I didn’t enjoy this one as much as I was hoping too. It was a very slow burn and felt like it took a long time to see in what direction the story was going. Was really gripped by any of the characters either.

The story in emojis: 🏡🏖️💳

My Top 3 things from this book:
•Multiple POV
•Dual Timeline
•Unreliable Narration

Our Holiday is a twisty thriller, jam packed with red herrings and unreliable narration from start to finish.

There are a lot of characters in this book and quite honestly they are all awful people! The more the story progressed you realise just how terrible these people are and when you think they can’t do anything worse….. they do!

I thought that I had the plot and the culprit decided quite early on, but the more turns the story took, the further away I was.

I really enjoy Louise Candlish’s writing style and whilst this wasn’t my favourite of hers (The Other Passenger - 5 star), I did enjoy it and recommend it to all thriller readers.

Rating: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

Louise Candlish is one of my favourite authors in this genre. Louise has such a talent for writing people so well, and making readers question their own views on many topics. I found Our Holiday a clever and thought provoking read. The plot was clever and the writing gripping. Definitely will recommend!

Once again a smasher of a book. A great holiday read. Good plot and characters. I absolutely love this auth.

I have enjoyed this author before but this time it was a thriller that failed to thrill. I don’t live by the seaside but do live close to an area wher3 second home buying is a problem so I did 7ndeestand the social implications but just couldn’t engage with the characters in particular the holiday homers.
It was not a thriller but more a conscience raising tale so I’m not even sure if it would make a good holiday read.

I really enjoyed this holiday destination thriller - sunshine, scandals and social tensions set amongst second homers and the local community many of whom don’t want them there.
The characters were fascinating - flawed, self centred and mostly unlikeable which made the drama all the intriguing. A perfect holiday read. Thank you to HQ and Netgalley for letting me read this ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

This book is full of entitled, selfish, lying cheating individuals who are all thoroughly unlikeable for different reasons. Because they are on two sides of an issue - second home owners who come just for August- sparks fly and the book starts with an annex to one of the second homes being bulldozed off a cliff. With so many people having a reason to cover for themselves and others, everyone is under suspicion.
I enjoyed the second half of the book more, as the first half was slow, being introduced to so many characters, some who weren’t essential and could have been cut. A decent holiday read.

One of the things I love about Louise Candlish's fiction is that each one is set in such a different place. I've heard her speak at events a few times and I know she is one of those writers whose starting point is often an overheard snippet of conversation, or something unusual she spots in her surroundings. Then she mulls over what kind of person would say / do the unusual thing, and from there builds their world.

Our Holiday took me somewhere I've never been - the South Coast near Bournemouth - where Candlish creates a village in which local people cannot find accommodation because so many DFLs (people Down From London) have bought second or third homes which they only use in August. Although I don't know the place, I certainly know the issue, having come from a small seaside town a lot further North.

Because the characters are at the centre of the novel, we actually cover a lot of political ground. I'm still not 100% sure where I stand on the issue of second homes, but I do know where I stand on Candlish's characters - yet again she's given us a cast of horrible people who nonetheless are fascinating. I would not like to come across any of them in real life, but I could not stop reading about them!

How does she do it, every time? Skill, and I suspect, a lot of hard work behind the seemingly effortless prose she gives us.

Three Word Review: locals v. holiday-makers

Really enjoyable read. Slow burn to start but once all the characters are introduced it hooks you in.

The way the story is told across two timelines helps keep the book moving and the underlying message made it interesting.

As with all Louise Candlish novels, the twists and turns are very clever and the characters all interlink in imaginative ways. The novel focuses on 2 families. Charlotte and Perry have owned their prestigious holiday home in Dorset for many years. Amy and Linus are friends from London who have recently bought an old bungalow on the same road with the intention of doing it up. They are spending August there with their teenage and young adult children in tow.
Tensions are rife in the village as local activists protest about the second home owners and things aren’t much better between the couples as Linus and Perry fall out.
This isn’t so much a thriller as a domestic drama, someone dies but we don’t find out who until much later in the book. It’s a fun read though it felt very long, particularly at the end as everything ties up.

I have read a few of Louise Candlish novels and have always enjoyed them, so when I got the opportunity to read Our Holiday, I could not wait.

We meet couple Charlotte and Perry, who have a second home in the beautiful home in Pine Ridge, and their friends Amy and Linus, who have purchased a second home nearby start to make plans for the summer. The locals look bitterly on as people buy second homes in their beloved home stead but yet they can not afford one themselves.

The story was quite slow to begin with but it soon picked up the pace.

I do not want to give too much away but this made for a really interesting and though provoking read, especially as you can see why the locals are annoyed at this kind of situation.

Quite a lot of different characters, which I found to be quite distracting and at times, I did forget who was who but a good read, great for the current summer holidays.

Thanks to the author, publisher and Netgalley for allowing me an ARC in exchange for my honest review.

A well plotted slow burn (sb only initially) suspense thriller with modern day themes that I found very relevant. Once you are introduced to the characters in the first part the story takes off!

As usual from Louise Candlish, Our Holiday is a completely immersive thriller that is addictive in a way I can't quite put my finger on...I love that she's set this one in a sun-drenched location. Twisty and intriguing characters

Charlotte and Perry live in London and have a second home in Pine Ridge. They have owned it for several years and Charlotte’s pride and joy is their large summerhouse called the‘Niche’.

Their friends Amy and Linus buy a bungalow on the same cliff top and it needs lots of work done. They are happy to have this new property and look forward to spending many summers in it.

The local activist group are opposed to people coming down from London and buying second homes as there is not enough housing available for local people: they have a campaign of protests and stickering properties including the Niche and Amy’s new summer house named the Nook.

There are lots of small plots going on at the same time in this book which makes for a really interesting read. There are many secrets in both Amy and Charlotte’s families and most of them have something to hide.

This was a fab read and one I would definitely recommend.

Thanks to the publishers and NetGalley for an advance copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

Whilst I really enjoyed this novel I don’t think it was quite as good as the rest. It was very wordy and by that I mean there was too many words than was strictly needed.
3⭐️’s

Quite a topical storyline with residents in holiday resorts protesting about second home owners making it impossible for young people to get on the housing ladder, much like Cornwall, as well as Spain, Really interesting and contrasting characters made this a really enjoyable read

Once again Louise has out herself.

I love the way she writes and the book is one them you want keep reading even if it slow in parts.

This was a great slow burn book and I got very involved with the story. I had heard about the issues and the general feeling of how the cost of housing is impacting everyone but especially in rural areas. Like the book I have no idea on how this will be resolved but the issue is not just one area based and impacts so many people.
One of the side plots re the a student was interesting and also got me thinking.
I did learn a lot of new words and also about a whole new subculture - findom and zoomers.

I read this in one sitting as I just wanted to see who died and if it was who I thought it was going to be - spoiler alert - yes it was.

Thank you for allowing me to review this excellent book. I always look out for books by Louise Candlish as her stories are always great reads. This book us no different. However, there are a lot of characters in this book and it took a while for me to understand which family they belonged to. The members of the protest group were easier to work out. This story covers many current issues, particularly in villages with a high second home community. I felt some sympathy for the protesters and the home owners although there approaches towards each other were not always acceptable. Some of the individuals were not very nice and others naive.
The story is complex and it is told from the perspective of different characters and at different times. The story is complex, and the conclusion was unexpected. A recommended read.

Two families ‘down from London’, for their August holiday on the Dorset coast, face local activists fighting for affordable homes for local people.

During an end of summer beach music festival, someone destroys a summer house in one of the DFL families’ homes. But who did it? And why? And with another discovery, things take a much more sinister turn.

What I really liked about this mystery is that it’s not all laid out in the opening chapter. The story builds, giving us time to place all the characters and see how they all link together. That said, if found that it took me a long time to remember who the couples were, which lived where, whose children were whose etc and I couldn’t work out why I was having so much trouble until I realised that I didn’t feel I really knew any of the characters well. And there are a lot of characters to get to know. Most of them are relatively superficially drawn, not much depth to any of them, Charlotte is really two dimensional, none of the adults have much about them and they don’t have a lot of redeeming features - none of them is very pleasant.

The locals are more likeable, with Robbie coming across as the author’s favourite character, he’s witty and principled, as well as a loyal friend.

I don’t know why I didn’t feel connected to these characters as the story was well written and had a good pace and I really liked how the crimes were revealed but I felt like there were a lot of loose ends and aome parts that didn’t feel relevant or to have added anything to the story.

Overall, I enjoyed reading the book but if you haven’t read anything by Louise before, perhaps start with The Only Suspect or Our House.