Her Last Holiday: the next addictive crime thriller from the Sunday Times bestselling author of Strangers and Sleep

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This book was intense, drama-filled, heavy with suspense, and kept me at the edge of my seat the entire time. DISCLOSURE: Thank you to Avon Books UK via Netgalley for providing a digital ARC of Her Last Holiday by C. Overall, I think this was a very well written, complex, and compelling book, which I am happy to recommend to any lover of a good mystery. I like the first half of the book which looks at the dynamics of several relationships especially Tom and Kate. She is focused on success, complete with all the trappings, and God help anyone who gets in her way.

I think to enjoy this story one hundred per cent you have to realise it's fiction so it doesn’t have to be believable! Fran’s sister Jenna went missing two years ago while she was on a wellness retreat at Gozo, the police told them she may have committed suicide but her mother wants answers and pushes Fran to go to Wales on a wellness retreat. did I tell you there were so many spooky supporting characters in this book act like innocent but keeping their own secret agendas to themselves? Unlikely scenarios and dangerous situations might have scared off some, but Fran is determined to learn the truth at any cost.Now Fran's mother has pushed Fran into going to the retreat in Wales to find out what really happened in Gozo. Jenna’s disappearance was ruled a suicide by the local police after some bloodstains and her flip flops were found at the top of a steep cliff. The format followed the familiar NOW (Fran and Kate) and THEN (Jenna) narration, with chapters cycling through the three POV’s. Although with no training in psychology, Tom is the charismatic and gentle listener that people would come to hear while Kate managed the running of the retreats. Fran's time at the retreat in Wales really dragged and felt repetitious with the story becoming a really slow burn to get to the point where we find out what happened to Jenna.

Fran struggles so much but as you grow to understand her you realise why she is so socially awkward and a boiling cauldron of anger and regrets inside and of them all, she is the one I grew to like. I do love unreliable and unlikeable characters, but for some reason I didn’t particularly enjoy any of these characters or felt a connection towards any of them. I love it when I'm not able to figure out all the twists and turns before the author reveals them and this book delivered! Tom Wade, the man behind Soul Shrink Retreats has just been released from prison after serving time for his role in the death of two people. Perhaps I had to suspend too much believability to swallow the story as a whole, or it could be that I just couldn't connect with the characters, and the motives behind their actions to get behind the conclusion.I wasn't surprised by what happened to Jenna, but I didn't predict which people were involved and what their motives were.

Present day: Kate is waiting for her husband, Tom Wade, a self-heal guru and the public face of SoulShrink, soon to walk out of the prison gates after serving two years following tragedies at his last retreat in Gozo. I liked Fran and found her to be a realistic character- she was trying to investigate what happened to Jenna but is not a detective, thus she makes a lot of mistakes.

Jenna’s mother, a strange and very annoying woman, bullies her much older other daughter to attend and see what she can learn about Jenna’s disappearance. Geraldine decides Fran should try and find out what happened to her daughter Jenna as she doesn’t believe it could of been a suicide.

This book works with just a few main parts and the three alternating perspectives because the concept itself isn't that complex. Overall, this gave me the kind of claustrophobic vibes of an isolated setting along with a cutting commentary on the wellness/self-help influencer space. The detailed description of the mutilated bird on the patio and the ensuing throwing of stones at a passing cat was awful. Geraldine Fitzgerald, the grieving mother of Jenna (the woman who went missing at the Gozo retreat) has never gotten over not knowing what happened to her daughter, and is sure that Tom holds the key to the truth.Special thanks to NetGalley and Avon Books UK for sharing this digital reviewer copy with me in exchange my honest opinions. There are also too many secondary characters, most of whom are decidedly herring-shaped and a suspicious red colour. I think it stems from the fact that any logical reader must suspend disbelief at an astronomical level.