a highly recommended psychological thriller. This is the third re-release of The Vacation. It was originally titled Welcome to Wherever You Are.

At a beach-front hostel in Venice Beach, Los Angeles, eight strangers all have secrets and are running away from something. Tommy was traveling with a friend and ended up at the hostel. He works at the reception desk. Savannah is a pole dancer who is always looking over her shoulder. Nicole and Eric are friends and work colleagues from the UK who have traveled all of Route 66 and are looking to find something. Matty and Declan are two best friends from Ireland who appear to be just looking for a good time. Ruth is a quiet Australian woman who has come to Los Angeles to meet her favorite movie star. Jake is an adventurer who has been traveling the world. Seemingly always around, Peyk, is a handyman at the hostel who may be the only one who sees people and events as they really are.

The writing is excellent and Marrs keeps the pace moving quickly with short chapters. The backgrounds and secrets in the stories of the characters are carefully and slowly revealed in the narrative, and they are not predictable. The cast of characters may be large, but they are clearly portrayed as individuals with unique personalities, interests, and secrets, so it is easy to keep track of who is who. The characters are interesting and all very different. Some portrayals are over-the-top caricatures, especially Savannah's father, as are some of the big twists, but everything works together for an entertaining novel.
Disclosure: My review copy was courtesy of Hanover Square Press via NetGalley.
The review will be published on Edelweiss, X, Barnes & Noble and Amazon.

Thank you to Harlequin Trade Publishing & NetGalley for an ARC of this book, in exchange for my honest opinion.

This was an interesting thriller about a hostel in Los Angeles and all the people who were bunking there. Each chapter was super short and focused on a character at the hostel. The chapter often shared a current timeline, but then had a backstory on something that had happened with the character. I know this seems like it could be confusing with multiple character story lines, and also dual timelines; but it really was executed perfectly by the author. This book had it all; sex, drugs, murder, lying, and religion.

I had a hard time putting this book down because I desperately wanted to see how everyone in the hostel ended their story. My emotions were also all over the place this entire read on who I liked and who I trusted in the hostel, but by the end of the story my list of whom I liked completely changed!! (Also, I really enjoyed the epilogue).

Honestly this was a riveting thriller that drew me right in. If you’re looking for an unputdownable book that is extremely unique, this is the one!

Fast paced, fascinating tale of eight strangers staying at a run down backpacking hostel. Everyone staying at the hostel is either running from their past or hoping for a fresh start. Told from different perspectives, by the end of the book you feel as though these people are friends. Impossible to put down, not to be missed.

This was my second book by this author. It was hard for me to follow all the different characters and flashbacks in this one, and it also seemed like nothing much was going on through the book. The other book I read of his left me jaw dropped while this one did not. This is a new version of one of his older works, so maybe his style has changed over the years. I’ll try more from him even though this one wasn’t my favorite.

Thanks to Harlequin Trade & NetGalley. I didn’t realize that this was a rerelease of a book from 2022. When I started reading, I had realized I had read it already. I always enjoy John Marrs, even if this isn’t a favorite of mine!!

Delighted to include this title in the December edition of Novel Encounters, my column highlighting the month’s most anticipated fiction for the Books section of Zoomer, Canada’s national culture magazine. (see column and mini-review at link)