Read if you like:
#️⃣ Multiple POV
🏨 Hostel Settings
⏳Multiple Timelines
🔎 Mysteries
🔫 Starting with a bang

This book is told from 8 POV from people that are all away from home at the same Hostel on the beaches of California and they all appear to have secrets and are all a little bit fishy.

John Marrs truly is the master of books with multiple pov and hopping around so you can’t wait to get back to each pov to find out what’s going on!

If you like lots of twists and reveals I highly recommend adding this one to your list!

Book Title: The Vacation
Author: John Marrs
Originally published April 29, 2015
Original Title: Welcome to Wherever You Are
Publisher: Harlequin Trade Publishing /Hanover Square Press
Genre: Mystery Thriller
Pub Date: December 19, 2023
My Rating: 3.4. Stars (Not quite 4 Stars great but I do Love this author!)
Pages: 496

This story plants the seed ~ How far would you run to escape your past?

Tourists come to California looking for a fun vacation, others looking for an escape from reality as they visit Hollywood and are awestruck by the amazing estates people call home.

In this story there are eight strangers who are staying at in run down Venus Beach backpackers’ hostel, and all are running away from their pasts. (Living in Southern California I am familiar with Venice Beach. The Venice Beach Boardwalk is a one-mile street market and free speech zone. The two-mile Ocean Front Walk has street performers, muscle beach gym, bike/roller-skate path and every restaurant you can imagine. Definite unique one might say - fun place to visit but I wouldn’t want to live there.)

Our eight strangers- Declan, Eric, Jake, Matty, Nicole, Ruth, Savannah, and Tommy have secrets and seem to be running from someone or something from their past.
Story is told from their POV then and now.
• Tommy - works in the hostel reception.
• Savannah - has a famous father who is a TV Reverend in Alabama.
• Matty & Declan – are childhood friends from Ireland.
• Nicole & Eric - are friends and work colleagues from the UK.
• Ruth – Is a loner who has traveled from Australia.
• Jake – has changed his name before leaving the UK.

There is no doubt they ALL have secrets!!
Curious – stay tuned!

I have read several John Marr’s novels. My favorite was "What Lies Between Us"- a dark twisted psychological thriller ~ which is my kind of a book!

Once I realized this was published in 2015, I lowered my expectation – surprise – surprise it turned out better than I expected. True not as dark as his more recent books, but it did keep me interested.
Plus. . .
I so loves the Acknowledgements!

Want to thank NetGalley and Harlequin Trade Publishing/Hanover Square Press for this re-release of this 2015 John Marr’s novel.
Publishing Release Date scheduled for December 19, 2023.

Set in a seedy Venice Beach hostel, this novel shares the stories of eight travelers drawn to the sun, glamor, and most-importantly, the anonymity of Los Angeles. From a duo of charming young Irishmen to a southern-born exotic dancer, most of Marrs’ characters are running from an unpleasant past and, in a few cases, running toward an even more complicated future. Each backstory unfolds over the course of chapters and all the stories intertwine with each other as the travelers all meet and interact with one another at the hostel. Not every story here is a happy ending, but the overall book is a thrilling, satisfying read filled with intriguing characters and unexpected twists. This is an edited re-release of a previous title, Welcome to Wherever You Are, originally published in 2015.

This was a wild story! There are several storylines about the lives of people who are staying in a California hostel. Some of these stories will intersect in shocking ways, some will be very sad, and some will end up with happy endings. Really enjoyed this fast-paced read!

Eight strangers at a beach front hostel, all with secrets they'd kill to keep. I love the different story lines and how some of them came together. Not all the stories were tied up with a ribbon at the end and I liked that too. John Marrs is fast becoming a major staple in my reading life!

LOVE! John Marrs is where it is at! I am a huge Marrs fan and can not tell you a book of his that I do not like! THis one was written with such detail that I felt like I knew all of the characters. The twist, the turns, the thrills~! Thank you John for another great read!

I love John Marrs' writing style and unique stories. The Vacation is a fast-paced tale of 8 strangers staying at a beachside hostel in California. It took a little bit to separate each of the backstories, but around the halfway point, things started to come together. The characters are well-written, with multi-layered personalities and lots of secrets. Each has come to the hostel looking for something...an escape, a place to hide, or a place to find revenge. The ending is a rush of actions as motives are unveiled and connections are made. I highly recommend this one, especially in a physical format so that the reader can flip back and forth to keep the details of each character at hand.

Really enjoyed this book. Really like this author. In the authors note at the end he said this is a rewrite so I would be curious to read the original. Great book if you like multiple POV’s and short chapters. All the chapters seem to end in a cliffhanger and then jump to the next person so it keeps you reading

Love the setting and concept of this story. Takes time to learn and recall all of the characters; but once figured out- the plot twists keep you invested.

As might be expected in a novel set in a hostel, there are a lot of characters and multiple storylines. The characters are a pretty varied lot, arriving in Venice Beach from all over the world. All of them have secrets or trauma in their pasts…and once these secrets start to come out things get hot! I didn’t expect quite so many characters to die, even given the fact that most of these travelers arrived at this hostel escaping from criminal pasts or other misdeeds. I liked this book but it took me a long time to get through it. I prefer a smaller cast of characters and a more focused plot, and I felt that the ending came together a bit too neatly. But there are a lot of interesting stories to encounter along the way. Thanks to the author, publisher, and NetGalley for the opportunity to review this book.

I love this author and was excited to pick up this book. I didn’t realize it was actually a rerelease of an earlier book Welcome to Wherever You Are”. This was not a typical Maars book as it wasn’t as disturbing as his books usually are. I found this book had a lot of characters to keep track of, in fact, too many for me to keep track of making it hard to follow. If you like a book with twists and turns, characters with stories of their own that eventually all come together, then this book is for you. If you’ve come to love this author, know that this book is not typical of his other books.

Thank you to the publisher for a fee Netgalley.

I love Marrs' books. I have read many of them, and usually devour them. This one however is not doing it for me at all. I find the intertwining of past and present to be annoying especially with such short chapters. There are also a ton of characters and to be honest, I just don't care what happens to them. I never really like Marrs' characters, as he is a genius at writing unlikable characters that you still read to find out what happened. But not these ones. I prefer Marrs' sci-fi thrillers myself.

The Vacation follows a large cast of characters during their stay in a Venice Beach hostel. The secrets of their lives and how they came to the hostel are revealed through alternating viewpoints.
Like other offerings from John Marrs this is a fast-paced read with short chapters and plenty of twists. I LOVED The One and had high hopes for this one, but it wasn't my favorite. There are a lot of characters, almost too many to keep track of. It may have been better to have fewer characters with better development. I didn't find any of the characters endearing and some of their storylines were almost boring.
Overall this was a quick and easy read, it wasn't my favorite but I don't regret picking it up. Many thanks to NetGalley for the ARC of this book.

I really wanted to like this book, I loved The One and Passengers, but it never really hooked me. I thought it was too long and keeping the eight different characters separate was confusing at times. The storylines of the characters themselves were interesting, and I felt like focusing on fewer of them would have led to a better outcome. I did appreciate the short chapters and cliff-hangers, those kept me reading multiple times after I told myself I would stop. Overall, this book may be worth the read if you are someone who can keep many different characters separate and like differing POVS but connecting storylines.

As the book drew closer to the end, I found myself reading faster to find out how all these characters were connected. However, I was disappointed overall by the ending. There were also eight main characters, which was a lot to try to follow. Thanks to NetGalley for the ARC.

John Marrs doesn’t miss! I really enjoyed this book and the atmospheric setting. I was invested in a handful of the characters and loved the way the story flowed! I need more JM books in my near future.

Within the pages of this book, I found a rich tapestry of characters and a narrative that dared to be different. The character development was truly outstanding, each character possessing a depth that made them feel incredibly real. Despite occasional moments of confusion, likely due to my own tiredness, I appreciated the author's bold creativity.

The intricate plot, while challenging, revealed the author's willingness to explore new avenues in storytelling. It was a puzzle, a maze of twists and turns that demanded my attention and engagement. While it tested my comprehension, it also kept me intrigued, pushing the boundaries of my literary experience.

In the end, this book stands as a testament to the power of unique storytelling. It might not have offered an easy, straightforward read, but it certainly left a lasting impression. For those who enjoy a challenge and seek something different in their reading, this book is a worthy exploration of complex characters and innovative storytelling.

The Vacation by John Marrs is a suspense involving multiple (read: too many) characters from across the world who are staying at a hostel-cum-drug-growing-operation in Venice Beach, CA. They're all kinda loathesome, they've all done awful things, and you will never ever like a single one of them. There was too much going on, and despite that, the book didn't feeling like it was "moving" until the last 25%. What goes around comes around for a fairly satisfying ending, but I wouldn't recommend this particular book when there are so many thriller-type books available as part of the huge trend.

I'm becoming a big fan of John Marrs. We just read The Marriage Act for our book club and I devoured it. I was eager to start The Vacation and was expecting a similar vibe. Note to self: don't go into books with expectations. I only say this to say that I thought I was going to have one reading experience and I had another one. One that I enjoyed. Little did I know that The Vacation is a revised and revisited version of the author's first self published novel. His. First. Novel. There are so many elements of his more current work that I love and I really got a sense of his development as an author.

The novel involves the exploits of a group of people living in a hostel in Venice Beach, CA. Who knew there was a hostel in Venice Beach? There is. This is a fictionalized version of that. I got big Melrose Place vibes with less soap opera and more intrigue. There is a lot of heart in the novel. Quirky characters. No big huge twist, but small little reveals sprinkled throughout (Oh, Ruth, poor dear). Dual timelines that help flesh out the reason why many of the characters ended up at the hostel. Very character driven.

Thanks to NetGalley and Hanover Square Press for the advanced reader copy in exchange for an honest review. The novel will be published December 19, 2023. Definitely check it out, especially if you are a fan of the author and want to explore his earlier work.

John Marrs can do no wrong in my eyes. I was so excited to have the opportunity to read this ARC. A group of strangers met while staying at a hostel in Venice Beach. They are all running from something and have things to hide. Love how this played out. Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for the opportunity to reach this ARC in exchange for my honest review.