It’s hard to get into right from the beginning because it felt like it was all over the place. The plot is good but hard to keep up with especially because you can’t really connect with the characters. It felt rushed in some part but overall it’s a good book.

The Vacation is an exciting read with a lot going on. What’s not to love about a Venice Beach hostel? While the story started off slow, with a lot of characters to follow, once John Marrs hit his stride it all came together brilliantly.

This was my first John Marrs book, and it won't be my last! It started off a bit small, but once I was introduced to all of the various characters things got interesting. This book is full of vacation vibes, secrets, twists and turns throughout the story. You won't be able to put it down!

Eight strangers are living at a Venice Beach hostel, and all eight have their own set of secrets. The novel is told with each character's perspective, with both past and present timelines. So it took me a while to be able to keep each person straight. There was just a multitude of information and it was a little overwhelming at the beginning. Thankfully the characters are pretty unique so it didn't take too long. The character's stories end up intertwining and the book is full of twists and turns. It was fast-paced after I got into it and I recommend to anyone who loves thrillers with a large cast of eclectic characters.

Thank you to NetGalley and Harlequin Trade Publishing, Hanover Square Press for providing me a digital reviewer copy in exchange for my honest thoughts.

The Vacation by John Marrs
ISBN: 9781335006042
Publush Date: December 19, 2023

Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for this digital ebook ARC of The Vacation by John Marrs in exchange for an honest review.

How far would you run to escape your past? For eight strangers in a Los Angeles backpacking hostel, even the other side of the world isn't far enough. The craving for a new identity and the chance to start again is something they have in common. But the search for a fresh start isn't as easy as they'd imagined. And they soon discover that it doesn't matter where you are or who you are - if you can't lay the past to rest, coincidence, fate and deception have a way of catching up with you when you least expect it.

This was my first book that I read by John Marrs. At first I found that it was a lot to get into having to get to know 8 different characters and I found it slow and it took me a while to read.
Once I actually got into the book, and figured out who everyone was, I could not put this book down. There was twists and turns and it was a really well written book. I will definitely be reading more of John Marrs.

I give this book a rating of 4.5 stars

In The Vacation, strangers flock to a hostel on Venice Beach as they try to escape their past.
We are introduced to eight characters, following their stories in the past and present as we figure out who or what they are running from.

I was a bit confused in the beginning. There is a full cast and lots to keep up with, but by the end John Mars does as excellent job at weaving everything together. Full of twists and turns throughout the novel, I was kept on the edge of my seat the entire time!

Read if you want:
•Excellent character development
•Eerie setting
•Psychological thriller

Thank you to NetGalley for this ARC in exchange for my honest review.

Thank you to MacMillan (Main Market Edition) and Netgalley for the ARC of The Vacation. John Marrs' latest book immerses you directly into the setting, well done John Marrs! I felt like I was dropped right in the middle of the Venice Beach hostel that is the main setting for this tale of life, dreams, and the roller coaster of character-driven suspense. The first few chapters which are used mostly to establish character and setting are more than worth the rest of the ride that John Marrs' The Vacation takes us on!

John Marrs' writing style is taut and compelling. This multi-POV story is set in Venice Beach; the setting is vivid, almost like a character in and of itself. Though at the beginning you're not sure how all the characters and their various secrets are going to connect, slowly, Marrs brings the storylines together. Expect twists!! The chapters are short, so it's great "candy" for short attention spans! Makes the book feel like it's flying.

While It started a little slow and there were so many characters to follow, once it got going The Vacation was an engaging, exciting read about a group of travelers making a Venice Beach hostel their temporary home.

A good thriller with a compelling cast of characters, but the abundance of perspectives and constant timeline shifts created confusion, hindering character connection

I recently discovered John Marrs after reading The One, which I loved. I went on to read The Passenger and The Marriage Act, which take place in the same universe as The One. All three books are speculative/science fiction, taking place sometime in the near future.

I was excited to have the opportunity to read the John Marr's The Vacation. The book is a republication from the author's 2015 release. I assumed that the book would also be science fiction, which Marrs does so well. But the book is actually just a straight up thriller and not an interesting one at that. The book was slow and focuses on eight characters as they interact in a Venice Beach hostel. Some of the character's stories were more interesting than others, but ultimately, this book just didn't do it for me. I'll stick with Marr's science fiction releases.

Marrs has two types of novels. High concept and domestic. While I am a SUPER fan of the domestic, this is a high concept. Not a bad thing if you like big ideas, of which he has many, but it's not my favorite.

The being said, Marrs can WRITE. You want to keep reading. You want to know about his characters. He handles multiple POVS like the artist he is. So there was good here.

It was interesting to see how things came together. It wasn't my favorite high concept from him, but it was very solid overall. It took a while to get into it though, for me, even though the beginning started with a bang. Ha. Ha.

Overall, it's a 4.3/4.6, rounded.

John Marrs is an automatic read/ buy author for me! This book started a little slow/confusing with all the characters, but once it started it didn’t let up until the end!

There’s a large cast of characters to keep you on your toes, and even more plot twists that keep coming at you. Once the different storylines start weaving together, the book is unputdownable! At a little over 500 pages, it moves surprisingly fast with short chapters. I didn’t realize this was a rerelease of one of the author’s earlier novels until after reading, and I’m so glad to have found it!

Thank you for the opportunity to read!

This book covers the lives of people who are visiting a hostel at Venice Beach, California. We, as the readers, get to see the various backgrounds of the characters staying or working at the hostel, and they are all quite fascinating, if not a bit scary. Some of their lives are intermingled, some are running away from an old life, some running toward a new one. Overall, by halfway through the book, the twists and turns become more than a daytime drama and the ride was fabulous.

The way so many characters intertwine with each others back story in John’s books never fails to impress me. This book was no exception! I read it so quickly because I couldn’t wait to find out what was going to happen. Thank you NetGalley for the ARC in return of my review!

Very very suspenseful. I absolutely love all his books. So this was no surprise. Read this in 1 day. Page turner. Highly recommend

The Vacation by John Marrs is a chaotic thriller with a number of different characters on the run from their pasts. They all have very different backgrounds, though all seem to be running from something or in search of something and each of their stories unravels bit by bit.

I did find the question of why Nicole and Eric were travelling America, having come from overseas, clearly looking for something very intriguing. This is hinted at and yet not revealed very carefully, and I felt the anticipation for finding out their story was well done and certainly kept me guessing and very much wanting answers. I enjoyed that it was almost like a scavenger hunt they were on to figure out the mystery they had been left with, while very well kept a mystery to the reader with information slowly doled out that amped up the intrigue of it.

I felt there were entirely too many different point of view characters which kind of had me losing the actual story in trying to keep track of who was who and the point of swamping characters so frequently. Another thing I struggled with was the constant back and forth within these short chapters between present and past. It was a bit overwhelming having two different timelines for such a brief amount of time from one characters point of view just to shift to a new character in the next chapter and do the same thing. All in all there was a lot happening within short bursts that overshadowed the story itself for me. Having so many different characters featuring in chapters also made it hard for me to care about any of them. There was no real moment of getting to actually know a character and develop a bond with them because of the sheer number of different points of view the chapters went between. It didn’t quite work for me. On top of that, particularly in the flashbacks, the information presented oftentimes seemed so irrelevant to the story that I was left wondering why I should care.

The story did improve for me once the storylines started to come together more and the information seemed less superfluous but it took longer to get to that point than my attention span could really handle and it still felt like there was too much back and forth between past and present for my liking. As more information came to hand about the characters and their situations I did become more interested and did enjoy how their stories started to unfold.

I will say I did really enjoy the ending of The Vacation. How everything wrapped up and came together, how heartwarming and bittersweet some of the endings for the characters were. It did redeem the book a bit in my eyes and helped the initial struggle feel more worthwhile. I also felt it was much easier to connect to some of the characters closer to the end so I didn’t leave this book feeling entirely disconnected like I thought I was going to. All together The Vacation by John Marrs is a mystery about a number of different strangers and their secrets and a short, enjoyable read for fans of this type of story.

Many thanks to NetGalley and Harlequin Trade Publishing for providing me with an eARC of The Vacation in exchange for my honest review!

Even as The Vacation spreads itself thin sometimes while covering such a wide ensemble of characters, it ends up being an entertaining little mystery thriller that offers up various intriguing people with whom we can connect. They've all got personalities that draw us in and make it clear that they're trying to flee their own mysterious pasts. They've all got hidden parts of their souls that the narrative gradually unearths, creating quite a few unpredictable twists. Savannah, Ruth, Tommy, and Jake stand out as my favorite members of the roster here. Now, I do think the book takes a while to build up steam, but once it's past the first act, it moves along faster. And even when the story feels bulky as it handles all these different POVs, it keeps me compelled enough that I want to find out how their individual subplots interweave together and wrap up. I do wonder if the conclusions for a few of the characters could have been resolved more fully, but it doesn't detract much from my satisfaction.

Overall, I'm officially rating The Vacation 3.25 out of 5 stars, which I'll round down to 3 stars. I'll keep an eye out for more of Mars's work.

Upon original publication in 2015, the original title of this book by John Marrs was Welcome to Wherever You Are. With John Marrs subsequent success, that title is now being re-released as The Vacation. The connections the author is able to depict between the characters at a hostel in Venice Beach are creative and entertaining. It just takes a while to get there. About half way through, I am ready for the story to all come together.

Read my complete review at http://www.memoriesfrombooks.com/2024/01/the-vacation.html

Reviewed for NetGalley and a publisher’s blog tour.