I first discovered John Marrs on NetGalley back in 2020 when I read What Lies Between Us. Marrs was undoubtedly a master of the domestic thriller, so I was excited to check out The Vacation. Once again, I was so impressed with Marrs' writing. I loved the plot, setting, and extensive character development. I could not put this book down! A great way to end 2023, and the perfect read for your next vacation!

John Marrs is such a gem of a writer. He always delivers interesting and plot-driven thrillers. This one kept me turning the pages. I liked that it took place mostly in Venice Beach CA which was an interesting change from his typical England setting.

The Vacation tells a tale of eight strangers who find themselves staying at the same hostel in Venice beach.

Alternating timelines from past and present unfold the picture that each individual is running from their past and harbouring secrets. Furthermore, some of them are a whole lot deadlier than they appear to be, but which ones?

This is definitely a slow burn book at the beginning, but the outgoing bubble characters, such as Tommy the hostel manager and his banter and fondness with the guests keep you entertained as time goes on. The short chapters help to keep momentum going until the plot starts to unravel and reveal itself.

There are a lot of twists and surprises at the end as everything clicks into place. Although this isn’t my favourite John Marrs book it was still a fun enjoyable read. I can’t wait to read more from this author, I’m especially anticipating his new novels “the stranger in her house” and “the family experiment” set to release early new year - June 2024

Thank you to NetGalley and Harlequin Trade Publishing for the chance to read this book! 🩵

This book is a re-release from best selling author John Marrs originally published in 2015. I love Marrs' The One World and was hoping for something along the lines of those books. While this was not speculative fiction, it did surprise me in the best way.
Like Marrs' other books, we have many POVs that we follow throughout the story. All of these POVs are residents at a hostel in Venice Beach, California and happen to cross paths at the same time. All of these different voices are hiding secrets -- many deadly -- and they are all looking for a do-over or a fresh start in life.
Each story is told in little snippets (very short chapters) that reveal something new about each characters past and how their life choices got them to the hostel.
So, I found this intriguing in print (e-book), but wonder if it might be a bit hard to follow in audio. There are many POVs and many flashbacks (almost one per chapter). It took me a little while to get used to all the characters, but in true Marrs fashion, he was able to make them unique enough and distinguished enough.
I could tell, however, that this was an earlier book in his backlist. Some of the side characters felt more like caricatures than actual people. I also found it a bit implausible that so many people connected to untimely deaths would find themselves in the same place at the same time. But I was able to suspend my disbelief to enjoy the wild ride that was this book.
Overall, I really enjoyed this one. John Marrs is an absolute one-click author for me. This was a fast-paced, mystery with a lot of threads to unweave that kept me turning pages.
Thank you to NetGalley, the publisher, and the author for an ARC copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

This was a solid 3 star read for me. I’m a huge fan of John Marrs, but this is probably my least favorite book by him.

To start, there were so many characters’ POVs that got flipped back and forth from, so the plot started to get harder to understand. I did love how suspenseful it was up until the very end.

The setting is phenomenal - a hostel in California where so many people pass through and their stories are unravelled slowly.

I would still recommend this book to anyone seeking a fast paced thriller. John Marrs has a beautiful way of keeping you hooked until the very end.

Huge thanks to NetGalley for an advanced copy in exchange for an honest review

Overall I liked The Vacation and the twists and turns!

But the 8 characters, switching between the past and today and all of the characters did get a little confusing for me. I appreciated how they all intertwined but i think the number of main characters could have been reduced. The brief amount of time you have with the character before the next chapter adds to the confusion.

I do like John Marrs and think hes an excellent author overall!

Thank you to NetGalley for the ARC in exchange for my honest review!

I am normally a John Marrs fan. I found this book a bit boring and hard to follow. The different POV's switched frequently and until the end seemed to have nothing to do with each other. The ending wrapped up nicely and the characters connected.

Thank you to NetGalley for the advance review copy in return for an honest review. It was hard to at first learn all the characters. That mixed with the time jumping made it hard to get into the book. But by the second half I was invested.

I love the fast start of this one and the mystery element. However I ended up DNFing it.

There were a bit too many character perspectives to keep track of for my taste and it jumps around in the time line so I never felt rooted or attached and my patience wore thin with it.

Also, the tense of the story is a bit odd... Past tense story writing never feels as impactful to me as present as a personal preference.

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.
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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.
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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.