Wonderful setting. Thank you Macmillan Publishing and NetGalley for allowing me to read this in exchange for an honest review. This novel was hyped and had an interesting synopsis, which was why I asked to read and review it. I love mysteries, and the idea of vacation and murder-every time- was so intriguing! This was not at all engaging- it was incredibly easy to guess the murderer even with the confusing footnotes peppered distractingly throughout. Who edited this? Definitely struggled to finish this lackluster story. The narrator butchered the accents horrifically in my opinion. Is MC Eleanor supposed to be likable? Is Conor? Definitely not Oliver? I couldn’t stand any of these characters or their personalities. Not even briefly. One of the many annoying quotes from the book: “OMG seriously who titles these things?” The footnotes and cluelessness were so annoying. I felt nothing but distain for this plot and these characters. It was hard to finish reading this to review it. I would not recommend this book to anyone, but I understand it was not to my liking and I am in the minority- tedious read from beginning to end. Definitely not my cup of tea. 1/5

🎧EVERY TIME I GO ON VACATION, SOMEONE DIES by Catherine Mack is narrated by Elizabeth Evans and was a really fun mystery series starter!

Eleanor Dash is on tour for her vacation mystery series and all she can think of is how to kill off her main character and end this series for good. Unfortunately, her main character is based on a real person and he is not so keen on the idea, especially since he believes someone is really out to kill him. When someone does turn out to be murdered, this book tour turns into a race to find the killer before the they find the next victim.

I had a lot of fun with this story! It was a lighter, fun cozy murder mystery in a great location that had me guessing and suspicious of everyone. I will be ready to see what Ms. Dash gets up to next!

Thank you to @macmillan.audio for @minotaur_books & @netgalley for this ALC and making me wish I were on vacation in Italy! This books publishes on April 30th, so just in time for your summer vacation!

This is a light hearted, fourth wall breaking, Taylor Swift mentioning, murder mystery book. We are following writer Elenor as she goes on a book tour in Italy with an interesting cast of characters. One of the guests on the tour is Connor Smith, Elenor’s main character in her books and he is also someone she wants to kill. Elenor and Connor have a tumultuous past and Elenor would like nothing more than to see him dead. When someone actually does try to kill Connor, Elenor begins to worry that someone on this trip can’t be trusted.

I did the audiobook for this and there are many times where the fourth wall breaks and the narrator will say “Pay attention to this” or “this information will be important later” things like that. If you don’t like that type of writing you won’t like this book. I found it okay, but a little annoying sometimes. Our cast of characters are a bit unlikeable, the same as our protagonist Elenor. As Elenor will tell you multiple times in the book, she is an unreliable narrator, so there are times you suspect her as the killer or don’t trust her.

Overall, I thought this book was ok. I predicted who the killer(s) were fairly early on in the book. The book ended on a cliffhanger and I’m not sure if I would read book two. If you are looking for a not so serious ,light summer read then this might be the book for you.

Thank you Netgalley and Macmillan Audio for an advanced copy of this audiobook in exchange for an honest review.

*This is a review of the audiobook of this novel. The narrator did a good job with all of the male and female voices!

This was an easy listen, entertaining and light hearted. This is the first in what is to be a series of “Vacation Mystery” books.

As you know from the blurb “All that bestselling author Eleanor Dash wants is to get through her book tour in Italy and kill off her main character, Connor Smith, in the next in her Vacation Mysteries series―is that too much to ask?” Apparently it is!!

Eleanor is a well known author and is on a book tour in Italy with several other authors. She is in a writing funk and wants to end her best selling series.

Connor has shared that he knows that someone is trying to kill him. None of the others believe him until things start to heat up.

This was a fun mix of characters, lots of different personalities.

*Connor Smith, the ever philandering dashing man, once a love interest with Eleanor. He is also the main protagonist in Eleanor’s books. She plans to kill him off in her next book!

*Harper, Eleanor’s sister and personal assistant

*Oliver, an author who also had involvement with Eleanor. Does he still love her? Does she still love him?

*The “BookFace ladies” who are excited to be with their favorite authors. They won a contest to be included in this tour.

The group visits six cities which are well described. By the end of the tour there will be three bodies!

Who killed who? What is the motive behind the murders and what do they have to gain?

I went into this one wanting a fun escape from some of the thrillers that I’ve read. There was a lot of humor and lots of descriptions of wonderful food and drink! Count me in for the next book tour!

I received an audiobook from the publisher and MacMillan audio through NetGalley.

Every Time I Go on Vacation, Someone Dies

What a fun premise! A mystery author (Eleanor) wants to kill off her main character, who is based on a real person. But when someone tries to kill him for real, all sorts of funny things happen.

Some of the chapter names are call backs to other mystery books so I loved that too.

Plus it’s set in Italy and the descriptions of driving on the winding coastal roads was so accurate. It made me want to take another trip there ❤️

I thought the narrator did a great job too.

I hope there will be more books about Eleanor and her friends.

Special thanks to Netgalley and Macmillan Audio for the advance audio book edition in exchange for my honest opinion.

Publication date 4/30

Story review: This was SUCH a fun reading experience. It felt similar to Everyone in My Family Has Killed Someone and The Fury. The humor was relatable and not too forced. I loved the “breaking the fourth wall” aspect. The twists at the end were just… so satisfying! They truly shocked me

Narration review: Elizabeth Evans is one of my all time favorite narrators. She does the absolute best “snarky humor” and the best character voices

While I was a big fan of all the T.Swift quotes and references, the writing style of Every time I Go On Vacation, Someone Dies took a bit to get used to.

I listened on audio, so I’m not sure how the print book displays, but the narrator speaks to the reader quite a bit, through asides and footnotes. At first, I thought it was fun, and it made me, as a reader, a co-conspirator… but in the last third of the book, I felt like she was quite boastful. Like, “na na na na na, I’ve solved it, have you? Ha ha” And it’s like, actually Catherine, I had this one called in the first day of their trip.

The who-done-it portion was fun to follow, though all of my predictions were spot on.

A solid 3 for this quickie read. Would be good poolside, or, you know, on the Italian coastline somewhere, with a lemon spritz!

*thanks to #NetGalley and the publisher for an ARC for review!

Elenor goes on a book tour with several other writers when it appears someone is trying to kill one (or more) of them. As a mystery writer herself, she’s encouraged to try to find out who did it.

This was a fun read. At times I found the narrator a little bit annoying - she did a lot of talking to the audience and breaking up the story. I might have liked it more if I had read it rather than listened to it. I enjoyed the story and I figured out the murderer early on - go me!

#netgalley #EverytimeIGoOnVacationSomeoneDies

Every Time I Go on Vacation, Someone Dies is perfect for fans of Everyone in My Family Has Killed Someone.

All Eleanor wants is to finish her book tour in Italy and finish her Vacation Mystery series that will kill off her main character, Connor Smith, who is also her ex-boyfriend. However, Connor believes someone is out to kill him and wants Eleanor to figure out who is behind the attempts on his life. Can Eleanor survive crazy fans, two ex-boyfriends, an incompetent tour guide while figuring out who is behind an attempted murder?

This was a fun cozy murder mystery. I loved Eleanor as a character. She was so witty throughout the book and the footnotes on her ideas of killing off her main character was entertaining. I loved how her character consistently broke the fourth wall and brought the reader into solving the mystery behind the murders. The ending leaves on a cliffhanger and repeatedly makes mention of a second and even a third book. I am interested in seeing what's next for Eleanor.

I highly suggest the audiobook for Every Time I Go on Vacation, Someone Dies. I was granted the opportunity to review the e-book and the audiobook. I stopped reading the e-book after a couple chapters. I found the footnotes to be distracting from the main story but enhanced the audiobook.

Every Time I Go on Vacation, Someone Dies comes out April 30th.

Thank you NetGalley, St. Martin's Press and Macmillan Audio for the opportunity to review this book. All thoughts and opinions are my own.

A murder mystery book about a murder mystery writer. This one is the type of book where the narrator speaks directly to the reader - which is not my cup of tea. With that being said, it was an enjoyable book, and I love the authors other novels. This one just was rather implausible in the antics, the murder, AND the police officers involved. Thanks to NetGalley for the read. The narrator did a nice job and was a steady voice for the novel.

Thank you Macmillan and NetGalley for an ARC of Every Time I Go on Vacation Someone Dies.

Unfortunately, this book was not for me. I found it to be overly campy and unrealistic. The forced one-liners get in the way of any real dialogue.

Silliness boarding on feeling like a parody throughout made it difficult to finish.

I honestly don’t know what to say about this book. It started out as entertaining, but then it was so repetitive and annoying. At first, I thought I enjoyed the style of book but the more I got into it the more I realized I did not. It was very cheesy, and I did not like the way the author talked to me like I was in her mind. It was really weird. There were also a few too many Taylor Swift references. I have learned this is not my type of book.

This is a good mystery. The story is brought down somewhat by the shallowness of the characters.
Listening to the book is likely the way to go since the footnotes are narrated in the telling of the story. This helps with flow. I like the narrator.
Eleanor tells you she is not a nice person at the beginning, believe her. I did like her some by the end of the book.
There is a lot of drinking, drunken confessions and discussions about intimate relationships.
I suspect this will be popular, but it doesn’t make my favorites list for 2024. The descriptions of Italy make the book better than it would be otherwise.
Thanks to Netgalley and Macmillan Audio for the chance to listen to this book.

I love a cozy mystery between deep reads so was excited to read this. It was a good mystery that kept you guessing with funny quips, I was entertained. My two complains were 1.) It dragged about 2/3 of the way 2.) Maybe the physical book setup was easier to understand than the audio version but there were comments to the reader scattered throughout that didn’t fit. I’m not entirely sure how they played into the book and it felt off. Overall the killer wasn’t expected and I appreciated that part of the book and how it all tied together. Sounds like there will be a sequel and I’d probably read that too.

This has been posted to Goodreads.

Clever and well-written, with an interesting cast of characters -you won’t know whodunnit until the very end!

Every Time I Go On Vacation, Someone Dies is a perfect novel for fans of Knives Out, Only Murders in the Building, or Clue. This immersive novel takes you on a tour of Italy with a series of characters that will have you participating in solving a murder before the story ends.

I absolutely loved this book from the first chapter. The way the narrator unfolds the story, while also giving footnotes and asides, makes the reader feel incredibly immersed in the plot and from the very start of the book I was trying to figure out who did what to who when. I read this book in less than 24 hours because the story’s pace was fast enough to keep my attention and focus while slow enough to weave an incredibly intricate spider web tale.

I really enjoyed the way the characters are all uniquely innocent and guilty - there isn’t a single character in this book, including the narrator, who I didn’t question or second guess and that made the final twists and climax that much more intense for me because I was so invested in solving the crime. I really enjoyed their relationships as well - the sisters read exactly as sisters, with their inside jokes and complications, and the dalliances between all the different exes on the trip made for really fun reveals and revelations.

The audiobook narrator was also perfect - her tone and inflection brought the story to life, she was extremely easy to understand at regular and higher speeds, and she fully embodied the mannerisms of the narrator in a believable way. This was an easy five star read and I can’t wait for the next installment of the series.

Eleanor is the author of a series of books about murder that happens on trips abroad. While on a book tour, she finds herself involved in a real-life situation where someone is trying to kill of the man behind the hero of her books.

This is a funny story with quirky characters and a wonderful sense of place. A light summer read.

Thank You NetGalley for this audiobook ARC.

A bestselling author goes on an exotic vacation with her sister, friends, and some ex loves. One by one people start dying. The star author tries to solve it. It seems to be related to her writing another novel.

This is my first time reading this author. As I listened to the book, I thought this book was part of a series. I did some research and it's not. A bit confusing. I just could not get into this book. I didn't like the characters and didn't care what happened to them. The book is a bit confusing as it seems to jump around to much making the story incongruent. The story line was not interesting and repetitive. I wanted to give an honest review so I listened to the whole thing instead of DNF. I did like the narrator and the chapters were short.

This book was not for me, but I'm sure someone else may. Maybe it would be better if read vs. listening. If you like murder mysteries, vacation, exotic places, famous authors, fan club, and relationships.

4.5 stars
This book was really fun! It was a cozy mystery, but it was really funny and broke the fourth wall. It really felt like someone was telling me an adventure they had in Italy.
Our main character Eleanor went to Italy 10 years ago, met Connor, and helped him solve a string of bank robberies. Eleanor then went home and wrote a book about her trip. It turned into a best selling 10 book series. She left Connor's name in, so he is basically blackmailing her to give her royalties. Eleanor, her sister Harper, Connor, Eleanor's ex Oliver, 2 other authors and a few others go on this promotional tour of Italy and someone starts making attempts on Connor and Eleanor's life. Almost everyone has motive, but who is really trying to kill them?
I really loved the writing style of this book. I listened to the audiobooks, but there were a lot of references to footnotes where the fourth wall was broken and it was very humorous. It was super easy to listen to and follow along with.
The characters were really fun, there were a lot of them and there were one or two I got mixed up with each other, but overall they each had their own personalities and made a great team of suspects. There were a lot of secrets we learn about a lot of them and it just makes the suspicion run deeper.
The plot was obviously great, I love travel books and this trip to Italy was a whirlwind. The plot was so fast. Something was always happening. So many things happened in a way that made a lot of sense. The ending was very twisty and not what I was expecting.
The audiobook narrator was fantastic. She made the story absolutely come to life and made me feel like I was a part of the story.

Every Time I Go On Vacation, Someone Dies was my first read/listen from Catherine Mack. The narration was well done. The pacing and variety of voices added to the story. The Italian setting was a nice departure from most other novels. The mystery was woven throughout and kept you guessing until the end, although it was not a typical mystery novel. I really enjoyed the wit and humour that was also woven throughout and I feel like this novel was written as the author would have told it if you had coffee with her. The author seems to carry on a dialogue with the reader throughout that was very unique (sharing her inner thoughts). It was fast paced but, I did find some of the details confusing as there were so many characters and relationships between them. Catherine Mack also wove in many pop culture references that made it modern and light. I look forward to the next book that Catherine Mack writes!

Thank you Net Galley, MacMillan Audio and Catherine Mack for the opportunity to preview this audiobook and the opinions shared are my own.

#NetGalley #CatherineMack #MacMillan Audio #EveryTimeIGoonVacationSomeoneDies