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.

This was... okay for me. I had a hard time getting into it and then staying focused through out the whole book. Formatting on my kindle was horrible so I skipped all the footnotes which probably would have helped in my rating but flipping all over the place was annoying so I gave up. I wouldn't mind revisiting this one eventually as a physical book and able to read all the footnotes with it.

Author Eleanor Dash heads to Italy for a readers tour with her selected fans. These fans could include a stalker and a murderer!
As Eleanor tries to find inspiration for her new book and figure out how to kill the main character in her popular series, she must also contend with a murderer in their midst!
Who is being threatened? Why?

This book had a lot of characters to remember but most had some sort of quirk!
Catherine used many footnotes throughout the book to speak directly to the reader. While this was humorous and intriguing I found it a little distracting. But- had to read them!

This one was a DNF for me. I just can’t do the format on this one. I don’t know if it’s because it’s a kindle version, but I don’t like it at all. The footnotes are awful. It was initially so confusing to follow and it was annoying to have to flip pages in the kindle to read the footnotes. It really disrupts the flow of the story. Since I didn’t finish it, I will not be reviewing it on my bookstagram.

3.5

I had been hearing about this book everywhere so of course I grabbed it from Net Galley. I like mysteries and I’ve read a few cozy mysteries and enjoyed them. I liked the cover of this book because hello books! And the premise about an author was interesting to me. The actual book/ story was just okay for me. I read it really quick but I feel like there was no substance to the read. It didn’t leave an impression on me. I kind of guessed the ending but only 1/3 of it (can’t go to into it because I don’t want to spoil it. But it was glaringly obvious. I don’t know if I liked the footnotes or if it distracted me. And it was interesting that the narrator talks right to the reader.
I found there were too many characters and I didn’t really care about them. I did like how they go through and say how everyone could have been the suspect or not. I am confused about Cathy. Like what was the point of having her in the story as the stalker if she does nothing in the story? And the author didn’t even make the reader think it was her at all. I don’t know not my fave.
I’d maybe recommend this to first time mystery readers.

Thank you to Netgalley and Minotaur Books for my copy.

Hilarious book! The author uses footnotes to bring in extra humor like what the main character is thinking in her head. I haven’t read a book this funny in a long time. Murder, romance, mystery, comedy. Does it get better than that? Nope!

Thanks to Catherine Mack, NetGalley and St. Martin’s Press for the advance reader copy of this delightful book!

Every time I go on vacation is another entry in the increasingly popular genre of meta mysteries that are flooding the market. This one kicks off a new series following popular mystery author, Eleanor dash. Eleanor is on her tenth anniversary book tour in Italy celebrating her series sleuth. However, unbeknownst to the adoring fans, Eleanor has been plotting to kill off her famed detective and seek new inspiration, Eleanor finds that her fictional stories are beginning to translate to real life events and she soons finds herself embroiled in a mystery of her own-helping her ex-boyfriend avoid a stalker and attempted attempts on his life (the ex-boyfriend also happens to be the muse for her series star who she wants to kill off). Bodies begin to fall and Eleanor has to use her skills in writing the novels to uncover what is happening and save herself.

This book was expertly paced and razor sharp funny. The mystery at hand was secondary to the devices employed throughout. My one gripe was the footnotes were detecting as they would appear in the middle of chapters (formatting on the kindle-not an issue with the book itself). Overall, enjoyable, palate cleanser between heavier reads and great for the upcoming beach reads season! Eleanor dash will have a long career on her hands if this introduction is an indication.

Thanks to the publisher for the arc provided via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

Eleanor is essentially trapped with said muse, a busload of fans and rival authors and a serious stalker! Add to the mix an ex she actually likes and this woman has a lot to contend with. But when the bodies start to drop, Eleanor is perfectly placed to find the killer.

Finlay Donovan like fictional author Eleanor Dash is a funny and sarcastic narrator in the novel, Every Time I Go On Vacation, Someone Dies by Catherine Mack. I absolutely loved her. I laughed throughout this story but unfortunately some of the bits became repetitive. The insights of the publishing world/writing, Instagram/social media and pop culture references were very interesting, humorous and entertaining. The oftentimes hilarious footnotes became irritating because it was difficult to navigate back and forth in the text which was my e-reader’s fault and not the author’s. I’m going to check this out on audiobook when it’s time for a reread, before the next book in this series is released. ARC was provided by St. Martin’s Press/Minotaur Books via NetGalley. I received an advance review copy for free and I am leaving this review voluntarily.

This was a travel murder mystery with a beautiful cover and a witty main character. There were times that I laughed out loud. It reminded me a little of the Finlay Donovan series, only in a more exotic location. The author also breaks down the fourth wall and directly address the reader, which I normally don't like but it worked here.
There is no shortage of suspects on this book tour, and the main character is one of the authors. The best thing about this book is not so much the mystery itself but the voice of the characters and some of the other characters on this tour.
I had both the audio and the ebook and read along but I think it is easier on the audiobook. The author uses footnotes which were hard to follow in the ebook but fine in the audio.
Thanks to NetGalley, St. Martin's Press and MacMillan Audio for the book and the audiobook in exchange for my honest review.