📖 Book Review 📖

📱🎧 "Every Time I Go on Vacation Someone Dies" by Catherine Mack

⭐️⭐️⭐️💫
published April 30, 2024

Narration is by Elizabeth Evans, who does a wonderful job making each character’s voice distinctive and different. The point of view is 1st person and present tense, which was well done but the main character speaks to the readers which is probably my biggest complaint.

Eleanor Dash, is a best selling author of a series of who-done-it books that all started when she met Connor Smith in Italy on vacation. She is now on a book tour, back in Italy promoting the 10th book with some friends and super fans. Connor has been a thorn in her side for too long so Eleanor has decided to kill him off in the series. Well he just so happens to think there's someone that actually wants him dead in real life.

This was a cute, entertaining listen which was about 80% of how I “read” the book. There were a lot of footnotes when reading on my kindle and that was quite difficult.

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A quick read, even if the copious amount of footnotes at times were distracting. Loved how the main character was the narrator/author although at times she was absurd. Connor was annoying, loved the pop culture references thru out and the book tour setting. A good mystery for summer reading. 3.5 stars

I LOVED this book - one of my favorite reads this year. While the format is probably not for everyone, it totally worked for me. I could not put it down, and enjoyed the twists and turns. I also thought the narration/breaking of the 4th wall was well done. This is the perfect summer/beach read murder mystery, and I would highly recommend!

Thank you to the author, St Martin's Press, and NetGalley for providing a copy to review.

This was so fun!! I loved the writing and how Eleanor made us feel like we were right there solving the crime with her. I liked all the characters and how the story evolved. This story was definitely giving Finlay Donovan and I loved it!

Catherine Mack has begun a new cozy series about Eleanor, a best-selling author who was caught up in a bank heist by then-boyfriend, Conner. Ten books later, her publishing company sends her on a book tour in Italy with Conner, a various crew of other authors, and her sister, Hannah. Someone tries to kill both El and Conner, and the rest of the tour group are suspects.

El narrates the book as she tries to unravel who it could be. She's very funny, and adds footnotes to the story, to be explanatory and to address the reader. It's fresh and comedic, self-deprecating, and I can't wait to see what happens in the next installment of the Vacation Murders.

I really tried to like this book more than anyone knows but I couldnt get into it. The footnotes were really hard to not be distracted by and i saw someone else switched to the audio version and I had to do the same. Reading in on a kindle just didnt work. Other than that the content was okay and wasnt anything too special. It was what I would consider a cozy mystery and quick read or a beach read.

3.5 Stars
Switched to audio at 30% and it made all the difference! Those footnotes were driving me nuts on the page, but they were read seamlessly in the audio. I hope the author re-thinks them in the coming books.

I was rooting for Eleanor, but I found her hard to connect with as she was clueless, frustrating and TSTL in spots. The whole situation with Conner was annoying.

I think the story was supposed to be like the Ernest Cunningham series (Everyone in My Family Has Killed Someone) but it lacked some of its humor and charm, IMO.

Still, the story was entertaining enough to keep me listening to the end and Italy was a beautiful backdrop.

I'll be honest. I don't usually like cozy mysteries. I normally find them boring. But I really liked the format and style of this book. The author was addressing the book directly to the reader. I loved all the snarky, funny, interesting footnotes and hints. It was a really fun read. Maybe the start of a fun series? I'd definitely read more and recommend it.

The format of the ARC was very distracting and probably took me out of the story too often.
But I did enjoy the story and the format, it was unique. The Taylor Swift and other very recent pop culture references were nicely thrown in, too. The MC felt real and human.

"Every Time I Go on Vacation, Someone Dies" is a delightful romp through Italy consisting of a book tour with a hand-selected group of fans. Since the publisher coordinated the tour, there are actually multiple authors on the trip. The problem is, they each have a reason for wanting the others dead.

So when Connor Smith tells author Eleanor Dash that he suspects someone is trying to kill him, she doesn't know what to think at first. After all, he's a weasel who has been blackmailing her for years. So, if someone wants to go to the trouble of knocking him off, why should she care?

But then when she begins to suspect that she might actually be the intended target, she has a change of heart. The question is, who can she trust with her life?

This was a cleverly written story that reminded me of Knives Out with all its complexity. It certainly wasn't easy to figure out "whodunit" since so many people had the means, motive and opportunity! And I loved how Eleanor walked us through the whole situation, frequently breaking the fourth wall through her footnotes to help point out relevant clues or gives us necessary backstories.

This truly was a fun book to read!

Thank you to Catherine Mack, St. Martin's Press and NetGalley for an advance review copy!

I really wanted to like this story, but it missed the mark for me. I know a lot of people really enjoyed the story, but I did not like the footnotes, I thought the main character spent too much time foreshadowing rather than actually writing about what was happening. The romance was lackluster and the sister relationship left much to be desired. It was a quick read, but I found myself struggling to pick this up.

This book was lots of fun! I found myself laughing from the jump and will look forward to potentially listening to the audiobook one day!

This was so chaotic lol I liked the main character’s internal dialogue, but sometimes it was too much. I enjoyed how dialogue heavy this book was though. The characters were fun and there were plenty of LOL moments.

This was good. I enjoyed it. Nothing about it stuck though and unfortunately I know I’ll forget about it rather quickly but that cover!! It’s completely captivating and drew me in!

This is the first book I have read by author Catherine Mack. The synopsis caught my attention because I enjoy reading books about authors, librarians, or bookshop owners. This book is kind of slow until about halfway through. It is somewhat of a cozy mystery. It does contain some humor but not enough to allow the story to ride on the humor alone. This book has a cute premise but was just too slow for my taste.

Thank you to the publisher and NetGalley for a digital ARC. All opinions are my own.

When she was 25, Eleanor had a trip to Italy that led to her helping to solve a string of robberies and a murder, with the help of the dashing PI, Connor. She ended up writing a novel that launched her writing career but ended up in her own sticky situation. Now, 10 years later, she is going back to Italy on a book tour with a mismatched group of people, among them, her sister, Connor and her ex. The drama ensues when it comes out that someone is trying to kill Connor and maybe even Eleanor.

This was a fun, quick read, narrated by Eleanor, a self-claimed liar. Who doesn't love an unreliable narrator? This was a funny, twisty turn-y mystery that kept me guessing the whole time. I love Catherine Mack's character development and the eggs that she drops along the way. I also enjoyed how the narrator was speaking directly to you as the reader, and the footnotes were hilarious, like a conversation with the author. I think that some of these eggs are setting up for a series, but that was kind of unclear. I think it's a good, fun read, that gave me Finlay Donovan vibes. It took me a bit to get into it at first, but then I just had to know what happens at the end.

Thank you to NetGalley, St. Martin's Press, Minotaur Books and Catherine Mack for the eARC of Every Time I Go on Vacation, Someone Dies in exchange for an honest review. Publication Date for Every Time I Go on Vacation, Someone Dies by Catherine Mack was 30 April 2024.

Special thanks to St. Martin's Press and Minotaur Books and NetGalley for an e-arc of this novel.

It was such a fun read. It's the first story in the Vacation Mystery Series. It was written in a very unique format, which I loved.

The book is original, a little bit quirky and loads of fun.

I loved the characters and the story and I can't wait until they release book 2.

I am fully in my cozy mystery era and Every Time I Go on Vacation, Someone Dies was absolutely perfect for me.

It had a little bit of romance, lots of mystery, so much witty & hilarious dialogue - it was a very enjoyable book that I didn’t want to put down. I expected this book to have unlikeable characters and I was not disappointed. It was fun to try to figure out who-dun-it, especially when each person that I was convinced was the culprit, ended up dead…

I can’t wait for book 2 and book 3 - While I didn’t get an ALC, I ended up listing to the audio of this book (which was utterly fantastic) and I have a physical copy to re-read and annotate as well.

Huge thank you to Minotaur Books and NetGalley for the ARC in exchange for my honest review!

Author Eleanor Dash has a wild month in Italy at 25 that ended with her and Connor (a private detective she met in Italy) solving a string of bank robberies. This inspired her to write a novel loosely based on the events that launched a career that has her readers waiting for the 10th volume and Eleanor on a work vacation that has her and several other authors touring Italy along with some fans.
It sounds like a dream come true, but not everything's as perfect as it sounds with Eleanor's career or private life and a tour that includes the man who broke her heart, his ex-wife, the man whose heart she broke, and her dissatisfied little sister/PA does not a relaxing vacation make. Add the fact that someone is trying to kill Connor and maybe even Eleanor and it starts to sound like the plot of one of Eleanor's novels come to life.

It's a super fun and twisty plot narrated by a super unreliable narrator who tells you straight up that she is an unreliable narrator. The way it's told is a big part of the charm because Mack gave Eleanor a loose and slightly carefree personality that counterbalances the harder moments. Even when things are dire, she's there with a quip to make it feel like the stakes are not as high as they seem. Not that this means that it's not a twisty mystery that will keep you guessing even though it's super obvious who's behind everything if you really think about it. Almost every chapter throws you something new and you have to be paying attention because Eleanor gives you hints over the course of the story that will make sense once the ending comes.

The one thing I can find to complain about is that some of the hints Eleanor drops over the course of the story don't get solved and feel like a setup for a future novel more than an important part of this one. Not a major detail, but a pet peeve of mine is when books set up situations and never solve them in a way that feels more like a tease than a cliffhanger.

Happy thanks to NetGalley and Minotaur Books for the fun and twisty read!

This was a really fun read! I haven't enjoyed a mystery like this in a while. I love the author's humor, style of writing, and characters. While they were fun in the beginning, the footnotes did get a little tedious after a while. I'm just not a big fan of footnotes but I will admit these were very fun little add-ons.

While reading this one, it was reminiscent of Clue, at least for me. That was an added joy on top of everything else. This is definitely a good one for people who enjoy mysteries, but like a little humor and romance thrown in. Adding this one to my 2024 favorites.2024 favorites.

I sincerely appreciate Minotaur Books and NetGalley for the review copy. All opinions expressed are my own.