Eleanor Dash is a famous author of nine mystery books in the Vacation Mystery series. Her series features the detective Connor Smith, who is based on her ex-boyfriend. When Connor found out she wrote a novel about him ten years ago, he blackmailed her into giving him some of the royalties. Now, Eleanor is ready to kill off Connor. Her character. When she goes on a ten day book tour in Italy, including five other authors and the real Connor, Eleanor begins plotting her character’s death for her next book. However, someone is trying to kill the real Connor. Eleanor has to solve the real mystery of who is targeting Connor and herself, before real life turns into one of her murder mysteries.

This was one of those books that I didn’t want to end! As a writer, I loved seeing Eleanor’s life as a bestselling author. Her comments on the publishing industry were funny and accurate. This story was told from Eleanor’s perspective and she broke the fourth wall often by addressing the reader. She included many footnotes that were funny comments about the story. I’m so excited that this is the first book in a series because Eleanor’s voice was so entertaining!

Every Time I Go on Vacation, Someone Dies is an awesome first book in the series!

Thank you Minotaur Books for providing a digital copy of this book.

Content warnings: death of parents (off page), robbery, mugging, poisoning, gun violence

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for an advanced copy of "Every Time I Go on Vacation, Someone Dies" by Catherine Mack. All opinions are my own.

This mystery takes place over a week long tour in Italy with a group of authors who have intense histories and secrets revealed. I loved this story and the mystery was so fun to solve!! Cannot wait for the next book!!

So this was a cozy mystery set in Italy, and while I loved the setting, the story was just ok. The whodunnit was good, I was actually surprised at the ending, but I just couldn’t get on board with the writing style. The author thought it would be….witty? Fun? I don’t know…clever, maybe, to have *hundreds* of footnotes (237, to be exact). They were unnecessary & really distracting. They completely took me out of the flow of the book. I’m also not a fan of the ‘breaking the 4th wall’ either. So really this one was kind of a miss for me.

Every Time I Go On Vacation Someone Dies by Catherine Mack is the perfect book to take on vacation. Whether you’re heading over seas, to the beach, the mountains or on your couch at home for a staycation, this book will brighten your day.

I had the pleasure of buddy reading this one with my lovely friend Steph. It was great to have someone to talk to and share theories and recap with at the end of it all. I read the physical book and she went with audio. We were both so pleased, so I’d be confident to recommend both options.

One thing I enjoyed about this book was the footnotes. I know that not everyone loves them, but I do. I like that little extra layer of information and insight. You see the quirkiness of our main character, Elenor, through out the book, but the footnotes just give it that extra touch. I liked the small group setting. You had your pool of suspects and that was it, no surprises coming from out in left field. Still took me a bit to figure it out. Everyone had their motives and it was fun watching it all play out. I’ve been on such a thriller kick lately that it was nice to break it up with something that had humour and made me smile and laugh. I definitely need to seek out more books like this! I’m already excited for book 2 in this series, ‘No One Was Suppose to Die at This Wedding’.

I received a eARC of this book through Netgalley. All thoughts and opinions are my own.

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Eleanor Dash is traveling Italy in honor of the book series that was launched after a vacation there several years earlier. Her publishing company is sponsoring the trip which includes several fellow authors and a group of lucky fans of Eleanor's series. One of the people on the trip is Connor, the man she fell in love with on that initial trip and who starred as a character in the book that resulted from it. Even though Eleanor no longer loves Connor, her readers do. That and a bit of blackmail on Connor's part keep him in the picture.

Harper Dash is Eleanor's sister, personal assistant, and usually her memory. Harper always has the details and itinerary that Eleanor either forgot or never bothered to learn. When Connor confides that he thinks someone is trying to kill him, Eleanor doesn't believe him. Furthermore, she begins thinking about how she can kill him off in her next book and finally be free of him.

After a series of near-misses for Connor and Eleanor which may or may not have been murder attempts, someone actually dies. The trip includes Connor's ex-wife (who was Connor's wife when he met Eleanor, unbeknownst to her), Eleanor's rebound boyfriend Oliver, now also an ex, and other authors with various motives to dislike or distrust Connor. There is no shortage of suspects. Eleanor's reasoning and investigation point to one suspect after another (perhaps further evidence of why she's an author and not a detective) before we finally discover the culprit.

This is a fun little cozy mystery with a lot of fourth-wall breaking, through innumerable footnotes. Eleanor is a mostly likable character, particularly redeemed by her relationship with her sister Harper. Listening to it on audio, the footnotes were maybe the funniest part of the book and didn't interrupt the flow at all. Reading it either digitally or in print I think would have been exceptionally frustrating.

Elizabeth Evans is the narrator who did a wonderful job with the voices, and particularly the accents which helped cement the location. Her pacing kept the story flowing and she was particularly adept at incorporating the footnotes and elevating the humor.

I was provided a copy of this book by the publisher.

I saw this book EVERYWHERE, but I read nothing about it because I didn’t want to like it. I mean, come on—that cover is all of us book people on vacation!

𝑰𝒇 𝒚𝒐𝒖 𝒑𝒍𝒂𝒏 𝒐𝒏 𝒓𝒆𝒂𝒅𝒊𝒏𝒈 𝒕𝒉𝒊𝒔 𝒃𝒐𝒐𝒌, 𝒎𝒐𝒗𝒆 𝒂𝒍𝒐𝒏𝒈—𝒕𝒉𝒆𝒓𝒆 𝒊𝒔 𝒏𝒐𝒕𝒉𝒊𝒏𝒈 𝒕𝒐 𝒔𝒆𝒆 𝒉𝒆𝒓𝒆.

𝑩𝒖𝒕 𝒊𝒇 𝒚𝒐𝒖 𝒉𝒂𝒗𝒆 𝒓𝒆𝒂𝒅 𝒊𝒕, 𝒄𝒐𝒏𝒕𝒊𝒏𝒖𝒆 𝒓𝒆𝒂𝒅𝒊𝒏𝒈 𝒂𝒏𝒅 𝒊𝒇 𝒚𝒐𝒖 𝒅𝒊𝒔𝒂𝒈𝒓𝒆𝒆 𝒘𝒊𝒕𝒉 𝒎𝒚 𝒕𝒉𝒐𝒖𝒈𝒉𝒕𝒔, 𝒍𝒆𝒕 𝒎𝒆 𝒌𝒏𝒐𝒘 𝒊𝒏 𝒕𝒉𝒆 𝒄𝒐𝒎𝒎𝒆𝒏𝒕𝒔.

This book didn’t land for me. It was boring and slow, and the characters weren’t loveable. Despite the WAY too many footnotes, this book wasn’t funny. This is one of those books that shouldn’t be read digitally (I don’t say that very often anymore), or maybe just not as an unformatted ARC. Because it was unformatted, the footnotes were, I think, meant to make a flat and ok character a bit more two-dimensional, except it didn’t work. Maybe it hits better in print - though I doubt it. I also figured it out pretty early, which I usually love, but there were just too many things working against this book for me to add that to the win column.

Thank You to St. Martin’s Press/Minotaur Books for a digital ARC in exchange for my honest review.

Well written, fleshed out characters, engaging. I really enjoyed this book. I've never ready anything by Catherine Mack before but I'll definitely read more in the future.

This was such a fun-filled murder mystery! I loved the setting in Italy, the characters, and the romance, plus the laugh out loud moments. Catherine Mack has our MC break the 4th wall a few times and that made this whodunnit all the more fun! Thank you NetGalley and Minotaur Books for the digital ARC in exchange for an honest review.

I’m on vacation so why not read a book about murders on vacation?

I did enjoy this one in that it was quite comical and the unreliable narrator made it fun. It was, once again, a book with many characters and a whodunnit type plot while on vacation, so very much like an Agatha Christie type read. The main character was an author on a book tour with the lead that most of her books are based on and her entourage and other authors.

The writing style was good and it was an easy, fun summer read.

Every Time I Go on Vacation, Someone Dies is the first book in a new cozy summer series by Catherine Mack. Released 30th April 2024 by by Macmillan on their Minotaur imprint, it's 352 pages and is available in hardcover, paperback, audio, and ebook formats. It's worth noting that the ebook format has a handy interactive table of contents as well as interactive links and references throughout.

This is such fun: a bestselling female mystery author/amateur sleuth on a destination book tour, rabid book fans, other literary types and adjunct publicity folks on the same tour, a rogueish blackmailer from the author's past, and crime. Ms. Mack, writing under a pseudonym is actually an accomplished and experienced author (Catherine McKenzie). She excels at characterization and plotting, and here, too, her characters are three dimensional and well rendered.

Stylistically, there are a lot of departures from standard style. It's written in first person, from the PoV of Eleanor, and much of the story is relayed in asides, footnotes, and other non-standard ways, and it's quite jarring flipping back and forth. It rendered the whole choppy and disjointed. That being said, it's light, and fun, and the book within a book/author writing as an author technique doesn't get bogged down or trip over its own feet (it's just the flipping footnotes). For readers who enjoy footnotes (like Pratchett), snarky humor, and breaking the third wall, this will likely be a positive feature and not a bug.

The unabridged audiobook has a run time of 9 hours 34 minutes and is capably read by Elizabeth Evans. She has a light, breathy voice, but does a good job with the disparate cast (of both sexes and a range of ages). One positive benefit of the audiobook is that the asides and footnotes are woven in, obviating the need to flip back and forth; it flows much better.

Four stars. A series starter, but the second volume publishing info isn't released yet (presumably middle of 2025). It would be nice for public library acquisition, as a summer weekend read or a buddy read.

Disclosure: I received an ARC at no cost from the author/publisher for review purposes.

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Catherine! This was fabulous! I finished this in less than 24 hours. This is funnier than Finlay Donovan and I LOVE Elle's books. This is a must-read for anyone needing a lighthearted, twisty mystery that you can finish in one sitting. Also the audiobook was fantastic!

I really loved the prose of this novel. I had some trouble in the beginning because the formatting on my kindle app was so confusing since the book is still in early stages formatting. Switching to my actual kindle helped alot. Overall this was a really fun summer read. It was giving adult Nancy Drew vibes mixed with the Finley Donovan series.

I really enjoyed this book. It's fun, light, and hilarious cozy mystery, I really enjoyed the characters and how not serious they were. The mystery kept me intrigued throughout. The little notes throughout the book were a fun touch I enjoyed. Eleanor breaking through the fourth wall to talk to the reader throughout added to my experience. This a perfect book to read in the summer. I would definitely read other books from this author and series.

A book with a signature drink ? This one definitely has one - Eleanor Dash keeps downing Aperol Spritz's like there's no tomorrow "and keep them coming" !
Every Time I Go On Vacation by Catherine Mack is a funny and humorous mystery novel, the first in The Vacation Mysteries series, which I both read and listened to on audio, wonderfully narrated by Elizabeth Evans, who juggles the wide cast of different characters, the drama, and especially the significant number of foot notes masterfully, keeping me engaged from beginning to end.
I want to visit Italy now, there were such vivid and beautiful descriptions of classic Italian tourist locations that l'd love to visit. The reader gets deeply immersed since Caroline Mack uses fictional author Eleanor Dash and has her speaking directly to the audience bringing them in on their adventures and laying open that it may not be the wisest to fully trust her either.
Eleanor is not the most likable of main characters I found her a bit whiny and a bit too dependent on her younger sister/ personal assistant Harper waiting on her hand and foot. She finds herself on a 10 day book tour organised by her publisher from Rome through Pompeii and down the Amalfi coast with quite the entourage that includes her sister, Harper, other authors, fans and a stalker against whom she has a restraining order as well as her nemesis the dislikeable con man Connor Smith, the mold for the main character of her books but also her ex-lover and blackmailer. Add to this a slightly incompetent tour guide and get this show on the road ...
This was very fun to listen to ! Was this a little over the top ? Sure, but it was a fun ride that made me think of summer ... and now I'll have that Aperol Spritz!

A fantastic, entertaining read! The digital version was a little tricky with the notes throughout only appearing at the end of each chapter, but the physical copy clears it all up. Fantastic!

This is a fun, cozy mystery, full of plot twists and humerous mayhem. Eleanor is a successful author of a highly celebrated series of mystery books. Her book tour includes a trip to Italy with a group of fans and authors (and stalkers), all ready to enjoy a relaxing vacation and celebrate Eleanor's success. But everything takes a turn for the worse when Connor - Eleanor's writing partner - claims that someone is trying to kill him. As someone who knows a thing or two about murder mysteries, Eleanor takes it upon herself to try and figure out who is behind it all. As she delves deeper she realizes there is way more than meets the eye and the supposed killer may be part of the group.

I actually had a fun time with this one. I loved all of the sightseeing of Italy thrown in and all of the plot twists. Eleanor does break the fourth wall, and it is distracting to a certain degree, but if you get past that and the weird footnotes, the story itself works out well. What hasn't been mentioned much in reviews is Eleanor's relationship with her ex Oliver which I really loved. Oliver is interesting and they have great chemistry, which the story needs. This is pretty fast paced and finishes nicely. It is definitely a light-hearted cozy mystery so it has many light moments but Eleanor's back story is complex enough to give a nice balance to the story.

The only real issue I had were the footnotes and lack of fourth wall as it was continuous and didn't flow well. However it could have been an e-reader issue.

What did I read??????????

This book was all over the place, messy. And I freaking lapped it all up like it was a melting ice cream cone in 100 degree heat.

This is the type of cozy mystery I can read. Nothing against cozy mysteries. I enjoy one from time to time, but some of them just leave me shaking my head. This one left me shaking my head for all the (great) opposite reasons.

What a fun group of characters. Then throw in a little mystery. Throw in a little love (maybe?). And throw in lots of mayhem! Give me more! Oh yeah, this is just book one. Sign me up for the next two books, please and thank you.

While I received this as an advanced ebook, I opted for the audiobook to consume. Y'all, that was absolutely the best choice. This is a book that is done so well as a listen, and I'd highly, HIGHLY recommend consuming it in this way. This is like a book within a book within a book, and it's just a darn delight. The story is narrated by Eleanor who is on a book tour for her mystery series. Except then a real-life mystery happens, too, and she has to figure out who wants her dead. In other words, Eleanor is like a character in her book. The twists in this one are so great, and it's got a great cast of characters to keep you (and Eleanor!) guessing as to who's responsible for what's happening. There's also this really great aspect of the story where Eleanor brings the fourth wall as the narrator and speaks directly to the reader. For me that's the piece that worked best as an audiobook. This was just so, so well done - Truly storytelling at its finest. Thanks to NetGalley for the look at this April 2024 release!

I really wanted to like this. The writing was fun and it seemed like it was a cozy read. The footnotes were too distracting for me. Especially on a kindle.

4.5 stars!! I really enjoyed this book about an author and her books becoming so intertwined with her reality! Eleanor is so funny, Conner is the worst, and Oliver is the most cinnamon roll guy ever! At some point I felt like I was suspicious of just about everyone, main and side characters alike, but I didn’t put it together until the very end when everything was revealed! The footnotes were a little tricky to navigate, but I ended up really enjoying the little aside moments inside Eleanor’s brain. I knocked down half a star because the breaking of the fourth wall kinda took me out of the story. Asking if I solved the mystery yet, and reminding me of all the clues left behind, made me feel like I had missed something really big, even though I hadn’t. Overall, the story is a super fun read for summer time, and I really loved the settings all over Italy!

Thank you to Netgalley, St. Martin’s Press, and Minotaur Books for the digital ARC of this book in exchange for my honest review!!