Thanks to the publisher and the Netgalley for this eARC.

JOHN MARRS, is the master of psychological thrillers, this book is the mental equivalent of the physical enjoyment of eating a huge helping of your favorite dessert.

Keep writing the books Mr. Marrs, we will certainly keep reading them!

Thanks HTP and NetGalley for the ARC! I always enjoy picking up John Marrs' books. As usual, he does a fabulous job writing the book from multiple viewpoints and wrapping it all together. I did find that this book was a bit of a slow start - I kept waiting for things to take off and BOY when they took off, the really took off! I'll be recommending this to my friends who love a good mystery and twist!

I love John Marrs! Whenever I open one of his thrillers, I know to prepare myself for a cerebral, intricately woven plot with a large cast of characters. This one was not as thrilling as some of his other works but I still enjoyed it. The timeline switches were a little hard to follow and I found myself returning to previous chapters to try to figure out who we were talking about. You really have to pay attention to follow each plot line. 3.5 overall. Thank you HTP and NetGalley for the opportunity to read this rerelease!

I enjoyed this! The characters are well developed and it has twists that I liked. I like the writing style and will definitely be checking out more books from John Marrs. Thank you to John Marrs, Harlequin Trade Publishing and NetGalley for allowing me to read a complimentary copy in exchange for an honest review.

Wow! The only other book of Marrs' I have read is The One, and now that I've read The Vacation, I am officially a fan. At first, I was a little confused keeping the backstories straight, but once I got that figured out, I couldn't put the book down. The plot moves, and there are twists all throughout, not just saved until the end. There were some points where I was even thinking, "Wait. Did that say what I think it said? Did that really just happen?!?" I loved everything about it, including how there are some breadcrumbs sprinkled throughout that make you feel like you know what's going on, but then something happens to turn it on its head. Really really enjoyable. Highly recommend.

I don't think this one needed to be re-released. Marrs has grown so much as an author since these first books of his, and I feel that most readers that love him now will be disappointed by the pacing and lack of murders in these pages. Ha! I still love him though and can't wait for the next thing from him!

John Marrs just has a way of writing that gets me so lost in a book. I absolutely devoured this one. I love the way he uses so maybe characters and seamlessly creates their personalities in a way I can’t forget any of them.

One of the things I love about traveling is that it's always a reminder of just how many people there are in the world. I especially love people-watching in an airport--wondering where the lady in the powersuit is traveling to, wondering how that group is all related, wondering why that guy is so sunburned.⁠
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I'm sharing that because I loved the premise of this book: it's the story of what brought eight main characters to the same run-down hospital in Los Angeles, California.⁠
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(Apparently this is a re-release of the book "Welcome to Wherever You Are"--edited and republished with a mainstream publisher.)⁠
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Admittedly (thankfully?), it's been a long time since I've stayed in a hostel, but I certainly remember the days of shared drinks in the common room, waiting my turn for the shower, and being woken up in the middle of the night by a roommate coming in. And I remember the (sometimes deep and philosophical) discussions with strangers from all over the world...and wondering where they came from and why they're in this hostel.⁠
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John Marrs capitalizes on the idea of strangers (each with their own secrets) coming together in this psychological thriller.⁠
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It's a slow burn...I'm honestly not sure I would have finished it if I hadn't been reviewing it for @NetGalley and @harlequinbooks, but I'm actually glad I did. It took awhile, but once we start to see how all of the characters overlap (and how their pasts catch up to their present), it's twisty, turny, and unexpected.⁠
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So if you're into travel and learning more about people (and like thrillers), this would be a great choice. Just be patient with it.⁠
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Book: The Vacation ⁠
Author: John Marrs⁠
Format: Digital⁠
Genre: Fiction, Thriller⁠
Places Featured: Los Angeles, California, United States 🇺🇸⁠
Review Score: ⭐️⭐️⭐️1/2 (rounded up)

I received a complimentary copy of this book via Netgalley. Opinions expressed in this review are my own opinions.

I must give John Marrs kudos for writing a novel with Multiple characters involved and yet I could keep track of them due to amazing character personalities. I get confused easily and felt satisfied after reading this novel.

Great book with many twist and turns.

I went into this book very excited to read it, and I was not at all disappointed when I was finished. At first, I had a hard time keeping some of the individual storylines separate, but as the story continued and I got to know the characters better, I was shocked at the little plot twists scattered throughout the story and even more shocked by the big reveals at the end. I loved how this book set you up to think you knew how the characters connected, just to prove you wrong in the next step.

Thank you to NetGalley!

The Vacation by John Marrs is a fast paced story, one with many twists. Though there are many POV’s, Marrs keeps them all interesting and weaves them together brilliantly. I’ve personally never been a backpacker and I can promise you after this book, I never will be. At one point, I said, Chapter 39 (IYKYK) because I was so surprised. Engaging and suspenseful, this is worth the read.

Every person who comes to the Los Angeles International Hostel has a story to tell. And every one who goes there is there for a specific reason, and most of those reasons involve secrets and lies. As each of their stories unfolds, the reader is shocked to learn of their connections to one another. While their stories are vastly different, they all are connected somehow. In a story of twists and turns with likeable and unlikeable characters, the reader finds themselves rooting for all the patrons of the hostel to find what they didn’t even know they were looking for.

Unfortunately, i didn’t love this book. i am a fan of Mr. Marrs’ books The Passengers and The One, some of my all time favorite thrillers I love to recommend. this one fell short for me sadly. :(

for one, there were too many characters. i don’t usually get confused when there are a lot of characters/points of view, but i kept forgetting who was who. i am a fan of JM’s writing style, but this book also dragged so much for me. i had no problem with The One being 430 pages because of the fast pace, but the pace of this one didn’t really grip me and i wound up getting bored.

i’d recommend some of this author’s other books to read instead! i will continue to check out his works in the future, especially his speculative thrillers.

I really enjoyed this book! It was suspenseful, humorous, and touching. The narrative was very engaging, and I looked forward to my time reading. Part of the story even brought me to tears, as I felt the character’s anguish. I would recommend.

I thought the premise of this book was really interesting! Eight strangers end up at a hostel in Venice Beach, and they all have secrets that they are desperate to keep. It took me a while to get all of the characters sorted out and some storylines I enjoyed more than others. There were a few good twists, but I would have liked more. I did enjoy the short chapters, and I love John Marrs writing style. I thought the book could have been a little shorter than 400 pages, but overall, I enjoyed it!

Thank you, @netgalley and @htpbooks, for the #gifted e-arc of this book!

3.5 stars rounded

This was another fun John Marrs book! Kept me on my toes. Somehow I only discovered John Marrs over the past year, but I will most certainly be working more through his backlist.

it was a nice change where a story has so many characters and they are distinct personalities enough where you can tell everyone apart. i also like that there is not one particular twist but little ones all throughout the book. it makes you keep guessing. overall it was quite boring but kept my attention .

“Sun. Sea. Sex. Murder…”

Strangers find themselves staying at the Venice Beach International Hostel in California. It’s run down and basically a dump, but each visitor has a reason for finding themselves there. All have secrets and are running or hiding — from themselves or from others.

This is a character driven novel that goes off on tangents as the situations each is in develops further. Information about who they are, why they are traveling, and their drama or trauma is revealed slowly with some surprising twists and turns. And, gotta say it, some really unbelievable coincidences. I can’t say that I related to any of the main eight people nor did I grow really attached to any of them. Their stories were quite bizarre in some instances and quite tragic in others. It was all a bit too contrived for some of the side plots to be believable. I was not surprised to see that this is a re-release of a previously published early work from this author whose other books show a bit more sophistication. I liked it well enough, but it is definitely not my favorite of his novels.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for this e-book ARC to read and review.

Unfortunately as much as I was looking forward to this book, I didn’t get the chance to complete it before it archived. I have really enjoyed books by John Marrs in the past, so I will pick this up at the store.
Thank you NetGalley and Harlequin Trade Publishing, Hanover Square Press for this ARC!

At a beach front hostel in Venice, California, 8 strangers are there for more than just a beautiful vacation. They all have secrets that they are will to kill to keep.

I loved the mystery aspect of the book but there were wayyyy too many characters and story lines to keep up with. I felt like I needed a character synopsis to flip back to while I was reading it.