Eleanor is a mystery author, on a book tour with her fans and other authors. Her sister, Harper is her assistant, and accompanying Eleanor. Eleanor’s series star Connor, who believes he is being targeted for murder, is as annoying a character as all of the others. I was disappointed in the book. First of all, the prodigious use of footnotes while reading on the Kindle, made the effort frustrating . The style of the writing was not to my taste, with the author directing conversation at times to the reader. All in all, not recommended. Thanks to NetGalley for the ARC.

Eleanor Dash wrote a book she didn't plan on writing said book. After college and raising her little sister after her parents died. She goes on a vacation to Italy before starting her new job. She meets Connor Smith a private investigator, they fall in love and solve a mystery. Eleanor writes about it and the book becomes a best seller. Conner blackmails Eleanor and he gets a cut and becomes a consultant for the series
While on tour, Conner confesses that someone is trying to kill him.

I'd like to say hilarity continued and I enjoyed reading this book but alas I can't. I will say I was excited when this book ended.

* The footnotes were annoying on the e-book. I just read them at the end of each chapter. I didn't want to go back and see where they corresponded.

This is one of the funnest murder mysteries I have read in a while!

This is book 1 in a brand new series and I cannot wait for the next one.

It’s got humor, drama, blackmail, jealousy, stalkers, and murder. We follow bestselling author Eleanor as she celebrates the anniversary of her hit book, When in Rome, in an, you guessed it… Italian book tour.

With bodies dropping and several suspects with good motives, will they determine who the killer is before it’s too late?

This was such a fun read and I cannot wait for more from Catherine Mack. Thank you NetGalley and St. Martin’s Press for this gifted copy.

Thanks to NetGalley and St. Martin's Press for sharing this ARC!

Giving this 2 stars solely for the fact that this type of footnote format is NOT digital/ebook friendly. I had a terrible time flipping back and forth and it made for an incredibly frustrating reading experience. If I revisit this book again, I will be sure to listen to the audiobook.

After the success of her first book, When In Rome, Elenor Dash has been coerced by her publisher to continue writing book after book including her ex-lover Oliver. Not only has she had to tour with him, he’s found a way to extort more and more money from the books she’s writing. Elenor’s had it! She’s ready to murder him, but may have to settle for writing him out of the series. First she’s got to make it through the tenth anniversary of her first book with a tour through Rome. With her trusted assistant (also her sister), her ex, and a group of super fans along for the ride what could possibly go wrong?!
Catherine Mack has crafted a humorous mystery, that employs a really unique format. She’s chosen to include footnotes…a lot of footnotes. I didn’t have a strong opinion when I started, by the time I finished I was struggling with the flow. Some readers have loved them so it’s going to be very individual. I loved vicariously visiting all the different places of the itinerary. It made me dream of sitting under the sun by the sea, with a lovely drink!
I recommend for readers who like unique writing formats, lovers of the Finlay Donovan series, and those that like humorous who-done-it’s!

Thank you to Minotaur Books for the advanced reader copy and the finished copy.

I was so thrilled to be able to read this book ahead of publication date! The title, the cover, and what little I knew about it at that time was so enticing!

I thoroughly enjoyed this book!

At first I wasn’t quite sure because there were a lot of characters and in the frame of mind I was in I didn’t know if that was going to be OK.
Well…It turned out more than OK! 👍

This is a total fun caper style escapism book set in a beautiful location!

I’ve also heard that this book is optioned for film as well! I think it would be perfectly suited to it.
In fact, while I was reading it, I was thinking I would love to see this made into a series or a film.
I would definitely read more books by this author, and I’m excited to see what’s to come!
She also writes under the name Catherine McKenzie.

Thankyou to Author Catherine Mack, Netgalley, and Minotaur Books for the opportunity to read this book in advance of the publishing date.
Charlene @lastnownext 📚🌸🤗

Ten days, eight suspects, six cities, five authors, three bodies, and one trip to die for. Eleanor Dash is on her book tour and she's just trying to get through it, all while trying to kill off her main character, Connor Smith. However Connor is a real person whom the character is modeled after and he thinks someone is trying to kill him. This hilarious cozy mystery makes it fun and easy to get swept up in the drama and the secrets they all keep. Bodies are dropping and everyone is a suspect. I enjoyed to audiobook more than the print copy as I found the footnotes distracting. But I think there are folks out there that would find that quirky and fun. All in all this was an enjoyable read. Thank You Netgalley for the opportunity to review this delightful book.

This was so fun! It definitely gave Everyone in My Family Has Killed Someone vibes, except maybe a little bit cozier. It generally stayed pretty lighthearted the whole time and there weren't any graphic descriptions on murder or anything like that. I really liked our narrator and loved the Italy setting.

I have seen some reviews saying that the footnotes didn't work for people, but I would highly recommend the audiobook. The footnotes were very seamlessly woven into the audio and they didn't feel clunky to me at all.

Overall I think if you are looking for something funny, cozy, and summery this is definitely a good one to pick up!

I received a DIGITAL Advance Reader Copy of this book from #NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

I didn't truly love this book, it was fine. I've seen some things say that this was supposed to be laugh out loud funny and I don't think I laughed once while reading this book.

The main character in the book is an author who even explains how all books have different acts and then went on to describe what each act in this book was. I feel like act 1 could have been so much shorter (and it was the longest part of the book) since it felt like nothing actually happened in it. Things picked up in act 2 and then act 3 was like 5 chapters. Too much time was spent on introducing us to everything.

I understand that I was reading a galley so I hope this is fixed in the real book form of this but the footnotes in this book were so obnoxious. There would be one of them and then you had to skip multiple pages to find out what it is and then flip back to where you were. So again hopefully that's fixed in the published version.

You guys. This book. So very much fun. It’s like if Finlay Donovan/Stephanie Plum and Ferris Bueller/The Spellmans (Lisa Lutz) had a baby.

It’s the perfect beach read and I think everyone will be talking about this one. It’s has humor, and a mystery, and a little romance, and Italy!!!

It’s set in the publishing world. Eleanor Dash is a writer on a book tour and she wants to kill the real life inspiration for her book. Well not really but she does. Then someone really is trying to kill him.

She talks to the reader both in the book and in footnotes. It gave it a fresh feeling.

There’s a lot of banter between the characters, in Eleanor’s mind and with the third wall musings with the audience.

This was pure fun. It’s entertaining and kept me wanting to never stop reading.

Elizabeth Evans narrates the audiobook and was a perfect choice. She nailed the whimsy and perfectly fit my thoughts for Eleanor. And the footnotes I mentioned, wasn’t an issue listening. They flowed seamlessly in the narrative.

I can’t believe I have to wait a year to see what happens next.

I could not finish this book. Only 2 or 3 chapters in and I wanted to smack every character for their stupid drama. And the blackmail? Really? Narcissist much?

Thanks to Net Gallery for the ARC.

I was looking forward to this book but it kind of fell flat to me. I wasn’t very pulled into the book and struggled getting through it. I didn’t enjoy the 4th wall being broke and the footnotes were really hard to read and I gave up half way through.

This being said I didn’t see the plot twist at the end coming and was shocked!

If you are looking for something new in the cozy genre, look no further. Every Time I Go on Vacation, Someone Dies is as refreshing as an Aperol Spritz on a hot summer day!

The main character, Eleanor Dash, is a best-selling mystery author, who is on a book tour from hell. Literally — the tour takes place in Italy in July. It also consists of people who have some (predominantly negative) history with Eleanor, such as Connor Smith, Eleanor’s ex and blackmailer.

The book is flat out hilarious. It is narrated by Eleanor who not only pulls back the curtain on the publishing industry, but she also speaks directly to the reader, saving her funniest asides for the footnotes. The mystery was interesting too. I can hardly wait for the second book in this series! 5.0 out of 5 stars. Highly recommended.

Thanks to the publisher and NetGalley for providing me with a complimentary advanced copy of this book.

This book was gifted by Netgalley & The Publisher in exchange for my honest review.

This was such a fun time! We are following Eleanor, who is the famous author of a mystery series.

She is on a trip with some of her closest friends, enemies, and fans. She is also plotting a book whilst in paradise.

We get snippets into what is actually happening and also in Eleanor's mind.

I think that this book would be perfect for Fans of Finlay Donavan and it looks like this one will be a series too!

Ten years ago, Eleanor Dash wrote the first book in her vacation mystery series. What many don't realize is she based the plot on her own adventures on an Italian vacation. Of course changing the names to protect the less than innocent except for main character, Connor Smith. The real Connor Smith turns out to be quite the cad who ends up wriggling his way into receiving part of El's royalties for making him a character (of course there's more to it, but that would be spoilery). Fortunately, or unfortunately, for Eleanor, the series is a huge success, but with each success she becomes more and more indebted to Connor.

Now, she's on a tour for the anniversary of the first book while late on her deadline for the 10th (and possibly final?) book. It's time, she's decided, to do away with Connor - the character, not the person - once and for all. Eleanor is ready to start fresh maybe write a new series, maybe take the vacation mysteries in a new direction. Regardless, she's finally ready to be out of his reach and grasp. However, it seems like Eleanor is not the only one with a grudge against Connor - the person, not the character. Connor has become increasingly convinced that someone is trying to murder him. . Looking at every one on the tour they all have a motive for potentially wanting Connor dead including but not limited to Eleanor herself. But then Eleanor, too, has a near deadly experience and one thing becomes abundantly clear: it's time for her to solve another mystery. Honestly, though, it's a lot more difficult in real life than fiction.

Listening to the audiobook was maybe the best way to go into this this story. Told from Eleanor's point of view, she's kind of chaotic and all over the place with her not-so-inner dialogue and I think it's easiest to get the full effect in audio format. However, there are quite a few footnotes in the story and I love a good footnote. I think it's interesting when authors include them, but it was difficult to tell in the audio narration when we were getting a footnote and when it was part of the main story. For that aspect, reading, as opposed to listening, was the best format.

I liked the twists and turns the story takes and how as a reader you feel like you're solving the mystery side by side with Eleanor. Mainly because at various points she is talking directly to readers giving hints or even going so far as to highlight things we should keep in mind. It's also a good indication that Eleanor has a certain knowledge about how everything is going to play out, if you catch my meaning. This is her reiteration of events that have already passed.

I liked the combination of side characters and their tie to either Eleanor and/or Connor. They have all somehow benefitted from or been influenced by the vacation series whether they readily admit so or not. Which also means that each of them is a plausible suspect and Catherine Mack toggles between each of these plausibilities with ease.

Where the story does slightly falter is that I found Eleanor to be a bit too much at times. A little irritatingly scattered to the point where her sister - also her assistant - has to get Eleanor up in the morning and packs for her and tells her where she needs to be/go. She kept making jokes at her expense about how reliant she is on her sister, Harper, but to me that doesn't suffice. It made her come across as a little self-absorbed at times.

Also, I understand the idea of a mystery is to keep the readers guessing until the big reveal but, for me, there were a few too many feints. We'd end the chapter on a cliffhanger with a character's life seemingly hanging in the balance, only to turn the page and it's not what was expected at all. This is fine to keep the suspense, but started to edge toward too much until we finally got some true forward momentum in the story.

Overall, I did enjoy the book. I liked the quirky approach to the storytelling. There's already a clear sign that we'll be getting another book, and I look forward to seeing how the mysteries continue to follow Eleanor around.

Every Time I Go on Vacation, Someone Dies
By: Catherine Mack
Narrator: Elizabeth Evans
Pages: 352
Length: 9h34m

The first in a witty series following the bestselling author Eleanor Dash on her Italian book tour that turns into a real-life murder mystery, as her life starts to imitate her fictional world.Ten days, eight suspects, six cities, five authors, three bodies, one bestseller.

I started this book on digital and was then gifted the audio version.  For me, audio was the way to go.  Mainly due to the footnotes (there are a lot of them --over 200 I believe).  On digital, you need to tap the icon to see the footnote and that became annoying.  So, listening and having the footnotes be seamless was much more enjoyable (I'm sure it is more seamless in the print version too).

This book was a fun read.  The main character of Eleanor could have easily become annoying, but instead she was delightful - chaotic, scattered, funny and charming.  The side characters were a good support system to the story.  I enjoyed how Eleanor "talked" directly to the reader. 

Thank you to Macmillan Audio and Minotaur Books for my digital and audio version of this book.

Such a fun book! This a fast paced book and the author really kept me on my toes. She also had me second guessing who I thought the murderer was which I always love in thriller/mysteries.

This book does have footnotes which I thought were fun; however, I don’t know if I would have felt the same way if I read this on my kindle. I really loved the “breaking the fourth wall” moment towards the end - I’ve never experienced that in a book before.

If you love the Finlay Donovan series definitely check this out - similar vibes ✌🏻

Every Time I Go on Vacation Someone Dies is a fun read with a bit of armchair travel included. I voluntarily read and reviewed an advanced copy of this book provided by NetGalley. All thoughts and opinions are my own. Eleanor is already a bestselling author with several published books under her belt. She is in Italy for a book tour with several other authors and her sister, who is her assistant. Along with all the authors, a group of reader enthusiasts follow their favorite author's careers pretty closely, sometimes too closely. In addition to Eleanor's sister traveling with her, her ex-boyfriend Oliver, who is also an author, and an ex-boyfriend who forced himself into her life even after they broke up, Connor. Oddly enough, Connor's ex-wife is also present as another author touring with the group. What transpires is a hilarious road trip across Italy.

Connor believes someone is trying to kill him. As the group travels across Italy, it appears he might be right. As much as he gets on everyone's nerves, some of the group begin to investigate the apparent attempts on Connor's life. Catherine Mack tells a good story. In addition to writing a pretty good mystery, she also offers some really good characterization. I enjoyed the humor and the descriptions of Italy. I especially liked Eleanor's asides. The footnotes did not work well on my Kindle app. They were quite funny, but eventually, I stopped clicking them because they took me to parts of the book that did not seem to correspond to where I was, and then I had to find my way back. Hopefully, this will work better in the published copy for readers. All in all, this looks like it might be a series, and I plan to keep up with future releases. //This review can also be read with other reviews at Lady Techie's Book Musings, http://LadyTechiesbookmusings.blogspot.com

This was such a fun read! The footnotes, the breaking of the fourth wall, the novel within the novel, Eleanor's sass and sarcasm--all of it made this such a breezy and exciting read. I was never bored, and Mack did a great job of keeping me interested enough to keep turning those pages. I'm glad I was able to read this as a PDF on the app, rather than on my Kindle, because the footnotes would have otherwise been a nightmare--and I felt like they're such a fun and important addition to the book.

My only complaint is that I sometimes felt the book was a little *too* breezy and rushed through certain parts of the story. I felt character development and settings were really only handled on a more superficial level, which I think was just due to Eleanor's particular means of narration. Otherwise, I found the plot to be the perfect balance of easy-to-follow and complicated enough not to guess the twists from a mile away. I'll definitely be on the lookout for the sequel!

Eleanor Dash is a wildly popular author made famous by her novel inspired by true events that took place during her summer in Italy. She and her vacation fling, Connor Smith, solve a bank robbery and though Eleanor changed details, she didn't change Connor's name. When he learns about the book, he latches onto her success and bribes her to keep writing the famous vacation mystery series. Eleanor finds herself locked in step with him a decade later...back in Italy for a book tour. It isn't long before suspicious things start happening to the tour group. Eleanor has to determine if there's a real threat or if it's just a series of coincidences. The narrator breaks the fourth wall with the audience multiple times in such an effective way. It's hilarious, but also adventurous and mysterious. A very entertaining murder mystery.