In all the reviews I’ve read, people really dislike the characters. For me, Kate would move to the top of the list. Logan has gone out of his way to show us that Kate had an ideal marriage. While they had tough times, it was a good marriage. Yet she immediately jumps to conclusions and can’t be bothered to just ask her husband. When she finally confronts him, he’s blase and blows her off, end of convo. Listen, if I suspected my s/o of infidelity, we’re going to hash it out. It wouldn’t matter if we were on vacation. Kate’s with her best friends. If they aren’t prepared for their best friend to sort her marriage, then they’re probably not the best friends they’re supposed to be. It made for a long, drawn-out, unnecessary drama because you can’t paint an ideal marriage, but then have it closed up from the start. It doesn’t work.
The characters are all fantastically flawed, and Logan has written great, unlikable characters (outside of Kate, she doesn’t count anymore for me). Jennifer’s children are just flat out monsters, and I’m a huge fan of well-written characters that you love to hate. I hadn’t read anything by Logan before, so I don’t know if the screenplay-esque style of a character finding something “shocking” (which really isn’t) and then tucking it away to reveal the “shocking” bit later, is typical of his writing. It’s read more like a movie every time that happened.
But I’m giving this four stars, so obviously I enjoyed the book. When I look past all the Kate silliness that drives me nuts, there is a fun story here. Especially once the secrets of everyone else in the house come to light. The constant drama made this highly enjoyable and I think this one will be hit or miss for readers. Thank you, St. Martin’s, for sending this along!
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The Vacation is available on Amazon for $14.99.
Blurb:
It was supposed to be the perfect getaway: Kate and her three best friends, spending a week with their families in a luxurious villa in the south of France. Through the decades and the wildly different paths down which life has led them, they’ve stayed closer than ever, and seven days of drinking crisp French wine and laying out under the dazzling Mediterranean sun is the perfect celebration of their friendship. But soon after arriving, Kate discovers an incriminating text on her husband’s cell phone.
A text revealing that he’s having an affair.
And that the other woman is one of her best friends.
But which one?
Trapped in paradise with no one to trust, Kate is determined to find out who has put her marriage—and a lifelong friendship—in jeopardy. But as she closes in on the truth, she realizes that the stakes are higher than she ever imagined. Everyone on the trip has secrets…and someone may be prepared to kill to keep theirs hidden.
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