Quirky and funny story, The Unexpected Vacation of George Thring was a delightful read.

George Thring runs away from home unintentionally. Depressed, lonely and tired of life, he leaves work one night but never makes it home. Before he knows it, he’s driven over 200 miles in the wrong direction and finds himself in a strange little town, in the middle of nowhere, during their annual Elvis Presley appreciation festival.

As he stumbles from one mishap to another, he meets the woman of his dreams, unwittingly aids in a bank robbery and finds himself pursued by both the police and a gang of angry criminals.

A fun and entertaining read!

I received a reviewer copy of The Unexpected Vacation of George Thring from Raven Crest Books.

CW: Loneliness, Depression, Dead End Job.

What It’s About: George Thring has a boring job where he goes home everyday to his boring home and watches TV until one day he keeps driving.

What I Loved: This book was pure comedy. It was a really good slapstick. The things that happen in this book are just ridiculous. I laughed at so much. There's a lot of tropes in this book that make it enjoyable, from the wrong place in the wrong time to just some zany stories. George is a very likable character and I think most people will like it. He seems like the quintessential British bloke. This book would make a great movie.

What I Didn't Like So Much: Honestly, this book was too long. I felt like it just went on and on. I really think some editing could have occurred. Once you thought the book was gonna end a new twist would happen. I think this book felt like a movie and not so much a book. For me the length and the structure kind of made it a bit less fun for me and made me constantly feel like I was ready for it to end.

Who Should Read This: People who love books about people starting fresh. People who love funny books. People who wish Tommy Boy had been a book (there's not a good comparison to that movie, but it's kind of similar classic humor).

Quick Summary: A man keeps driving and ends up finding he might have been stalled out to long with his current life.

I laughed so hard at this book. I read it and forgot to leave a review, so I went back and read it again. In these crazy times, this book was perfect. It made me laugh and gave me a break from life. I recommend this book. Thanks to Netgalley, the author and the publisher for the arc of this book in return for my honest review. Receiving the book in this manner had no bearing on my review.

An enjoyable lighthearted read. Although the pace was a little slow in parts overall it is a funny feel good book which kept my interest and made me giggle more than once.

I would like to thank the publisher and Netgalley for an advance copy of this title in exchange for an unbiased review.

DNF 50%
I really tried, i had too high hopes and i didn't like it much. George was okay, but it wasn't funny or interesting, not as much as i had hoped.

This is a fun farcical tale about what happens when everything starts to go wrong in the most right kind of way. It's delightful!

One night, without even realizing it, George Thring misses his exit on the way home from work and just keeps going... and going... and going... until his car stops running and he finds himself temporarily stranded in a quirky little village during its annual Elvis Presley festival.

As he struggles to just go along with what's happening - he really has no choice - George finds that what he left behind isn't much compared to what he seems to be discovering. If he can only stop being so neurotic he might even start to enjoy it.

You probably won't be sucked in right off the bat. It takes a little while to get going and the book drags a bit in places. George has a tendency to over think everything and that gets a wee bit tedious but stick with it.

All in all it's a pretty good story with some fun slap-stick moments and a dash of life lesson thrown in for good measure.

***Thanks to NetGalley for providing me with a free digital copy of this title in exchange for an honest review.

I enjoyed this book. It was pretty light. I would recommend it to others and read/buy more books by this author.

As you can probably guess from the description of this book, this is a very quirky story. Personally, I’m a bit of a quirky person myself, so I tend to enjoy stories that are on the sort of “far out” side, which The Unexpected Vacation of George Thring definitely is.

It’s a clever and unique kind of story. Author Alastair Puddick is a very talented writer. He does something here which I think a lot of writers of humorous stories fail to do: he makes you care about the characters, even when they’re in the middle of ridiculous situations. Humorous novels can sometimes be difficult to read because they often get too silly and then become ludicrous to the point that the plots become very unbelievable and the characters become almost impossible to relate to.

Is this story silly? Yes, absolutely. But it’s not TOO silly. It’s just the right amount of silly. At least it was for me. Your silliness mileage may vary, of course.

I was very entertained by this novel. However, I wouldn’t go so far as to say that I thought it was totally perfect. There were some parts in the book that were a little too repetitive. Also, there were some scenes that went on a little longer than I think they needed to, sometimes to the point that I started to lose interest in what was going on and I then wanted to skip ahead in my reading.

But those kinds of things were very minimal and I happily kept reading. In fact, once I completed the book, I instantly searched for and then purchased the next novel from Alastair Puddick. He has a new fan in me.

If you enjoy quirky and clever stories, I highly recommend The Unexpected Vacation of George Thring to you. It’s a very fun read.

*I received a copy of this book from the publisher in exchange for a fair review.

For George it is a some what painful and also a magical ride to rediscover the true meaning of living helped with a great mixture of characters to help him along on this journey. Not all have the best intentions as he soon discovers with both laugh out loud situations blended with some seriously nasty moments by this well written and extremely enjoyable book by Alastair Puddick. I know I will not be able to look at a Smurf and keep a straight face again. thankyouverymuch
NetGalley and Raven Crest Books supplied this book

George Thring is your typical antihero. He’s stuck in a mindnumbingly boring office job with each day a carbon copy of the last and going home to an empty house. One day, his subconcious takes over and he does not go home but simply drives on...some 200 miles. He finds himself washed up in Lower Chidbury, seemingly a boring little town - his car broken down, his clothes torn and covered in mud. Could this get any worse, I hear you ask?
And what’s with the mass of Elvis lookalikes that seem to populate this place?
You cannot help but like this character and although the plot is visible a mile off, I found myself looking forward to go back to this book and discover what else life would throw at George and whether he would triumph in the end, find love and live happily ever after...

I appreciate having had an opportunity to read and review this book. The appeal of this particular book was not evident to me, and if I cannot file a generally positive review I prefer simply to advise the publisher to that effect and file no review at all.

The Unexpected Vacation of George Thring is about a man who’s pretty down on life and his job and after work one average tuesday ends up driving 200 miles down the road in something of a fugue state. He manages to happen on a town hosting week long elvis impersonator festivities, fall in love, and get caught up in a bank robbery.

Did everything about this book’s plot work for me? Absolutely not. But the character of George Thring is great
(minus really the author’s insistence on describing the woman in George’s love story in ways we’ve come to consider sexist. the man hadn’t changed underwear in a week yet a beautiful woman instantly falls in love with him, george is described pasty and with a paunch as well while every inch of the woman’s body is perfect etc and I think we’re all over this.) And there’s great humor throughout that has me rating this pretty high.

The tone of "Hitchhiker's Guide' coupled with the idea of "Office Space'...this is a light book that will make you chuckle through the twists and turns.